conceived should want a power to set the holy Table Altar-wise what can be said to that uniformity of publick order to which the piety of the times is so well enclined What say you to the good work which is now in hand Shall such a poore trifling piece of work as this discountenance these sublime intentions Non sinam non patiar non feram And thus our Coal sparkles and layes about him But surely these demonstrations were born in Thebes and not in Athens and being of the true Cadmean brood do kill and destroy one another suóque Marte cadunt subiti per mutua vulnera fratres For if the Vicar had power to transpose Tables and set up Altars without and contrary to the will of his Ordinary why should he not in the name of God demurre upon the Commands of his Superiour in matters of exteriour order and bid a Fico to your first Argument But if upon his first demurre in this kinde imperium intercidit the Empire Ecclesiasticall is at an end what shall become of the lusty blade that understood himself better then this extravagant Ordinary and of your second kinde of Argument Mary then if the Piety of the times the devotion of some judicious particulars and a good work as yet in Abeyance and pendant in the aire but ready yer long to fall upon our heads shall become the Square and Canon of our exteriour order in the Church Barbara celarent talke no more of Mood and Figure for I would not give a button for all your Syllogismes So that these Thebane Arguments that drew their first breath Vervecum in patria crassóque sub aëre are but a kinde of Sheeps head sodden in the wooll and will do the Writer of the Letter no harm at all being made of the tusks though of a Serpent indeed yet of a dead toothlesse Serpent First as touching the Reverend Ordinaries of this Land if there be any that dislike of their Callings or conceive of the same as not grounded upon Apostolicall and for all the essentiall parts thereof upon divine Right I would he were with Master Cotton in the New as unworthy of that most happy government which by the favour of God and the King all the Laitie and Clergie doe here enjoy in the old England But yet they never had or challenged unto themselves any such exorbitant power over their Clergie and over the Laws and Canons established especially over Acts of Parliaments as this Iudicious and learned Divine as he writes but indeed most injudicious and trifling Novice as he proves himselfe doth attribute unto them Did ever any Bishop covet to command his Clergie as a Generall doth his Armie in a drunken mutinie by Martiall Law And yet this is the very President he cites out of Tacitus No no Bishops have ever governed their Clergie by Canon Law and not by Cannon shot God hath appointed them to governe both the Priests and the People subjected unto them according to certaine divine and humane Lawes and that with a power of Moderation and not Domination saith a great Prelate of this Church Sitting in Synods they might heretofore judge of Canons but in their Chaires they are not to judge of Canons but according to Canons saith the Father of all the Canonists Otherwise why are the Appeals by Canon Law as ancient in the Church of God as the Canons themselves But because it is possible a Prelate may propose unto himselfe some peevish wrangling and waspish humour of his owne in stead of a Canon No ecclesiasticall Judge whatsoever is to guide himself by his own sense but by the authoritie of the Canons It is true indeed that our reverend Archbishops and Bishops shops here in England had a power in Synod to make Declaratories and Revocatories of their Common Law as they terme it to set penalties where they were wanting and aggravate them where they were deficient and to make Additaments to the constitutions of the Pope himselfe but still with this proviso that they do not overthrow the jus commune and crosse the generall Lawes of Gods Church But this power they had heretofore it being now quite taken away by King Henry the Eighth And that not for the reason some have given thereof because the state of the Clergie was then thought a suspected part to the Kingdome in their late homage to the Bishop of Rome for there were as great Royalists in those dayes as in any age sithence whatsoever but for the reasons I gave in the Chapter before that these Ecclesiastical Jurisdictiōs were the native Roses and Lilies of the Crown not first prickt in by Gardiner the Bishop but grafted and deeply rooted in the same by the first Gardener we read of from the very beginning So that the power of making and executing such Canons being ceased if the Ordinaries now command where there is no Law or former Canon in force it layes a burden and grievance upon the subject from which he may appeale as being a thing unjust and consequently of a nature whereunto obedience is no way due Nor do our reverend Bishops otherwise conceive it Whatsoever by the Laws of God the Prince or the Church is once constituted is no longer to be mooted upon but absolutely obeyed by all inferiours And what God the King and Church have directed is not to be put to deliberation but to execution And another learned man saith truly that we make not the power of the Bishops to be Princely but Fatherly and dirigible by the Lawes And Master Hooker gives the reason hereof When publike consent of the whole hath established any thing every mans judgement being thereunto compared is private howsoever his calling be to some kind of publike charge Now it is true as Dr. Coal noteth that in all doubts that may arise how to understand do and execute the things contained in our Liturgie a deciding power is left to the Bishop of the Diocese to take order by his discretion for the quieting of the same But it is as true that Coal dasheth out with an c. the main Proviso of this power So that the same Order be not contrary to any thing contained in this Booke And therefore it is untrue what he saith in the end of his Pamphlet That the Ordinary hath an Authoritie of his own as he is Ordinary to place the holy Table in one or other situation more than what is given him is case of doubt and diversity only by the foresaid Preface All which I have opened the more at large to shew the raw and indigested Crudities that this judicious Divine imposeth upon us not that I would advise any Clergy-man of what degree soever to oppose his Ordinary either in this or any other particular of so low a nature Far be it from me to do so That is a Doctrine nigro carbone notanda to
