A Christian Directory, Part 3: Christian Ecclesiastics

Object. But if men imprison or hinder me from preaching, that is their fault; but if I voluntarily forbear any duty, it is my own fault.

Answ. 1. It is to forbear a sin, and not a duty at that time; it is no more a duty than reading, or singing, or praying at sermon time. 2. When you are in prison, or know in all probability you shall be there, though by other men's fault, it is your own fault if you will deny a lawful means to avoid it: for your not preaching the gospel is then your own sin, as well as other men's; and theirs excuseth not yours.

Quest. LXXX. May or must a minister silenced, or forbid to preach the gospel, go on still to preach it, against the law?

Answ. Distinguish between, 1. Just silencing, and unjust. 2. Necessary preaching, and unnecessary.

1. Some men are justly forbidden to preach the gospel: as, 1. Those that are utterly unable, and do worse than nothing when they do it. 2. Those that are heretics and subvert the essentials of christianity or godliness. 3. Those that are so impious and malignant, that they turn all against the practice of that religion which they profess; in a word, all that do (directly) more hurt than good.

2. In some places there are so many able preachers, that some tolerable men may be spared, if not accounted supernumeraries; and the church will not suffer by their silence. But in other countries either the preachers are so few, or so bad, or the people so very ignorant, and hardened, and ungodly, or so great a number that are in deep necessity, that the need of preaching is undeniable. And so I conclude,

1. That he that is justly silenced, and is unfit to preach, is bound to forbear.

2. He that is silenced by just power, though unjustly, in a country that needeth not his preaching, must forbear there, and if he can must go into another country where he may be more serviceable.

3. Magistrates may not ecclesiastically ordain ministers or degrade them, but only either give them liberty, or deny it them as there is cause.

4. Magistrates are not the fountain of the ministerial office, as the sovereign is of all the civil power of inferior magistrates; but both offices are immediately from God.

5. Magistrates have not power from God to forbid men to preach in all cases, nor as they please, but justly only and according to God's laws.

6. Men be not made ministers of Christ only pro tempore or on trial, to go off again if they dislike it; but are absolutely dedicated to God, and take their lot for better and for worse; which maketh the Romanists say, that ordination is a sacrament (and so it may be aptly called); and that we receive an indelible character, that is, an obligation during life, unless God himself disable us.

7. As we are nearlier devoted and related to God, than church lands, goods, and temples are, so the sacrilege of alienating a consecrated person unjustly, is greater and more unquestionable than the sacrilege of alienating consecrated houses, lands, or things. And therefore no minister may sacrilegiously alienate himself from God and his undertaken office and work.

8. We must do any lawful thing to procure the magistrate's licence to preach in his dominions.

9. All men silenced or forbidden by magistrates to preach, are not thereby obliged or warranted to forbear. For, 1. The apostles expressly determine it, Acts iv. 19, "Whether it be better to hearken to God rather than to you, judge ye." 2. Christ oft foretold his servants, that they must preach against the will of rulers, and suffer by them. 3. The apostles and ordinary ministers also for 300 years after Christ did generally preach against the magistrate's will, throughout the Roman empire and the world. 4. The orthodox bishops commonly took themselves bound to preach when Arian or other heretical emperors forbad them. 5. A moral duty of stated necessity to the church and men's salvation is not subjected to the will of men for order's sake: for order is for the thing ordered and for the end. Magistrates cannot dispense with us, for not loving our neighbours, or not showing mercy to the poor, or saving the lives of the needy in famine and distress. Else they that at last shall hear, "I was hungry and ye fed me not, I was naked and ye clothed me not, I was in prison and ye visited me not," might oft say, Our parents, masters, or magistrates forbad us. Yet a lesser moral duty may be forbidden by the magistrate for the sake of a greater, because then it is no duty indeed, and may be forborne if he forbid it not; as to save one man's life, if it would prove the death of a multitude; or to save one man's house on fire, if so doing would fire many. Therefore,

10. It is lawful and a duty to forbear some certain time or number of sermons, prayers, or sacraments, &c. when either the present use of them would apparently procure more hurt than good, or when the forbearance were like to procure more good than the doing of them; for they are all for our edification, and are made for man, and not man for them (though for God). As if forbearing this day would procure me liberty for many days' service afterward, &c.

