true Church or whether of these Two you will please to cut off for the Schismatick or whether the Catholick Vnion were preserv'd between them both notwithstanding these wide Deffences and Dissentions in external Rites and Communion But if these were still One in Catholick Vnion we understand not How less Matters than these should make the Conformists and Non-Conformists of England to be Two so as that We must be condemn'd for Schismaticks rather than You. 4. You argue from the Scripture Distinction of the Schismatick from the approv'd and then tell us that those that live in Corformity to your Church are the approved and the beloved of God ay Sir the approved Drunkards and Swearers the beloved Woremongers and Adulterers c. for such are too many of those who are allowed Communion with you but we are the Schismaticks and the Reprobates because you have cast us out and will not admit us to your Communion without Conformity to your Ceremonies Doth not the Church of Rome tell us the same thing How generally and loosly do you talk of Conformity to the Church without making any difference of what is Good or what is Evil in it or what will justify a Separation from it and what will not the same Argument serves indifferently both Rome and You. The high Presumption you have of your Purity and the Inoffensiveness of your Terms of Communion is no more than what is common to the Biggots of the corruptest Church and Faction in the World But till it be better prov'd than hitherto it hath been you must excuse us that we cannot take You to be the Approv'd so as to condemn our Selves for the Schismaticks in not Communicating with you on such Terms as the Holy Scripture doth not require and our own Consciences are not satisfy'd in II. Your Second It has been said which you call our Second Argument runs thus That in the Apostle's Days there were independent and separate Churches planted in the same City But still you think it too much to be at the Charge of producing our Author or putting it into Form of Argument without which you do but juggle with us and misrepresent us to the World How far you intend to stretch your Independency of Churches we cannot Divine or whether by Independent Churches you mean Churches or Congregations only Separate as to outward Communion in the same City How then shall we form this into an Argument but in your own ambiguous Terms And then it will Hypothetically look thus If there were Independent and separate Churches planted in the Apostle's Days in the same City then are not the Independent and separate Churches now in England Schismatical But there were Independent and Separate Churches planted in the Apostle's Days in the same City Erg. And now that it is brought into this Logical Order for you we know not who will own it either Major or Minor If those that among us are call'd Independents will own it let them Answer for themselves But as far as it concers us we doubt you will have no great Reason to triumph in it by that time we have examin'd it The Consequence of the Major we deny because in the Apostle's Days there might be and we have Reason to think there were but too many Independent and Separate Churches planted in the same Cities by those false Teachers who then crept into the Churches and drew Disciples after them and of whom the Apostles often complain'd Act. 20 30. Jud. 19.3 Joh. 10. Yet thus your invidious Charity represents us that you may if possible perswade the World to believe that we are the Persons whom the Apostles prophecy'd and complain'd of and whom the Scripture condemns for Schismaticks c. As for your Minor That there were such Independent Churches planted in the Apostles Days if you mean by such as Schismatically Separated themselves we will grant it but if you mean planted by the Apostles themselves as your following Discourse on it plainly intimates let them that think themselves so highly concern'd in it Dispute it out for 't will be even all one to Us on whether side the Victory shall fall On this Argument you have left us little to do but to expect the Issue of the Squabble betwixt you and your Learned Dr. Hammond who tells you That as St. Peter was the Apostle of the Circumcision and St. Paul of the Gentiles so whensoever these Two great Apostles came to the same City the one constantly apply'd himself to the Jews receiv'd Disciples of such form'd them into a Church and left them when he departed that Region to be Govern'd by some Bishop of his own Assignation And the Other in like manner did the same to the Gentiles And this is what you endeavour very Learnedly to Refute Sir We will not presume to intrude our selves as Moderators between you however you may give us leave to gather up some of the great Spoyles of the Field at least a few of the broken Arrows to warm our selves by Now that the Apostles themselves were free to Communicate on all Occasions both with Jews and Gentiles is most certain knowing that the Partitian-Wall being now broken down they both made but One Catholick Church under Christ the Catholick Head But it is as certain that it was long before the Old Bottles could hold the New Wine without bursting Hence it is that there were for the first Age such Differences and Distances between the Jewish and Gentile Converts that they could endure no Religious Communion with one another 'T is true this Heat arose on the Jew's Side who were still so superstitiously Zealous for their Old Ceremonies and 't is a common Observation that the Weaker and more Superstitious are always the more obstinately Hot for the Exteriors of Religion and more for the Shadow than the Substance of it But so it was that they would admit no other than a Jew or Jewish Proselyte into their Communion or into any of their Synagogues at least not into their Temple as appears by Paul's hard Case at Jerusalem Act. 21.20 c. So that whether or no they were at first Apostolically Constituted as distinct Churches under their proper Bishops in one and the same City this is most evident that they had their different Forms of Woship and Religious Rites and distinct Communions and Assemblies whether under one City or Diocesan Bishop or more Neither do all these Arguments wherewith the Apostle laboured to defend his Gentile Converts against the Old-Leaven of the Judaizing Zealots and to convince the Jews of their unchristian Bigottry against the Simplicity and Liberty of the Gospel and to maintain the sacred Bond of Union and Peace among them prove that they were not of different Outward Communions yea else why should he say to the Jews I became as a Jew c. 1 Cor. 9.20 c. But he only endeavours to calm the Heats of their Spirits towards one another that they should not lay the
