read in them I reckon that the Word of God as God requires it for the Instruction of his Church is cast out of those Meetings and that they act directly contrary to his Command Therefore except Mr. B. produce Vouchers that in most of your Meetings the whole Word of God or the most material parts of it have been read in a competent time he will never acquit them before God or impartial Men of this fault If the Books that have been Read and the time be specified the Truth will then appear but without this I shall look on any general assertion as a subterfuge and a declining the light II. The Second thing asserted by me is That in many of your Meetings seting aside a verse or two for a Text or Quotation at the Discretion of the Minister the Voice of God is never heard This is owned by Mr. B. to be true in effect as to the Winter-Quarter in most of your Meetings Rem p. 92. but how far this Winter-Quarter is stretched wants being cleared for some have stretched it very far And as to those that he affirms now to Lecture in Winter in this Diocess I desire to know how long they have thus Lectured Last Winter I believe they did but I must see a good Voucher before I believe that either all of them Lectured any part of every Year before or all but one constantly in the winter Secondly You have Meetings in the Afternoons as well as in the mornings and the Scriptures ought to be read in them but in these you have only a Text and Quotations and therefore what I affirmed is true not only of many of your Meetings but of one half of them all III. The Third thing opposed by Mr. B. is That perhaps in all the Meetings in the North there is not so much Scripture read as in our Church in one day To prove this I took Mr. B's own Concessions Rem p. 92. and according to them shew'd that there was really four times more Scripture Read in our Church in one Day than in all the Meetings in the North in a Year But he seems not willing to stand to these Concessions and farther excepts Vind. p. 9. that eleven Psalms which I reckon as Chapters read for Instruction were Forms of Thanksgiving But I answer That these agree very well together the Apostle having Commanded us to Teach and Admonish one another in them at the same time we speak or sing them as appears from Ephes. 5. 19. and Col. 3. 16. And indeed it is manifest that the Psalms were written for Publick Instruction as well as for Publick Thanksgivings and Prayers Twelve of them bear the Title For Instruction before them as most of them are called Prayers Psal. 72. 20. c. Thirdly He will have Two Chapters allowed for Quotations in your Sermons every day but I particularly excepted Quotations from the account And quoting Scripture is not Reading it nor is that the way God appointed his Word to be Read Deut. 31. 10. Nor did the People of God so Read it Nor doth your Directory prescribe this as Reading but Preaching Lastly no body knows what or how many these are or how they are applied all these depending on the Discretion of Your Ministers But after all he makes his Computation and concludes that in a whole Year there is near as much Read in your Meetings as in two Days in our Church for saith he Vind. p. 10. In the Nine Meetings of this Diocess there are Read in a year 1287 Chapters of which 936 are Quotations and in one day in our Church but 714 which is a little more than half what is Read in those Nine Meetings in the whole Year This is truly his Conclusion and I value your time more than to dispute about it and therefore let it stand so IV. The last thing I asserted in this matter was That a man might go to most Meetings many Years and never hear one intire Chapter Read in them What has been done may be done and I have met with several that have thus frequented Meetings several Years and could not say they had heard an intire Chapter Read at a time I sent one to enquire and he returned an account only of six Verses read for a Text to the Lecture and I have been informed that usually no more were read And therefore whereas Mr. B. asserts Rem p. 92. that usually a whole Chapter was read this may be true since my Book but that it was otherwise before is Notorious But when it appears what Books have been Read in each Meeting every Year before 't will be easy to judge how much has been read each Lords-Day and without this it is impossible to judge exactly of it and till I see particular Evidence to the contrary I must suppose that what hapned in these times when I sent to enquire was what was usual Upon the whole the slight you put on the Word of God by throwing it out of your Meetings when you cannot have time to put your own Glosses on it your allowing two hours to your Sermons and not ten Minuits to the Reading God's Word are faults that Mr. B. may endeavour to palliate but will never solidly justify The true way to answer them is to mend them and I am heartily glad to hear that you have made some progress that way tho' far from what is requisite Sect. VII Concerning the Mysteries of Religion I. A Fourth Matter of Fact denied by Mr. B. is That a man may frequent your Meetings all his life and yet have no security or hardly possibility of Learning from your publick Teaching all the great Mysteries of his Religion I laid before you in my former Admonition p. 17. the excellent Method our Church had taken to secure the Publick Teaching of all the great Mysteries of Christianity to all her Members by appointing a certain time in the Year for each of them whereas there is no such Rule or Order for your Ministers And whereas Mr. B. asserted there was an obligation put on you by the Directory to teach all those mysteries I shewed he was mistaken and he now contends Vind. p. 12. that you need none besides the Scriptures which is as I shewed in my Admon p. 20. a very great defect since the Scriptures require we should have such a Rule besides II. Secondly I shewed that I had examined and put it to many of your perswasion whether they ever heard any of your Ministers that professedly made a whole discourse on the Trinity Conception Nativity Resurrection or Ascension of our Saviour or on his sending down the Holy Ghost And I did and do profess that I never met one Man that could satisfy me in it or assure me that his Minister had done it And I concluded from hence that it was a most dangerous matter to leave these things to mens choice III To this Mr. B. replies Vind. 11. that I overlooked the plain