11. It is not lawful at the command of man to forsake or forbear our calling and duty, when it is to be judged necessary to the honour of God, to the good of the church, and of men's souls; that is, when as in Daniel's case, Dan. vi. our religion itself and our owning the true God, doth seem suspended by the suspense of our duty; or when the multitude of ignorant, hardened, ungodly souls, and the want of fit men for number and quality, doth put it past controversy, that our work is greatly necessary.

12. Those that are not immediately called by Christ as were the apostles, but by men, being yet statedly obliged to the death when they are called, may truly say as Paul, "Necessity is laid upon me, and woe be to me if I preach not the gospel."³²²

13. Papists and protestants concur in this judgment. Papists will preach when the law forbids them; and the judgment of protestants is, among others, by Bishop Bilson of Subjection, and Bishop Andrews, Tortur. Tort. plainly so asserted.

14. But all that are bound to preach, are not bound to do it to the same number, nor in the same manner; as they have not the same opportunity and call. Whether it shall be, in this place or that, to more or fewer, at this hour or that, are not determined in Scripture, nor alike to all.

15. The temples, tithes, and such adjuncts of worship and ministry, are at the magistrate's disposal, and must not be invaded against his laws.

16. Where any are obliged to preach in a forbidden, discountenanced state, they must study to do it with such prudence, caution, peaceableness, and obedience in all the lawful circumstantials, as may tend to maintain peace and the honour of magistracy, and to avoid temptations to sedition, and unruly passions.

Quest. LXXXI. May we lawfully keep the Lord's day as a fast?

Answ. Not ordinarily; because God hath made it a day of thanksgiving; and we must not pervert it from the use to which it was appointed by God. But in case of extraordinary necessity, it may be done: as, 1. In case that some great judgment call us so suddenly to humiliation and fasting, as that it cannot be deferred to the next day (as some sudden invasion, fire, sickness, &c.) 2. In case by persecution the church be denied liberty to meet on any other day, in a time when public fasting and prayer is a duty. 3. In case the people be so poor, or servants, children, and wives be so hardly restrained, that they cannot meet at any other time. It is lawful in such cases, because positives give way to moral or natural duties, cæteris paribus, and lesser duties unto greater: the sabbath is made for man, and not man for the sabbath.³²³

Quest. LXXXII. How should the Lord's day be spent in the main?

Answ. I have so far opened that in the family directions, that I will now only say, 1. That eucharistical worship is the great work of the day; and that it should be kept as a day of public thanksgiving for the whole work of redemption, especially for the resurrection of our Lord.³²⁴

2. And therefore the celebration of the sacrament of the Lord's supper was always a chief part of its observation in the primitive churches: not merely for the sacrament's sake; but because with it was still joined all the laudatory and thanksgiving worship. And it was the pastor's work so to pray, and praise God, and preach to the people, as tendeth most to possess their souls with the liveliest sense of the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, on the account of our redemption.

3. Though confession of sin and humiliation must not be the chief work of the day, yet it may and must come in, as in due subordination to the chief. 1. Because there are usually many persons present, who are members only of the visible church, and are not fit for the laudatory and rejoicing part. 2. Because while we are in the flesh, our salvation is imperfect, and so are we; and much sin still remaineth, which must be a grief and burden to believers: and therefore while sin is mixed with grace, repentance and sorrow must be mixed with our thanksgivings, and we must "rejoice with trembling." And though we "receive a kingdom which cannot be moved," yet must our "acceptable service of God be with reverence and godly fear, because our God is a consuming fire."³²⁵ 3. Our sin and misery being that which we are saved from, doth enter the definition of our salvation. And without the sense of them, we can never know aright what mercy is, nor ever be truly glad and thankful. But yet take heed that this subordinate duty be not pretended, for the neglecting of that thanksgiving which is the work of the day.