France For they ever held their Kings if not for the Head of their Church yet surely for the principall and most sound member thereof Which is the reason that the opening or Overture of their most ancient Councels under the first and second that is the Merovingian and Caroline line was ever by the power and authority and sometimes the presidencie of their Kings and Princes And my Authour quarrels very much the Monk Gratian for attributing to Isidore of Spain rather then to a Nationall Councell of France held in the yeare 829 that brave and excellent saying Principes seculi nonnunquam intra Ecclesiam potestatis adeptae culmina tenent ut per eandem potestatem disciplinam ecclesiasticam muniant God sometimes imparts secular power to Princes that live in the bosome of the Church that they might imploy this power in preserving ecclesiasticall discipline Saepe per regnum terrenum coeleste regnum proficit The Kingdome of Heaven doth many times take growth and encrease from these Kingdomes upon Earth Cognoscant principes seculi se Deo debere rationem propter Ecclesiam quam à Deo tuendam accipiunt And therefore the Great ones of the world must know that God will one day call them to an account for his Church so tenderly recommended unto them It is true indeed that these words are found in the sixth Councell of Paris lib. 2. c. 2. But it is as true that in my Book Isidore is set down in the Margent as ready to own them And both these will stand well enough considering that Isidore Scholar to Gregory the Great did flourish very neare 200 yeares before the Aera of that Councell and that that Councell by incorporating of these words unto the substance of their Canons doth put a greater lustre and authority upon them as the French Antiquary well observes And according to this doctrine are all those Capitulars or mixt Laws for matters of Church and Common-wealth of Charles the Great Ludovicus Pius Lewis the Grosse Pipine and others gathered by Lindenbrogius And a world of other Capitulaâ—s of the same nature intermingled with the Canons of the French Councells in the late edition of them by Sirmond the Jesuite In a word the very pure Acts and Constitutions of the Synods themselves were in those former times no further valid and binding then as they were confirmed by the Kings of France and entered duly upon the Records of their Palais or Westminster-Hall And yet under favour all Crowns Imperiall must give place in regard of this one flower of ecclesiasticall jurisdiction to the Crown of Great Britannie For as our Prince is recorded to be the first Christian King so is he intimated to be the first that ever exercised ecclesiasticall jurisdiction being directed by Eleutherius the Pope to fetch his Laws by the advice of his Counsell from the Book of God the old and new Testament wherewith to reclaim his subjects to the Faith and Law of Christ and to the holy Church And if Father Parsons shall damne this Letter as foisted and another obscure Papist suspect it to be corrupted let the Reader content himself with these proofs in the Margent of a farre more authenticall averment and authority Sure I am that according to this advice of Eleâ—therius the British Saxon Danish and first Norman Kings have governed their Churches and Church-men by Capitulars and mixed Digests composed as it were of Common and Canon Law and promulged with the advice of the Counsell of the Kingdome as we may see in those particulars set forth by Mr. Lambard Mr Selden D. Powell and others And I do not beleeve there can be shewed any Ecclesiasticall Canons for the Government of the Church of England untill long after the Conquest which were not either originally promulged or afterwards approved and allowed by either the Monarch or some King of the Heptarchy sitting and directing in the Nationall or Provinciall Synod For all the Collections that Lindwood comments upon are as Theophrastus speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but rough and rugged money of a more fresh and later coinage And yet in those usurping times I have seen a Transcript of a Record Anno 1157. 3º Henr. 2. wherein when the B. of Chichester oppos'd some late Canons against the Kings Exemption of the Abbey of Battles from the Episcopall Jurisdiction it is said that the King being angry and much moved therewith should reply Tu pro Papae authoritate ab hominibus concessa contra dignitatum Regalium authoritates mihi à Deo concessas calliditate argutâ niti praecogitas Do you Sr goe about by subtilties of wit to oppose the Popes authority which is but the favour or connivence of men against the authority of my Regall dignities being the Charters and donations of God himselfe And thereupon requires reason and justice against the Bishop for this foul insolencie And it hath been alwayes as the practice so the doctrine of this Kingdome that both in every part and in the whole Laws do not make Kings but Kings Laws which they alter and change from time to time as they see occasion for the good of themselves and their Subjects And to maintain that Kings have any part of their Authority by any positive Law of Nations as this Scribbler speaks of a Jurisdiction which either is or ought to be in the Crown by the ancient Laws of the Realm and is confirmed by 1º Elis. c. 1. is accounted by that great personage an assertion of a treasonable nature But when Sr Edward Coke or any other of our reverend Sages of the Law do speak of the ancient Laws of the Realm by which this Right in ecclesiasticall causes becomes a parcell of the Kings jurisdiction and united to his Imperiall Crown they do not mean any positive or Statute-law which creates him such a Right as if a man should bestow a new Fee-simple upon the Crown as this Scribbler instanceth or any Law which declares any such Right created by any former Law but the continuall practice Judgements Sentences or as this very Report calls it Exercise of the ancient Laws of the Realm which declareth and demonstrateth by the effect that the Kings of England have had these severall flowers of ecclesiasticall Iurisdiction stuck in their Imperiall Garlands by the finger of Almighty God from the very beginning of the Christian Monarchy within this Island For so our Sententiae Iudicum and Responsa prudentum have been termed time out of mind a main and principall part of the Common Law of England And therefore having cleared this point at large I shall easily yeeld to Dr Coal that the Kings Majesty may command a greater matter of this nature then that the holy Table should be placed where the Altar stood and be railed about for the greater decencie and that although the Statute of 1º Elis. c. 1.