latter we do in every Act of Outward Devotion such as Bowing Kneeling Standing putting on Sackcloth c. all which represent our Duty and are professions of our Intentions to perform it Tho' therefore Mr. B. should prove by Scripture that the Sacraments represent our Duty as required by God yet it were nothing against me except he prove it to be proper and peculiar to Sacraments to represent our Duty as profest by us to the Exclusion of all other Signs However tho' I need not take Notice of the Scriptures he produces to this purpose they not being to the point in hand yet because they are all perverted from their true and genuine sense I think my self obliged to Vindicate them from his false glosses and shall with them likewise consider his other Arguments on this Head The first is John 3. 5. Except a Man be born of the Water and the Holy Ghost he cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven This he produces Vind. 38. to prove that Washing with Water is by its Resemblance Instructive to us concerning the Priviledges and Duties of the Covenant we enter into But here is nothing concerning Instruction but the plain and litteral meaning of the place is That Baptism represents to us the Will of God to give us a New Birth by Water and the Holy Ghost The Water doth not only Instruct us in the Necessity of the Regenerating and purifying Vertue of the Holy Spirit as he seems to suggest but when duly used it carries that Vertue along with it The second place produced by him to prove the Water in Baptism to be an Instructing Sign concerning our Duty and Priviledges is Tit. 3. 5. He saved us by the Washing of Regeneration and Renewing of the Holy Ghost This fully proves that it is God's Institution that we shou'd be saved by Water and the Holy Ghost in Baptism if Mr. B. thinks that we are only Instructed in that Priviledge by the Water in Baptism as he seems to do he contradicts the very Letter of the Holy Scripture which says we are saved by it and he seems to be influenced in this point with Socinian Notions The third place is Acts 22. 16. Arise be Baptised and wash away thy sins This he produces to prove that Baptism is Designed to Instruct us concerning our guilt as well as pollution and the necessity of our being cleansed from it by the laver of our Mediators Blood But sure the place proves quite another thing not only that we are Instructed by Baptism concerning the necessity of being Cleansed but that we are actually Cleansed and Washed in our Mediator's Blood by it and have our Sins then and not before forgiven us So the Scriptures frequently Teach us and so the Church has ever understood it it is not for any Merit of our Faith or Repentance that our Sins are forgiven us and therefore God may as Justly and has as positively made Baptism a condition of our Pardon when it may be had as either of them Christ may apply the Vertue of his Blood to us on what terms he Pleases and since he has made Baptism a Condition the meaness of the thing ought to be no Exception any more than the washing in Jordan was a just Exception to Naaman the Syrian We are therefore as much regenerated by Baptism Cleansed Saved and Pardoned by it as Naaman was Cured of his Leprosy by Washing in Jordan And can no more be partakers of these benefits without it when we may have it then he cou'd without the other It is therefore of very ill consequence to interpret these places of bare Instruction and I hope Mr. B. will not say he meant so to interpret them as to Exclude the real force and efficacy The fourth place is John 6. 53. 54. Who so eats my flesh and drinks my Blood hath Eternal Life For my Flesh is Meat indeed and my Blood is Drink indeed This he produces to prove that in the Lords Supper There is not only a Commemorative Representation of the Death of Christ but also an Instructive Representation of our spiritual Communion with him in his Body and Blood And of Those Duties by which we are said 〈◊〉 Eat his Flesh and Drink his Blood Vind. p. 39. But there is no colour for such a gloss The Place speaks of feeding by Faith on the Flesh and Blood of Christ either in or out of the Sacrament 'T is certain and confessed by the Church of God that there is a peculiar Feeding on the Body and Blood of Christ by worthy Receivers in the Sacrament of the Lord's-Supper and that there is not only a Commemorative and Instructive Representation of them as Mr. B. alledges but a real and true Communion of them your Confession of Faith uses the Words Really and Indeed Chap. 29. and therefore i◠is great perverting of those Words of St John to interpret them of such Commemorative and Instructive Representation only and a ready way to bring in the Socinian Notions of Sacraments The Fifth place Vind. p. 39. is Rom. 6. 3 4 5. So many of us as were Baptised into Christ were Baptised into his Death therefore we are Buried with him by Baptism unto Death that like as Christ was Raised up from the Dead by the Glory of the Father even so we also shou'd wà lk in Newness of Life He alledges Vind. p. 39. That dying unto Sin and walking in Newness of Life is not signifyed as the Benefit Conferred by God as I suppose but rather as the Duty required from us And to the same purpose he quotes Coloss 2. 12. Buried with him in Baptism wherein also you are risen with him and you being dead in your sins and the uncircomcision of your flesh hath he quickned together with him having forgiven you all trespasses It is manifest from the plain Words of these places that the Apostle here shews what God has done for us and from thence infers what we owe to him He has mortified Sin in us by Baptism he has buried us with Christ he has forgiven us all Trespasses he has quickened us together with him as he raised Christ and given us a New Life by his Holy Spirit let any one judge whether these are Benefits we receive from God as I affirm or rather Duties required from us as Mr. B. alledges Every one of these as the Church of God has ever Taught and as the generality of Christians except Pelagians of old and Socinians of late have professed to believe are Acts of God's efficacion Spirit upon us and not Duties required of us tho' they infer Duties to be perform'd by us We cannot quicken our selves or kill Sin in us till the Spirit of God deliver us from the Body of Death and quicken us by a new Principle and then when he has given us a New Life it is as the Apostle infers our Duty to walk in the Newness of that Life This is plainly the Apostles Reasoning Rom. 6. for after he