Quest. LXXXIII. May the people bear a vocal part in worship, or do any more than say, Amen?

Answ. Yes:³²⁶ the people should say Amen; that is, openly signify their consent. But the meaning is not that they must do no more, nor otherwise express their consent saving by that single word. For, 1. There is no scripture which forbiddeth more. 2. The people bear an equal part in singing the psalms; which are prayer, and praise, and instruction. 3. If they may do so in the psalms in metre, there can no reason be given but they may lawfully do so in the psalms in prose; for saying them and singing them are but modes of utterance; both are the speaking of prayer and praise to God: and the ancient singing was liker our saying, than to our tunes, as most judge. 4. The primitive christians were so full of the zeal and love of Christ, that they would have taken it for an injury and a quenching of the Spirit, to have been wholly restrained from bearing their part in the praises of the church. 5. The use of the tongue keepeth awake the mind, and stirreth up God's graces in his servants. 6. It was the decay of zeal in the people that first shut out responses; while they kept up the ancient zeal, they were inclined to take their part vocally in their worship; and this was seconded by the pride and usurpation of some priests thereupon, who thought the people of God too profane to speak in the assemblies, and meddle so much with holy things.

Yet the very remembrance of former zeal, caused most churches to retain many of the words of their predecessors, even when they lost the life and spirit which should animate them. And so the same words came into the liturgies, and were used by too many customarily, and in formality, which their ancestors had used in the fervour of their souls.

6. And if it were not that a dead-hearted, formal people, by speaking the responses carelessly and hypocritically, do bring them into disgrace with many that see the necessity of seriousness, I think few good people would be against them now. If all the serious, zealous christians in the assembly speak the same words in a serious manner, there will appear nothing in them that should give offence. If in the fulness of their hearts, the people should break out into such words of prayer, or confession, or praise, it would be taken for an extraordinary pang of zeal; and were it unusual, it would take exceedingly. But the better any thing is, the more loathsome it appeareth when it is mortified by hypocrisy and dead formality, and turned into a mockery, or an affected, scenical act. But it is here the duty of every christian to labour to restore the life and spirit to the words, that they may again be used in a serious and holy manner as heretofore.

7. Those that would have private men pray and prophesy in public, as warranted by 1 Cor. xiv. "Ye may all speak," &c. do much contradict themselves, if they say also that a layman may say nothing but Amen.

8. The people were all to say Amen in Deut. xxvii. 15, 16, 18-20, &c. And yet they oftentimes said more. As Exod. xix. 8, in as solemn an assembly as any of ours, when God himself gave Moses a sermon (in a form of words) to preach to the people, and Moses had repeated it as from the Lord, (it being the narrative of his mercies, the command of obedience, and the promises of his great blessings upon that condition,) "all the people answered together and said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do." The like was done again, Exod. xxiv. 3, and Deut. v. 27. And lest you should think either that the assembly was not as solemn as ours, or that it was not well done of the people to say more than Amen, God himself who was present declared his approbation, even of the words, when the speakers' hearts were not so sincere in speaking them as they ought: ver. 28, 29, "And the Lord heard the voice of your words when you spake unto me, and the Lord said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people – They have well said all that they have spoken. O that there were such a heart in them – ."

Object. But this is but a speech to Moses, and not to God.

Answ. I will recite to you a form of prayer which the people themselves were to make publicly to God: Deut. xxvi. 13-15, "Then shalt thou say before the Lord thy God, I have brought away the hallowed things out of my house, and also have given them unto the Levite and unto the stranger, to the fatherless, and to the widow, according to all thy commandments which thou hast commanded me: I have not transgressed thy commandments, neither have I forgotten them. I have not eaten thereof in my mourning, neither have I taken away ought thereof for any unclean use, nor given ought thereof for the dead; but I have hearkened to the voice of the Lord my God, and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me. Look down from thy holy habitation, from heaven, and bless thy people Israel, and the land which thou hast given us, as thou swarest unto our fathers, a land that floweth with milk and honey." Is not here a full form of prayer to be used by all the people? And remember that Joseph and Mary, and Christ himself, were under this law, and that you never read that Christ found fault with the people's speech, nor spake a word to restrain it in his churches.

