Baxter - Houston-Packer Collection BX5151 .B3 1659

(oto) it were an undecent Habit) yet this is but an imprudent ufe of Power. It is a thingwithin the Magifirates reach ; He dort an alienwork,but his own work amifs: and therefore the thing in it felfbeing lawfull, Iwouldobeyhim andufe that garrnent,ifI could not be difpenfed with.Yea though Secondarily the wyhitenefr be to fgnifie Purity, and fo it be made a teaching fien, yet wouldI obey:For fecondarily, we may lawfully and pioufly make Teach- ing figns ofour food and rayment, and every thing we fee. But if the lNlagif{ratehad laid that thePrimary reafon or ufe of theSur- plice was to be an inflitsetedfacramentalfign,to work grace onmy foul,and engage me to God,tben I dud}not haveufed it ,though feconddrily it had been commanded as a decent garment.New Sa- craments I durft not ufe,though afecondary ufe were lawful). g. 41. 2. And for Kneelingat the Sacrament, I doubt not at all, but the impofing it, and that on fuch rigorous terms tying all to it, and caftingall out ofthe communionof the Church, or from the participation oftheSacrament that draft not ufe it, was a very grievous fin, and tended to perfecution, injuflice, and Church-dividing. It is certainly ina doubtful cafe the fafef} way todo as Chrift and his Apoilles, and the univerfal Church did for many hundredyears. That none Ihould Kneel in publick worfhipon the Lords day, no not in Prayer, much lets in recei- ving theEucharift+was a Cuftome foancient and Univerfal in the Church, that it was everywhere obferved before general Coun- cils were made ufe of ; and in the firft general Council of Nice, it was made the Taft Canon ; and other general Councilsafterward renewed it; fo that I know not how any Ceremony can poffibly pretend togreater Ecclefiaftical Authority then this had. And to raft out all fromChurch Communion inSacraments that dare not go againft the examples of Chrift and his Apoiles, and all the Primitive Church, (who long received the Eucharift in another gefture) and againft the Canons of the firft and molt famous,and other fucceeding general Councils, this is a molt inhumanepart. Either the gefture is indifferent in it felfor not r Ifit be, how dare they thus divide the Church by it, and cart out Chriftians that fcruple it, when they have thefe and many other reafons oftheir fcruples (which for brevity I omit.) If they fay that Kneeling isof itPelfNeeeffarl, and not Indifferent, becaufe k is Reverent &c. then a. They makeChrift an imperfeet Law- giver :

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