Nobility or laying on his Sword is of Knighthood To make a Distinguishing Sign in this sense were indeed to make a Sacrament and we readily own that God only can appoint Signs to make one Man thus differ from another or bestow such Badges on them But our Church has fully declared that the sign of the Cross is not any such Badge And therefore Mr. B. is very unjust to us when he affirms Vind. p. 45. that being Cross'd we as truly according to the Establish'd Church wear the Livery of Christ as by being Baptiz'd a Calumny without ground or pretence In Baptism our Church according to the Scriptures teaches us that we put on Christ that is lay aside our Sins and Lusts and become Partakers of the Divine Nature 1 Pet. 14. whereby we are privileged as Sons of God this is the true Badge and Distinction of Christians but our Church never said any such thing of the Cross and therefore to say that we as truly wear the Livery of Christ by being Cross'd as by Baptism or that the Cross is as effectually made the common Symbol or Tessera of our Discipleship as Baptism are most grievous Calumnies I beseech God to pardon those that endeavour to keep up a Party against us by such Accusations and to turn their Hearts II. But then Eighthly a Sign may be called Distinguishing because we thereby declare testifie and profess to the World that we claim and own the Privileges and Characters that God has been pleased to bestow on us as Christians And thus indeed the sign of the Cross is a Badge and Token of our Christianity But then this is no proper or peculiar much less principal use of the Sacraments our keeping the Lords Day our appearing in a Christian Assembly our Kneeling uncovering our Head our Fasting on publick occasions our Standing at our Confession of Faith are all of them Badges and Tokens in this sense of our being Christians as well as the sign of the Cross and are all of them warranted by the Scripture The same may be said as I have already shew'd of our Christian Names and of many other Signs used among us and precedented in Scripture Particularly That of your giving Tickets to those that are to Communicate concerning which I shewed you Admon p. 7. that it was an Outward and Visible Sign And Secondly That it signified your Right and Claim to the Lord's Supper and Communion of Saints which is a spiritual Grace or Privilege Thirdly That it was a Badge and Token whereby Privileged Members were distinguished And Fourthly a sort of necessary Term of Communion To this Mr. B. replies Vind. p. 53. 1. That a Ticket with you is a Sign of nothing more than that the Person that brought it was allowed to Communicate at that time To which I Answer That to be allowed to Communicate at any time is a great Grace and Privilege and therefore this Ticket is plainly a Badge of a Man's Aptitude Privilege and Title to the Membership of Christ and a Declaration from the Minister who gave it to him that he thinks him entitl'd to it at that time and to declare who is fit and unfit who shall be admitted or not admitted is a Spiritual Act and belongs to the Power of the Keys And this is a clear Proof that we may signifie our sense of Spiritual Things even in particular Duties by Signs as well as Words when they are proper Secondly He Objects that this is no Badge because many may be Members that have no Tickets at present because they do not at present Receive but even to distinguish Persons at present fit to Receive from others that are not is to make it a Badge in a very weighty matter Thirdly He argues That a Mans having a Ticket would not secure his Admission if he were not known to be a Member of that or some other Congregation This indeed shews that it is no infallible Mark a Man may steal this Badge or come dishonestly by it and when that is discovered he shall be secluded But in the mean time it is a Badge that gains a Man Admittance without any Question if it be not discover'd to be counterfeit It is therefore a Livery of Christ's Privileged Members at that time tho' if it be known that any has stolen this Livery he shall not be Owned or Admitted to Christ's Table by it It cannot therefore be denied but it is a sort of external Wedding Garment Fourthly He argues that it is no necessary term of Communion since no man that is a Noted Member of that or any other Congregation shall be refused tho' he have no Ticket but many are not Noted Members and it is a necessary term of Communion to them But suppose a Man Refused and Condemned it as an Human Invention and Human Sacrament and all those that used it as Idolaters and Superstitious and would set up another Communion if you did not lay it aside would you disuse it to gratifie such a man This is really the case between you and us I leave you to judge what you would think of such an unreasonable person But Fifthly Mr. B. alledges Vind. p. 45 in such multitudes as Receive this or some such Expedient is necessary to distinguish Communicants from meer Spectators to which I answer that then some other Badges and distinguishing Signs may be necessary besides the Sacraments and therefore it is no use peculiar or proper to them to be Badges or Signs of our Profession and the relations we thereby are invested in as he contends for sure to be admitted as Communicants is a relation wherein we are invested by our Profession yet you see we may invent a Sign to distinguish this Relation and those that have a Title to it But I must put you in mind that there is no necessity for this Badge except what is criminal and of your own making If every Minister would administer the Holy Sacrament frequently in his own Congregation as he ought to do there needed none of these Multitudes or Crowdings that are at your Sacraments to which People come thirty or forty miles as the Papists go on Pilgrimages at certain times to their Jubilees or celebrated Saints and which are the occasion as it generally happens in such Crowds of Looseness and Intemperance and a great hinderance to Devotion by crowding such Families as live near the place where the Celebration is whereby both the Guests and Families are hinder'd from that Quiet and Retirement which seem very necessary to true Devotion at such times Lastly he Objects That this can be no Badge or like to the Cross except this perilous Ticket had a Cross on it or the persons that brought it were ordered to wear it on their Breasts or Foreheads as a Sign whereby they publickly profess their remembrance of and renewed dedication of themselves to the service of a Crucified Saviour as the adult Members of his Church Vind. p. 54. I cannot
