piacle against God and man to offer to make up the waight with humane Lawes It is not unworthy your remembrance how one of the later brood of the Scotrish Prelates alleadging or rather mis-alleading before our late Soveraigne King Iames some Act of Parliament for the establishing and maintenance of the Prelacy the King asked a Noble-man being by being a great Legist and Officer of State what he thought of those Acts the Noble-man replyed That it went never well with them since their Church men laboured more to be versed in the Acts of Parliament than in the Acts of the Apostles But to the matter for all this cry we are more than halfe confident they shall have but little wooll for the service-Service-booke from the Acts of State when they are well looked into Wee know not any colour of confirmation for this service-Service-booke except that Statute prefixed to it which how little it maketh for it let the words of the Statute testifie of which we shall set downe those that are most pertinent for it is needlesse to write them all In the fifth and sixth yeare of King Edward the sixth an Act was made for the establishing of a Booke called The Booke of Common-prayer the which was repealed in the first yeare of Queene Mary which Statute of repeale was made voide by this same Act the first yeare of Queene Elizabeth and that the aforesaid Booke with the alterations and additions therein added shall stand and be and all Ministers shall use the said Booke authorized by Act of Parliament in the said fifth and sixth yeare of King Edward the sixth and no other This is the summe of the Statute in relation to the Subject namely What service-Service-booke it is that the Statute establisheth and for any thing we can see there is not one passage or title for confirmation or establishing any other service-Service-booke but that of King Edward the sixth divers Ministers in King Iames his time urged vvith subscription answered the Prelates True it was that if they refused they and theirs were like to bee desolated but if they yeelded they should make themselves transgressours of the Lawes of the Kingdome in subscribing to another Booke than that established by Law the Prelates in pressing this subscription forced two Statutes namely the Statute alleadged by the change of the Booke and also another Statute requiring no subscription but barely to the Articles of Religion which onely concerne the Confession of true Christian faith and the Doctrine of the Sacraments Now to come to further answer let us grant by way of Confession that there were an Act or Acts for ratifying of the Booke which in terminis we cannot see as Statutes use to be expressed yet by the Law of charity and duty we hold our selves bound to beleeve that a State professing the truth of Religion would never inact so for a Service-booke of mans device as that it might be a snare to the people of God having other ends as a kinde of uniformity supply for want of Ministery and bringing Papists to the Church but not to presse it in the bulke beyond the spheare of any mans Conscience witnesse a Rubricke in King Edward the sixth his Booke but give it to speake as punctually for the Booke as they would have it shall it be simply good for that it is onely in the power of a divine Statute simply to make a thing good all Divines Humanists and Lawyers that have written on the Laws concurre in this Maxime Omnium legum inanis censura nisidivinae legis imaginem gerant the power of all Laws is void except they beare the impression of the Law of God the Orator gives a reason for it â—ex divina omnium legum censura the divine Law is the standard of all lawes yea a thing evill in it selfe established by a Law becommeth worse as the learned tell us it becommeth armata injustâ—tia an armed injustice or with Laciantius to the same purpose legitime injurias inferre to do injurie in forme of Law just with the Poet jusque daâ—um sceleri well Englished and licenced Which truth also is cleared from divine Authority the Psalmist complaineth of the injurious evill done upon Gods Church and People aggravating it from this that is it was framed by a decree which place the Authour of Zyons Plea applyeth very pertinently to the Hierarchie proving it to be the Master-sin wherewith the Church and State are pestered and for which especially God hath a controversie with us because it is decreed by a Law and as a Law for the Hierarchie proved of no force to keepe it up no more then the late Lawes of Scotland could uphold their Prelates so grant that there were a Law for the Service-book the thing being naught what could it help it Within these hundred yeeres there was a Law in England for the Popes supremacie say that were not repealed stood it either with Reason Religion or Loyalty to submit unto it Yea some fragments of Lawes are yet unrepealed in this land that no judicious man will obey neither have we alledged those evidences upon this suspition to encounter with any Statutes but to stop the mouthes of those men who would make the Statute-Law a blinde guide under which their unlawfull callings and superstitious service might march furiously against the word of truth Now to come to an end for we are sorry we could be no briefer we will onely answer this Quaere consisting of these two heads First whether we do approve of any set-prayer in a more private way And secondly whether we do approve of any set-liturgie in publike to both these we answer ingenuously as we thinke and for the former we do thinke that parties in their infancie or ignorance may use formes of prayer well and wholsomely set for helps and props of their imbecillity yea riper Christians may do