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ISTUDY
 MODERN BUSINESS
ANALYTICS

ISTUDY
ISTUDY
 MODERN BUSINESS
ANALYTICS
Practical Data Science for Decision Making

Matt Taddy
Amazon, Inc.

Leslie Hendrix
University of South Carolina

Matthew C. Harding
University of California, Irvine

ISTUDY
 Final PDF to printer

MODERN BUSINESS ANALYTICS

Published by McGraw Hill LLC, 1325 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10019. Copyright ©2023 by
McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may
be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without
the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC, including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic
storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning.
Some ancillaries, including electronic and print components, may not be available to customers outside the
United States.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 LKV 27 26 25 24 23 22
ISBN 978-1-266-10833-4
MHID 1-266-10833-5
Cover Image: MirageC/Getty Images

All credits appearing on page or at the end of the book are considered to be an extension of the copyright page.

The Internet addresses listed in the text were accurate at the time of publication. The inclusion of a website
does not indicate an endorsement by the authors or McGraw Hill Education, and McGraw Hill Education
does not guarantee the accuracy of the information presented at these sites.

mheducation.com/highered

ISTUDY tad08335_fm_ise.indd iv 01/28/22 07:31 PM

 ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Matt Taddy is the author of Business Data Science

(McGraw Hill, 2019). From 2008–2018 he was a professor of econo-
metrics and statistics at the University of Chicago Booth School of
Business, where he developed their Data Science curriculum. Prior
to and while at Chicago Booth, he has also worked in a variety of
industry positions including as a principal researcher at Microsoft and
a research fellow at eBay. He left Chicago in 2018 to join Amazon as
Courtesy of Matt Taddy a vice president.

Leslie Hendrix is a clinical associate professor in the

Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina.
She received her PhD in statistics in 2011 and a BS in mathematics
in 2005 from the University of South Carolina. She has received two
university-wide teaching awards for her work in teaching business ana-
lytics and statistics courses and is active in the research and teaching
communities for analytics. She was instrumental in founding the Moore
Courtesy of Leslie Hendrix School’s newly formed Data Lab and currently serves as the assistant
director.

Matthew C. Harding is a professor of economics

and statistics at the University of California, Irvine. He holds a PhD
from MIT and an M.Phil. from Oxford University. Dr. Harding conducts
research on econometrics, consumer finance, health policy, and energy
economics and has published widely in leading academic journals. He
is the founder of Ecometricx, LLC, a big data and machine learning
consulting company, and cofounder of FASTlab.global Institute, a
Courtesy of Matthew nonprofit focusing on education and evidence-based policies in the
C. Harding areas of fair access and sustainable technologies.

ISTUDY
 BRIEF CONTENTS

About the Authors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Guided Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii

1 Regression. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2 Uncertainty Quantification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

3 Regularization and Selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

4 Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

5 Causal Inference with Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

6 Causal Inference with Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

7 Trees and Forests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

8 Factor Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

9 Text as Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

10 Deep Learning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

Appendix: R Primer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Bibliography 419
Glossary 424
Acronyms 433
Index 435

vi

ISTUDY
 CONTENTS

About the Authors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
What Is This Book About? x

Guided Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Practical Data Science for Decision Making xi
An Introductory Example xii
Machine Learning xiv
Computing with R xv

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
1 Regression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Linear Regression 3
Residuals 15
Logistic Regression 21
Likelihood and Deviance 26
Time Series 30
Spatial Data 46

2 Uncertainty Quantification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Frequentist Uncertainty 56
False Discovery Rate Control 67
The Bootstrap 72
More on Bootstrap Sampling 86
Bayesian Inference 91
3 Regularization and Selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Out-of-Sample Performance 101
Building Candidate Models 108
Model Selection 130
Uncertainty Quantification for the Lasso 144

4 Classification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Nearest Neighbors 152
Probability, Cost, and Classification 158
Classification via Regression 160
Multinomial Logistic Regression 163

ISTUDY
 viii    Contents

5 Causal Inference with Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Notation for Causal Inference 177
Randomized Controlled Trials 179
Regression Adjustment 184
Regression Discontinuity Designs 192
Instrumental Variables 199
Design of Experiments 208

6 Causal Inference with Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215

Conditional Ignorability 216
Double Machine Learning 224
Heterogeneous Treatment Effects 231
Using Time Series as Controls 241

7 Trees and Forests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259

Decision Trees 261
Random Forests 268
Causal Inference with Random Forests 275
Distributed Computing for Random Forests 277

8 Factor Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282

Clustering 283
Factor Models and PCA 290
Factor Regression 302
Partial Least Squares 308

9 Text as Data. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Tokenization 317
Text Regression 325
Topic Models 329
Word Embedding 338

10 Deep Learning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

The Ingredients of Deep Learning 346
Working with Deep Learning Frameworks 352
Stochastic Gradient Descent 367
The State of the Art 374
Intelligent Automation 380

ISTUDY
 Contents    ix

Appendix: R Primer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Getting Started with R 384
Working with Data 396
Advanced Topics for Functions 408
Organizing Code, Saving Work, and Creating Reports 414

Bibliography 419
Glossary 424
Acronyms 433
Index 435

ISTUDY
 PREFACE

What Is This Book About?