had reformed effectually these Abuses I should not have troubled my self with a Vindication for my design was not to Accuse but Reform you yet I thank God my Endeavours have not altogether proved unsuccessful upon you even in this point VIII Mr. B. affirms Rem p. 111. That your Ministers frequently in their Discourses to their People recommend Standing or Kneeling in their publick Prayers and p. 112 That they have faithfully declared to their people their dislike of Sitting Now pray let me give you this easie Test to distinguish your Faithful Ministers from the Unfaithful Those of them that have frequently and heartily reproved you for Sitting at your publick Prayers before my Book appeared count them in this point Faithful Ministers of the Gospel and those that have not done so reckon them as they truly are Unfaithful and conniving Shepherds And take heed how you trust them in other cases I thank God for it that by all I can learn my Book has done more to reform this Unseemly Practice as Mr. B. himself calls it Rem p. 112. amongst you than all your Ministers these 50 years and plainly shews that they need some inspection to mind them of their Duty Sect. X. Concerning the Practise of Bodily Reverence by Dissenters 1. A Seventh Matter of Fact with which Mr. B. anew charges me Vind. p. 23. is That I affirm that the Dissenters are Taught that external postures of Bodily Worship may in no case be practised for which he quotes my Discourse p. 137. I wish that Mr. B. while he taxes me for Accusing you Unjustly and misrepresenting you were careful of avoiding such dealings toward others If you look into the place quoted you will neither find the Words nor Sence of what he alledges against me my Words are That in case of Necessity we think our Outward Performances may be lawfully omitted but you are Taught that in no case they may be lawfully practised You are Taught rather to stay at home and not to Worship God at all publickly than to conform in Outward Gestures or Circumstances In which words it is plain First That I address my self to you in particular and not to Dissenters in general as he represents me Secondly It is evident I spake here of the Outward Gestures and Circumstances to which our Church requires you to conform in order to joyn in her publick Worship and not of all External Postures of Bodily Worship And it is too sad a Truth that above Twenty thousand of you in this Diocess refrain and have refrained every Lord's day from all Publick Worship for many Years rather than joyn in these and that you have counted our Standing Kneeling c. idolatrous heretofore appears not only from your Practice and Profession but from your Authors Witness the Reasons for which the Service-book urged upon Scotland ought to be refused printed 1638 in which the Third Reason is because it hath a number of Popish Superstitious and Idolatrous Ceremonies amongst which are reckoned the Priest's Standing Kneeling Turning to the People and the Peoples Standing at Gospels at Gloria Patri c. Creeds their Answering the Minister and many such-like in number above Fifty These unchristian and unjust Censures are still in many of your Minds and for ought I find they are the chief Objections you have against our Service and I beseech God in his Mercy to grant that either my Reasons or Mr. B's Concessions may remove them so that we may hear no more from you of the Idolatry Superstition or Popery of our Ministers Kneeling at their Prayers or standing at their Blessings or of our Peoples Kneeling at their Confessions of Sins at their Prayers and Communions or Standing at their Praises Thanksgivings Professions of Faith and other parts of our Service that require a more solemn attention and concern Sect. XI Concerning the Praises of God 1. I Shall add an Eighth Matter of Fact that has relation to the same Affair and that is concerning your praising God Mr. B. alledges Vind. p. 23. these as my words and puts them as such in Italian Characters That You have no other way of Praising God but by singing a Verse or two of a Psalm And quotes my Discourse p. 24 for them but if you look into the place you will find that these are neither my words nor sense I am there only comparing your use of Psalms and Hymns in the Praises of God with ours and I observed that our Church praises God every day with five or six Psalms besides other Hymns Whereas You only praise him in a piece of a Psalm of a few Verses A thing so notoriously true that without perverting the words 't is impossible to find any Exception against them He objects indeed That your Directory prescribes Extemporary Thanksgivings and spends many Pages in his Remarks about them But I answer Thanksgivings and Praises are different things tho' they commonly go together and your Extempory Thanksgivings are reckoned in your Directory under the Head of Prayers The Title under which they are prescribed is that of publick Prayer after Sermon The Rule is The Sermon being ended the Minister shall give Thanks c. And then the Prayer ended let a Psalm be sung I had no intention to deny these but reckoned them as your Directory doth with your Prayers Which gives no other Rule for the Praises of God but under the head of singing Psalms the words there are It is the Duty of Christians to praise God by singing of Psalms the only Rule for the Praises of God in the whole Directory Properly speaking Psalms and Hymns are the Scripture way of praising God tho' in a large sense we praise him by our Confessions of Sins and Faith and by our Prayers as well as by our Thanksgivings Sect. XII Concerning the Rule of Human Prudence 1. A Ninth Matter of Fact is concerning the Rule of Human Prudence that we find Rem p. 7 9 he charges me Vind. p. 28 with Mistaking that Rule and supposing that he denied that God had given us any particular Directions at all in reference to the Modes of Worship But I must declare I neither did nor intended to ascribe any such Opinion to him I knew very well that he owned many such but he positively affirmed Rem p. 7. That tho' God has commanded publick Prayer Praise Hearing Celebration of the Lords-Supper c. yet at what time or place we shall assemble in in what order these parts of Worship shall be performed what particular devout posture we shall use among several equally expressive of our religious Reverence what Translation of the Bible or Version of the Psalms we shall chuse what portion of the Scripture shall be Read Explained and Applied what Utensils shall be employed in the celebration of the Sacraments and a multitude of such Circumstances and Modes of that kind are left to Human determination only therein the general Rules of Scripture must be regarded Now tho'