warrants our Sitting at this Sacrament but never a word of Kneeling by Precept or Precedent of Christ or his Apostles in all the New Testament nor in the Practice of the Churches while they retained their Primitive Purity therefore you are as much concerned in the Second Commandment on this account as we You tell us for certain that this Matter is not decided in Scripture But why is it not there decided Because it is not expresly required or forbidden and where the Scripture is not very punctually express there no doubt Men may devise and do and impose what they list without any regard to Scripture Consequences But yet you find that it is not for your Interest alway to use this way of Arguing The Practical Precedents and Examples of Christ or his Apostles which you find in Scripture will sometimes amount with you to the force of a Precept when you apprehend it will fall on the side of your Beloved Ceremonies Nay you can plead very stiffly the Authority of an Old Custom of the Churches which hath been taken up and perhaps superstitiously enough long after the Apostle's Days But now it seems there is nothing to be taken for certain that hath not a plain Scripture command wherein we think you are not so well aware at what an uncertainty you have lest the Cause you have now undertaken Though you cannot be ignorant of what hath been already said by so many of the Learned of our Way in the Vindication of our Practice herein yet let us once more see if we may not find much more in the Holy Scripture for Sitting at this Sacrament than for Kneeling Now it is certain that this Sacrament as to the Externals of it is but a Ceremony tho' of the most Sacred Institution and Highest Importance both a Signifying and a Sealing Ceremony and he that instituted it did best understand the Nature and Ends of it and what Gesture and Circumstances would best become the Celebration of it And his own Example herein we think is sufficient to warrant if not to require our Imitation But when we look back to the Institution we find that Christ sate down with the Twelve and Eat the Passover with them Here the Gesture was expressed and 't was Sitting not Kneeling Matth. 26.20 And as they were Eating without changing the Gesture he Instituted and Celebrated this Gospel Ordinance and Administer'd it to them with his own Hand verse 26 27 28. Mark tells us as they Sate and did Eat Mark 14.18 i. e. the Passover and in the same Posture still As they did Eat Jesus took Bread and Blessed it ver 22. Luke also tells us That be Sate down and the Twelve Apostles with him Luke 22.14 and in that Posture Administred his Last Supper to them verse 17 18 19 20. These are the only three Evangelists that particularly mention the manner of our Saviour's Administring this Ordinance and they all speak expresly of their Sitting but never a word of Kneeling in either of them Thus Christ and his Disciples did Eat it together as they were wont to Eat the Passover which was the very same Ordinance of the same Divine Institution Signification and Mystery and equally Sacred though of a different Form as this of the Gospel is And will you now say that this was irreverently done That it had too much of Familiarity and two little of Decency or Humility Dare you thus Blaspheme the Wisdom of your Saviour Did not he understand the End and the proper Signification of his Own Mystery as well as you Hath he told you again and again that he and his Disciples did Eat it Sitting and will you tell him that it ought to have been done Kneeling May he not then demand of you who made you his Counsellors or his Correctors And who hath required this voluntary Humility and Will-worship of you But you tell us that there is a Prayer with which you deliver the Elements to the People and therefore it ought to be received in a Praying Posture A Prayer viz. The Body and Blood of Christ preserve thy Body and Soul unto Eternal Life To which we answer 1. This which you call a Prayer sounds more like a Priestly Benediction or kind of Exorcism being repeated over and over to every individual Communicant so that the Kneeling seems to be requir'd rather in Honour of the Office as in Confirmation and Absolution than in respect of what you call a Prayer 2. Who made this Form of Words for you Or required it of you Is there any mention of this or of any thing like it in the Institution Though we grant that the Heart ought to be full of Holy Ejaculations Vows and Self-resignation in so Sacred an Action and which may be done every way as Decently and Reverently Sitting or Standing as Kneeling and wherein every one ought to have his own Liberty and Freedom of thought in the Exercise of all Graces according as they find particular occasion in and from themselves and wherein the Minister from the Experiences of his own Heart may piously and profitably suggest to their assistance in it and this reasonable Service we reject not 3. Why do not You Administer on your Knees For if it be a Prayer 't is you that properly Pray and the People say Amen Doth not your requiring it of others condemn your selves Why must you Pray Standing and they Kneeling 4. Though Kneeling be an ordinary Praying Posture yet if you will excuse your selves you must grant that it is not indispensibly necessary The Apostle bids you Pray 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 continually or without ccasing but should you be bound to Kneel continually we doubt that would not be very pleasing Judge now whether your Practice herein be not irregular to say no worse of it What the Reasons were of our LORD 's Instituting this Sacrament with a Table-Gesture and of what it is significant we will not now enquire 'T is enough for us that we know his Will in it by his Practice But you know that we have something else to Object against Kneeling in the Act of Receiving This Gesture is now become scandalous at least to some because it Symbolizes with the Idolatry of the Church of Rome in Worshipping the Host and by whom as some say it was introduc'd and impos'd to support their Bloody Doctrine of the Real Presence or as others think that this was the occasion of that Idolatry so that here is an unexcusable appearance of Evil in it and therefore having no Command of God for it nor Apostolical Example we ought not to continue its use much less to endure the imposition of it as if it were of necessity Neither is your Churches declaring against the Idolatrous use of it enough to purge or to defend it unless it were a matter of particular Divine Institution As for those that think it their Duty or their Liberty so to express their Reverence to Almighty God in this Sacrament