well to read such profitable formes the matter whereof may by setting of their affections on edge prepare and fit them as matter of Meditation the better for Prayer but for those parties so to continue without progresse to conceived prayer were as if children should still be poring upon spelling and never learne to reade or as if children or weak should still go by hold or upon crutches and never go right out We may say of set-prayer used for infirmity as Divines say of the legall ceremonies in the interim that they were tolerable not necessary and so vvhatsoever is or may be said in the behalfe of it is not so much as vve conceive for the commendation of it as for the toleration of it for a time and for giving satisfaction to scrupulous consciences for the vvarrantable use of it in case of necessity To the second head for a set forme of Liturgia in publique vve ansvver that vvith all the Reformed Churches vve do allovv a sound forme of set-liturgie as an exampler or president of our performance of
translation to bee read to some particular instances wee come and amongst many places we must give but a touch wee will begin with that palpable falshood Psal. 105. 28. which the Booke hath thus They were not obedient to his Word but the Scripture saith They were not disobedient to his Word what directer contradiction can there be than this the Scripture given by inspiration of the Spirit admitteth no contradiction Doctor Spark told the Archbishop of Canterbury that it was apparent by the History of their dealing in Egypt that to reade They were not obedient to his Word were to charge Moses and Aaron with falshood Another place abused Luke 10. 1. being their Gospell for that Evangelists day After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also and sent them two and two before them but the common Booke reade seventy two which though it be not in matters of faith as the defendants answer yet it is a corrupting of the Scripture May we teare a mans skin from his flesh because we cut not the sinewes nor breake not the bones In a word this is the answer of the Papists upon the place which our Writers take off But now we will evidence in a place as matter of faith as we take it Gal. 4. 5. the Service-booke readeth that â—e through election might receive the adoption that belongeth to naturall sonnes where the Church Bible according to the originall hath it thus that we might receive the adoption of the sonnes For naturall sonnes of God we cannot be said to be Nam non nascimur sed renascimur Christiani for we are not borne Christians but borne againe yea by nature we are the children of wrath is there not matter here of flat contradiction and that in a high point of faith We will trouble you but with one other place and that upon matter of faith too namely Luk. 1. 28. and 48. the Text hath it Hayle freely beloved or having found favour but the Service-booke will none of that but reade it Hayle full of grace just with the Rhemists and the defenders of it goe upon the same grounds that they doe crossing the true signification of the words all sound and learned Expositors ancient and moderne as Pagnious Vatabalius Chrysostome Beza Doctor Fulke Doctor Whitakers and others sorting full with Gregory Martin Reynolds and the rest and gives incouragement to Stafford in his Female Glory to tell the Puritanes railingly that till they bee good Marians in his sense they shall never be good Christians There are fifteene places more in the Service-booke of this cut but these are enough and too many to be so abused Now we come to a touch of Additions as the Booke addes three whole verses to the 14. Psalme where a great difference is to be thought on betweene a Paraphrafter and a Translator The former may amplifie but yet in different letter from the Text but the Translator may not adde no not from other Texts of Scripture The grand Papists the justifiers of this and other such stuffe dare not avouch these verses to bee in the Hebrew or Greeke copies no not in the Greeke Bible set forth at the command of Sextus Quintus 1587. for the justifying of the vulgar Latine as appeares by his owne copie written by Cardinall Carraffe and another Cardinall namely Cajetan avoucheth that Paul in the third to the Romans had taken them from divers places of Scripture Sed ignorâ—ns nescio quis adjunxit has Psalmo 14. But some ignorant party I know not who hath added them to the 14. Psalms so there is a whole verse added to the 13. Psalme and an addition added to the 24. Psalme corrupting the Text and applying that to Iacob which is spoken of God and divers additions more which we will not reckon Now a taste of omissions or leaving out as all the titles of the Psalmes being as other holy Scripture given by holy inspiration and very usefull yea and Master Bâ—cer learnedly and divinely affirmeth are as so many keyes to unlock and open the doore that letteth in to the understanding of the Psalmes Hallelujah is left out of the 72. Psalme the Booke omitteth Prayse yee the Lord seventeene times and putteth in Glâ—ria Patri Lastly amongst divers other omissions on which we cannot insist the comfortable conclusion of the Lords Prayer is left out They have drown'd in this Book 160. Chapters according to their owne account of Canonicall Scripture amongst which are whole bookes as the Cbronicles Cantcles and the most part of Apocalyps left out in place whereof the Apocrypha is placed and that as they say tending more to edifying yea and some Chapters also wherein are palbable untruths as Ecclesiasticus 49. Iuduh 9. Tobit 5. the last two of these Bookes being fabulous a president of these foule abuses of Scripture are