Psalms when the people want Books cannot read or have them not by heart Which has ever been the Case of many since they were first Sung But the same Scripture that commands us to do all things for Edification commands us likewise to use the Psalms as I have shewed and never prescribes or mentions the defective way used by you and therefore we may be sure Singing the Psalms by a Choir Reading them by Courses and Playing to them are not contrary to Edification And to oppose the Determinations of Human Prudence to these particular Precedents is to make the Word of God of none effect by your Tradition And is what I blame in You and Mr. B. as Teaching your own Inventions I positively declared that I did not condemn Singing Metre Psalms as unlawful but only your casting out the Prose intirely in your publick praises of God and preferring the Metre meerly on the strength of our own prudential Determinations as more edifying and fitter for a Congregation This I took to be a preferring your own Reason or Tradition to the Word of God IV. The same I say concerning Extemporary Prayer I never denied but Extemporary Prayers may be lawful nay necessary on Extraordinary Occasions when a man has not a Form ready or time to Compose one I granted that in this case we may depend on the assistance of God's Spirit as in all other cases of Necessity or at least hope for pardon of course to our Infirmities But I shewed Dis. Chap. 2. Sect. 3. N. 3. That God had Commanded Forms of Prayer both to Priests and People in the Old and New Testament That the Church of the Jews use a Form of Prayer in their Publick Ordinary Service that the Psalms of David are a Collection of such Forms and so are called Psal. 72. 20. And it doth not appear that any other publick Prayers were ordinarily used in the Temple and that we have many Precedents of such I add now that such Prayers are sufficient to express all our Desires to God on Ordinary publick Occasions which are constantly the same and if any thing Extraordinary happen the Church may provide a Form for it it being unreasonable that it should be left to every private Minister to impose what Confession or Petitions he pleases on the people or at least in such a solemn affair as uttering to God the Sense of a Nation or even of a Congregation a Minister ought to reduce what he intends to say into Form and consider it well beforehand that he may be sure that the Words are fit and proper for the Publick as well as the Matter I shewed further That there is no Promise in Scripture to furnish us with Words without this care and that the Spirit of Prayer promised in Scripture doth not include any such Gift either to Minister or People And therefore to lay aside Prayers by a Form in our Ordinary publick Occasions which are still the same is plainly to prefer our own Inventions to Scripture-precedents and our prudential Application of a General Rule to the method prescribed in several particular cases under that General Rule by God himself I grant Praying Extemporarily and Prayer by a Form are different ways of Worshipping God or Modes to use Mr. B's phrase who commonly in these cases shelters himself in some new difficult Word which many of you do not understand But I say We have only precedents for one of these ways in Scripture in performing of publick Prayers in an Ordinary Setled Congregation and therefore for you to lay aside this way as you do in your most publick and ordinary Addresses for Extemporary Prayers is to prefer your own Wisdom to God's If the thing it self had been feasible the method of Answering this Argument against Extemporary Prayer was easie nor was there any need of that long Discourse you find in Mr. B's Remarks or the hard Words he gives me about it The whole difficulty incumbent on him was to shew some Command of God in Scripture requiring us to Worship or Pray to him in a Conceived or Unpremeditated or Free-Prayer as he calls it or some Example in a Setled Ordinary Congregation where it was practised Till he do this his Arguments for the Usefulness of such Prayers and for their Necessity drawn from their being more Moving and more Edifying than Forms are only opposing his own Experience to the Precedents of Holy Scripture And it seems to me that only the itching Ears of people who love Novelty and Variety give ground for such Surmises But these are Vices against which they ought to be cautioned not to be cherished and encouraged in them as Mr. B. does Rem p. 163. since they are apt to cheat men with a false Devotion and are not necessary to a true one of which had Mr. B. been throughly sensible I conceive he would not have given me such very hard words for interpreting an Itching Ear to be an Ear that loves them or affirmed as he does Rem p. 101. That no Expositor before me ever dream'd of such a sence of them I wish he would consult a few more Expositors before he peremptorily determine concerning the sence of Scriptures He might have found Estius Alâ—pide and Galvin noted Commentators concurr in this sence with me and the Context as well as the Words where they are used enforce it 2 Tim. 43. For the time will come when they will not endure sound Doctrine but after their own Lusts heap up to themselves Teachers having itching Ears Which words plainly give two Reasons that move people to heap up Teachers to themselves their Lusts and their Itching Ears but Mr. B. would perswade us that the Apostle meant only one of them whereas the Experience of all Ages has found that the desire of Novelty and Variety has made Men ready to entertain Fables and False Doctrines as well as their Wanton Fancies or Various Inolinations as he alledges If by Wanton Fancies he meant any thing else than a Fancy that loves Novelty and Variety and if the same be meant by it then he had no reason to abuse me for a whole Page together for interpreting the words in that sence since he himself doth the same M. B. I confess offers some Scripture Precedents for Extemporary Prayer in publick Rem p. 36. namely Solomon's 1 King s 8. 22. Asa's 2 Chron. 14. 11. Jehosophat's 2 Chron. 20. 5. Hezekia's Isa. 36. 15 16. Ezra's Chap. 9. 5. Nehemiah's Chap. 9. 5. But these are not to the purpose they are all of them on Extraordinary occasions and in Extraordinary Assemblies in which 't is granted that Extemporary Prayers may be necessary Secondly They are generally the particular Prayers of the men that offered them and not of the Assembly such is Solomon's Hezekiah's and Ezra's Thirdly It doth not appear but they were all Forms written and prepared beforehand I take it for granted That the Confession in Neh. 9. was so for eight Levites repeated