singularity His Majesties Rescript Mentis aureae verba bracteata fit to be written in plates of gold is this and this onely concerning the point in controversie And likewise for so much as concerns the liberty given by the said Communion-book or Canon for placing the Communion-table in any Church or Chappell with most conveniency That liberty is not to be understood as if it were ever left to the discretion of the Parish much lesse to the particular fancy of any humorous person but to the judgement of the Ordinary to whose place and function it doth properly belong to give direction in that point both for the thing it self and for the time when and how long as he may finde cause With this Sentence I will conclude the Chapter And will not presume with any mortall discourse of mine to profane such heavenly expressions Here is more then I could say here is as much as I could think Here is no Altar no Altar-wise no fixing in the East no stepping no mounting but all left to the Law to the Communion-book to the Canon and to the Dioâ—esan And therefore if this do not defend the Writer of the Letter if he prove a Diocesan writing to his own private Parish-Priest par my par tout as our Common Lawyers use to say from the first word to the very last therein contained let him get him another Champion and remain undefended for me Si Troija dextrâ Defendi potis est etiam hâc defensa futura est CHAP. III. Of the Episcopall and Presbyterall or private Ministers power in matters of Ceremony What influence the Piety of the times or the secret good work now in hand can have on this subject AS the ancient wrastler in the Olympick Games finding his adversaries members so slick and slippery with oile and sweat as it was impossible to lay any fixed hold upon them used to powder them over with a kind of dust whereby to procure himself a surer gripe and fastning So this Pamphleter having slipt and glided as it were those poore Reasons he hath into all the severall parts of this Libell so as it is impossible to refute them without committing as many Tautologies as he useth himself I have thrown this Method like a kind of Pin-dust upon those naked limbs that I might get some hold of him and trie whether he be as strong and manly as he is fidging and slippery in his Refutation As therefore I have in the last Chapter reduced into a body all the Regall so I intend to do in this all the Ecclesiasticall power that the poore fellow conceives to be any way opposite to the Letter confuted I must therefore fall a picking of them up like so many Daisies in a bare Common here and there one where I can finde them First the setting of your Table Altar-wise being now exacted from you by your Ordinary This Case saith he requires more of your Obedience then Curiosity And should we all be so affected as to demurre on the Commands of our Superiours in matters of exteriour order and publick government till we are satisfied in the grounds and reasons of their Commands or fly off from our duty we should soon find a speedy dissolution both of Church and State You know who said it well enough Si ubi jubeantur quaerere singulis liceat pereunte obsequio imperium etiam intercidit Now the Ordinary of his own Authority can if he please so appoint and direct it Beside that his Majestie hath given encouragement to the Bishops and other Ordinaries whereof I have shewed the contrary in the precedent Chapter to require the like in all the Churches committed unto them Secondly The Vicar of Gr. himself might desire to have an Altar i. e. to have the Communion-table placed Altar-wise at the upper end of the Quire or use the name of Altar for the holy Table Because for any thing the Canon tells us the Vicar who is never nam'd or dream't of in the Canon or articled unto concerning this particular in either the Diocesan or Metropolitan Visitation was to have a greater hand in ordering of the said Table then the Bishops immediate Officers the Churchwardens were or ought to have as one that better understood what was convenient in and for Gods Service then they did or could Nor did the Vicar any thing against the Canon as he did not by taking his Mornings draught before he went about it in causing the Table to be disposed of to a more convenient place then before it stood in Onely this Epistoler is pleas'd to countenance the Vestry-doctrine of these dayes in which the Churchwardens and other Elders that grow in the Doctours barren wit never dream't of in the Letter would do all leaving their Minister God blesse good holy Church-men from such a misadventure to his studies and Meditations A thing more fitting for S. Basil or S. Bernard then for a Vicar who was never intended for a looker on or a dull spectatour of their active undertakings in removing when they are commanded by the Ordinary a joyned Table For the Curate being once appointed as a principall man to take Altars down who but he should set them up It is true indeed that the Bishop of the Diocese is the man to whom by right and by the Liturgie the ordering of these things doth belong but then it is as true or if it be not true as it is most false and foolish yet saith the Iudicious and learned Divine Dr Coal alià s Firebrand it is more fit that he should send his resolutions to the Priest then to the I know not what people a kind of Myrmidons swarm'd out of the Doctours fancie and never mentioned in the Letter confuted And to say that they are the Diocesans subordinate officers in this kind is another smack of the Vestry-doctrine And placed there on front to delight the people encouraged thereby to contemn their Parsons who are left to meere contemplative Meditations and not employed as they should be in removing and providing of Frames and Tables And therefore O bloudy Prelate to gore thy Clergy in this kind as not to suffer them to execute all these Mandates of Commissaries and Officialls concerning Bells Frames Bell-ropes Beeres Shove ls and square Tables but leave those active spirits to moulder away against all conscience in divine Meditations Parce precor stimulis Oh be not so hard-hearted and mercilesse to advance on this sort the Authoritie of the Churchwardens so high above their Ministers Especially seeing the Vicar in correspondence unto former practice some 80 yeares before thought the place where formerly the Altar stood to be fittest for it Which he knew better then this extravagant Epistoler though the Epistoler seem to be a Diocesan and the other a private Parish-priest in his Iurisdiction Thirdly and lastly If both the Ordinary and Vicar which is not to be
