ill spoken of by the greatest part of Christendom and so preventeth the conversion of Papists who accuse us of unsetledness and changes yea it furnisheth them with an unanswerable exception viz. That we have these many years convicted punished and imprisoned them for what our selves now so far distaste that at Sessions we give a charge against it traduce it under the brand of the old Mumpsimus and indict it and punish one another for it this I profess my weakness cannot satisfie 2. If better it were a Milstone were hanged about my Neck than that I should be a scandal to my weak Brother the omission of the Liturgy being at this time a scandal not onely to the weak but to the strong being the cries and tears of both require it how should I dare to look my God in the Face when I shall wilfully become scandalous both to the learned and unlearned both to the strong and to the weak Christian yea of this sad experience hath made me very confident such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a stumbling-block as is this the suppression of the Liturgie was never since Queen Mary's days amongst us for the want of this hath hindred thousands from their accustomed piety and devotion the weak because they have no other the strong because they have no better way and whatever prevents piety cannot but be rather scandalum datum than acceptum a real and true scandal so that till a better Form be actually establish'd in lieu of this my Conscience tells me I may not leave it 3. What by Oath and Subscription I am bound unto that without relaxation from the same authority to whom I sware and before whom I subscribed I may not relinquish But I have sworn to my Diocesan and subscribed to maintain the service of God not onely in genere but in specie according to the particular form and way of the Church of England And therefore to say no more as an honest man I am bound to make that good which I have sworn subscribed and negatively promised to maintain 4. It is against my Oath of Supremacy to acknowledge a power Ecclesiastical Independent upon the onely Supreme and this cannot in my apprehension be avoided if the King forbidding I receive the Directory and the King commanding to use it I reject the Liturgy 5. Beneficium supponit Officium The duty which every Parochial Minister is bound unto is a daily recital of his Office for being Parishes are of humane institution founded and endowed by the piety and liberality of devout Patrons look what they conditioned for so far as just and pious that I conceive I am bound unto Forasmuch then as in the Church of England prayer daily prayer yea and ever since the Reformation this very form of prayer is the condition of our admittance though preaching be multiplied I cannot conscionably omit that without which yea and for which I had Institution and Induction to my Living so that in my weak judgement it is a very considerable scruple whether what is given for a publick and daily duty may conscionably be taken by him who doth it but once a week much less by him who doth it not at all All Ages will argue for a diurnal and daily Devotion The Jews had daily their Morning and their Evening Sacrifices and to shame us to the doing of it I shall onely adde what Cornelius à Lapide borroweth from Plato Lib. 10 de legibus thus Graecos omnes aequè ac Barbaros Sole tam Oriente quam Occidente adorare Deum ideircò Clemens secundo Libro Constitutionum cap. 24. acriter redarguit Christianos tardius Templa adeuntes cum Gentiles Judaei suas Synagogas dilucul'o frequentant For whereas the Angel of the Lord said unto the Disciples newly out of Prison Acts 5. 20. Go stand and ' speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life The reason is thus given Scientes Judaeos de More dilucul'o ad Orationem venturos in Templum Knowing that the Jews did customarily repair early to prayers in the Temple Lastly It is very considerable to me whether those words in my Protestation The true reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England against all Popery and popish Innovations do not binde me so far as lawfully I may with life power and estate to maintain either this or some other set Form and that for these reasons First This word or notion Religion necessarily includes all the actual muniments thereof be it what Religion it may be for if as Austin out of Cicero Religio est virtus quae superiores cujusdam naturae quam divinam vocant cultum caeremoniámque adfert Religion be a vertue which obligeth as well to Ceremony as to Worship And if as Mr. Calvin in professione religionis homines non posse caeremoniis carere Men cannot profess Religion without Ceremony be it what Religion it may be Then so far as my capacity reacheth I cannot vow promise and profess to maintain and defend a Religion but under this notion and term Religion I binde my self to defend and maintain whatever congruously is requisite in the defence and support of it For as he that is bound to maintain a House must preserve the Thatch as well as the Grunsel and as he who is bound to maintain a Close must have a care of the Hedge though it be but a dead one as well as the Crop even so when I did promise vow and protest to defend and maintain the true Religion in which I was baptized and bred I know not how I could hope to make good this unless the necessary muniments whereof the Liturgie is a main one were preserved in it And that in this I was not singular I may appeal unto a Vote afterward annexed to the Protestation in which it is declared that several persons had raised the same doubt an Argument that the Deduction was very obvious and very natural Now forasmuch as I had vowed before I saw the limitation after the Vow I durst not enquire a Vow and an Oath as I conceive in this dissenting an Oath it must be taken in the sence of the giver a Vow because voluntary in the sence of the taker onely so I took it and the obligation is still upon me Secondly Whereas Religion in the Protestation hath this restrictive difference Reformed and not onely so but so reformed as in the Church of England against all Popery and popish Innovations I cannot see how I could protest to maintain a Religion so reformed but that I must necessarily imply that service which the first Reformers and all succeeding Parliaments have made the Characteristical note and formal difference betwixt us and them and this we all know hath been the Liturgie for from his denying Communion in this the Papist was called Recusant and by his joyning with us in this he was said and held as reconciled to our Church