to confess tho' De Synedr l. 1. Cap. 14.560 being an Erastian in his Judgment he was loth to allow the Word in this Text to signifie a College of Presbyters lest he should be forc'd to allow them the Power of Excommunication 4. To put this Sense upon the Word Presbyter in this Text and to make it to signify the Office is such an Inversion and Disturbance of the natural Order of the Word as is never to be allow'd but in case of plain Necessity lest we make the Sacred Scriptures a Nose of Wax of which Mr. Thorndike was too wise to be Guilty 5. And yet if you will needs take Presbytery here for the Office of a Presbyter which Calvin doth not do but rather for the Solemn Act by which the Office is conferr'd see how little it will be to your Advantage Doth it not then clearly follow that 't is by vertue of the Office it self and not by any Degree that some have obtain'd in it above others that Men are to be Ordain'd into the Ministry So that in whomsoever the Office of a Presbyter is found there is this Power of Ordaining others Have you not then ingenuously or inadvertently granted to our Ministers all that they demand in this Matter and prov'd it for 'em too from Calvin whom you pretend to alledge against ' em To what a pass now have you brought your Episcopal Ordination Are these the only Men that have Power to Ordain a Presbyter Or have they any Power or Authority at all to do it but as they are themselves Presbyters What is a Bishop but a Presbyter set in a higher Degree for Clerical Order and Government sake but as to Office the same with the Presbyter And therefore it is that the Titles are so promiscuously and indifferently us'd in the Holy Scriptures Nor did the Apostles themselves Ordain as Apostles but as Presbyters which is the Title they own in their Epistles and claim as their Honour And that it is the Presbyter not the Bishop i. e. consider'd only as such that must Ordain is put beyond Controversy by a rul'd Case that a Bishop or Prelate Ordain'd per saltum i. e. who never had the Ordination of a Presbyter himself but only of a Bishop can neither Consecrate nor administer the Sacrament of the Lord's Body nor Ordain a Presbyter Tho' for the necessary Ends of Clerical Order and Government the Bishop be set in a superiour Degree of Superintendency and consequently his Presence and authoritative Concurrence be necessary with a select Number of his best qualify'd Presbyters to confer Orders and to see the Laws of Christ duly executed in his Church yet where this Power is abus'd than which nothing in the World is apter nor hath been more abus'd where the Churches are impos'd upon and Presbyters tyrannically ravish'd of their just Rights and Priviledges and causelesly cast out of Episcopal Communion the Presbyter is nevertheless a Presbyter as to all the Parts and Purposes of his Office He may be robb'd of his Pulpit but not of his Office robb'd of his Maintenance but not of his Right to it robb'd of his Liberty but not of his Relation to Christ nor to his Church In the Holy Scriptures we find that Presbyters as such are vested with the Power of Rule and Government in the House of God 1 Tim. 5.17 Act. 20.17 28. But of the Investiture of Prelates or their Ordination by Imposition of Hands as of an Office distinct and different from that of the Presbyter we read not one Word in all the New Testament By what Law of Christ then doth he claim a despotical Power over his Presbyters any other than as the Head and Moderator of their common Council and in whose Name and with whose Concurrence for Order and Government sake all the necessary Canons and By Laws that conduce to the Peace Profit and Edification of the Churches committed to their Care ought to be issued and established Will you tell us they are the Apostle's Successors in Power and Authority So are Our Presbyters too 1 Pet. 5.1 2 3. both in Faith and Doctrin and all Things that are Common and Essential to the Office Prelacy is not of the Office per se but only per Accidens and which when duly exercis'd honourably conduces to the bene Esse of the Church but is not constitutive of its Esse We have hear'd indeed of no Bishop no King and ever thought it extravagant enough but never heard of no Bishop no Church till now Again you would have us to believe that Presbytery being a Name of Dignity is sometimes attributed to Ecclesiastical Officers of the highest Rank as St. Peter and St. John call themselves Presbyters and therefore it must needs here signify a Company of Bishops To this we Reply 1. That the Word Presbytery was never so taken for a Company of Bishops only of which there was but one in one Church which is the limited Sense either in the Times of the Apostles or of the first Centuries of the Church perhaps not till Chrysostome's Time but alway for the Collegium Presbyterorum and before we can believe that it is to be otherwise taken in this Text you must prove it 2. If the Word must be taken in your Sense for a Company of Bishops then either there is no particular Church tho' Diocesan that hath any Presbytery of its own or there must be more Bishops than One in every such Church or else you must say that your one Bishop is a Company of Bishops 3. What can you infer in this Case from Peter's and John's assuming the Title of Presbyter but that in all the common Acts of Ecclesiastical Government and Discipline they acted as Presbyters and not as Apostles And what then have you gotten by this Argument But you urge again That Timothy was a Bishop and had Jurisdiction over Presbyters therefore Presbyters could not Ordain him to his Office for they could not communicate a Power which they never receiv'd To this we Answer 1. That Timothy was an Evangelist 2 Tim. 4.5 which if it signify'd any more than a Preacher of the Gospel which was the Work of every Presbyter then it must signify something more than an Ordinary Bishop to which he had no particular Ordination but the Apostles Election of him as his Companion and his Mission to some particular Services in the Churches of Paul's planting So that the Presbytery Ordain'd him only as a Presbyter not as an Evangelist nor as a Bishop about which we have no Form Rule or Precedent in the Scripture 2. Whereas you say They could not communicate a Power which they never receiv'd We Answer That in this Case there was no need of it they Ordain'd him as a Presbyter and what other Titles he afterward arriv'd to were but Accidental But this Reason of yours seems to be bottom'd on a great Mistake viz. That the Ordainers communicate the ministerial Power to the Persons
