4, The posture of kneeling in the receiving of this sacrament is a pecidiar act of religious adoration, tvhich hath no divine institution or warranty ; and is therefore at best an act of will-worship, not to be complied withal.
It is said that " kneeling is required not as an act of worship or re- ligious adoration, but only as a posture decent and comely, because the sacrament is delivered with a prayer unto every one." But, —
(1.) That delivery of it with a prayer unto every one is uninstituted, without primitive example, contrary to the practice at the first insti- tution of the ordinaiice, unsuited unto the nature of the communion required, and a disturbance of it.
(2.) He that prays stands, and he that doth not pray kneels, which must be on another consideration; for, —
(3.) Prayer is not the proper exercise of faith in the instant of re- ceiving of this sacrament, as is evident from the nature and use of it.
(4.) The known original of this rite doth render it not only justly to be suspected, but to be avoided,
248 TWELVE AEGUMENTS AGAINST ANY CONFORMITY.
On these considerations, "which might be enlarged, and many others that might be added, it is evident that the practice inquired into, with respect unto the persons at first intended, is unlawful, and includes in it a renunciation of all the principles of that church-com- munion wherein they are engaged. And whereas some few have judged it not to be so, they ought to rectify their mistake in their future walking.
TWELVE ARGUMENTS
AGAINST ANY CONFORMITY OF MEMBERS OF SEPARATE CHURCHES TO THE NATIONAL CHURCH.
Position. — It is not lawful for us to go to and join in public wor- ship by the Common-prayer, because that worship itself, according to the rule of the gospel, is not lawful.
Some things must be premised to the confirmation of this position ; as, —
1. The whole system of liturgical worship, with all its insepa- rable dependencies, are intended; for as such it is established by law, and not in any part of it only, and as such it is required that we receive it and attend unto it. It is not in our power, it is not left to our judgment or liberty, to close with or make use of any part of it, as we shall think fit.
There are in the Mass-book many prayers and praises directed to God only by Jesus Christ ; yet it is not lawful for us thereon to go to mass, under a pretence of joining only in such lawful prayers. As we must not affect their drink-offerings of blood, so we must not take up their names into our lips, Ps. xvi. 4; we must have no commu- nion with them.
2. It is to be considered as armed with laws ; — first, such as declare and enjoin it as the only true worship of the church; secondly, such as prohibit, condemn, and punish, all other ways of the worship of God in church-assemblies. By our communion and conjunction in it, we justify those laws.
3. This conjunction by communion in the worship of the liturgy is a symbol, pledge, and token of an ecclesiastical incorporation with the church of England in its present constitution. It is so in the law of the land,^ it is so in the common understanding of all men. And by these rules must our profession and practice be judged, and
' In the canon of the church.
TWELVE ARGUMENTS AGAINST ANY CONFORMITY. 249
not by any reserves of our own, which neither God nor good men will allow of.
4. Wherefore, he that joineth in the worship of the Common- prayer doth, by his practice, make profession that it is the true wor- ship of God, accepted by him, and approved of him, and wholly agreeable to his mind ; and to do it with other reserves is hypocrisy, and worse than the thing itself without them. " Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth," Rom.xiv. 22.
5. There may be a false worship of the true God as well as a worship of a false god : such was the worship of Jehovah the Lord by the calf in the wilderness, Exod. xxxii. 5, 6 ; such was the feast unto the Lord ordained by Jeroboam " in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month," the which "he devised of his own heart," 1 Kings xii. 32, 33.
On these suppositions, the proposition laid down is proved by these following^ arouments: —
First Argument. — Religious worship not divinely instituted and appointed is false worship, not accepted with God; but the liturgi- cal worship intended is a religious worship not divinely instituted nor appointed : ergo, not accepted of God.
The proposition is confirmed by all the divine testimonies wherein all such worship is expressly condemned ; that especially where the Lord Christ restraineth all worship to his alone command, Deut. iv. 2, xii. 32; Prov. xxx. 6; Jer. vii. 31; Isa. xxix. 13; Matt, xxviii. 20.
It is answered to the minor proposition, " That the liturgical wor- ship is of Christ's appointment as to the substantial of it, namely, prayers and praises, though not as to its accidentals, not as unto its outward rites and forms, which do not vitiate the whole." But it is replied, —