The practice of data analytics is changing and modernizing. Innovations in computation and
machine learning are creating new opportunities for the data analyst: exposing previously
unexplored data to scientific analysis, scaling tasks through automation, and allowing deeper
and more accurate modeling. Spreadsheet models and pivot tables are being replaced by code
scripts in languages like R and Python. There has been massive growth in digitized information,
accompanied by development of systems for storage and analysis of this data. There has also
been an intellectual convergence across fields—machine learning and computer science, sta-
tistics, and social sciences and economics—that has raised the breadth and quality of applied
analysis everywhere. This is the data science approach to analytics, and it allows leaders to go
deeper than ever to understand their operations, products, and customers.
This book is a primer for those who want to gain the skills to use data science to help make
decisions in business and beyond. The modern business analyst uses tools from machine learn-
ing, economics, and statistics to not only track what has happened but predict the future for
their businesses. Analysts may need to identify the variables important for business policy, run
an experiment to measure these variables, and mine social media for information about public
response to policy changes. A company might seek to connect small changes in a recommen-
dation system to changes in customer experience and use this information to estimate a demand
curve. And any analysis will need to scale to companywide data, be repeatable in the future,
and quantify uncertainty about the model estimates and conclusions.
This book focuses on business and economic applications, and we expect that our core
audience will be looking to apply these tools as data scientists and analysts inside companies.
But we also cover examples from health care and other domains, and the practical material that
you learn in this book applies far beyond any narrow set of business problems.
This is not a book about one of machine learning, economics, or statistics. Rather, this
book pulls from all of these fields to build a toolset for modern business analytics. The material
in this book is designed to be useful for decision making. Detecting patterns in past data can
be useful—we will cover a number of pattern recognition topics—but the necessary analysis
for deeper business problems is about why things happen rather than what has happened. For
this reason, this book will spend the time to move beyond correlation to causal analysis. This
material is closer to economics than to the mainstream of data science, which should help you
have a bigger practical impact through your work.
We can’t cover everything here. This is not an encyclopedia of data analysis. Indeed, for
continuing study, there are a number of excellent books covering different areas of contempo-
rary machine learning and data science. For example, Hastie et al. (2009) is a comprehensive
modern statistics reference and James et al. (2021) is a less advanced text from a similar view-
point. You can view this current text as a stepping stone to a career of continued exploration
and learning in statistics and machine learning. We want you to leave with a set of best prac-
tices that make you confident in what to trust, how to use it, and how to learn more.
x

ISTUDY
 GUIDED TOUR

This book is based on the Business Data Science text by Taddy (2019), which was itself developed
as part of the MBA data science curriculum at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
This new adaptation creates a more accessible and course-ready textbook, and includes a major
expansion of the examples and content (plus an appendix tutorial on computing with R). Visit Con-
nect for digital assignments, code, datasets, and additional resources.

Practical Data Science for Decision Making

Our target readership is anyone who wants to get the skills to use modern large-scale data to
make decisions, whether they are working in business, government, science, or anywhere else.
In the past 10 years, we’ve observed the growth of a class of generalists who can understand busi-
ness problems and also dive into the (big) data and run their own analyses. There is a massive demand
for people with these capabilities, and this book is our attempt to help grow more of these sorts of
people. You may be reading this book from a quantitative undergraduate course, as part of your MBA
degree at a business school, or in a data science or other graduate program. Or, you may just be reading
the book on your own accord. As data analysis has become more crucial and exciting, we are seeing
a boom in people switching into data analysis careers from a wide variety of backgrounds. Those
self-learners and career-switchers are as much our audience here as students in a classroom.
All of this said, this is not an easy book. We have tried to avoid explanations that require
calculus or advanced linear algebra, but you will find the book a tough slog if you do not have a
solid foundation in first-year mathematics and probability. Since the book includes a breadth of
material that spans a range of complexity, we begin each chapter with a summary that outlines
each section and indicates their difficulty according to a ski-hill scale:
The easiest material, requiring familiarity with some transformations like logarithms
and exponents, and an understanding of the basics of probability.
Moderately difficult material, involving more advanced ideas from probability and
statistics or ideas that are going to be difficult to intuit without some linear algebra.
The really tough stuff, involving more complex modeling ideas (and notation) and
tools from linear algebra and optimization.
The black diamond material is not necessary for understanding future green or blue sections,
and so instructors may wish to set their courses to cover the easy and moderately difficult sec-
tions while selecting topics from the hardest sections.
The book is designed to be self-contained, such that you can start with little prerequisite
background in data science and learn as you go. However, the pace of content on introductory
probability and statistics and regression is such that you may struggle if this is your first-ever
course on these ideas. If you find this to be the case, we recommend spending some time work-
ing through a dedicated introductory statistics book to build some of this understanding before
diving into the more advanced data science material.

ISTUDY
 xii    Guided Tour

It is also important to recognize that data science can be learned only by doing. This means
writing the code to run analysis routines on really messy data. We will use the R scripting lan-
guage for all of our examples. All example code and data is available online, and one of the
most important skills you will get out of this book will be an advanced education in this pow-
erful and widely used statistical software. For those who are completely new to R, we have also
included an extensive R primer. The skills you learn here will also prepare you well for learning
how to program in other languages, such as Python, which you will likely encounter in your
business analysis career.
This is a book about how to do modern business analytics. We will lay out a set of core
principles and best practices that come from statistics, machine learning, and economics. You
will be working through many real data analysis examples as you learn by doing. It is a book
designed to prepare scientists, engineers, and business professionals to use data science to
improve their decisions.