second sort of Teachers who claim a Title to the Ministry as being Ordain'd by Presbyters And indeed when you shall have prov'd this way of Ordination to be Schismatical you will have done something in the Service of your Cause wherein if Saying were Proving and Confidence were good Evidence doubtless you would not fail But this being the main Hinge on which the whole Controversy turns it will be necessary to spend a little more Time with you here And first you make your Trip at our Ministers Heels by striking at the Stone on which they stand but you will find it is a Rock against which you may dash your own Feet but which will not move for all the Kicks you can make at it The main Scripture which with all your might you heave at is that of 1 Tim. 4.14 Neglect not the Gift that is in thee which is given unto thee by Prophecy with the laying on of the Hands of the Presbytery Against the generally approved Sense of this Scripture you are pleas'd to Quote us Calvin himself whom you mistakingly call the Father of our Discipline and would have us to believe that he could find no such Matter in this Text and that he thought Presbytery here signifies but the Office of a Presbyter and so read to us the Sense of the Text thus That Timothy should not neglect but be careful to exercise that Presbyterial Office or Power which was committed to him by laying on of Hands Now by the way lest you should hereafter forget pray take notice that you have now granted that it was to the Office of a Presbyter that Timothy was now ordain'd not to that of a Bishop or an Evangelist But as for what you refer us to out of Calvin's Institutions We find that he was there offering some Observations which he had gather'd out of the Scriptures of the New Testament concerning the Ordination of such as are to serve in the Office of the Ministry and tells us that it is certain the whole Multitude of the People were not to impose Hands on their Ministers in their Ordination but only such as were themselves Pastors in Office to whom alone the ordaining Power belongs tho' he leaves it uncertain whether the Hands of many were always laid on in every solemn Act of Ordination but produces Scripture Instances that it was so done in the Ordination of Deacons Act. 6.6 and in the Ordination of Paul and Barnabas Act. 13.3 But that Paul here minds Timothy that he had ordain'd him with his own Hands tho' not exclusively of all others or with his own Hand only but rather that he was the principal Person and the only Apostle concerned in that Ordination and therefore Admonishes him to stir up the Gift that was in him by the Imposition of his Hands And afterward gives us his private Opinion that when the Apostle mentions to Timothy in his other Epistle the Hands of the Presbytery that he is not there minding him so much of the manner of his Ordination by the College of Presbyters of whom Paul was one and the chief in that Action but rather that he should mind lpsam Ordinationem his Ordination it self and the great and glorious Ends of it q. d. Fac ut Gratia quam per manuum impositionem recepisti quum te Presbyterum Crearem non sit irrita That so the Grace which he had receiv'd when he ordain'd him a Minister of the Gospel or a Presbyter might not prove in vain And now how far Calvin is like to serve your Purpose or to disserve ours we leave to any competent impartial Judge And yet if you think your Notion of Calvin's Sense be the right we must tell you you are a Dissenter from the generality of the most Learned of your own Church Mr. Herbert Thorndike will tell you If we take not our Marks amiss we shall sind Argument enough at least at the beginning for the concurrence of Presbyters with the Bishop in making of Presbyters and other inferior Orders In the first Place those general Passages of the Fathers Wherein is witnessed that the Presbytery was a Bench assistent to the Bishop without Advice whereof nothing of Moment was done must needs be drawn into Consequence to argue that it had effect in a particular of this weight Then the Ordination of Timothy by Imposition of Hands of the Presbytery will prove no less Indeed says he 't is well known that the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Ecclesiastical Writers signifies divers times the Office and Rank of Presbyters which Signification divers here embrace expounding Imposition of Hands of the Presbytery to mean that by which the Rank of Presbyter was conferr'd But the Apostles Words running as they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 oblige a Man to ask when he is come as far as the Imposition of Hands of whom or whose Hands they were he speaketh of which the next Words satisfy Had it been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sense might better have been diverted but running as it doth with the Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with Imposition of the Hands it remaineth that it be specified in the next Words whose Hands were imposed Thus this Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Gospel Luk. 22.66 and in Ignatius's Epistles signifieth the College of Presbyters which hath the Nature and Respect of a Person in Law and therefore is read in the singular for the whole Bench which being assembled and set is call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in both Places and in Cornelius of Rome his Epistle to St. Cyprian where he saith Placuit contrahere Presbyterium Now Sir here 's your Mr. Thorndike against what you would impose on our Calvins But besides this we Answer 1. If the Word Presbytery is here to be understood of the Office then will it follow as we have before noted that Timothy's Office was the Office of a Presbyter What then is become of Timothy's Episcopacy which you so learnedly plead for in your Discourse of Church-Government Or When and by Whom was it that he was created Bishop 2. Camerarius tells us that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which imports the Office of a Presbyter So that here 's a foul mistake of the Presbytery for the Presbyterate the Persons for the Office 3. Ignatius who liv'd very near the Times of the Apostles and therefore may well be presum'd to have understood the Meaning and Use of this Word tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Epist ad Trall What is the Presbytery other than the Sacred Company who are the Bishops Counsellors and Assessours This Sense Clemens Alexandrinus and some others of the Primitive Fathers give of it nor was it ever taken in any other Sense by the Fathers till Origen nor in any Place of the New Testament doth it signify any other than the Company of Presbyters as Luk. 22.66 Act. 22.5 And this Mr. Selden himself is fore'd