bloud was shed for thee and be thankfull Now he must have a knee of a Camel and heart of Oake that will not bow himself and after the manner of adoration and worship say Amen as S. Cyrill speaks to so patheticall a Prayer and Thanksgiving made by the Minister unto God in his behalf And this is a powerfull Argument indeed for conformity in this point with the which I have seen some Leicester-shire people of good sort that had been refractory for a long time satisfied in an instant by the Bishop of the Diocese being very sory they had not observed so much before That in the Church of England our whole act of Receiving is accompanied in every part with the act of Praying and Thanksgiving However it behooveth humble and meek spirits in such indifferent matters to submit themselves to the Order of the Church appointed by lawfull Authority And as long as our Liturgie hath the honour and repute given thereunto which it so well deferves there is little feare that the people will clap them down upon their Breech about our holy Table It being no posture used in this Church to say Amen to such divine raptures and ejaculations Beside that throughout all the Diocese I live in being no small part of the Kingdome there is whether the Epistoler likes it or no Rails and Barricadoes to keep the people from all irreverences in that kinde But the generall Rule in this case is that which is set down in the Articles of the Dutch Church in London allowed by Beza himself and divers others That every private mans judgement in these circumstances is not to be respected But what is profitable to edifie what is not is not to be determined by the judgement of the common people nor of some one man but as I have said at large heretofore of those that have the chief care and government in the Church And so was it well done by the Reformed Church in Poland first by Monitions in the year 1573. and then by Sanctions in the year 1583. Nè in usu sit that the usuall receiving of the Communion in those parts should not be by sitting round about the Table A Ceremonie which some of the Brethren as they call them had brought into those parts either from John Alasco their countrey-man or from other Reformed Churches as might be the commerce of these three Nations considered from the Low-countreys or the Church of Scotland where this posture of sitting was Synodically established from the very beginning of the Reformation It was well done of them I say to reform it but very ill done of you to steal this Coal from the Altar of Damasco and never say so much as I thank you good Gaffer or deliver it us cleanly as you found it And yet it is not considering you confesse the Thefts in the Title of your Book calling it ingeniously A COAL FROM THE ALTAR Yet I would you had spar'd to abuse that grave Synod to make them say peremptorily Haec ceremonia Ecclesiis Christianis non est usitata especially as you turn it to English that this Ceremony is a thing not used in the Christian Church And so put the reformed Churches to fall together by the eares one with another and many of them to become odious in the Christian Church Which God he knoweth is far from either the words or meaning of that Synod For their words are these Haec ceremonia licèt cum caeteris libera c. This Ceremony however in its own nature free and indifferent as the rest of the Ceremonies c. Which sweetens the Case very much And then for their meaning They do not say it is a thing not used in the Christian Church This is your fingering and corruption But they say it is me â—sed in those Christian and Evangelicall Churches nostri consenâ—us which agreed with them in Articles of confession They condemn no other Nations no more then the Church of England doth And is this the part of a judicious Divine to corrupt a passage in a Sectary or Puritan who will be sure without any mercy to send Hue and Cry after you over all the Countrey Surely the man hath been instructed by Chrysalus in Plautus Improbis-cum improbus sit harpaget furibus furetur quod queat He is resolv'd to put some knavery upon the knave himself and to steal from the Stealer what he can For indeed to come to the second point both the Coal and the Altar are quite mistaken to think that the Synod did ever say that this Ceremony was brought in or used by the modern Arians It is very well known that John Alasco who maintained this Ceremony of sitting in a little Book published here in England in K. Edwards dayes was setled in Poland and by the means of his Noble bloud and kindred in great favour with his Prince in the year 1557. which is long before either of these two Synods And all that either of the Synods say in dislike of the Ceremonie is this That it is Arianis cum Domino pari solio se collocantibus propria A thing fitter for the Arians who by their Doctrine and Tâ—neâ—s plac'd themselves cheek by joul with the Son of God then for devout and humble Christians compassed about with Neighbours so fundamentally hereticall I could say that here in England this worse conclusion of the Doctours To desire to sit at the Communion is more to be feared from the Opposers of our Liturgie who brag of their Cosin-ship and Coheir-ship with Christ then from us who are ready to live and die in defence of the same And the Altar at the last espied this to be the meaning of the Synod that this Sitting was proper to the Arians not by usage but secundum principia doctrinae suae as an Inference easily drawn from the Principles of their Doctrine Howbeit the Coal was resolv'd to wink at it in his Authour and to speak big words though beside the Cushion and against all truth of History that it was brought in at the first by the Modern Arians His Author telling him in the same Page that it was published in the Book of Scottish discipline Anno 1560. and my self having shewed by a Testimony beyond all exception that it was preached in Poland three year before that by John Alasco And then your Principles were they true as the one of them is false For there was never any Altar erected in the Temple but to sacrifice upon nor ever any man read in divine or humane learning that denied Incense to be a Mincha and kinde of Sacrifice the conclusion could not come within a league of us For we who extract our selves as I told you before from that Table in the Temple do desire to eat in no other manner then as the Priests and as David our Types did eat before us We do not desire to eat upon which