found no where in the world but in the Popish Masse-booke To this we may subjoyne that prophaning grosse abuse of Epistles and Gospels in which there are three strange and remarkable occurrences for which there is no ground or reason but from the Masse-booke and Masse-mongers First what reason is there that in the Masse-booke and in our Liturgie the Acts of the Apostles and Prophets yea any booke of the old Testament the books of Genesis excepted by them should be called Epistlâ—s as Acts 7. on Stephens day Rev. 14. on Innocents day Ioel 1. Esay 50. Secondly there is never a full passage or whole place but scraps and shreads as the beginning of one Chapter and ending of another and in this they deale with the Word as Mezentius deale with his beds he cut them and lengthened them to serve his owne cruell humours and not for the good of his guests If Kings will not have their Writs by confusion of names â—ronged much lesse the King of kings who is the God of order Thirdly and lastly at the Epistles there is silence sitting and what every one will but at the Gospels there is standing scraping bowing and a response before and after as every one of these were to serve some piece of superstition or other so thereasons given by Papists are as ridiculous as the things are superstitious it is enough to name them in generall that the maintainers of the Liturgie may be ashamed to alledge them and better of their owne they have not We therefore desire your Honours to cast a regardfull eye upon the wronged and much abused Word and not as paessers by as Ieremis speakes in a case much like but as supreame Iudges here on earth to vindicate Gods dishonour done to him in his Ordinances Gods Word as the Fathers speake is his Epistle not in that sense they call Prophesies Epistles wherein he commends many lovely favours to us yea his Testament wherein he leaves and bequeaths many rich legacies to us If Kings and Monarchs should deale so with us would we suffer them to be abused
16. 2 Cor. 6. 2. Matth 4. 10. cleare contrary to the divine law and indisputable prerogative of God the Homilies appointed by the Law of the land the most and best reformed Churches and the harmony of Confessions none siding with them in it but Papists and popishly affected Now we come to touch and but to touch upon the foppish and foolish things in the Booke besides the foolish and senslesse iranslations of some Psalmes pressed by the Service-booke as Psal. 58. 9. Psal 68. 30. which would be too large to set downe and canvasse What can be said for those Tautologies and Battologies used in the Service-booke as Lord have mercy upon us Christ have mercy upon us the very Popish Kyrieleison Christeleison condemned Matth. 6. 7. the word Battologie here condemned commeth as the learned observe from one Battus a ridiculous Poet repeating the same words or verses often and so Christ forbiddeth a vaine repetition of words or phrases and the better the words are the more grievous is the sin so the vaine repetition in Prayer is most odious of all both the heathenish and Popish Battologies are strucke dead at one blow saith Master Cartwright for mumbling up the same prayers againe and againe and can these repetitions of ours being the very same in English go Scot-free one foppery more for we cannot name them all namely that mutuall salutation betweene Priest and people in these words The Lord be with you and with thy spirit which Doctor Boyce girding at the Novellists takes upon him to defend from Ruth 24. with many invective straines with other matter to little purpose is it a good argument from salutation in civill conversment to fall a saluting one another in the worship of God if our Lord and Saviour forbad his Disciples to salute any in the way so farre as it might be any impediment to his service like unto that of Elisha the Prophet how much lesse will Christ admit salutations in the midst of his Service It seemes their devotion is very hot that falleth to tosse a salutation whilest they are upon Gods worship Hence is that apish tricke in the Northerne parts that all the women especially in comming into the Church make a câ—rtesie to the Priest Doctor Boyce for further confirmation citeth the Lyturgie of Iames Chrysostome and Basil but all know as hath been said that they who are acquainted with this subject know these Lyturgies to be as Apocryphal as the subject the Doctor confesseth upon the report of Bellarmine that Tritenhemius writ a whole booke upon Dominus Vobiscum in which are many fruitlesse questions and so we are sure the thing it selfe is fruitlesse CHAP. V. Of the Letany WE come now to the last piece of the matter of the Lyturgie but not the least sinfull but rather the most offensive Namely the Letany not a stump or a limb of Dagon but the head of the Masse booke appointed to be said on Sundayes Wednesdayes and Fridayes yea and at other times if the Ordinarie appoint it of this it may truly be said as one said of the Pharisees sinne that it was either the sinne of the holy Ghost or a sinne very nigh it so the Letany is either blasphemie or very nigh blasphemy upon these dayes one of every house must be present setting a note of some preheminency both upon these weeke dayes and the Service yea from the Etymologie of the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or Letany the defenders of it will have it to be a more serious and cordiall prayer than others it is observed by the learned that the Antients had the order and manner of the Letany from the Heathens as Dtonysius Halicarnassius witnesseth and Causabon observeth in these words {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Letanies or