AN ANSWEK UNTO TWO QUESTIONS:
WITH
TWELVE ARGUMENTS AGAINST ANY CONFORMITY TO WORSHIP NOT OF DIVINE INSTITUTION.
Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets? — Zfch. vii. 7. Happy Is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.— Rom. xiv. 22.
11.
OF MARRYING AFTER DIYORCE IN CASE OF ADULTERY.
Ill OF INFANT BAPTISM AND DIPPING.
rUEFATOKY KOTES.
JIr Oeme thus explains tlie origin and history of the following treatise, -which first nppeared in the Sermons of Owen, published by Marshall, in 1720:— "About the time of the Doctor's death, a small manuscript was handed about, containing twelve argu- ments against conformity to worship not of divine institution. The leading object of these arguments is to point out the unlawfulness of those who had separated from the Church of England uniting in its public seiwices, as those services are of a very differ- ent nature from the worship which Christ hath appointed. This manuscript occasioned a very violent discussion. It was sent to Baxter, as that which had satisfied many of the improi^riety of joining in the liturgy. ' I hastily answered tliem,' he says, ' but found after that it had been most prudent to have omitted his name ; for on tliat ac- count a swarm of revilers in the city poured out their keenest censures, and three or four wrote against me, whom I answered.' No wonder that Owen's friends wei-e dis- pleased, as he was scarcely in his grave when this attempt was made by Baxter to con- vict him of no less than forty-two errors in the space of ten pages! It reminds us of the controversy between Erasmus and Natalis Bedda. The latter extracted from the writings of Erasmus two hundred erroneous propositions ; who revenged himself in the same way, by calculating that Bedda had been guilty of a hundi'ed and eighty-one lies, three hundred and ten calumnies, and forty-seven blasphemies! Owen's Twelve Arguments are printed in the octavo edition of his Sermons, published in 1720. Baxter's reply is in liis 'Defence of Catholic Communion.' The occasional conformity controversy gave a great deal of trouble to the Dissenters, both then and afterwards, to which Baxter's conduct and writings vei'y largely contributed. Owen's tract is one of the best things on the other side."
II. AND III.
The tracts on "Marriage," etc., and on "Infant Baptism," etc., were published in the folio volume of " Sermons and Tracts" by Owen, which was printed in 1721. — Ed.
AN ANSWER UNTO TWO QUESTIONS.
QUESTION I.
Whether persons ivho have engaged unto reformation and another way of divine worship, according to the word of God, as they be- lieve, may lawfully go unto and attend on the use of the Common- prayer book in divine worship ?
ANSWER
1. We suppose herein all that hath been pleaded against that kind of service, as to its matter, form, imposition, use, end, and conse- quents; which are all of them duly to be considered before the prac- tice inquired after can be allowed. But, —
2. The present question is not about the lawfulness or unlawful- ness of forms of prayer in general ; nor about the lawfulness of that form or those forms which are prescribed in the Common-pra3'er book, as unto their matter and manner of composure, absolutely consid- ered ; nor yet about the expediency of the whole system of worship limited thereunto: but it respects all these things, and the like, with reference unto the persons described in the inquiry. And as unto the persons intended in the inquiry, we judge this practice unlaw- ful unto them, as contrary unto sundry rules of the Scripture, and wherein it is condemned.
1. It is contrary unto that general rule in those cases given us by the apostle. Gal. ii. ] 8, "If I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor." To "destroy" or dissolve any thing in the worship of God, is to lay it aside and remove it out of that wor- ship, as that which we have no divine obligation unto: so the apostle destroyed the legal ceremonies whereof he there speaks, and no other- wise. To " build again," is to admit into the worship of God as use- ful unto the edification of the church. And these are contrary, so that if the one be a duty, the other, in the same case, or with respect unto the same things, is a sin. If it were a duty to destroy, it is a sin to build ; and if it be a duty to build, it was a sin to destroy. He that doth both makes himself unavoidably a transgressor.
VOL. XVI. 16
242 AN ANSWER UNTO TWO QUESTIONS.
But we have in this sense, as unto ourselves, destroyed this form of worship; that is, we have omitted it, and left it out in the service of the church, as that which we had no divine obligation unto, and as that which was not unto edification. If Ave now build it again, as it is done in the practice inquired after, we make ourselves trans- gressors, either by destroying or building.
And there is strength added unto this consideration, in case that we have suffered any thing on the account of the forbearance of it; as the same apostle speaks in the same case, " Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain," Gal. iii. 4. It is a great folly to lose our own sufferings: " Are ye so foolish?" verse 3.