Thirdly In case the Protestation had run thus I promise vow and protest to maintain the true Religion established in the Church of Rome against as they call them heretical Innovations would any man believe the Missal were here excluded which is the very formality of their professions Or in case it had run thus I promise vow and protest to maintain that reformed Religion whose character and distinctive formality is the Directory would any doubt I vowed to maintain the Directory and can hope to perform my Vow can I hope to maintain the Religion of the Church of England and lay aside that which is the practical character of my profession Fourthly If this notion Reformed Religion of the Church of England includes not Liturgie then they are not sufferers for the true Reformed Religion of England who suffer meerly for the Liturgie but they who so suffer cannot imagine else what they suffer for Fifthly It is very probable to me the compilers and chief managers of this Protestation by Religion mainly meant the Form of God's Worship for in the first nineteen humble Propositions the eighth runs thus That your Majesty will be pleased to consent that such a Reformation be made of the Church-government and Liturgie as both Houses of Parliament shall advise To the people in the same year the Lords and Commons declare thus April 9 1642. they intend a due and necessary Reformation of the Government and Liturgie of the Church A plain and evident demonstration to my capacity that both Lords and Commons did then declare this notion or term Religion it includes both Church-government and Liturgie otherwise what ever is of late attempted or done concerning these cannot be said to be a religious but a politick Reformation Lastly How could I promise vow and protest to defend and maintain a Religion which is said to be true and actually reformed unless there be some Form actually in being which my judgment and my Conscience must look upon for to swear the maintenance of a Religion or Worship or Discipline not fixed and digested into a Form seems to me like that formidable et caetera to swear and vow to maintain I know not what and upon this ground thousands there are who have stumbled at the very Threshold of the Covenant not daring to swear to defend a Reformation where they cannot come to see the Form Nor is this new or without example and that from such as profess themselves of the Reformed Party For the Bohemians professing themselves to tread in the steps of their Reverend Martyr John Huss disavow for ever Communion with the Waldenses and that for two Reasons whereof if my Author deceive me not the first is Quod Nulla publica extare voluerint Doctrinae Fidei suae Testimonia because they had no publick Form or Testimony to declare what their Faith and Doctrine was vid. quintum Evangelium pag. 42. praef Bohemi ad Confessionem Wittemberg 1578. Whereas then beside Statute-subscription and those many obligations contracted under Episcopacy I conceive even by the Protestation and from the very sense of the House that made it Liturgie is a very considerable ingredient in the compound of Religion and this present Liturgie in this the reformed Religion of the Church of England As then in Musick though there are many rare and exquisite voluntaries yet solemn and set Musick is not therefore to be rejected even so though there are and may be in the Church of England such who can express as readily as conceive and conceive as devoutly as can be imagined yet for all that this is no Supersedeas or bar against study'd penn'd and set Forms of Prayer And more than this as I read was heard and ordered to be printed by the honourable House of Commons in a Sermon called Babylon's downfal in these words Cursed shall he be that removeth the antient Land-mark c. What is the antient Land-mark of England but our Laws and Religion which contains as well facienda as credenda and hath as well the Liturgie as the Articles and Homilies for her boundaries and therefore if any man shall remove this Land-mark cursed shall he be of the Lord and let all the people say Amen Certainly they who said Amen to this imprecation and those who ordered there should be an impression of it they were then no visible Enemies to Liturgie no not this Liturgie All then that I shall now trouble you withal shall be a slight proposal of this one scruple Whether a Minister is not as much bound to suffer in defence of the spiritual Muniments of Religion as any Subject for the temporal Muniments and Priviledges of State or Kingdom For Christian Religion or the Muniments thereof I am apt to think with Tertullian the Sword is no good advocate Lex nova non se vindicat ultore gladio the foolishness of preaching not the arm of flesh must and did establish these And therefore I propose the scruple onely in point of suffering for if we look unto the Author and Finisher of our Faith I conceive with St. Peter that by his example we are called upon to suffer and in this case to suffer onely Now in these times of loss and suffering I have oft considered with my self for what either as Subject or as Christian especially as a Christian Minister I stand bound to suffer Now whilst I look upon my self as a Subject having nothing at all before me but some secular or temporal advantage my next consideration is what secular or temporal commodity is dearest to me for I suppose no man will lose Gold to save Chaff nor expose his Darling to preserve his Vassal Now forasmuch as all temporal or secular goods are reducible to these three heads jucundum utile honestum either pleasant profitable or honest that which of these three is dearest that which of these is absolutely the best that I conceive though I suffer the loss of the other two I am bound to preserve Job 2. Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life Though the Devil spake it both God and man approve it Skin for Skin whatever is pleasant or whatever is profitable a man will rather suffer in than in his life for of all things pleasant or profitable Life is the dearest Now albeit among things pleasant or profitable Life is the Jewel yet bonum honestum that good which doth consist in honour or honesty this it is oft even dearer than life it self So that for defence of reputation and a good name for the advance and benefit of posterity for the vindication of a friend for the preservation of a trust for these and such like there is many an one who will dare to die but meerly for what is pleasant or what is profitable I think no man living So that indeed 't is onely bonum honestum it is onely for what is honest or what is honourable a man as a man a man as