winde of Arrogancy conceive their people to be owned by them and not by Christ we would have them listen to their Saviour in the 21 of John IF YOU LOVE ME FEED MY FLOCK MEAS inquit non SUAS Mine good Sir not your Flock And therefore it is more then a presumptuous vanity to slight your Neighbours as if they were your own when they are none of yours but Gods people I will conclude this point with the observation of a Heathen man Irasci populo Romano nemo sapienter potest You may when Fortune is dispos'd to make some Christmas-sports prove a great but you shall never prove a wise or judicious man by these Ieeres and Invectives against the People CHAP. VII Canonicall standing of the Table 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In medio what they signifie Table in the midst of the Quire in the Easterne so in the Westerne Churches The Rites of the Church of Antiochia The Diptychs IN all this Section of the Fixing of the Altar or Communion-table at the upper end of the Quire where you see the Altar is perkt up already before the Communion-table in this new Heraldry there is nothing offered more then what hath been already handled worth the Readers perusall were it not that Reverend B. Iewell may not be left undefended from the irreverent usage and slights of this whiffler To the writer of the Letter he hath nothing to say unlesse he can make him say what he never imagined that the Table should stand most Canonically in the body of the Church No such matter in all the Letter It is there only affirmed that the Canons allow it not to be fixed to the End of the Quire where the Writer be he Canonist or none at all would have it situated when it is not used and used too when the Minister may be heard of all the Congregation but to be made of a moveable nature to meet with those Cases in the Law in the which without this transposing thereof upon occasions the Minister were he that Stentor with the sides of brasse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is Who equall'd with his voyce Full fifty men in noise could never be heard of his Congregation And happy was reverend Iewell in this point of Controversy for he had to do with a learned and Ingenuous Adversary who confest he never meanâ—t the people should understand any more of what was said at the Altar then what they could guesse at by dumb shews and outward Ceremonies This is fair dealing yet and gives us opportunity to ask him again Why then do S. Iames and S. Mark in their severall Liturgies give the people so large a part in all the Prayers and Letanies poured out at the very Altar But these new Reformers though they prepare and lay grounds for the same dare not for fear of so many Laws and Canons apparently professe this Eleusinian Doctrine They are as yet busied in taking in the out-works and that being done they may in time have a bout with the Fort it self But he tells us that the 82 Canon that saith the Table shall be placed in the Church or Chancell so as the Minister may more conveniently be heard by the Communicants is a matter of Permission rather then Command He saith so indeed but without any authority or reason I hope the reverend house of Convocation is not convened or licensed by the King to make Permissions that men may do what they list but to make when they are confirmed by the King strong and binding Canons to be obeyed by the Subjects and to be pursued by all the Ordinaries of the Kingdome And so is this Canon a Conditionall Law of the same nature with a Conditionall Proposition growing to be of an absolute and Categoricall force when the Condition begins to exist though before suspended and in deliberation As if the Table be so far esloigned and removed from the people that they cannot possibly heare their Minister when he officiates thereupon the Ordinaries in this case are not permitted as this man conceiveth but absolutely required to transpose the Table And his Majesties most prudent Determination in the case of S. Gregories makes the Ordinaries indeed Iudges of the Fact and the existence of the Condition as was most fitting but that once agreed upon it makes them by no means Arbitratours of the Law which if they do not literally follow and pursue the parties are left to their ordinary Appeals as in other cases of grievances and abuses For in all other sentences Ecclesiasticall the Iudges are not to pursue their own sense but the sense and meaning of the Canons Yea but the Altars may soon be mounted up by steps that the Minister may be seen and heard of the Congregation I cannot tell you that neither without new directions For the Orders made 1561 require plainly that if in any Chancell the steps be transposed they be not erected again And these were high Commissioners grounded upon the Act of Parliament who set forth these Orders Which how far they binde I dare not determine being as you say none of the ablest Canonists in the Church of England But he must first shew us where it was determined by the Ordinary of the place that Morning and Evening prayer shall be said onely in the body of the Church before he venture on such new and strange Conclusions And for the Rubrick it saith onely that it shall be so placed in Communion-time And just so saith the Letter and no otherwise In the body of the Church or of the Chancell where Morning and Evening prayer be appointed to be read when the Communion is to be celebrated So that you see our Coal begins to be quite extinct and to yeeld nothing but vapour and smoke for a parting farewell For considering that both Provinces God be praised have been so lately visited what needs the Writer saddle up his Horse and visit them over again to know where the severall Ordinaries have appointed the Reading-pews in every Parish-Church to be erected Erected they must be in some convenient place or else the Canon is not pursued Wheresoever that Convenient place is in Church or Chancell thither in this case of the Peoples not-hearing their Minister the Communion-table is to be transposed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But he tells us our Countrey-churches for the most part are so little that this provision is superfluous What pity is this that as Alfonso the wise in other matters in this no wiser then our Doctour bemoan'd himself very much that he was not at Gods elbow to put him in mind of some things when he was at work in the Creation of the World so that this Iudicious Divine had not been at the elbow of that unexperienced Prelate Archbishop Bancroft whose very dreams were wiser then his Morning-thoughts and the rest of his Brethren when they were in hand with