with you might not the Apostle have said we have no such Custom So that this Argument recoils upon you and flies very sorely in your own face 6. Your next Paragraph tells us what you have to say for the Sign of the Cross which you use in Baptism for which you cannot pretend to any Apostolical Institution but an Old and General Custom you fancy it to be almost as Old as the Apostle's or not above an Age short of them 'T is true the Image of the Cross crept very early into the Church He that sows the Tares is not wont to be long behind him that sows the Good Seed in the Field But we hope you will not say that the Earliness of a thing is enough to justifie it And that it was very commonly though we cannot say universally used as an Ensign among the Christians and as a visible Badge of their Christianity especially before the Heathen who were wont to upbraid them with their Crucified God we will grant neither will we uncharitably censure the Zealous Principles or Prudential Reasons on which it was at first taken up by such as foresaw not the ill use that would in After Ages be made of it However though it were taken up in those Days as a Testimony against the Infidel World and in token that they were not ashamed of their once Crucified LORD and used by them not as any part of their Worship but only for distinction sake between Them and Heathens yet this is but a precarious kind of Apologizing for the using much less for the imposing of it now when there is not per ratio the same reason for it especially after it hath been so generally and so long as idolatrously abused by such as have prevented the first Design of it as ever Gideon's Ephod or the Brazen Serpent were abus'd Nor doth it yet appear how our Protestant Reformers have or ever can free it from the Pollution of those Abuses whereby the Superstitions and Idolatries of Men have defil'd it by putting it into your Liturgy and making it a significant Sign and imposing it on us as an Integral Part of the Sacrament of Baptism without which that Sacrament is not to be esteemed Perfect and all this without any intimation of instruction or warrant from him who instituted and left this Sacrament intire with his Churches Baptism as our Saviour himself instituted it is but one Symbolical Sign but you by adding to it another of your own devising have made it Two which to us appears like the setting of your Thresheld by God's Threshold and your Post by God's Post Neither will the great Names in which you boast of the Saints and Martyrs now with God who in the Days of their Flesh walked with God and Worshipped according to their present Circumstances and the Light they had then attain'd to justifie your practice in this more than in any other thing which is now acknowledged to be the imperfection of these more early and unexperienced Times 7. You can't yet have done with your beloved thing Custom it being that on which the Life of your Cause doth depend From Custom you take your measures of Decency or Indecency in all things that you are pleased to call indifferent that is all those things that may be by the Wit of Man superadded as Accidental or Integral Parts for only the Essential Parts are by you excepted of God's Worship And whether this Position do not open a wide Door to all the Superstitions in the World and justifie all that hath ever been done of this kind in the most degenerate Churches let any but a Bigot judge 8. But now you begin to be more Orthodox when you tell us That things which according to Custom are Signs of irreverence amongst Men are Marks of Prophaneness and Contempt when they are used towards the Almighty Tho' here you might have remembred to have made an exception of some few things but in general what Custom represents as Undecent or Rude in Civil Conversation deserves a worse Name in Religious Worship If we rudely rush into God's Presence without an awful sense of his Majesty upon our Hearts and such an outward Behaviour of Body as either Nature or Custom hath made expressive of our inward Fear and Reverence though without any of those quaint Ceremonies which are of Humane Institution we may indeed justly fear the due punishment of such Irreverence And now Sir if you lay all these things together as you advise us to do you may find that what you call the Reverence and Decency of your Services is indeed their Defilement that in what you call your Laudable Customs you act against the Scripture Rules of Spiritual Worship and Gospel Simplicity and have deserted the way in which Christ and his Apostles walked and deal with us in that Tyrannical manner which the Holy Scripture condemns As for outward Bodily Worship we own and practice as zealously as you though not in your Formal Ceremonious way which seems to be more Artificial than Natural and so nearer of kin to Graven Images You are for setting forth your Publick Services with Pomp and Art we are for what is more Plain and Rational and naturally Expressive of the hidden Man of the Heart and therein more Agreeable to the Tenour of the Gospel We are careful to avoid whatever Nature Scripture or Custom hath made a Mark of Irreverence in the Worship of our God but we know no Authority we or any others have to prescribe particular positive Laws in these things to others Kneeling in Prayer we own as a Gesture which both Nature and Scripture directs to and so we practice though not from a Conscience of its absolute necessity either in our own Private Houses or in the Publick because God hath allowed us a Liberty in it and all the Saints before us have used the same Liberty nor do we understand why you should so strictly require it of us in Publick rather than in Private which your selves do not observe in every Prayer you put up to God there unless it be from a conceit you have that the Publick House is more Holy than the Private which is a Notion too Jewish for us to entertain To conclude this Head omitting as you say some other Particulars in debate between us which perhaps you are not willing to undertake the Defence of you think you have one thing that will demonstrate to us the weakness of our Exceptions against the Ceremonies of the Church and shew as the Irreverence that is used in our Meetings And what you mean is the Lord's Supper which in our way is appointed to be received sitting Now against this you begin to demonstrate very gravely thus Is there any Precept for this in Scripture Or if none can be found is it not against the Second Commandment Is it not an Idol This you offer us Ironically but we reply to you in Earnest that we find that in Scripture which