them Lastly Forasmuch as the muniments of Religion are preservers of the dearest thing imaginable Gods glory and our Souls welfare I do not know what I should suffer in defence of if not of these I lately reading as it fell proper to the day the fifth of Esay when I came to those dreadful words I will take away thy hedge and it shall be eaten up break down the wall and it shall be trodden down it made my Heart even ake to think how applicable this methodical destruction is to our ungrateful Vineyard I will take away the hedge I will break down the wall Take the Hedge and the Wall away cut up the Fence and the Vineyard will soon be waste the Government the Discipline the Liturgy which as a Hedge or a Wall ever since our Reformation preserved the Vineyard since I see it hath pleased God to suffer this Hedge and the Wall to be trodden down I can but fear confusion and desolation to be the sequel For since the worldly wise man verily believes where the Fence is wanting spoil and waste inevitably followeth and therefore his main care is to tend it Even so where the muniments of any Profession or Religion are slighted and taken away where Liturgy this thirteen hundred years without controversie held the Hedge and mound of Faith and God's Worship in a national Church where I say this is pull'd down and taken away there is imminent and evident fear a gap is opened to let in whatever will come be it the beast of the field be it the little Foxes be it the wilde Boar of the Forest come what will there is no muniment no provision no fence against it so that in my poor conceptions the Hedge the Fence the Muniment of the Church they are matters of such necessary consequence that Ministers I conceive had better lay themselves and all their Fortunes in the Gap than for want of fence to suffer the destroyer to come in Indeed I have been told by some who wish very well unto me that humane inventions and things merely circumstantial ought not to be thus stood upon I thank them heartily for their affection and bless them for their good will but our judgements yet must differ For if no suffering for humane invention if life it self may not be exposed to hazard in defence of humane constitutions certainly then no fighting for the Laws of the Land nor no taking up arms for Priviledge of Parliament for these sure are humane and political institutions and as these are necessary for the preservation of a State even some such are also necessary for the preservation of a Church and of such Church-men cannot be too chary Again whereas Liturgy in genere or ours in specie is counted but a circumstantial business I believe I may finde out such circumstantials in a Christian Church as will hazard the whole if they perish In the tenth Persecution under the Tyranny of Dioclesian a Decree pass'd ut Templa libri delerentur that Christians should deliver up their Books and destroy or at least permit the destruction of their Churches Books and Churches I conceive are but circumstantials to Religion for the world was more than 2400 years old before there was any Scripture in it yea the Christian Church it was from the birth of Christ more than 90 years before the Canon of the New Testament was compleated yea after the Death and Resurrection of our Saviour there is supposing his passion at 31 ten years numbred before any Gospel at all was committed unto writing twice ten before the second thrice ten before the third and more than three twenties before the last a plain argument that Books and Writings are but circumstantial to Religion for one may live and die a very good Christian and know never a Letter on the Book Suppose now the Pope and Popery should so far prevail as to have power under the notion of Books heretical for so they will not stick to call our Bibles to call in and under pain of death to deliver up our Bibles even to the fire could any conscientious Protestant satisfie his Soul with this poor evasion Alas the Bible is but circumstantial the Doctrine and Religion of it I can preserve though the Bible be gone Without all peradventure it is most true a learned and well-grounded Christian he may preserve the faith he may deliver and hold fast the form of sound words though among Turks where a Bible is not to be looked upon and yet for my particular I should scarce look upon that man as a Christian who to save his Purse yea his Body should deliver up his Bible to the fire In the Roman Martyrology there is a commemoration made of many holy Martyrs who despising the sacrilegious Edict of Dioclesian 7. Quo tradi sacros codices jubebantur potiùs corpora carnificibus quà m sancta dare canibus maluerint chose rather to deliver their Bodies to the Executioner than holy things to Dogs or holy Books unto the fire And truely I should rather honour these as Martyrs than those for good Christians who under pretence of things circumstantial should deliver those to save themselves so highly I conceive God would be dishonoured in the betraying of so great a preserver and muniment of his honour Again as Books even so to some much more clearly Churches Oratories Temples they are mere circumstantials Now suppose the Independent and Congregational Brother-hood should so far overpower as to command the demolition as they call them of our Steeple-houses the destruction and levelling of our Churches I would very fain know whether in point of conscience I were not rather bound to suffer than in any measure to appear willing to so high a Sacriledge I who am Flesh and Blood as well as other men could finde pretty evasions and glosses to fool my Soul withal I could say as I hear is not a Sermon as well in a Parlour as in a Church Did not Christ preach in a Ship Paul pray upon the Sands and shall I suffer in defence of so unnecessary a trifle as an heap of Stones a popish Relique a sorry Meeting-house For my particular I am afraid many things are daily called circumstantial not with consideration whether so or no but because these are the things in question these the points which I must either dissemble desert or suffer for I pray let me as a close to this present you with the example of one who though a Bishop was ever reverenced as a Saint and a good man I mean that great Doctor St. Ambrose who being once tempted and provoked even in this very point and that by no less than the Emperour to deliver up his Church though it pleased the Emperour in a fair way to send Earls and Tribunes to him ut Basilicae fieret matura traditio that there might be a seasonable deliverance of that Royal Palace for so his piety terms