are the greatest part are more noted for these than the Protestants in other parts of the Kingdom which sufficiently shews that whatever you pretend your Discipline has no great effect of which other Demonstrations might be given it may seem in Speculation an Advantage as the Auricular Confession of the Papists but has hitherto produced as little effect Seventhly As to the Lives and Conversations of Your Ministers You have no reason to boast till we see their Interest separated from their Engagements to Sobriety and till they have undergone such a Scrutiny as the Clergy of Down and Connor did that is till they be try'd by above 300 Oaths as the Clergy there were if we reckon the Church-wardens and other Witnesses And as to their Tempers I do not find that they are more Mortified more Humble have a less Opinion of themselves or command their Passions better than other People and for the proof of this I appeal not only to those of this Diocess but to the most eminent most celebrated and leading Men that have been of Your Party Consult their Writings and you will not find more Meekness Humility or Charity in them nor less Passion Bitterness and Gall than in their Adversaries Witness the first and second Admonition in Queen Elizabeth's time Mr. Cartwright's Writings Mr. Rutherford Mr. Baxter Mr. Alsop and if you please Mr. Boyse's Now we are told by St. James chap. 1. 26. If any man among you seem to be Religious and bridle not his Tongue but deceiveth his own heart that man's Religion is vain much more if he bridle not his Pen. There will be peevish passionate and railing Writers of all Parties but Men that are truly Holy will hardly be provoked to any degree of these Vices and ought never to be trusted as Guides if they are IV. Lastly As to your Worship you have no perfect Rule for it for Mr. B. has given up your Directory as imperfect in several particulars of great moment and left it to your own Discretion to mend it Vind. p. 35. I think I have proved it to be not only imperfect but in one Particular that it confessedly teaches contrary to Scripture and believe I have shewed and can shew that it does the same in several others This seems to me to be the state of the Case between You and Us and I have as good reason to suppose it thus as Mr. B. has to suppose that the Worship and Discipline of Christ is more fully restored to its Primitive Purity and Simplicity amongst You than Us For which I think there is no pretence V. Mr. B. alledges Vind. p. 32. That the Abuses contained in his thirteen Demands Rem p. 170 are the chief Obstacles to a happy Union among us which has been so long the Earnest Desire of all good men But this doth no ways appear to be true since no men Labour'd more earnestly to remove some of them than Papists and those of no Religion who are willing to destroy our National Constitution as being a Curb and Barrier against them and when they can once effect that they know well enough how to hinder the Settlement of any other As appear'd fully by the Long Parliament that took down our Government but never Establish'd another and as to their being the chief Obstacle to our Union consider whether we were nearer an Union when they were removed on the contrary Sects and Divisions grew more in Four years than in Fourscore before Witness Mr. Edwards Gangrena p. 125 143. and throughout and this amongst Persons counted Religious and therefore Mr. B. before we take his Word must give us good assurance that the removal of them will not open a Door to all Heresies Strange Opinions Fearful Divisions Looseness of Life and Manners as it did then and as the weakening of them has done of late Some of those he calls Abuses when truly represented rather seem to us the Barriers against Division than Obstacles of Union What is really amiss is not in our Constitution but in some Restraints the Common-Law puts on us and it is a Question whether it be safer to remove them The Lawyers and the Parliament say no when we have labour'd for it And none more fierce to press their continuance than those of your Party However these are no more to be imputed to us than the great Grievance of Impropriations or your Ministers not having the Tythes and Churches is to be imputed to them But to deal ingenuously all this is not to the Matter the great Task incumbent on Mr. B. is to shew a Precedent in Scripture of two Parties such as he describes where on pretence of purer Discipline one of them gathered a Congregation of Christians in the same place distinct and separate from others who Worshipped God in true Faith and Holiness This I did put to him in my Admonition p. 48 and he has given it no Answer tho' the most Material thing in it and Decisive of the Question and without which you will never Justifie your selves by Scripture for absenting your selves from our Assemblies for Worship much less your sending out Emissaries to draw off others There was the same Reason for Forming such Parties in the Apostle's time as now some indeed did it upon mighty Pretences to the Spirit and to Purity speaking great Swelling Words of Vanity and having Mens Persons in Admiration But St. Jude tells us that those who Separated themselves were Sensual having not the Spirit And Mr. Edwards observes the same of many of your great Professors that first formed the Separation There is nothing more easie or more deceitful than great Pretences to Purity and Men truly humble and good seldom insist on them as being deeply sensible of their own Imperfections and ready to believe better of others than themselves 'T were much more to the purpose for us to joyn in the Common Worship of God and in joynt and continual Prayers together That God would give us Mortified Humble and Pure Hearts than to pretend Purity of Parties and to stand by our selves and with those in Isa. Chap. 65. 5. Cry Come not near me for I am holier than thou Divisions are a Work of the Flesh 1 Cor. 3. 3. and the great Insuperable Obstacle to Discipline I pray God to make you sensible of this and to send down a Spirit of Unity Peace and Purity upon us Sect. II. Mr. B's Partiality I. IN the Second place let me put you in mind that Mr B. doth not observe that Golden Rule of doing as he wou'd be done unto for he takes the Liberty to put the most favourable Construction he pleases on his own words and expects we should admit them But on ours he puts the worst he can and is dissatisfied that we will not own them Of which I will only give you a few Instances II. First He affirms Rem p. 136. That the generality of you as he is assured do Communicate four or five times a