be built by others and this House you say as the word is here to be taken is the Church for which you quote us two pertinent Scriptures in which the Apostle speaks of Edifying of the Church But can you inform us why it is not as proper and as necessary for Temples to be Edified as Churches and whether every individual believer be not call'd the Temple of the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.19 Nay do you not grant us in other words as much as we crave when you say that the Polishing and Perfecting those Living Stones of which the Church is Built is the Edifying of it yea and thus the Church is said to Edifie it self Eph. 4.16 Well then if Edifying be the Word that doth offend you pray strike it out of our Argument and put in Polishing and Perfecting and it will please us all as well And thus we will conclude with you That if we bring new Proselites into the Church i. e. by sound conversion to God and not to a Party to the Church of Christ and not meerly to the Ceremonies and Peculiar External Rites or Forms of this or that Particular Church and confirm those that are in it in advancing any in Knowledge and Piety in Faith and Practice we shall be reckon'd amongst the Builder or Edifiers of the Church And farther to explain what you mean by Edification you tell us there are these two things requir'd in it viz. Unity and Order 1. Unity And here you descant on the Benefits of Union and the Mischiefs of Schism in the words of Clemens Romanus and Mr. Baxter wherein we would not contradict you would you but once better prove that this Union must consist in those controverted things which you impose on us as the indispensible Condition of our Communion with you We are as desirous of Church-Union as You and are sensible how much it would conduce both to the Ornament Establishment and Enlargement of the Church but if it be your Tyrannical Impositions and your delivering up the Care of our Souls to such as have no Care of Ours nor of their Own that hath made and doth keep open the Breach between us let the World Judge who are the Schismaticks 2. As for Order you tell us not what you mean more than what we can pick out of Eph. 2.21 and Ch. 4.16 which Scriptures we own but can't learn from any thing that is Written there that our Dissent from such Impositions as yours and refusing to do what you would have us to do is a breach of Order If we stand not in those Ranks and Files of Military Order as once we stood if you see our Seats forsaken in your Churches and at your Communion-Tables you must blame your selves as the only Causes of this Disorder II. You next Enquire What we understand by Edification and whether we rightly judge how it is best promoted And here we are also concern'd to Enquire how rightly we are judg'd by you when you say That we take that to be Edifying that raises in us some Sensible Devotions that excites in us some Religious Affections such as Love Joy Fear or the like And these you suppose we have chiefly in view when we preferr the Service in our Meetimgs before that of the Churches The truth is that which is not proper to raise our Devotion in Religious Duties and to excite Holy Affections in us we cannot think to be very Edifying We know not how in this our compound state to exercise the Spiritual Graces of Faith Repentance Love Fear Humility Joy Delight in God c. but by the help of those Rational and Intellectual Faculties of Understanding Will and Affections which God hath given us If you understand the more Raptural Mysteries of Quietism a more Stoical or Seraphick way of contemplation without concerning those Grosser Spirits in so Divine an Exercise we will not envy your Attainment but for our parts we can't be satisfied that our Hearts are concern'd in Religious Duties as they ought to be unless we are sensible that they are so But to come to Particulars you instance in the two great ordinances of Praying and Preaching 1. You begin with the way of Praying us'd in our Meetings and here again you make your self a Judge of Evil Thoughts and that in such a Case wherein you are in Danger of Blaspheming the Holy Spirit of God For if it be by the Spirit of Supplication which makeh Intercession in the Saints that we are taught both what and how to Pray it concerns you to take heed how you approbiously oppose your Cant against our Common Experience of its assistance herein The Old and Often-repeated Harrangue by which you and others of your Way endeavour to exalt your prescribed Forms of Prayer and which hath been so often answered to silence doth but bewray your Inexperience of that way of Praying which the Holy Scriptures direct to and in which all the Saints in all Ages have found their greatest Reliefs How impertinently do you tell us That we are not to think that God is at all wrought upon by the variation of Phrases or the modulation of them No Sir we don't imagine that God is mov'd with Words or Tones or the most Eloquent or Artificial Composures of Matter or Expression whether Prescrib'dor or Unpremeditated Words are for our own sakes not for His yet we have great reason to think that the better the Affections are exercised and the Graces of the Spirit of God in the Heart the better is the Heart prepared and the better grounds it hath to hope to obtain Mercy from him And certainly that way of Praying which we find most conducible to this end we have reason to preferr Nor can any thing that we have ever yet heard incline us to your contrary Opinion That the Gift of Prayer which is in it self but a Common Gift as that of Preaching c. is may be and too often hath been abused by ill Men is what we grant But to censure all for ill Men that use it is unbecoming a Christian and to argue from the Abuse against the Use is too Weak and Absurd for a Man of your Figure and Learning And may we not easily retort as many and as great Abuses of your Way of Praying by Limited and Prescribed Forms had we a Mind to retaliate Those Motions and Efforts of Devotion which without due Caution or Distinction you impute to Natural Causes as you say a little Philosophy would teach us in such as use the Gift of Prayer are censured by you but one degree short of what the Spirit of God in our Saviour Christ was censured by those that attributed the Power by which he wrought his Miracles to a Diabolical Cause Matth. 12.24 c. which you will do well to read and spend some Second Thoughts upon But to moderare the matter you are pleased to grant that the Gift of Elocution which you seem to take for the whole of the