that the Latine word for a Table was not always Mensa but at the first Mesa from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Varro because this Vtensill saith he is ever plac'd in the very middle space between us So that according to this great and ancient Critick with whom the modern do concurre it cannot properly be called a Table unles it be placed as S. Austin reports it in Medio in the Middle But however Etymologies may seem more pretty then weighty Arguments it is impossible it should be used by S. Austin in this place in that Metaphoricall sense which is here before you For the man will not be so senselesse I presume as to say that Medium doth properly signifie before as that the Vertue in Ethicks is to stand before the two Vices or the Argument in Logick to stand alwayes before the two Extremes but that he explaines his meaning by that other Phrase afferre in Medium to bring it to us or before us so as we may use it as freely if we please as we do the meat and drink upon the table for that very purpose layd before us Such and such a thing was then to seek but now afferam in Medium I will lay it before you Now will I make a School-boy whom with his book of Phrases the Doctour hath given us for a Companion in this place easily conceive that S. Austin could not possibly mean it so in these words though the Doctâ—ur when he scrubbed up this leaf did little dream of what could be objected For the Table of the Lord or the Sacrament of that Table was not to be brought unto nor to be set before these to whom S. Austin addresseth his speach in this place For he speaks unto the Audientes a sort of Catechumeni and not unto the Fideles or Faithfull in this Passage He tells them that they are as yet to be fed by Preachers not by Sacraments and bids them ply it hard that from Hearers becoming Vnderstanders they may in time become Receivers and so be fed by this Sacrament at the Lords Table And because that very word might amaze those Novices who were never so timely to be instructed in these mysteries and did not know what Table that should be which S. Austin call'd the Lords Table being ever driven out by the Deacon when the Priest began to approach the holy Table S. Austin tells them that the Lords Table is that Table in medio constituta How is that Brought unto them or ready for them Soft and fair nothing so They are yet but Audientes and have a great while 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Time it as you heard before many degrees to get thorow yer it come to that They must be genuflectentes knee-benders as the Councell calls them they must be Competentes suiters saith S. Austin they must be Intincti dipped in the Font as Tertullian terms it before this Table be either brought unto them or ready for them It is not ready for them before they be ready for it But that 's the Lords Table there saith S. Austin which you see placed in the midst of the Church For were it in the Chancell you could not be admitted to draw so neare as to see and view it and could you but by chance get a glimpse of the same you were instantly all discipline notwithstanding to be baptized Ply then your Catechismes and Sermons apace that you may not only see it but partake of it This none are admitted to do but the Faithfull nor is it to be expected of you untill after two or three further degrees of Ecclesiasticall discipline you do your selves likewise grow to be of the number of the Faithfull And whether we shall believe this School-boys device or S. Augustine expounded by himself and all Antiquity I leave to the consideration of the learned Reader But what needs this wresting and writhing of Histories Fathers and generall Councels Is it such a new thing in Israel that the Tables heretofore and the high Altars afterwards did stand in the midst of the Church or Chancell or at leastwise so far from the wall as the Priests and Deacons might stand round about them Did ever any learned Bapist make a question of it Let this fellow but travell into any part of the World where Altars stand and he cannot but blush to impose such Dreams upon the people For the practice of the Eastern Church I have already set down rather too many then too few Examples I will do the like now for the Western Church First quoting the Authorities of some learned Pontifician Writers ancient and modern And then the Precedents answering these Authorities in all Ages and in all Countreys whatsoever Howbeit I found some difficulty herein for being laught at by all Strangers for making unto them such a foolish Question as they deem'd it when I came home to my Study and mine own Books I found it such a silly thing that very easinesse made it hard to be related in serious manner as M. Hooker speaks of not an unlike subject For my Authours I will begin with Walafridus Strabo who though he was but a blinker and saw as this Doctour doth but with half an eye yet could he see that the Christians in the beginning did place their Altars indifferently in diversas plagas East West North and South and gives a reason for it not to be easily refuted Quia non est locus ubi non est Deus God is as well the God of the West North and South as he is of the East and it is Paganish as Minutius Felix well observes to make him more propitious in any one Corner of the world then he is in another And this Strabo died about the yeare 846. One Aloysius Nâ—varinus writes as much upon those words Cirâ—undabo Altare tuum That their situation was such in former times that the Priests might encompasse round about the holy Altar But the most learned in our Age of all that have dealt with Rites and Ceremonies is Iosephus Vicecomes who both out of the Tombs and Sepulchres of the Martyrs the first place elected in the Church for fixing of Altars and especially out of that passage in Eusebius we spake of before takes it for a very clear and indubitable Assertion Altaria medio in Templo allocata fuisse that Altars were placed heretofore in the midst of the Church And Bellarmire himself together with Suarez do willingly allow they may be fixt in any posture propter loci commoditatem if the conveniency of the place shall so require it But the main Authority I relie upon is the Roman Pontificall Which in the Ceremonies of the Consecration of the Altar enjoyns the Bishop in three severall places at least to compasse the Altar circumcirca round about Which were it fastened to the East-end were impossible for