An Introductory Example
Before diving into the core material, we will work through a simple finance example to illus-
trate the difference between data processing or description and a deeper business analysis.
Consider the graph in Figure 0.1. This shows seven years of monthly returns for stocks in the
S&P 500 index (a return is the difference between the current and previous price divided by
the prior value). Each line ranging from bright yellow to dark red denotes an individual stock’s
return series. Their weighted average—the value of the S&P 500—is marked with a bold line.
Returns on three-month U.S. treasury bills are in gray.
This is a fancy plot. It looks cool, with lots of different lines. It is the sort of plot that you
might see on a computer screen in a TV ad for some online brokerage platform. If only I had
that information, I’d be rich!

S&P500
0.5
Return
0.0
–0.5

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

FIGURE 0.1 A fancy plot: monthly stock returns for members of the S&P 500 and their average (the bold
line). What can you learn?

ISTUDY
 Guided Tour    xiii

But what can you actually learn from Figure 0.1? You can see that returns do tend to
bounce around near zero (although the long-term average is reliably much greater than zero).
You can also pick out periods of higher volatility (variance) where the S&P 500 changes more
from month to month and the individual stock returns around it are more dispersed. That’s
about it. You don’t learn why these periods are more volatile or when they will occur in the
future. More important, you can’t pull out useful information about any individual stock. There
is a ton of data on the graph but little useful information.
Instead of plotting raw data, let’s consider a simple market model that relates individual
stock returns to the market average. The capital asset pricing model (CAPM) regresses the
returns of an individual asset onto a measure of overall market returns, as shown here:
rjt = αj + βjmt + εjt (0.1)
The output rjt is equity j return at time t. The input mt is a measure of the average return—the
“market”—at time t. We take mt as the return on the S&P 500 index that weights 500 large
companies according to their market capitalization (the total value of their stock). Finally, εjt is
an error that has mean zero and is uncorrelated with the market.
Equation (0.1) is the first regression model in this book. You’ll see many more. This is a
simple linear regression that should be familiar to most readers. The Greek letters define a line
relating each individual equity return to the market, as shown in Figure 0.2. A small βj, near zero,
indicates an asset with low market sensitivity. In the extreme, fixed-income assets like treasury
bills have βj = 0. On the other hand, a βj > 1 indicates a stock that is more volatile than the mar-
ket, typically meaning growth and higher-risk stocks. The αj is free money: assets with αj > 0 are
adding value regardless of wider market movements, and those with αj < 0 destroy value.
Figure 0.3 represents each stock “ticker” in the two-dimensional space implied by the mar-
ket model’s fit on the seven years of data in Figure 0.1. The tickers are sized proportional to
each firm’s market capitalization. The two CAPM parameters—[α, β]—tell you a huge amount
about the behavior and performance of individual assets. This picture immediately allows you
to assess market sensitivity and arbitrage opportunities. For example, the big tech stocks of
Facebook (FB), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), and Google (GOOGL)
all have market sensitivity β values close to one. However, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple
generated more money independent of the market over this time period compared to Micro-
soft and Google (which have nearly identical α values and are overlapped on the plot). Note
0.3
Equity return
0.1
−0.1
−0.3

−0.2 −0.1 0.0 0.1 0.2

Market return

FIGURE 0.2 A scatterplot of a single stock’s returns against market returns, with the fitted regression
line for the model of Equation (0.1) shown in red.

ISTUDY
 xiv    Guided Tour

FB

0.015
AMZN

AAPL
0.010

V
Alpha

BA
AMGN
DIS
0.005

T
PEP JNJ PFE GOOG
MSFT
WFC GE
PG KO
WMT JPM
0.000

CVX
IBM XOM
ORCL BAC
CSCO

0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6

Beta

FIGURE 0.3 Stocks positioned according to their fitted market model, where α is money you make
regardless of what the market does and β summarizes sensitivity to market movements. The tickers are sized
proportional to market capitalization. Production change alpha to α and beta to β in the plot axis labels.

that Facebook’s CAPM parameters are estimated from a shorter time period, since it did not
have its IPO until May of 2012. Some of the older technology firms, such as Oracle (ORCL),
Cisco (CSCO), and IBM, appear to have destroyed value over this period (negative alpha).
Such information can be used to build portfolios that maximize mean returns and minimize
variance in the face of uncertain future market conditions. It can also be used in strategies
like pairs-trading where you find two stocks with similar betas and buy the higher alpha while
“shorting” the other.
CAPM is an old tool in financial analysis, but it serves as a great illustration of what to strive
toward in practical data science. An interpretable model translates raw data into information that
is directly relevant to decision making. The challenge in data science is that the data you’ll be
working with will be larger and less structured (e.g., it will include text and image data). Moreover,
CAPM is derived from assumptions of efficient market theory, and in many applications you won’t
have such a convenient simplifying framework on hand. But the basic principles remain the same:
you want to turn raw data into useful information that has direct relevance to business policy.