In Lev. ix. 24, "When all the people saw the glory of the Lord, and the fire that came out from it, and consumed the burnt offering, they shouted and fell on their faces;" which was an acclamation more than bare amen.

2 Kings xxiii. 2, 3, "King Josiah went up into the house of the Lord, and all the men of Judah, &c. and the priests and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant. And the king stood by a pillar, and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord, and to keep his commandments, &c. with all their heart, and all their soul, &c. And all the people stood to the covenant." Where, as a king is the speaker, it is like that the people used some words to express their consent.

1 Chron. xvi. 35, 36, when David delivered a psalm for a form of praise: in which it is said to the people, ver. 35, "And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us together, and deliver us from the heathen, that we may give thanks to thy holy name, and glory in thy praise. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for ever and ever. All the people said, Amen, and praised the Lord." Where it is like that their praising the Lord was more than their amen.

And it is a command, Psal. lxvii. 3, 5, "Let all the people praise thee, O God, let all the people praise thee." And he that will limit this to single persons, or say that it must not be vocally in the church, or it must be only in metre and never in prose, or only in tunes and not without, must prove it, lest he be proved an adder to God's word.

But it would be tedious to recite all the repeated sentences in the Psalms, which are commonly supposed to be the responses of the people, or repeated by them. And in Rev. xiv. 2, 3, the voice as "of many waters and as of a great thunder, and the voice of harpers harping with their harps, who sung a new song before the throne and before the four beasts and the elders, a song which none could learn but the hundred forty and four thousand which were redeemed from the earth, which were not defiled with women, who were virgins and followed the Lamb," &c. doth seem very plainly to be spoken of the praises of all the saints. Chap. xvii. 15, by waters is meant people, multitudes, &c. And chap. xix. 5-8, there is expressly recited a form of praise for all the people: "A voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad, and rejoice, and give honour to him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her it was granted," &c.

And indeed he that hath styled all his people "priests to God, and a holy and royal priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ, and to show forth the praises (τὰς ἀρετὰς, the virtues) of him that hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light," doth seem not to take them for so profane a generation, as to be prohibited from speaking to God in public any otherwise than by the mouth of a priest.

And it seemeth to be more allowed (and not less) under the gospel, than under the law; because then the people, as under guilt, were kept at a greater distance from God, and must speak to him more by a priest that was a type of Christ our Intercessor.³²⁷ But now we are brought nigh, and reconciled to God, and have the spirit of sons, and may go by Christ alone unto the Father. And therefore though it be true that ministers yet are sub-intercessors under Christ our High Priest, yet they are rarely called priests, but described more in the New Testament by other parts of their office.

Object. But the people's responses make a confused noise in the assemblies, not intelligible.

Answ. All things are ill done, that are done by ill men that carnally and formally slubber it over: but if the best and holiest people would unanimously set themselves to do it, as they do in singing psalms, so that they did not only stand by to be the hearers of others, it would be done more orderly and spiritually, as well as singing is.

Quest. LXXXIV. Is it not a sin for our clerks to make themselves the mouth of the people, who are no ordained ministers of Christ?

Answ. 1. In those places where ordained deacons do it, this objection hath no place. 2. The clerks are not appointed to be the mouth of the people, but only each clerk is one of the people commanded to do that which all should do, lest it should be wholly left undone. If all the congregation will speak all that the clerk doth, it will answer the primary desire of the church governors, who bid the people do it; but if they that will not do it themselves, shall pretend that the clerk doth usurp the ministry, because he ceaseth not as well as they; they might as well say so by a few that should sing psalms in the church, when the rest are against it and forbear. May not a man do his duty in singing or saying, when you refuse yours, without pretending to be your mouth, or usurping the ministry?