the Church yet you shall finde this reverend Pastor so far from deeming this a circumstantial trifle that he offers his Goods his Body his Life in lieu of it Ea quae Divina Imperatoriae potestati non subjecta The things of God are not subject to Imperial power was the peremptory position of this Bishop and then proceeds Si patrimonium petitur invadite si corpus occurram vultis in vincula rapere vultis in mortem voluptati est mihi If you who are sent demand my patrimony invade it take it if my Body here it is if to bonds or death you desire to carry me it shall be a pleasure to me pro altaribus gratiùs immolabor I will gladly be a Sacrifice to preserve my Altar He would rather die the death than suffer an Arrian Minister to officiate in his Church yea as it is in the same Epistle cum propositum esset ut Ecclesiae vasa jam traderemus when the Emperour's Officers demanded a present delivery of the Church-Vessels the conscientious Bishop was so far from holding these such circumstantials as not to be stood upon that he plainly tells the Emperour it was neither lawful for him to deliver or the Emperour to demand them Trade Basilicam deliver the Church is as much as to say as the same Father to his Flock speak a word against God and die nay not onely so Nec solùm dic adversus Deum etiam fac adversus Deum It is not onely to speak but to do against God which in his judgement deserved no less than death Thus zealous of a circumstantial and of exteriour muniments was that holy Bishop to betray a Church yea a vessel of a Church it was in his Divinity a sin against the Deity an act against him for whose Glory and Service they were preserved In these sad times of trial I conceive one main end of God's Judgements especially upon his Clergy is to discern who those are who have hitherto merely related to him for their Bellies and who for his glory mainly who have been spiritual and who carnal professors of the Ministry For those who served him chiefly for their Bellies and carnal ends to them the invasion of nothing is considerable in which their interest and their ends are not involved but such who with purity of intention have mainly studied and sought the advance of God's Service to them as to St. Ambrose the muniments of Religion the abridgement or abatement of any thing that was adjuvant to this end is more considerable than all their secular interest or personal advantages of this world insomuch as I can knowingly say it for some Threescore pound a year and our old way will be preferr'd before 300 in a worse Model It is to me a consideration not unworthy my Pen to see how the judgement of God hath followed such who have measured and stuck to his interests merely as they moved with their own In the 21 year of Henry the eighth in a Parliament which began the third of November the Commons sent up to the House of Lords a Bill against the exaction of unconscionable Mortuaries to which Bill it is observed the spiritual Lords made a fair Face and were well content a reasonable Order should pass against them But this was saith my Author because it touched them little for when within two days after a Bill concerning Probates of Testaments in which there had been incredible extortion was sent up to the Lords then the Bishops in general saith the Historian frowned and grunted for that touched their profit then said the Bishop of Rochester Now with the Commons is nothing but down with the Church When the Bishops personal profits were toucht upon then as if the very Church were falling Fisher crieth out The Commons lack faith the Commons think of nothing but down with the Church Yea in the progress of this Reformation are not Bishops found conniving and abetting the demolishing of religious Houses and was not this probably with an eye to the preservation of their own as if they said Let Monasteries go so long as Bishopricks be preserved Well they are dead and gone but hath not vengeance followed upon Episcopacy Are there not now amongst us who cry Down with Bishops sell their Lands and think this no Sacriledge provided that Parsonages may be augmented and Tythes supported Well Bishops are preached down and their honours laid in the dust but doth not vengeance hasten after the promoters of it Do not the Presbyters finde that there are who conceive they have less right to Tythes than Bishops to their Lands Are there not who are as industrious to deprive them as they have been for their own ends to deprive their God An evident argument that Just and righteous art thou O God in all thy ways An argument that makes me verily believe those who for private interest and merely either for praise or profit throw off the Liturgy forbear their duties and betray the muniments of Religion and the Church of Christ God will in his due time reward such into their own Bosomes blasting that private Interest for which they have betrayed his Whereas then I must profess before God and the world I can apprehend no motive or inducement so prevalent as to perswade me that the Liturgy of the Church of England is any way a hinderer of God's holy Worship or an obstacle to the solid and sufficient ministration of the Word but on the contrary consonant to God's holy Word agreeable to Orthodox antiquity and an approved promoter of God's glory in the Church I live in being I say to consent to the abolition of Liturgy I finde in my Soul no moving motive but either the hope of more or the holding of what I have I dare not finding within me nothing but carnal interest put a specious shew of Religion upon it and tell the world that I lay aside the truely divine Service of the Church because Prelates over-valued it the ignorant doted of it the Papists nos'd with it and an idle and unedifying Ministry maintained by it These I profess to me are neither true nor weighty considerations for if I should now as I am forbear or lay it aside it is not any or all these but onely in mine own defence onely for mine own ends I should do it Now whether any man may salvâ conscientiâ prefer what he conceives in God's service a worse way merely for the boot of private Interest I leave it to your prudent consideration concluding with that of Chrysost Qui hominem timet ab co ipso quem timet deridebitur sin vero Deum hominibus quoque venerabilis erit He who in God's cause prefers man he shall be scorned of him he fears but he who fearing God despiseth man shall be had in reverence even of those men The patient abiding of the meek shall not alway be forgotten And here I had thought to have put a period