Gift of Prayer may upon occasion be of Benefit to others But if it chance to touch your Noli me tangere and seem though but by consequence to reflect on the Honour of your Liturgy and the Forms by which you Pray that 's enough without any other Fault to render them most Dangerous Snares and instead of promoting cannot but hinder their Edification And this indeed is Canonical enough For your part you say you think a well-compos'd Liturgy has much the Advantage of our Way of Praying and is much fitter in Publick Assemblies then we hope you will bear with us in our Private Families where we thank God you cannot yet reach us And for this your Opinion you produce several Reasons which are no new things to us and which have been already Answered by such as on our side have Written on this Subject You say it secures the Honour of Religion in the Solemnities of Worship i. e. from such Expressions in Prayer as agree not with the Genius of your Fancy or the Fineness of your Stile or which on some account or other you might be ready to ridicule or to quarrel at And then it affords the greatest help in the part that you bear in it i. e. It eases you of one and that the more Spiritual half of your Ministerial Work so that you are more beholden to your Prayer Book than to the Spirit of God in that Duty which indeed is great pity but yet ingeniously enough confessed Again by this means You have no occasion to be in Pain or Fear as you think we are about the next words that shall fall from your Minister as you might have Reason enough to be were it not for his Form which he hath before his Eyes or which he hath made as perfect as the Child hath his Lord's Prayer Well may you be in Pain for one that never accustomed his Tongue to Holy Discourse more than what he hath prepared for his Pulpit That never studied his own Heart nor hath been experimentally affected with the Cases of Tender or Wounded Consciences No wonder if such a one be at a loss that is a Stranger to these things And Lastly By the Benefit of your Forms You have no Doubtful Expressions to exercise your Thoughts or disturb your Devotion with as you suppose there are in our Ministers Prayers before you can say Amen And this you take as a great Commodity both to the Minister and to the People for which it ought to be preferred before our way of Praying And why are not the same Arguments as cogent for the use of Homilies That so the whole Work may be cut out for him that Officiates which would be a great ease to his Studies some charge sav'd in Books A small Sallary would serve to maintain him as a Curate the more time to spend all the Week in the Satisfying of his Lusts and the Debauching of his Neighbours How happily would this conduce to the comfortable Assurance of your performing an acceptable Service to God and agreeable to his Will when the whole of the Ministerial Work is thus wisely prepared that there can be no Errour in it if the Man can but read English What you quote us out of a Sermon of Dr. Beveridge on 1 Cor. 14.26 in the Praise of your own Liturgy we shall not stay now to make Remarks upon there having been enough already said by others on this Point and of which you cannot be ignorant How your Liturgy was compil'd in that juncture of the Reformation or rather Accommodation the true History of these Times would inform you but that this was that that was Defended or Confirmed by the Martyrdom of many or of any was the Doctor 's great mistake and yours too That it hath been Established by Acts of Parliament and fenc'd with the sharp Thorns of Penal Laws too often Arbitrarily and Despightfully executed we have known to our sorrow but that ever it was yet established by an Act of Scripture we could never yet learn 2. You come next to Animadvert on our Ministers Way of Preaching which you represent as a Sect of Pharisees in which they have no meaning or a bad one and that we think our selves Edified by a Sound of Words when we understand nothing by it Sir this is Written with Scorn enough Then you fall out as well you may with the Antinomians But to set us forth in such Bear-skins as these is but a trick of the old Enmity and Policy But yet if for Argument sake you should suppose that we have better Praying and Preaching yet you say we do not preetend that there is any thing wanting with you that is necessary to Salvation Sir We do not pretend that Salvation is not to be obtained in the Church of England but whether there be any thing wanting with the most of those that are set over our Souls in our Parish Churches which is necessary to our Salvation or no of this we are sure there is something wanting that is necessary to our Edification or if you had rather have it in your own words to our Conversion and Advancing and Perfecting in Knowledge and Piety and Faith and Practice When we hear what for Airiness of the Notions or the Affected Quaintness of the Language we can't understand or for the Obscurity of the Method which seems to be generally affected and is become the Mode amongst your Modern Church-men in opposition to the more Plain and Instructive Method which was once called the Puritannical and now in derision called DRUM Preaching we can't comprehend or for the tumbling celerity of its utterance we can't remember when we must be Entertain'd with such jejune insipid stuff as a School-boy would be ashamed of in his Exercise or have Stones given us instead of Bread and Raileries instead of sound Doctrine or a good Sermon in the Pulpit and a Vicious Life all the Week after we can't think this to be very Edifying or the Way to make any great Advance Heavenward And 't is hard to perswade us thus to neglect our own Souls to keep up the honour of your Ceremonies 'T is true a Publick Good is to be preferr'd to a Private of the same kind We ought to deny our selves and to lay down our Lives for the Brethren but we know not by whose Law besides yours we are required to Damn our own Souls to please or to save others III. Your next Enquiry is Whether it be a good Rule that we may or ought to follow those Teachers whosoever they are by whom we can most be Edified or whose Praying and Preaching we approve as most beneficial to our selves To which as you have here more tuo stated it we Answer much as you would have us to do Sir We have no such Licencious Rule as this to walk by We are for Discipline and Order as much as you But when we are driven out of your Communion by your unconscionable Impositions or have