Machine Learning
Machine learning (ML) is the field of using algorithms to automatically detect and predict pat-
terns in complex data. The rise of machine learning is a major driver behind data science and a
big part of what differentiates today’s analyses from those of the past. ML is closely related to
modern statistics, and indeed many of the best ideas in ML have come from statisticians. But
whereas statisticians have often focused on model inference—on understanding the parameters
of their models (e.g., testing on individual coefficients in a regression)—the ML community
has historically been more focused on the single goal of maximizing predictive performance
(i.e., predicting future values of some response of interest, like sales or prices).

ISTUDY
Discovering Diverse Content Through
Random Scribd Documents
several doubts and cases. A minister that is young, raw, or ignorant,
(yea, the best,) may be a learner while he is a teacher: but he that is
a learner maketh use so far of the gifts of others. And indeed all
teachers in the world make use of the gifts of others; for all teach
what they learn from others.
2. For method; it is lawful to learn that as well as matter from
another. Christ taught his disciples a method of prayer; and other men
may open that method to us. All tutors teach their pupils method as
well as matter; for method is needful to the due understanding and
using of the matter. A method of divinity, a method of preaching, and
a method of praying may be taught a preacher by word, and may be
written or printed for his use.
3. For words, 1. There is no more prohibition in God's word, against
learning or using another man's words, than his method or matter.
Therefore it is not unlawful. 2. A tutor or senior minister may teach
the Scripture words to a pupil or junior minister; yea, and may set
them together and compose him a sermon or prayer out of Scripture
in its words. (For he that may use an ill-composed Scripture form of
his own gathering, may use a well-composed form of another's). 3. All
the books in our libraries are forms of words; and it is lawful sure to
use some of all those words which we read; or else our books would
be a snare and limitation to our language. 4. All preachers ordinarily
use citations, testimonies, &c. in other men's words. 5. All ministers
use psalms in the metre of other men's composing (and usually
imposing too). And there is no more prohibition against using other
men's words in a prayer, than in a psalm. 6. Almost all ministers use
other men's gifts and form of words, in reading the Scriptures, in their
vulgar tongues: for God did not write them by his apostles and
prophets in English, French, Dutch, &c. but in Hebrew, Chaldee, and
Greek; therefore the wording them in English, &c. is a human form of
words: and few ministers think they are bound to translate all the
Bible themselves, lest they use other men's words or abilities. 7. If a
young minister that can pray but weakly, hear more apt expressions
and sentences in another minister's prayers, than his own are, he may
afterward make use of those sentences and expressions. And if of one
 sentence, why not of two or ten, when God hath not forbidden it? So
also in preaching. 8. It is lawful to read another man's epistles or
sermons in the church, as the primitive churches did by Clement's and
some others. 9. An imposition may be so severe, that we shall not use
our own words, unless we will use some of other men's. 10. All
churches almost in the world, have consented in the use of creeds,
confessions, and prayers, and psalms, in the words of others.
But yet, 1. No minister must on these pretences stifle his own gifts,
and grow negligent; 2. Nor consent to church tyranny or papal
usurpations; 3. Nor do that which tendeth to eat out seriousness in
the worship of God, and turn all into dead imagery or formality.

Quest. Is it lawful to read a prayer in the church?

Answ. 1. That which is not forbidden is lawful: but to read a prayer

is not forbidden (as such, though by accident it may).
2. The prayers in the Scripture psalms, were usually read in the
Jewish synagogues lawfully; for they were written to that end, and
were indeed the Jewish liturgy. Therefore to read a prayer is not
unlawful.
3. He that hath a weak memory may read his own sermon notes;
therefore he may read his prayers.
4. I add as to this case and the former together; that, 1. Christ did
usually frequent the Jewish synagogues.
2. That in those synagogues there were forms of prayer, and that
ordinarily read, at least Scripture forms: and if either the Jewish
rabbins (cited by Scaliger, Selden in Eutych. Alexandr. &c.,) or the
strongest probability may be credited, there were also human forms.
For who can imagine that those Pharisees should have no human
forms, (1.) Who are so much accused of formality, and following
traditions: (2.) And used long and frequent prayers: but if indeed they
had no such forms, then long and frequent extemporate prayers are
not so great a sign of the Spirit's gifts as is imagined, when such
Pharisees abounded in them. But there is little probability but that
they used both ways.
 3. That Christ did not separate from the synagogues for such
prayers' sake.
4. Yea, that we never read that Christ meddled in the controversy, it
being then no controversy; nor that he once reproved such forms, or
reading them, or ever called the Jews to repent of them.
If you say, his general reproof of traditions was enough: I answer,
1. Even traditions he reproved not as such, but as set before, or
against the commands of God. 2. He named many of their particular
traditions and corruptions, Matt. xv. xxiii. &c. and yet never named
this. 3. His being usually present at their assemblies, and so joining
with them in their worship, would be such an appearance of his
approbation, as would make it needful to express his disallowance of
it, if indeed he thought it sinful. So that whoever impartially
considereth all this, that he joined with them, that he particularly
reproved other corruptions, and that he never said any thing at all
against forms or reading prayers, that is recorded, will sure be
moderate in his judgment of such indifferent things, if he know what
moderation is.

Quest. LXXVII. Is it lawful to pray in the church without a prescribed or

premeditated form of words?