is about Worship it self and to glance at the high expedient of Vniformity therein 2 Kings 17. you may read what these Samaritans were to wit a people planted in Samaria in room of those Ten Tribes which were carried to Assyria Now this people by necessity and out of a fear of extirpation by Lions sent for a Priest of the Lord to put them in a right way of worship He came but as it is written they would not be ruled they would not be ordered by him for they feared the Lord and served their own gods Now it seems to me very observable that those who would not be ruled by the Priest of God those who would serve gods of their own they could never agree what gods to have nor what Religion to set up Every one is singular every one for his own invention for his own gods Vers 30. the men of Babylon they set up Succoth-Benoth the men of Cuth they set up Nergal the men of Hamath they set up Ashima But the Avites they would none of these and therefore they set up gods of their own Nibhaz and Tartack yea the Sepharvaims they will none of them for they set up Adrammelech and Anammelech the gods of Sepharvaim And is it not proportionably so even at this day Those who will have no Churches nor no Temples but their own Bodies in them they will have no worship but onely what their private spirits and their own Fanatick conceptions shall set on foot So that the Samaritans never set up more gods than they do Idols Things they call Religion Ordinances Worship when indeed they really are Self-conceit Spiritual Pride superstitious Abominations Even so too too many among us they will not worship the living God unless they may have the humour of their own Inventions that is do it their own way So that as the Samaritans worshipp'd they knew not what even so do these and all Fanaticks worship they know not how The ready way to make confusion as it daily did to cover the whole Face of our Land again For if the men of Babylon may set up Succoth-Benoth why may not the men of Cuth set up Nergal And if they may set up Nergal why may not the men of Hamath set up Ashima If every Sect and every different Party may follow their own Inventions and follow their own gods or their own worship I then cannot see any reason in the world why the Missal as well as the Directory and the Anabaptist as well as the Presbyterian should not have their Way It is very very lately since we in this Land might have said There was no King in Israel And yet even then look what there followeth was not permitted to the Sons of the Church For whereas it is written Judg. 17. 6. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes sure I am what was right not onely in our Eyes but in the Eyes of the whole Church was not then permitted The plea of a tender Conscience it could then have no hearing For besides Indictment upon Indictment my self knows the man who under pain of Imprisonment and Banishment was forbid to use one Collect of our publick Prayers So that Usurpation and the true Worship seem like the Ark and Dagon they could by no means stand together Schism and Sedition are Twins contemporary to all Ages and therefore that the peace of God and his Church may be among us no one greater expedient can be found than an Vniformity in publick and divine Worship Nor is this extravagant or beside the Text for the Jews whilst yet they had but one God had but one Temple and in that Temple an Vniformity of Worship whilst they all worshipped God one and the same way so long Psal 122. 3. Jerusalem was a City at unity within it self yea and as it seems by the Prophet therefore at unity within it self For he no sooner gave this high commendation but streight followeth For thither the tribes go up the tribes of the Lord unto the testimony of Israel to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord. But when once Jeroboam had set up his Calves when the Tribes professing the same God set up divers and different ways of worship when the Samaritan had a Temple in Gerasin and the Lord another at Jerusalem when once they rent the Church and made a breach in publick Worship Judah and Israel Samaritan and Jew could never be reconcil'd from age to age the Schismatical disturbed and persecuted the Church of God It is observable from Jeroboams Calves to the return from Captivity there is numbred nigh 500 years and yet in all this time the Schismaticks kept their stomacks and left their malice as a successive Inheritance For when it was so that good King Cyrus sent home his Captives when he gave both leave and assistance to rebuild their Temple the Samaritans as afraid of the good old way of unity and uniformity in Worship they did even all they could to suppress the work Yea more than 400 years after that at the Feast of unleavened bread when the Priests did open the Gates about Midnight Samaritani quidam certain Samaritans entred into Jerusalem and went and spread mens Bones amidst the Porches and over all the Temple as Josephus Lib. 18. Now see the peevishness of Schismaticks all must conform to them or they to none For look what they themselves approved not that they would not the right Worshippers of God should do because they liked not the Festival because they would have no Holy-days because they themselves scrupled the keeping of the Feast of unleavened bread therefore they profane the Temple and do all they can to keep others from their bounden duty The Schismatical party could never be won never appeased after once there was Calves in Bethel and a Temple at Gerasin the Jew and Samaritan could never be at unity The Church of God blessed be God is not at this day confined to a People nor to a Temple Christians may in every place lift up pure hands and worship God But that we may so do in the unity of Spirit and in the bond of peace the premises to me evince there can be no greater expedient than Vniformity For the point here expresly spoken of and to it is publick Worship and almost all the heats and animosities of Christendom they arise about publick Worship I beseech you therefore brethren as St. Paul by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing For if the same confession of Faith be to the Glory of God and Christian Religion why not the same publick confession of sins the same publick oblations of Praise and Thanksgiving If to have one Minde and one Tongue be commendable and highly desirable in the Christian Church why not one Form of Prayer why not one publick Worship For that it is as expedient in our publick devotions as in our publick professions