ancient Officers to the Archdeacon his Officiall or next Surrogate for the designing and to the Church-wardens for the actuall placing of the Table in the most convenient situation And the Elders of the Vestry will be little edified with this doctrine to be made but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle speaks dead and passive Instruments to execute the Commands of the Ordinary and his Surrogates But all this while the Vicar is but a dull spectator and hath no Sphere of Activity to move in but is wholly left to his private Meditations And S. Ambrose indeed doth complain of the like complainers in his time who held that the study of the holy Scriptures was but a dull and idle kinde of employment But then Matto Sancto Petro as the Charletan said when he saw the Pope in his Pontificalibus O simple S. Peter in the sixth of the Acts that thought it a far more laborious work then all this moving and removing of Tables O foolish S. Basil that bids his Clergie take especiall heed that their Martha be not troubled with many things O dull Synesius that held it fitter for an Aegyptian then a Christian Priest to be over-troubled with matters of wrangling Well Doctour God help the poore people committed to thy Cure they are like to finde but a sorry Shepheard one that will be in the Vestry when he should be in the Pulpit and by his much nimblenesse in the one is likely to shew a proportionable heavinesse in the other But now ventum est ad Triarios we are drawing on to the maine of his Battell and the very pith of his Arguments That the Writer of the Letter doth not shew one footstep of Learning or sincere affections to the Orders of the Church because he did not in a private Monition written nine yeares before fore-see and make way for a great good work and the Piety of the times that were to follow nine yeares after Alas Nè saevi magne Sacerdos Do not lay all this load upon him most judicious Divine For as you finde by your self that can further see into things to come that all Prophets are not Ordinaries so consider I beseech you in cool bloud that all Ordinaries are not Prophets We may discern of things that are by Sight that were by Memory but before the proof make shew no man is such a Prophet of the future that he knoweth which way to direct his instructions saith a learned and noble Writer out of Sophocles I am one I thank God that have buenas entranas as the Spaniards speak some good and tender bowels within me and do much pity the poore mans case even by mine own How could he possibly fore-see this great Good work or Piety of these Times so many yeares before which I opening my eyes as wide as I can cannot discover at this very instant What is this great Work now in hand What new Proclamations Rubricks Canons Injunctions Articles are come at the least into these parts as any speciall invitations to the piety of these Times more then were exhibited to the piety of all other Times from the first beginning of the Reformation His Majestie heard the Cause in the yeare 1633 and in his Royall decision he calls it not Altar but Communion-Table and leaves the moving and removing thereof to the discretion of the Ordinary His Grace the Metropolitane visited these parts in the yeare 1634 and in all his Articles doth not so much as mention the word Altar but calls it as the Rubrick doth a Communion-Table and puts his Article upon the Church-warden and not upon the Vicar concerning the decent site and convenient standing of the hâ—ly Boord Whether have you in your Church a convenient and decent Communion-Table c. And whether is the same Table placed in such convenient sort within the Chancell or Church at that the Minister may be best heard in his Ministery and the Administration and that the greatest number may communicate And whether is it so used out of time of Divine Service as is not agreeable to the holy use of it c. And his Lordship or Diocesan visiting the very next yeare 1635. as a burnt child and dreading the fire puts the same Article in haec verba in the very front of his own Book Sithence that time we have heard no Ring but of the lesser Bells in this Tune And one of these I heare chyming at this very instant Whether have you in your Church a decent Table for the Communion conveniently placed And all these concurring with the conceit of the Letter in every particular in the name of a Communion-Table and not an Altar in the place of the Church or Chancell not of the East-end onely in the distinct not confused time of receiving and not-receiving in the Accompt of the conveniency of the situation to be rendred by the Church-warden not the Vicar how shall I that live at this day much lesse the Writer of the Letter dead peradventure nine yeares ago reasonably discover to use your own phrase that Good work now in hand and the speciall inclination of these times to a peculiar kinde of pietie differing from the pietie of former times which under the peaceable Reignes of Queene Elisabeth King Iames and King Charles the Church of God in these parts hath most hâ—ppily enjoyed Surely I do reasonably presume that these dreams of Dr. Coal notwithstanding The thing that hath been it is that which shall be and that which is done is that which shall be done and that in matters of this nature there is no new thing under the Sun Because wise men tell us that change of Laws especially in matters of Religion must be warily proceeded in And because there is no manner of Reason that the orders of the Church should so depend upon one or two mens liking or disliking that she should be compelled to alter the same so oft as any should be therewith offended For what Church is void of some contentious persons and quarrellers whom no order no reason no reformation can please I should therefore reasonably presume that this Good work in hand is but the second part of Sancta Clara and a froathy speculation of some feâ— who by tossing the ball of Commendations the one to the other do stile themselves by a kind of Canting judicious Divines Whereas they be generally as you may observe by this poore Pamphleter doctissâ—â—orum hominum indoctissimum genus as Eâ—asmus spake of another the like men learned onely in unlearned Liturgies beyond that of no judgement and lesse Divinitie For who but one whose Ruffe as Sir Edward Coke was wont to say is yellow and his head shallow would propound these wild conceits of an imaginary Pietie of the times and a Platonicall Idea of a good work in hand for a Modell to reforme such a well-composed Church as the Church of England