Answ. There are so few sober and serious christians that ever made
a doubt of this, that I will not bestow many words to prove it.
1. That which is not forbidden is lawful. But church prayer without a
premeditated or prescribed form of words is not forbidden (by God);
therefore (as to God's laws) it is not unlawful.
2. To express holy desires understandingly, orderly, seriously, and in
apt expressions, is lawful praying. But all this may be done without a
set form of words; therefore to pray without a set form of words may
be lawful.
3. The consent of the universal church, and the experience of godly
men, are arguments so strong, as are not to be made light of.
4. To which Scripture instances may be added.
Quest. LXXVIII. Whether are set forms of words, or free praying without
them, the better way? And what are the commodities and
incommodities of each way?

Answ. I will first answer the latter question, because the former
dependeth on it.
1. The commodities of a set form of words, and the discommodities
of free praying, are these following.
1. In a time of dangerous heresy which hath infected the pastors, a
set form of prescribed words tendeth to keep the church, and the
consciences of the joiners, from such infection, offence, and guilt.
2. When ministers are so weak as to dishonour God's worship by
their unapt, and slovenly, and unsound expressions, prescribed or set
forms which are well composed, are some preservative and cure.
When free praying leaveth the church under this inconvenience.
3. When ministers by faction, passion, or corrupt interests, are apt
to put these vices into their prayers, to the injury of others, and of the
cause and church of God, free praying cherisheth this, or giveth it
opportunity, which set forms do restrain.
4. Concordant set forms do serve for the exactest concord in the
churches, that all at once may speak the same things.
5. They are needful to some weak ministers that cannot do so well
without them.
6. They somewhat prevent the laying of the reputation of religious
worship upon the minister's abilities: when in free praying, the honour
and comfort varieth with the various degrees of pastoral abilities; in
one place it is excellently well done, in another but dryly, and coldly,
and meanly, in another erroneously, unedifyingly, if not dishonourably,
tending to the contempt of holy things: whereas in the way of set
liturgies, though the ablest (at that time) doth no better, yet the
weakest doth (for words) as well, and all alike.
7. And, if proud, weak men have not the composing and imposing
of it, all know that words drawn up by study, upon sober
premeditation and consultation, have a greater advantage, to be exact
and apt, than those that were never thought on till we are speaking
them.
8. The very fear of doing amiss, disturbeth some unready men, and
maketh them do all the rest the worse.
9. The auditors know beforehand, whether that which they are to
join in be sound or unsound, having time to try it.
10. And they can more readily put in their consent to what is
spoken, and make the prayer their own, when they know beforehand
what it is, than they can do when they know not before they hear it; it
being hard to the duller sort of hearers, to concur with an
understanding and consent as quick as the speaker's words are. Not
but that this may be done, but not without great difficulty in the duller
sort.
11. And it tendeth to avoid the pride and self-deceit of many, who
think they are good christians, and have the spirit of grace and
supplication, because by learning and use they can speak many hours
in variety of expressions in prayer; which is a dangerous mistake.
I. The commodities of free extemporate prayers, and the
discommodity of prescribed or set forms, are these following.
1. It becometh an advantage to some proud men who think
themselves wiser than all the rest, to obtrude their compositions, that
none may be thought wise enough, or fit to speak to God, but in their
words; and so introduce church tyranny.
2. It may become a hinderance to able, worthy ministers that can
do better.
3. It may become a dividing snare to the churches, that cannot all
agree and consent in such human impositions.
4. It may become an advantage to heretics when they can but get
into power (as the Arians of old) to corrupt all the churches and public
worship; and thus the papists have corrupted the churches by the
mass.
 5. It may become an engine or occasion of persecution, and
silencing all those ministers that cannot consent to such impositions.
6. It may become a means of depraving the ministry, and bringing
them to a common idleness and ignorance (if other things alike
concur). For when men perceive that no greater abilities are used and
required, they will commonly labour for and get no greater, and so will
be unable to pray without their forms of words.
7. And by this means christian religion may decay and grow into
contempt; for though it be desirable that its own worth should keep
up its reputation and success, yet it never hitherto was so kept up
without the assistance of God's eminent gifts and graces in his
ministers; but wherever there hath been a learned, able, holy,
zealous, diligent ministry, religion usually hath flourished; and
wherever there hath been an ignorant, vicious, cold, idle, negligent,
and reproached ministry, religion usually hath died and been
reproached. And we have now no reason to look for that which never
was, and that God should take a new course in the world.
And the opinion of imposing forms of prayer, may draw on the
opinion of imposing forms of preaching as much, and of restraining
free preaching as much as free praying, as we see in Muscovy. And
then when nothing but bare reading is required, nothing more will be
ordinarily sought; and so the ministry will be the scorn of the people.
9. And it will be a shameful and uncomfortable failing, when a
minister is not able on variety of occasions, to vary his prayers
accordingly; and when he cannot go any further than his book or