of God by Images or any other way not appointed in his Word And in your Confession of Faith Chap. 21. N. 1. thus The acceptable way of Worshiping the true God is instituted by himself and so limited to his own revealed Will that he may not be Worshiped according to the imaginations and devises of Men or the suggestions of Satan under any visible Representations or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture This Rule is stricter and needs greater Limitations than the words of my Book For First Here is no Allowance for things Warranted by Scripture tho' not prescribed as many things are Secondly There is no Authority given to the Examples of Holy Men in Scripture which are sufficient to warrant a Religious practice in Gods Worship tho' they do not amount to an appointment or prescription and are not alwayes obligatory In short your Catechism and Confession of Faith if we take them according to the Letter make all wayes of Worship unacceptable and unlawful that are not prescribed and appointed in Scripture Whereas my Rule allows Examples and Precedents of Holy Men to be a sufficient Warrant I supposed and I think with reason that you understood this Rule in your own Catechism and Confession of Faith with due Limitations and therefore had no reason to suspect but you would understand it with the same Limitations in my Book it being a manifest partiality to except against it when used by me and yet allow of it tho' expressed with less caution in your Catechism and Confession of Faith which yet ought to be more exact in wording a Rule than is necessary in a private Man's Writings Of this partiality Mr. B. is guilty and plainly discovers by it that he has one Rule for interpreting the words of his own Party and another for interpreting those of his Adversary But Secondly I desire you to observe That in my whole Book I never used this Rule otherwise than with those Limitations that I have now expressed nor has Mr. B. produced one instance wherein I did otherwise As for Example I tax you with bringing in the Inventions of Men into the Service of God in your Use of the Psalms not for singing the Meetre Psalms for that I allow lawful but for introducing them without necessity to the exclusion of the Prose Psalms for Singing of which we have Scripture-Warrant and Example I taxed you likewise with introducing a Human Invention into the Worship of God in your Expounding Scripture not that Expositions of Scripture are unlawful but to make them necessary every time the Scripture is read is Literally such an invention and so is likewise your excluding the Regular and Orderly Reading the Word of God as he has appointed for the Edification of his Church to make room for your Lectures of both which you have been guilty these Fifty Years last past I past the same Censure on your Extemporary Prayers not that I condemned them in all Cases but because on the account of them you had turned the Lord's Prayer prescribed in God's Word and the Use of Forms in the Ordinary Prayers of the Assembly which is the Scripture way of Praying on such Occasions out of your Meetings Whereas it is manifestly a Teaching for Doctrine the Commandments of Men to Teach as you do that Praying extemporary is more acceptable to God or more edifying than Praying by a Form there not being the least colour in Scripture for such a Doctrine I might shew the like in every place of my Book where I used this Rule either in proving the Orders of our Church or in disproving yours so that Mr. B. had no reason to find fault with it But Thirdly The Rule needs not these Limitations it being agreed by all sober Interpreters That whatever can be deduced from Scriptures by Clear Consequence or Parity of Reason is sufficiently warranted by them though not expresly contained in them so there was no necessity to explain the Rule though I was willing to avoid the Exceptions even of the Captious and there fore put in the Explication you find in my Second Edition Fourthly Mr. B. excepts against my using the Phrase of Ways of Worship and alledges I used it frequently to signifie Circumstantiâ—â— Modes of it Vind. p. 30. But I Answer That I used the Phrase with which you were acquainted whereas I believe few of you ever heard of Circumstantial Modes of Worship before and I used it in the Sense you generally do when you ask for Scripture to warrant our using the Psalms by way of Answering our using Forms of Prayer our singing with Instrumental Musick our joyning our Voices in some Prayers our Receiving the Sacrament in a Worshiping posture and the other particulars against which you except in our Publick Service and I shewed these Ways are not only warranted but prescribed for the most part in Scripture Whereas those Ways you have introduced in the place of them have neither Command or Precedent in Scripture If these that I have named in our Service and yours be Circumstantial Modes they are the chief and greatest Exceptions that I ever found any of you make against joyning with us and they are the great matter of Reformation set forth in your Directory tho' Mr. B. seems to make light of them From the whole I think it appears That Mr. B. has both perverted and misapplyed my Rule and yet on this perverted sense of my Words are founded most of his Arguments against our publick Worship X. Lastly This Method of sixing Principles upon me and then writing a Book to Confute them is not new with Mr. B. He did it once before at a very unseasonable time and still persists in Taxing me with his own Consequences as if I indeed owned them Thus Vind. p. 25. he charges me with passing a Vertual Sentence of Damnation publickly upon you by Denying you to be a part of the Catholick Church and this he puts in Italian Letters as if they were my Words but there are no such Words in any Book I have yet written nor any just Ground to fix such a Sentence on me the whole Mystery of this so far as I know it is thus Mr. Manâ—y formerly Dean of Derry on his turning Papist published his Motives which prevailed with him to do so To these I wrote an Answer in the Year 1687 by which I thank God the Protestant Cause lost nothing and it was so well approved that it was Twice Reprinted in England But Mr. B. cou'd not digest it and therefore wrote Reflections on it and the greatest Exception he has against it is that I say in it That I meant by the Catholick Church the whole Body of Men professing the Religion of Christ and living under their Lawful Governours From which Words Mr. B. draws many strange and absurd Consequences alledging that they Un-Church all Dissenters all foreign Churches and render the Relation of all true Christians to our Blessed Lord as his