And if any Reformation of the name the situation or use of the Communion-Table were seriously in hand what man of the least discretion but would take the Magistrate along with him The bounden dutie of Subjects is to be content to follow Authoritie and not enterprising to run before it For if you let every Minister do what he list speak what he list alter what he list as oft as him list upon a general pretense of a Good work in hand or the Pietie of the times you shall have as many kinds of Religion as there be Parishes as many Sects as Ministers and a Church miserably torn in pieces with mutability and diversity of opinions But there is much you say to be said in defence thereof out of the Acts Monuments some Acts of ParliameÌ„ts Much good do it you with that Much so as you eat cleanly and do not slubber slabber your Quotations of those Books in which all sorts of men are thorowly versed First Jo. Frith calls it The Sacrament of the Altar Doth he so Then surely it was long before the Reformation and when every man call'd it so For he was burned 4º Julii 1533. But where doth he so call it Yes he saith in his Letter They examined me touching the Sacrament of the Altar Why man they cal'd it so not he Those words are the words of the Article objected against him They are their words not his He doth not once call it so in all his long discourse Turn but the leaf and you shall heare him interpret himselfe I added moreover that their Church as they call it Their Church as they call it Their Sacrament of the Altar as they call it If you will know how he cals it in that dawning of the Reformation look upon the Books pen'd by himself not the Interrogatories ministed by Sr Tho. More or some others He calls it every where The Sacrament of Christs body Nay he is not there content but desires that all the Church had call'd it otherwise I would it had been call'd as it is indeed and as it was commanded to be Christs Memoriall And to call it a Sacrifice is saith he just as if I should set a Copon before you to break-fast when you are new come home and say This is your Welcome-home whereas it is indeed a Capon and not a Welcome-home And if you will beleeve his Adversary Sr Thomas More None spoke so homely of this Sacrament as Jo. Frith no not Friar Barnes himself Making this Bridegrooms ring of gold but even a proper ring of a rush So that vouz avez Jo. Frith Let him in Gods name come up to the Barre The next man is Jo. Lambert And he saith I make you the same Answer to the other six Sacraments as I have done unto the Sacrament of the Altar But tell me in my eare I pray you How doth he begin that Answer to the Sacrament of the Altar It is but 14 lines before in your own Book Whereas in your sixth Demand you do enquire Whether the Sacrament of the Altar c. All these words of enquiâ—y are theirs man not his What is his Answer I neither can nor will answer one word And so Jo. Lambeâ—t answers there not one word for you Yea but he doth in another place That Christ is said to be offered up no 〈◊〉 every year at Easter but also everyday in the celebraâ—â— on of the Sacrament because his oblation once 〈…〉 made is therby represented This likewise is 〈…〉 to be spoken long before any Reformatâ—â—◠〈◊〉 hand For Lambert was also martyred 〈…〉 But are you sure these words are his I am sure you know the contrary if you have read the next words following Even so saith S. Augustine The words are the words of an honest man but your dealing in this kind is scarce honest John Lambert doth qualifie them afterward that S. Augustines meaning was That Christ was all this in a certain manner or wise He was an Oblation as he was a Lion a Lambe and a doore that is as we said before a Metaphoricall and improper Oblation which never relates unto an Altar Vouz avez an honest man John Lambert But stand you by for a Mountebank John Coal The next is the most Reverend and learned Archbishop who notwithstanding his opposition to the Statute of the 6 Articles yet useth the phrase or term of Sacrament of the Altar as formerly without taking thereat any offence Pag. 443. And are you sure he doth so in that page Are you sure of any thing I am now sure he names not that Sacrament at all either in that page or in any other near unto it The Treatise there set down is of Jâ—hn Fox his composition and set forth in his own name It mentioneth indeed in the Confutation of the first Article the Sacrament of the Altar but with such a peal after it as none but a mad man would cite him for this purpose This monstrous Article of theirs in that form of words as it standeth c. And so the Lord Archbishop saith as much as John Lambert that is not one word for him The next in order is John Philpot whose speach this cruell man hath sore pinch't upon the rack to get him to give some evidence on his side He wriggles and wrests all his words and syllables that the Quotation is very near as true a Martyr as the man himselfe I am sure he hath lop't off the Head that had a shrewd tale to tell and the feet of his Discourse which walk a quite contrary way to Dr Coals purpose leaving the Relation like Philopoemenes his Army all Belly The Head is this I must needs ask a Question of Dr Chedsey concerning a word or twain of your supposition yours not his owne that is of the Sacrament of the Altar What he meaneth thereby and Whether he taketh it as some of the Ancient Writers do terming the Lords Supper the Sacrament of the Altar for the Reasons there set down and mentioned by Dr Coal or Whether you take it otherwise for the Sacrament of the Altar which is made of Lime and Stone over the which the Sacrament â—hangeth And hearing they meant it this later way he declares himself Then I will speak plain English That the Sacrament of the Altar is no Sacrament at all How like you John Philpot You shall have more of him St Austinwith other ancient Writers do call the holy Communion or the Supper of the Lord The Sacrament of the Altar in respect it is the Sacrament of the Sacrifice which Christ offered upon the Altar of the Crosse The which Sacrifice all the Altars and Sacrifices upon the Altars in the old Law did prefigure and shadow The which pertaineth nothing to your Sacrament hanging upon your Altars of Lime and stone Christoph. No doth I pray you what signifieth Altar Philip. Not