Quest. LXXXV. Are repetitions of the same words in church prayers, lawful?

Answ. 1. It is not lawful to affect them as the heathens, who think they shall be heard for their battology, or saying over the same words, as if God were moved by them, as by a charm.³²⁸ 2. Nor is it lawful to do that which hath a strong appearance of such a conceit, and thereby to make God's worship ridiculous and contemptible; as the papists in their psalters, and prayer books, repeating over the name of Jesus, and Mary, so oft together as maketh it seem a ludicrous canting.

But, 1. It is lawful to speak the same words from fulness and fervency of zeal; 2. And when we are afraid to give over lest we have not yet prevailed with God. 3. And in God's solemn praises (sung or said) a word or sentence oft repeated sometimes hath an elegancy, and affecting decency; and therefore it is so often used in the Psalms; yea, and in many Scripture prayers. 4. In such cases, to bring a serious urgency of spirit to the repeated words, and not to quarrel with the repetitions, is the duty of one that joineth with true christian assemblies, as a son of piety and peace.³²⁹

Quest. LXXXVI. Is it lawful to bow at the naming of Jesus?

Answ. The question either respecteth the person of Jesus, named by any of his names, or else this name Jesus only. And that either simply in itself considered; or else comparatively, as excluding, or not including, other names.

1. That the person of Jesus is to be bowed to, I never knew a christian deny.

2. That we may lawfully express our reverence by bowing, when the names, God, Jehovah, Jesus Christ, &c. are uttered, I have met with few christians who deny, nor know I any reason to deny it.

3. Had I been fit to have prescribed directions to other ministers or churches, I would not have persuaded, much less commanded, them to bow at the name of Jesus, any more than at the name of God, Jehovah, Christ, &c. for many reasons which the reader may imagine, though I will not now mention them.

4. But if I live and join in a church where it is commanded and peremptorily urged to bow at the name of Jesus, and where my not doing it would be divisive, scandalous, or offensive, I will bow at the name of God, Jehovah, Jesus, Christ, Lord, &c. one as well as the other; seeing it is not bowing at Christ's name that I scruple, but the consequents of seeming to distinguish and prefer that name alone before all the rest.³³⁰

Quest. LXXXVII. Is it lawful to stand up at the gospel as we are appointed?

Answ. 1. Had I been a prescriber to others myself, I should not have required the church to stand up at the reading of one part of a chapter by the name of the gospel, and not at the same words when the whole chapter is read.

2. But if I live where rulers peremptorily command it, (I suppose not forbidding us to stand up at the gospel read in chapters, but selecting this as an instance of their signified consent to the gospel, who will do no more,) I would obey them rather than give offence, by standing up at the reading of the chapters and all; which I suppose will be no violation of their laws.

Quest. LXXXVIII. Is it lawful to kneel when the decalogue is read?

Answ. 1. If I lived in a church that mistook the commandments for prayers, as many ignorant people do, I would not so harden them in that error. 2. And if I knew that many of the people present are of that mind, I had rather do nothing that might scandalize or harden them in it.

But, 1. That the thing in itself is lawful, is past doubt: as we may kneel to the king when we hear him or speak to him; so it is lawful to kneel to God, when we read a chapter or hear it read, and specially the decalogue so terribly delivered, and written by his own finger in stone. 2. And if it be peremptorily commanded, and the omission would be offensive, I would use it though mistaking persons are present, (1.) Because I cannot disobey, and also differ from the whole assembly, without a greater hurt and scandal, than seeming to harden that mistaking person. (2.) And because I could and would by other means remove that person's danger, as from me, by making him know that it is no prayer. (3.) And the rather in our times, because we can get the minister in the pulpit publicly to tell the people the contrary. (4.) And in catechising it is his appointed duty so to do. (5.) And we find that the same old silly people who took the commandments for a prayer, took the creed to be so too; when yet none kneeled at the creed; by which it appeareth that it is not kneeling which deceived them.

Quest. LXXXIX. What gestures are fittest in all the public worship?