respect to the outward and publick worship of God under the state of the Gospel First Spirit and Truth are not here opposed either to outward bodily worship or to any outward express of any Grace or Virtue And this to a wary ear hath already been concluded by the premises For being I have shew'd unto you how the Question between the Samaritan and our Saviour was about two Worships one false and the other gross one Idolatrous and the other Legal one by the Jew to the true God the other by the Samaritan to they knew not what To these two Worships our blessed Lord and Master in the Text opposeth these two Spirit and Truth To the Gross Legal and Jewish way of worship to that he opposeth the Spirit To the False Idolatrous and Samaritan way to that he opposeth the Truth So that to worship in Spirit and in Truth is no more according to the Letter than onely thus The hour is coming and now is when the Law shall give way to the Gospel Moses to Christ the Jewish worship which was then by Bullocks Goats and Lambs to a spiritual worship which shall require no such Sacrifice no such Oblations And in order to the Samaritan thus The time is coming and Now is when ye shall be better informed in the word of Truth when ye shall know what to worship and then you shall finde neither Gerasin to be the place nor what ye now worship to be the Object For the true worshippers they shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth So that by spirit and truth there is nothing stands here excluded but either worshipping the wrong object as did the Samaritan or the right Object the wrong way as the Jews do even to this very day Hugely then are they mistaken who conceit to worship in spirit is a discharge to bodily or outward worship when the opposition and the discharge it onely is against Mosaick and Samaritan against Legal and against Idolatrous worship Yea so far was our Saviour in those words from excluding bodily and outward worship that those who know any thing of the Greek know he here useth a word so proper to bodily and outward expression that the spirit alone cannot do it The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth an outward prostration and a lowly humbling of the Body so that the true Worshippers of the Father when in a godly sear and with a religious reverence they bow down and humble their Bodies before him they then do what the Text requires they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They do worship in spirit yea and in truth too And As the Spirit is not opposed to bodily worship so neither is it to any outward and exteriour evidence or express of any Grace or Virtue For to forbid Grace or Virtue to shew forth it self were to take splendour from Light and to restrain the exercise of all inward Pieties Indeed if we closely consider of the Mosaick and outward worship of the Jews to wit Sacrifice Oblations Incense and the like these were not accounted the visible expressions of any inward Grace Nor were these the outward Acts of any interiour Piety but those were the shadows of things to come and the representative Types of what was substantially to be verified when the Gospel came and therefore no wonder if spirit and truth both stand opposed to these But bodily expressions and outward Gestures Signes and Ceremonies under the Gospel these are the outward Evidences of inward Graces the outward Manifestations of inward Pieties As devoutly to frequent Christian Churches and to be present at the publick Worship it is an outward expression of an inward Grace to wit of Christian Religion for hereby we declare our selves such who profess to worship the Father and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent To profess with the Mouth it is an outward expression of an inward Faith To confess our sin is an outward expression of an inward penitence To humble our selves lowly upon our Knees an outward express of an inward Reverence To receive the Sacrament an outward express of an inward Piety So that if Spirit and Truth stood opposed to these there could be no visible Religion nor no outward godliness in the world And this properly leads to the Second Proposition which is to shew A publick worship in spirit without truth the outward expression cannot be Now that I say a publick Worship it is no more than my Text requireth For the whole difference between our Saviour and the Samaritan it was not you have seen about inward or private but meerly about outward and about publick worship for Gerasin and Jerusalem they were the seat of publick worship Whereas then our Saviour speaking to the point of publick worship plainly averréth that even that shall be in spirit and in truth it even hence inevitably followeth that Spirit and Truth cannot here stand opposed to Visible Bodily and exteriour worship For if there must be under the Gospel a publick Worship and that worship must be in spirit and in truth Outward Visible and Bodily expressions they cannot here be inhibited for they must be the publishers of all religious and all interiour worship For 1 Cor. 2. 11. No man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him Suppose a man to have within him all the graces of the Gospel no man can know this so long as they onely are within him for the inward or reserved things of man knoweth no man save the spirit of a man which is within him If then the graces of the Gospel was either given to edisie others or to glorisie God both these require they be not kept within and therefore Spirit without Truth or inward conceptions without outward expressions they will never do the work of God By worship then in Spirit and Truth we must here understand a compleat Worship that is the worship of the whole Man Spirit and Truth that is both For as the outward without the inward is meer Hypocrisie even so the Spirit without Truth the Minde without the Members will make but an halting and an halving Sacrifice Yea in publique to worship in Spirit without manifestations of that Spirit it is both a scandalous and an incredible worship For as we cannot reasonably believe that man is sober in spirit whose Body reels vomits and staggers before our Eyes and as we cannot reasonably believe him honest at Heart who we see deceitful in Weights and Measures nor him charitably minded who we hear reviling cursing and defaming his Neighbour So neither can any man reasonably believe that that man is devout in Spirit who is rude in Body that that man is full of fear within who is full of sauciness without that that man doth Reverence in Spirit who hath nothing of Reverence in the outward gesture So that Spirit and Truth seem to me like the outward Expression to the inward Meaning for if the