lesson; it being as impossible to make prayers just fitted to all
occasions which will fall out, as to make sermons fit for all, or, as they
say, to make a coat for the moon; and the people will contemn the
ministers when they perceive this great deficiency.
10. And it is a great difficulty to many ministers to learn and say a
form without book; so that they that can all day speak what they
know, can scarce recite a form of words one quarter of an hour, the
memory more depending upon the body and its temper, than the
exercise of the understanding doth. He that is tied just to these words
and no other, is put upon double difficulties (like him that on height
must walk on a narrow plank, where the fear of falling will make him
fall); but he that may express the just desires of his soul in what
words occur that are apt and decent, is like one that hath a field to
walk in: for my own part, it is easier to me to pray or preach six hours
in freedom, about things which I understand, than to pray or preach
the tenth part of an hour in the fetters of a form of words which I
must not vary. And so the necessity of a book coming in, doth bring
down the reputation of the minister's abilities in the people's eyes.
11. But the grand incommodity, greater than all the rest, is, that it
usually occasioneth carelessness, deadness, formality, and heartless
lip-labour in our prayers to God; whilst the free way of present prayer
tendeth to excite our cogitations to consider what we say. And it is not
only the multitude of dead-hearted hypocrites in the church that are
thus tempted to persevere in their lip-labour and hypocrisy, and to
draw near to God with their lips when their hearts are far from him,
and are gratified in their self-deceit, whilst parrot-like they speak the
words which they regard not, and their tongues do overgo their
hearts; but even better men are greatly tempted to dead remissness:
I mean both the speakers and the hearers; for, (1.) It is natural to
man's mind to have a slothful weariness as well as his body; and to do
no more than he findeth a necessity of doing; and though God's
presence alone should suffice to engage all the powers of our souls,
yet sad experience telleth us, that God's eye and man's together will
do more with almost all men, than one alone. And therefore no men's
thoughts are so accurately governed as their words. Therefore when a
minister knoweth beforehand that, as to man's approbation, he hath
no more to do but to read that which he seeth before him, he is apt to
let his thoughts fly abroad, and his affections lie down, because no
man taketh account of these; but in extemporate diversified prayer, a
man cannot do it without an excitation of his understanding to think
(to the utmost) what to say; and an excitation of his affections, to
speak with life, or else the hearers will perceive his coldness. And
though all this may be counterfeit and hypocritically affected, yet it is
a great help to seriousness and sincerity to have the faculties all
awake; and it is a great help to awaken them to be under such a
constant necessity even from man. As those that are apt to sleep at
prayer, will do it less when they know men observe them, than at
another time.
(2.) And both to speaker and hearers, human frailty maketh it hard
to be equally affected with the same thing spoken a hundred times, as
we are at first when it is new, and when it is clothed in comely variety
of expressions. As the same book affecteth us not at the twentieth
reading as it did at the first. Say not, it is a dishonourable weakness to
be thus carried by the novelty of things or words; for though that be
true, it is a dishonour common to all mankind, and a disease which is
your own, and which God alloweth us all lawful means to cure, and to
correct the unhappy effects while it is uncured.
12. Lastly, set forms serve unworthy men to hide their unworthiness
by, and to be the matter of a controversy in which they may vent their
envy against them that are abler and holier than themselves.
III. Having now truly showed you the commodities and
incommodities of both the ways, for the other question, Which of
them is the best? I must give you but some rules to answer it
yourselves.
1. That is best which hath most and greatest commodities, and
fewest and least discommodities.
2. For neither of them is forbidden, in itself considered, nor evil, but
by accident.
3. One may have more commodities and the other more
discommodities in one country and age than in another, and with
some persons than with others.
4. Sober christians should be very backward in such cases to quarrel
with the churches where they live or come, but humbly submit to
them in lawful things, though they think them inconvenient; because
it is not they that are the governors and judges.
5. The commands of authority and the concord of the churches may
weigh down many lighter accidents.
 6. I crave leave to profess that my own judgment is, that somewhat
of both ways joined together will best obviate the incommodities of
both. To have so much wholesome, methodical, unquestionable forms
as near as may be in Scripture phrase, as is necessary to avoid the
inconvenience of a total exclusion of forms, and to the attainment of
their desirable ends; and to have so much withal of freedom in prayer,
as is necessary to its ends, and to avoid the deadness, formality, and
other incommodities of forms alone. Though by this opinion I cross
the conceits of prejudiced men on both extremes, I think I cross not
the judgment of the church of England, which alloweth free prayers in
the pulpit, and at the visitation of the sick; and I cross not the opinion
of any ancient church that ever I read of, nor of the fathers and
pastors whose works are come to our hands; nor yet of Luther,
Melancthon, Bucer, Zuinglius, Calvin, Beza, Zanchius, and the rest of
our famous reformers; nor yet of the famous nonconformists of
England, Cartwright, Hildersham, Greenham, Perkins, Bain, Amesius,
&c. and I less fear erring in all this company, than with those on either
of the extremes.[321]

