A defence of the principles of love, which are necessary to the unity and…

7. I must not countenance an honest weak Minister or Master of a family, in the disorder ⟨p. 97⟩or defects, or errors of his prayer or instructing; And yet if they be tolerable errors or defects, I must not forsake either Church or family-Worship with him, that I may discountenance him.

8. There be Errors on the contrary side, which are not without considerable danger; which we are obliged also to take heed of countenancing. I will instance but in two; one in Doctrine, and the other in Practice.

1. There are men otherwise very honest, and truly godly, and of holy and unblameable lives, who think that the Scripture is intended by God, not only as a General, but a particular Law or Rule, for all the very Circumstances of Worship, (yea, some say of the common business of our lives): and that the second Commandment in particular condemneth all that is the product or invention of man in or about the Worship of God; and that to deny this is to deny the perfection of the Scripture; and that all written Books, and Printed, are Images there forbidden; and that all studied or prepared Sermons, (as to Method or Words, whether in Notes or memory) are forbidden Images of Preaching, and that all provided Words or Forms (written, or in memory, of our own or other mens Contrivance or Composition) are forbidden Images of Prayer; and all prepared Metre and Tunes are forbidden Images of Praise or singing; and that no man that useth any such preparation or form of words in preaching or prayer, doth preach or pray by the help of Gods Spirit: and that if Parents do but teach a Child a ⟨p. 98⟩form of words to pray in, they teach him this forbidden Imagery, yea, Idolatry.