Answ. 1. The customs of several countries, putting several significations on gestures, much varieth the case.

2. We must not lightly differ from the customs of the churches where we live in such a thing.

3. According to the present state of our churches, and the signification of gestures, and the necessities of men's bodies, all considered, I like best, (1.) To kneel in prayer and confession of sin (unless it be in crowded congregations where there is not room). (2.) To stand up in actions of mere praise to God, that is, at the singing and reading of the psalms of praise, and at the other hymns. (3.) To sit at the hearing of the word read and preached (because the body hath a necessity of some rest).

4. Had I my choice, I would receive the Lord's supper sitting; but where I have not, I will use the gesture which the church useth. And it is to be noted that the church of England requireth the communicant only to receive it kneeling; but not to eat or drink it kneeling when they have received it. The ancient churches took it for a universal custom, established by many general councils, (and continued many hundred years,) that no churches should kneel in any act of adoration upon any Lord's day in the year, or any week day between Easter and Whitsuntide; but only stand all the time. But because the weariness of the body is apt to draw the mind into consent, and make God's service burdensome to us, it seemeth a sufficient compliance with their custom and the reasons of it, if we stand up only in acts of praise (and at the profession of our assent to the christian faith and covenant).³³¹

5. And because there is so great a difference between the auditors in most assemblies, some being weak and not able to stand long, &c. therefore it is utterly unmeet to be too rigorous in urging a uniformity of gesture, or for any to be too censorious of other men for a gesture.

Quest. XC. What if the pastor and church cannot agree about singing psalms, or what version or translation to use, or time or place of meeting, &c.?

I meddle not here with the magistrate's part.

Answ. 1. It is the office of the pastor to be the guide and ruler in such things, (when the magistrate interposeth not,) and the people should obey him. 2. But if the pastor injure the church by his misguidance and mal-administration, he ought to amend and give them satisfaction; and if he do not, they have their remedy before mentioned. 3. And if the people be obstinate in disobedience upon causeless quarrels, the pastor must first labour to convince them by reason and love, and his authority; and if no means will bring them to submission, he must consider whether it be better as to the public good of the church of Christ that he comply with them, and suffer them, or that he depart and go to a more tractable people; and accordingly he is to do. For they cannot continue together in communion if one yield not to the other: usually or ofttimes it will be better to leave such an obdurate, self-willed people, lest they be hardened by yielding to them in their sin, and others encouraged in the like by their example; and their own experience may at last convince them, and make them yield to better things, as Geneva did when they revoked Calvin. But sometimes the public good requireth that the pastor give place to the people's folly, and stay among them, and rather yield to that which is not best, (so it be otherwise lawful,) as a worse translation, a worse version, liturgy, order, time, place, &c. than quite forsake them. And he that is in the right, may in that case yield to him that is in the wrong, in point of practice.

Quest. XCI. What if the pastor excommunicate a man, and the people will not forbear his communion, as thinking him unjustly excommunicated?

Answ. 1. Either the pastor or the people are in the error. 2. Either the person is a dangerous heretic, or grossly wicked, or not. 3. Either the people do own the error or sin, for which he is excommunicated, or only judge the person not guilty. 4. The pastor's and the people's part in the execution must be distinguished. And so I conclude,

1. That if the pastor err and wrong the people, he must repent and give them satisfaction; but if it be their error and obstinacy, then, 2. If the pastor foreknow that the people will dissent, in some small dispensable cases he may forbear to excommunicate one that deserveth it; or if he know it after, that they will not forbear communion with the person, he may go on in his office, and be satisfied that he hath discharged his own duty, and leave them under the guilt of their own faults. 3. But if it be an intolerable wickedness or heresy, (as Arianism, Socinianism, &c.) and the people own the error or sin as well as the person, the pastor is then to admonish them also, and by all means to endeavour to bring them to repentance; and if they remain impenitent to renounce communion with them and desert them. 4. But if they own not the crime, but only think the person injured, the pastor must give them the proof for their satisfaction; and if they remain unsatisfied, he may proceed in his office as before.