[321] I have a manuscript of Mr. Cartwright's in which, having fully

proved the falsehood of Sutliff's suspicion that he was acquainted with
Hacket's project, he answereth his charge, as if he were against forms
of prayer, that all the years that he lived at Middleburg and Antwerp,
he constantly used the same form before sermon, and mostly after
sermon, and also did read prayers in the church; and that since he
seldom concluded but with the Lord's prayer.

Quest. LXXIX. Is it lawful to forbear the preaching of some truths, upon

man's prohibition, that I may have liberty to preach the rest; yea, and
to promise beforehand to forbear them? Or to do it for the church's
peace?

Answ. 1. Some truths are of so great moment and necessity, that

without them you cannot preach the gospel in a saving sort. These
you may not forbear, nor promise to forbear.
 2. Some truths are such as God at that time doth call men
eminently to publish and receive (as against some heresy when it is at
the very height, or the church in greatest danger of it); or concerning
some duty which God then specially calleth men to perform (as the
duty of loyalty just in the time of a perilous rebellion, &c.) Such
preaching being a duty, must not be forborne, when it cannot be
performed upon lawful terms.
3. But some truths are controverted among good men; and some
are of a lower nature and usefulness: and concerning these I further
say,
(1.) That you may not renounce them or deny them, nor subscribe
to the smallest untruth for liberty to preach the greatest truth.
(2.) But you may for the time that the church's benefit requireth it,
both forbear to preach them, and promise to forbear, both for the
church's peace, and for that liberty to preach the gospel, which you
cannot otherwise obtain. The reasons are,
1. Because it is not a duty to preach them at that time; for no duty
is a duty at all times: affirmative precepts bind not ad semper,
because man cannot always do them.
2. It is a sin to prefer a lesser truth or good before a greater. You
cannot speak all things at once. When you have all done, some, yea, a
thousand must be by you omitted. Therefore the less should be
omitted rather than the greater.
3. You have your office to the church's edification. Preaching is
made for man, and not man for preaching. But the church's edification
requireth you rather to preach the gospel, than that opinion or point
which you are required to forbear. Without this the hearers may be
saved, but not without the gospel.
And what a man may do and must do, he may on good occasion
promise to do.
He that thinketh diocesans, or liturgies, or ceremonies unlawful, and
yet cannot have leave to preach the gospel (in time of need) unless
 he will forbear, and promise to forbear to preach against them, may
and ought so to do and promise, rather than not to preach the gospel.
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.

[322] Matt, xxviii. 20; Rom. x. 14; 1 Cor. ix. 16; Acts v. 42; x. 42;
2 Tim. iv. 1, 2; Acts viii. 4, 12; xv. 35.

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]

[323] Luke vi. 5; xiii. 15; Mark ii. 27.

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.

[324] Psal. xcii. 1-5; cxviii. 1-3, 15, 19, 23, 24, 27-29; Acts xx. 7, 9;
Rev. i. 10; Acts xxiv. 14, 25, 26, &c.; Psal. xvi. 7-10; 1 Cor. xvi. 1, 2.
[325] Psal. ii. 9-11; Heb. xii. 28, 29.
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.

[326] 1 Cor. xiv.; Psal. cl.; lxxxi. 2, 3; xcviii. 5; xciv. 1-3, &c.; cv. 2, 7,
&c.; cxlv. throughout; Col. iii. 16.
[327] Numb. i. 54; iii. 10, 31; Exod. xx.; Heb. iv. 16, 17; Eph. ii. 13;
Heb. xii. 18, 21-23.

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]

[328] Matt. vi. 18.

[329] Psal. cxxxvi.; cvii, 8, 13, 21, &c.

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]

[330] Mic. vi. 6; Jer. xxiii. 27; Isa. lii. 5, 6; xxix. 24; xlii. 8, 9; Psal. ii.
10, 11; Phil. ii. 2, 9-12; Psal. xxxiv. 3; lxvi. 2; lxviii. 4; lxxii. 19; lxxvi.
1, 2; xcvi. 2; c. 4; cxi. 9; cxlviii. 13; cxlix. 3; Isa. ix. 6, 7; xii. 4; Psal.
cxxxviii. 2, 3; Rev. xv. 4; 1 Chron. xxix. 20; 2 Chron. xxix. 30.

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.

[331] 1 Chron. xvii. 16; 2 Sam. vii. 17.

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 Answ. 1. It is the office of the pastor to be the

guide and ruler in such things, (when the
with the magistrate's
part. 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.
Quest. XCII. May a whole church, or the greater part, be
excommunicated?

Answ. 1. To excommunicate is by ministerial authority to pronounce

the person unmeet for christian communion, as being under the guilt
of impenitence in heinous sin; and to charge the church to forbear
communion with him, and avoid him, and to bind him over to the bar
of God.
2. The pastor of a particular church may pronounce all the church
uncapable of christian communion and salvation till they repent, e. g.
If they should all be impenitent Arians, Socinians, blasphemers, &c.
for he hath authority, and they deserve it. But he hath no church that
he is pastor of, whom he can command to avoid them. 3. The
neighbour pastors of the churches about them, may, upon full proof,
declare to their own churches, that such a neighbour church that is
fallen to Arianism, &c. is unmeet for christian communion and to be
owned as a church of Christ; and therefore charge their flocks not to
own them, nor to have occasional communion with their members
when they come among them. For there is authority, and a meet
object, and necessity for so doing; and therefore it may be done. 4.
But a single pastor of another church may not usurp authority over
any neighbour church, to judge them and excommunicate them,
where he hath neither call nor full proof, as not having had
opportunity to admonish them all, and try their repentance.[332]
Therefore the pope's excommunications are rather to be contemned,
than regarded. 5. Yet if many churches turn heretics notoriously, one
single neighbour pastor may renounce their communion, and require
his flock for to avoid them all. 6. And a pastor may as lawfully
excommunicate the major part of his church, by charging the minor
part to avoid them, as he may do the minor part; except that
accidentally the inconveniences of a division may be so great, as to
make it better to forbear; and so it may oft fall out also, if it were the
minor part.