all the world Quae ad ordinem spectant ut precum formulae disposuit Apostolus Those things which appertain to order as do forms of Prayer the Apostle himself appointed and disposed So that set Forms in the judgement of M. Beza are Apostolical The English Translation reads it thus Such things as appertain to Order and Form of Prayers and other such like the Apostle took order for in the Congregation according to the consideration of times places persons 1 Cor. 11. 39. Yea after the great Reformer Martin Luther had a while tried what it was to want a set Form himself professeth lib. de Formula Missae coactus sum I am constrained observe by what and to what constrained he was alios Canones aliamque Missandi Formulam prescribere to prescribe fresh Canons and another form of Mass And if you please to observe by what he was constrained his words are Propter leves fastidiosos spiritus qui sola Novitate gaudent atque statim ut Novitas desiit nauseantes By reason of light and humorous spirits who onely delight in Novelty nauseating what themselves liked when it ceaseth to be new A humour which the first Zeal of our times did not digest and therefore whether I appeal to Beza or the more eminent Luther still a set Form A set Form according to Beza's note because Apostolical A set Form according to Luther because woful and extavagant experience demonstrated the necessity of it No curb for fastidious and rambling spirits but a set Form Fourthly The want of set Form prevents that which I am bound for to endeavour the conversion and communion of the adverse party for either I must perswade them to worship God according to my discretion and rely upon the implicite faith of my prudence or else I must produce a Form in which I desire their communion and to which I must endeavour their conversion Now I believe all those who renounce an implicite faith in the whole Church or in the Representative of it all such I say at least will abhor so far to resigne themselves unto a private Minister as to worship God all days of their lives according to his mutable dictate I am sure the Papists will say this is worse than what we call Popish servitude for they are bound onely to believe and serve God as the Church orders but where all is left to the will of the Minister people are bound to worship and serve God as his private spirit leads them and I wish I could not feelingly say even from follies vented in my own Pulpit what an Ignis fatuus that is Lastly To avoid prolixity for my own particular should I renounce a set Form I must needs profess my self guilty either of Superstitious Innovation or which in materia Religionis is bad enough popular insinuation First That to worship God without a Form is Innovation this the whole Christian world will attest unto me the Eastern and Western Churches Wittemberg where Luther Geneva where Calvin Scotland where Knox flourished and to innovate and act against a Catholick Custom of Christendom of the whole Christian world may breed a scruple in a wise much more in a weak Christian Secondly As Innovation so it would seem to me unavoidable superstition and that whether Superstition be positively or negatively considered for Superstition being positively considered being the issue of misgrounded Zeal this superstition is active in the production of superstitious performances whereof this is one to conceive that God will be pleased with no prayer from me unless of my own conception nor no devotion unless it be of our own invention this I say is the superstitious issue of a misguided zeal Again as misguided zeal is the Mother of superstitious performances even so ignorant fear is the motive and cause of superstitious forbearances as when one vainly fears and in that fear refrains such an act as displeasing which indeed is rather pleasing to Almighty God Touch not taste not bandle not these are negative superstitions issues of ignorant fear And so far as I can conceive scrupulously to reject or lay aside set Forms as superstitious is out of ignorant fear really and actually to commit pardon the phrase a negative superstition Thirdly Again should I not superstitiously which as drawing nigher Religion is more honest of the two lay aside a set Form I cannot imagine any other principle but popular insinuation to move me to it and to make that a motive in Religion scarce appears to me religious Omnia ponenda post Religionem nostra Civitas duxit If the Pagans had so much Divinity as to say it was a Law in their City that all things whatsoever must give way unto Religion certainly it behoveth me who am a Christian in matter and point of Religion to look upon nothing through a carnal or secular Perspective Now to me and with me runs the whole current of Antiquity set Forms of Prayer and Worship they are the most religious and assured means either to preserve or advance Religion The scruple then is whether any of my judgement and perswasion may for any popular or secular end in the world and for that end merely lay aside a better and assume in God's worship a worse way whether this be not having a Male in my Flock to offer unto God a Female judge you That blessed speech of Sir Benj. Ruddierd to Mr. Rym He that thinks to save any thing by his Religion but his Soul will be a terrible loser in the end It is worthy to be written in letters of gold yea worthy to be engraven in the Heart of every Parliament-man that sits it is indeed a saying that hath so far prevailed on me that I begin extremely to question the truth of that vulgar opinion that the Worship and Government of the Church of Christ are so left as to be accommodated to the proportionable exigences of States and Kingdoms For my particular I conceive the glory of God attended municipal Laws ought rather to stoop than they to strain for Religion is so tender a Virgin that she may not admit the least prostitution and I am sure a conscientious breast feareth to rumple her very ornaments Whereas then to worship God without a set Form seems to me destructive of the form of sound words which charily must be preserved a worship more careless than what Pagans used an Innovation which takes away the very ground and basis of conversion and communion with an adverse party whereas it would be in me either Superstition or Popularity to desert a set Form I must crave leave to follow these Dictates till I have better premises given me from which I may conclude otherwise And so I shall desire your patience to accompany me to my last endeavour which is to shew that I cannot with a good conscience renounce or as yet lay aside this our individual Liturgy and that for these reasons 1. It maketh our Religion to be