and Merit of his Death and Passion with all Comforts Fruits and Promises we receive or expect thereby From whence he concludes that with us the Cross must be an External Sign to signify the same things which the Holy Ghost had Honoured the name of the Cross to signify But I answer that none of the Expounders of our Canons or Defenders of the Sign of the Cross have thus interpreted this Canon nay on the contrary they have given it a quite different sense as he himself owns in this very place where he Quotes the Author of the Case relating to the Cross in Baptism explaining the Canon in another Sense Now for Mr. B. to put a Sense on the Words of our Canon and make an Inference from them which none of us own but Protest against is to set up an Adversary purposely that he may confute him and such Proceedings are looked on by all impartial Men as the effects of Prejudice and Engagement to a Party Nay not only the Divines of our Church Protest against his Inference from this Canon but the very Canon it self makes a quite contrary Inference concluding from the Scriptures signifying by the name of the Cross Christ and his Benefits that the Primitive Christians used the Sign of it not to signify these Benefits as communicated to us by God but to Testify thereby that they were not ashamed of it but owned him for their God and Saviour who suffered the Death of the Cross for them and Signed their Children with it when Christened to Dedicate them by that Badge to his Service whose Benefits bestowed on them in Baptism the name of the Cross did Represent The use then of the Cross according to the Canon is not as Mr. B. wou'd infer to signify an Act of God towards us to confer any Benefit on us or require any Duty of us but to signify and represent our own Act whereby we Resolve Promise and Bind our selves not to be ashamed of a Crucified Saviour or his Benefits purchased by his Cross and signified to us under that Name in Scripture And not only our Church but all other Christians from the Apostles time have for this reason looked on making the Sign of the Cross as a very fit Instance and Declaration of their Glorying in Christ's Sufferings and Readiness to follow him in them which is an effectual Dedication of our selves to his Service tho' we do not think it a fit External Sign to signify God's Communicating to us the Graces or Benefits of the New Covenant because that being an Act of God ought only to be Represented and Conveyed to us by Signs particularly Instituted by him whereas our Glorying in his Sufferings and Dedicating our selves to follow him in them being Acts of ours may lawfully be signified by such Signs as Universal Custom has made proper as will appear more at large in this Discourse What I have said being sufficient to shew that the Cross is no Representing Sign in this sense II. 2dly As to the second sort of Representing Signs which signify and discover to us God's Pleasure and Command concerning some Duties set forth and represented by them which Duties God wou'd have us perform Let me observe that the Cross is no more a Representing Sign with us in this sense than the former since we do not use it to signify or declare God's Will to us that we shou'd perform any Duty but only our own Resolution and Purpose to perform those Duties that God himself has signified under the Name of the Cross in Scripture and that we shall not be ashamed to confess Him that was Crucified on it This is manifest from the very words of our Office in which the Sign of the Cross is used only as a Token that hereafter the Baptised Person shall not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ Crucified and manfully to fight under his Banner against Sin the World and the Devil and to continue Christ's Faithful Soldier and Servant unto his lives end This is the only use our Church makes of the Sign of the Cross and you see plainly that it is here made only a Token of our owning a Crucified Saviour and an Instance that we are not ashamed of his Cross and Sufferings And indeed it is as plain an Instance of our not being thus ashamed and of our resolution to follow him in taking up our Cross and engaging in his Warfare and service as giving an Alms is an Instance of Charity But here is nothing of God's declaring or signifying his will to us by this sign that we shou'd perform these Duties or any intimation that we use it to this purpose And yet if we did use it it wou'd not give it any thing of a Sacramental nature much less make it a Human Sacrament for it is no peculiar much less Principal use of Sacraments to represent Gods Pleasure to us that we shou'd perform certain Duties since we find many Signs used in Scripture to this purpose that are no Sacraments I shall content my self with two Instances amongst many The First is that of the Sabbath Day Ezek. 20. 12. Moreover I gave them my Sabbaths to be a Sign between me and them that they might know me that I am the Lord that sanctifies them Here the Sabbath Day is described as a Covenanting Sign between God and his People representing to them and Instructing them from God in their Duty to know the Lord that Sanctified them We have another Example Exod. 19. 10. Go unto the people and sanctify them to day and to morrow and let them wash their cloaths This Washing their Cloaths was certainly a Rite or Sign Representing to them from the Lord the inward Purity required of them and instructing them that it was God's Will that they should approach him with Holiness and yet I suppose neither this nor the former were properly Sacraments and indeed Mr. B. owns p. 39. That all barely Instructive Signs are not Sacramental or Federal ones I add that from these Instances it appears that all Instructive Signs tho' Federal or Covenanting are not Sacramental and therefore Mr. B. had no reason to Tax me as he doth in the same place for Omitting this Use in my Account of Sacraments since my design was only to mention those Uses that are peculiar to Sacraments and it is manifest by his own Confession that this is not so peculiar to them III. 3dly The same must be said concerning Signs that Represent and Signify our Desire Purpose and Resolution to accept the Grace Favour and Priviledges God has Promised us and to perform the Duties he has Imposed on us together with our Gratitude and Sense of his Favours To Represent in this Sense is not peculiar to Sacraments much less a Principal Use of them nor has Mr. B. produced one place of Scripture to prove this to be such a Peculiar Use. On the contrary we have many Example in Scripture where other Signs are recommended