[332] 2 John 10, 11; 3 John 9, 10; Rev. ii. 5, 16; iii. 5, 6, 15.
Quest. XCIII. What if a church have two pastors, and one
excommunicate a man, and the other absolve him, what shall the
church and the dissenter do?

Answ. It was such cases that made the churches of old choose
bishops, and ever have but one bishop in one church. But, 1. He that
is in the wrong is first bound to repent and yield to the other. 2. If he
will not, the other in a tolerable ordinary case may for peace give way
to him, though not consent to his injurious dealing. 3. In a dubious
case they should both forbear proceeding till the case be cleared. 4.
In most cases, each party should act according to his own judgment,
if the counsel of neighbour pastors be not able to reconcile them. And
the people may follow their own judgments, and forbear obeying
either of them formally till they agree.

Quest. XCIV. For what sins may a man be denied communion, or

excommunicated? Whether for impenitence in every little sin; or for
great sin without impenitence?

Answ. 1. I have showed before that there is a suspension which is

but a forbearance of giving a man the sacrament, which is only upon
an accusation till his cause be tried; and an innocent person may be
falsely accused, and so tried.
2. Some sins may be of so heinous scandal, that if the person
repent of them this day, his absolution and reception may be delayed
till the scandal be removed. 1. Because the public good is to be
preferred before any man's personal good. 2. And the churches, or
enemies about, cannot so suddenly know of a man's repentance. If
they hear of a man's murder, perjury, or adultery to-day, and hear that
he is absolved to-morrow, they will think that the church consisteth of
such, or that it maketh very light of sin. Therefore the ancient
churches delayed and imposed penances, partly to avoid such
scandal. 3. And partly because that some sins are so heinous, that a
sudden profession is not a sufficient evidence of repentance, unless
there be also some evidence of contrition.
 3. But ordinarily no man ought to be excommunicated for any sin
whatsoever, unless impenitence be added to the sin.[333] Because he
is first to be admonished to repent, Matt. xviii. 15, 16; Tit. iii. 10. And
repentance is the gospel condition of pardon to believers.
4. A man is not to be excommunicated for every sin which he
repenteth not of. Because, 1. Else all men should be excommunicated.
For there are in all men some errors about sin and duty, and so some
sins which men cannot yet perceive to be sin. 2. And ministers are not
infallible, and may take that for a sin which is no sin, and so should
excommunicate the innocent. 3. And daily unavoidable infirmities,
though repented of, yet awaken not the soul sometimes to a notable
contrition; nor are they fit matter for the church's admonition.[334] A
man is not to be called openly to repentance before the church for
every idle word, or hour.
4. Therefore to excommunication these two must concur: 1. A
heinousness in the sin. 2. Impenitence after due admonition and
patience.

[333] Luke xiii. 3, 5; Acts ii. 37-39, &c.

[334] Gal. vi. 1-4; James iii. 1-3.

Quest. XCV. Must the pastors examine the people before the sacrament?

Answ. 1. Regularly they should have sufficient notice after they

come to age that they own their baptismal covenant, and that they
have that due understanding of the sacrament and the sacramental
work, and such a christian profession as is necessary to a due
participation.
2. But this is fitliest done at their solemn transition out of their
infant church state into their adult: and it is not necessarily to be done
every time they come to the Lord's table (unless the person desire
help for his own benefit); but only once, before their first
communicating: if it be the satisfaction of the pastor or church that is
intended by it.
Quest. XCVI. Is the sacrament of the Lord's supper a converting
ordinance?

Answ. You must distinguish, 1. Between the conversion of infidels

without the church, and of hypocrites within it. 2. Between the
primary and the secondary intention of the institutor. 3. Between the
primary duty of the receiver, and the event. And so I conclude,
1. That God did not command ministers to give infidels the Lord's
supper to convert them to christianity.
2. He requireth us to give it to none but those that profess
themselves converted from infidelity and a state of wickedness, and to
none that profess not true saving faith and repentance.
3. God never commanded or allowed any infidel to demand or
receive it to his conversion.
4. God commandeth the pastors of the church to deliver it to
hypocrites, (who at the heart are infidels, or impenitent and ungodly,)
if they profess faith and repentance, and desire or require it.[335]
5. There is much in the nature of the sacrament, which tendeth to
the conversion of a hypocrite.
6. And God often blesseth it to the conversion of hypocrites; so that
it may thence be said to be his secondary intention.
7. But yet he that knoweth himself to be a mere hypocrite, or void
of saving faith and repentance, should not come first and immediately
to the sacrament, to be converted by it; but should first so long hear,
read, meditate, and pray, till he repent and believe, and his heart
consent to the covenant of God; and then he should come with
penitent contrition, and solemnly renew his covenant in this
sacrament, and there receive a sealed pardon.

[335] Luke xxii. 19; 1 Cor. xi. 24; Acts ii. 37, 38; Matt. xxviii. 19, 20;
1 Cor. x. 16; 2 Cor. vi. 14; Acts viii. 13, 37, 38; 1 Cor. xi. 27-30.

Quest. XCVII. Must no man come to the sacrament, that is uncertain or

doubtful of the sincerity of his faith and repentance?
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