in our Names and which you would have the World to believe is all that we have to say for our selves which Arguments we have already reply'd to and shewn how far we own or disown them Sir If you were as ignorant of the Controversie that hath now almost this Forty Years been depending between us and hath past through so many Hands on both sides as your Discourse represents you to be you were very unfit to meddle in it But if you have supprest your own knowledge in it you have not rightly consulted the Honour of your Charity Sincerity or Wisdom What we have further here to add in Defence of what you call our Schism you shall have in very few Words that we may not fill up Paper with what hath been by others already Written Something we must say for our Selves and something for our Ministers I. For our selves we say thus What we cannot do without Sinning against Christ and against our own Souls we ought not to do But we cannot hold that Communion with the Church of England which is required of us without Sinning against Christ and against our own Souls Erg. The Minor only is to be prov'd And First That we cannot hold that Communion with the Church of England which is required of us without Sinning against Christ That is that Stated Communion to the disowning or forsaking of the Non-conforming Ministers and their Assemblies without Sinning against Christ which we prove thus To forsake the Ministers of Christ without cause is to Sin against Christ But to forsake the Non-conforming Ministers whom we hear is to forsake the Ministers of Christ without Cause Erg. The Minor only is what you can except against but if it hath been already substantially prov'd that our Ministers whom you condemn as no Ministers for want of Episcopal Ordinations or for not Conforming to the Laws and Rites of your Communion be in truth the Ministers of Christ as we are abundantly satisfi'd it hath been then is our Minor good And to forsake them especially in their Sufferings and when you have without cause cast them out of your Communion and out of their Places in their Master's Vineyard we are in our Consciences convinc'd is to forsake Christ for so he himself hath told us Matth. 10.40 He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me And Luke 10.16 He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that dispiseth me despiseth him that sent me Nor can we but tremble to think of that dreadful Doom foretold us by that very Mouth that shall at last pronounce it Matth. 25.41 c. Depart from me ye Cursed into Everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels for I was an Hungred and ye gave me not Meat I was Thirsty and ye gave me no Drink I was a Stranger and ye took me not in Naked and ye Clothed me not Sick and in Prison and ye visited me not For inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these ye did it not to me Sir if you can make light of these things we can't 'T is in vain for you to tell us They are none of Christ's Ministers when we are assur'd they are In vain to go about to perswade us that you are the Men when we see how you disown and hate your Brethren In vain for you at this time of the Day to call Light Darkness or Darkness Light when our own Eyes are open to see the difference In vain to tell us They are no Ministers of the Church of England because you have so unjustly cast them out and keep them out In vain to tell us They are Intruders when we see who they are that have extruded them and why In vain to insist with us on your Parish-Bounds when we know by whom and for what Reasons these Bounds were first set when we see and hear with what Stuff most of our Parish Pulpits are fill'd when we see in what a Condition our Parishes generally lye as to Ignorance and Immorality and what crying Need there is of more and better Ministerial Help and when we know that the Ministers of Christ are Ministers where-ever they be and are bound to preach the Gospel to any that will hear them Yea when we remember that they had once the Pulpits and Parishes which you now possess till you came upon them with the Advantage of a Secular Power and turn'd them Headlong by Hundreds Ex Officio Beneficio and exchang'd their Pulpits for Prisons and their Maintenance for Mulcts and Fines and Confiscations And in vain do you tell us of your Charity and meek Spirit when we taste and see what the bitter Fruits of it are Sir We dare not thus to sin against Christ to please you nor hazard his Favour to keep up the Credit of those pitiful little things you are so fond of 2. We cannot do what you require of us without sinning against our own Souls and that both in respect of the Danger we are in by turning our Backs on the Ministers of Christ and neglecting to hear them whom he hath sent us which is not only a Contempt of his Bounty but an Affront to his Authority especially when we read Matth. 10.14 15. Whosoever shall not receive you nor hear your Words when ye depart out of that House or City shake off the Dust of your Feet Verily I say unto you it shall be more tolerable for the Land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the Day of Judgment than for that City By what Names soever you may now call them and by whatsoever Glosses of yours you may tempt us to believe that this Scripture doth not concern us in this Case we know that you shall not be our Judges nor our Compurgators in that Day nor can we think our selves safe should we refuse to receive and hear those Ministers of Christ whom he hath sent but you have cast out But besides we dare not so despise our own Souls nor the Souls of our Families which are committed to our Charge as to neglect that which we find to be the best and most successful Means to promote their Growth in Grace and Good Works here in order to their Eternal Happiness hereafter nor ought we to be wheedl'd or ridicul'd by you from this our Way And tho' we must suffer all the Reproaches and hard Censures that you can load us with for so doing we will take it patiently and thankfully at God's Hands tho' unkindly at yours Had we no more but this to say for our selves it were enough to justifie our Non Communion with you and our owning and adhering to the Ministers of Christ whom we hear but you cannot but know that there are many other things with clear Evidence of Reason and Truth urg'd by several others who have travell'd in this Province and to whom that we may not here be too tedious to you we