rational is bound to suffer Now if it be so that honour and honesty hath so strong an influence upon a reasonable soul that Reason will pérswade even the natural man to prefer honour and honesty before life if property liberty and the Laws of the Land are so dear to Subjects that even for them thousands have laid down their lives my great and grand scruple is whether bonum religiosum whether a religious good whether that which I verily believe tends to the good of Religion ought not to me a Christian and a Minister to be full as dear as any bonum honestum as any honest or mere secular good to me or any subject in the world And I profess to you upon the faith of a Christian be it sound or be it weak this is the principal ground and motive of all my losses and to support me I have these Reasons 1 Cor. 9. If we have sown unto you spiritual things is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things Between spiritual and carnal things the Apostle seems to make so despicable a difference that the one is not to be compared with the other carnal things secular and worldly interests they are not considerable if compared with things spiritual A clear argument to me that no spiritual or religious performance ought to give way to any carnal end And such I conceive are all the muniments of Christian Religion such in particular a blameless Liturgy According to this rule the Royal Master and glorious Triumpher over savage cruelties imputes all his sufferings to the score of Christ saying I shall be more than Conquerour through Christ enabling me for whom I have hitherto suffered as he is the Author of Truth Order and Peace for all which I have been forced to contend against Errour Faction and Confusion A plain evidence that Christ may be suffered for in the preservation of Order as well as in the vindication of Truth Secondly It is a rule amongst Casuists That man that suffers either for doing this or forbearing that in relation unto Christ and his glory that person is a sufferer in the cause of Christ as he that will not lie upon this ground because dishonourable to the Christian Profession if he should be persecuted because he will not lie such an one though not in materia fidei yet because his restraint is for Christ and his glory he were persecuted for Christ his sake Whereas then in my poor judgement I am convinced there is no means generally more expedient for the advance of the glory of Christ and the preservation of the Faith than a well-composed and set Form of Liturgy whatever I shall suffer for not rejecting this I shall confidently lay upon the score of my Saviour forasmuch as I therefore onely by suffering endeavour the defence of this because I do verily believe Liturgy is the advance of his glory So that if a temporal good whose reward and encouragement cannot be but temporal can move a man to suffer much more a spiritual whose reward through the mercy of a gracious accepter may prove eternal For he who will not see a Cup of cold Water given for his sake lost neither will he forget the least of sufferings which relate to his glory Thirdly In suffering for spiritual muniments and for that onely which relates to Christ only and his glory there is no interest but God Almighty's considered or concerned But in suffering for temporal though publick good we have private ends and personal advantages of our own so that it must be much more acceptable to God Almighty to suffer for spiritual that is his interest than for secular that is our own Fourthly If that Citizen be held an unworthy member who will not spend his Purse and pains for the priviledge of his Corporation And if that Country-clown be held no good Townsman who will not stiffly maintain the Modus Decimandi the Custom of his Town certainly then that Minister hath a very low and poor estimate of that Liturgy which he subscribed unto a very unworthy esteem of the Catholick custom of the reformed Church of Christ that will without suffering betray his trust making less account of what Martyrs sealed with their Blood than will a Citizen or a Countryman of a trifling Priviledge or Custom Fifthly Considering and enquiring after the elder times when such was the purity of intention that nothing but Christ's glory was attended I cannot finde that any thing in Religion was moulded unto State-ends Si Ecclesiasticum negotium sit nullam Communionem habento civiles Magistratus cum eâ disceptatione sed Religiosissimi Episcopi secundum sacros Canones negotio fine imponentem in Authentica Can. 123. Not to the civil Magistrate but to the religious Bishops Justinian no less than an Emperour attributes and decrees the decision and determination of Ecclesiastical affairs And certainly if there be any Ecclesiastical Government as the Law speaks Cui jurisdictio data est ea quoque concessa esse intelliguntur sine quibus jurisdictio expleri non poluit To whom jurisdiction is committed all that must be granted without which he cannot exercise jurisdiction and that must needs be a directive and a coactive power Now impossible it seems to me that those who have be they Prelates be they Presbyters or be they of what name or title soever our next new light shall call them I say it seems to me impossible that those who have this spiritual power should ever discharge their trust unless they resolve to suffer and to suffer precisely for the muniments and defence of the Church of Christ and the power of him committed to them for the impartial and thorough executing of this charge cannot but displease great ones and Flesh and Bloud is a bitter adversary so that indeed it will evidently appear the decay of Discipline Liturgie and all the Muniments of the Church they have therefore suffered because those who should have suffered for them would not And I beseech God this sin be not laid to our charge for my own particular I beseech God give me grace to say heartily as did some of the Martyrs Though I cannot dispute I can suffer for him Sixthly For me to omit any act gesture or form of Worship which I believe or feel to be an advance to Piety merely from secular or private Interest this in my judgement is to prefer a carnal thing before a spiritual and to endeavour rather to please man than my God And indeed I could here with a great deal of truth and sadness relate unto you the serious and sharp complaints of such Ministers who profess their Souls long after the Liturgy grieved at Heart and as they pretend troubled at Soul because they dare not use what they conceive much the better way A lamentable condition is the Church in when Ministers worship God with reluctancy and onely to save their stakes comply and do as the State would have