Supplications about the altars of their gods Polybius renders the words very handsomely and significantly by the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifieth to intice the gods by blandishing allurements these words and others used by humane Writers to the same purpose as by Homer and others falls in with the same fault that our Saviour accuseth the Pharisees of namely vaine repetition and multitude of words for which saith Christ they thinke to be heard Now this Letany is a very fascinating fardel of tautologies and Battologies besides its other faults in this Letany there is Lord deliver us eight times Heauens we beseech thee twenty times to omit many desires to be delivered from things from which there is not the least appearance no more than of the french pox the danger of being drunke at a Whitson ale or a purse cut at a stage play and not so much In that prayer to be delivered from fornication what meaneth that addition and from all other deadly sin as though some sin were not deadly Againe after a tautological summing up and repetition of the titles and Elogies of the Trinity tossed with responses they fall on in a heathenish way to act the word Letany or Maggany as it is well rendered namely as it were to conjure and as if the divell were now to be dispossest which no Priest must dare to doe by the Canon without license from the Ordinary they would use the very same pieces namely By the mysterie of thy holy incarnation by thy holy nativity and circumeision by thy baptisme fasting and temptation by thine agony and bloody sweat by thy crosse and passion by thy precious death and buriall and by the coming of the holy Ghost Good Lord deliver us This piece of the popish Masse-booke whence we have it is no better than that conjuring or jugling of the Magitians whereby they seemed to imitate Moses his working of miracles which they did not as the learned in that art testifie without Magick spels they use ridiculous invocations saith the same Author and so be the invocations in the Letany and the better the words are as we have said the more grievous the abuse and that we may not come short of the Papists Idolizing of this Letany we have not onely our ordinary and weekly Letanies but also our annuall or yeerely Letanies acted in procession It is true we have left out the Saints in our Lyturgie that was too grosse but had the Laudenses got their colours fixed ere this the Letany had been flancked with this stuffe But why did they expunge that suffrage in King Edward his Booke against the Pope From the tyrannie of the Bishop of Rome good Lord deliver us To shut up this cursory triall of the matter for it is no more how can the Service-book-men justifie these words of the Collect on the twelfth Sunday after Trinity giving unto us that which our prayer dare not presume to aske It is true we obtaine more than we pray for but what we dare not pray for either in act or desire we shall never obtaine The summe of that which hath been
destruction then much guilt lieth upon the Service-booke Where there is no vision the people must perish or in the first language are left naked So how many Congregations are stript stark naked of the Word in this Land in some of which it is well knowne there hath scarce been a Sermon in an age and in most places where they have preaching it is neither Seed to beget nor Bread to feed upon And what makes this nakednesse but the Lyturgie which is enmity both to good Ministers and Ministery For as the Ivie which winding it selfe about the Vine drawes the sap and spirit out of it so the advancement of this Lyturgie leaves neither life nor spirit in the Ordinance of the Word and being like priest like people love to have it so for the Lyturgie will never bring them out of the deadly Lethargie of sinne it will never awake the soule nor pierce the conscience and therefore they love it as Micah did his Idoll But let a man of God by the light of the Word discover their wretched condition he had as good stirre in a Hornets nest they will quickly hunt him and pursue him to the Lyons Den if they can but God be blessed for it the Beasts are in chase themselves The love and liking of evill men unto this Booke is an evidence of the badnesse of it for if it were Gods Ordinance they would hate it as they doe the Ordinances of God as Isaac tooke Abimelech his sending of him away for a token of his hatred so when a soule-hating people set away the Word and cleave to the Service or the Service joyned it may be with some dead Ministery then it is a token they hate the former and love the later A worthy Minister went to visit one of his flocke upon his death-bed a man of quality for the world but an enemy to goodnesse the Minister groping the pulse of his estate he asked the Minister what he thought of the Bishop of Canturbury which the Minister waving it being dangerous then to call a spade a spade he asked the party if he would pray with him he replyed yea if he would do it on the Booke of Common prayer To shut up this point we will make but generall mention of the troubles which this Booke did bring upon the English exiles in forraigne Natioâ—s in the time of the Marian persecution for the information in the particulars whereof we referre you to a Booke called The troubles of Franckford where from their first erecting of a Church in Franckford Anno 1554. this Book and the Patrons thereof never left persecuting of those that could not brook it till after the death of Queene Mary they returned home in these troubles we commend three things to consideration First in all these broyles and unchristian vexations the maintainers of the Booke dealt both maliciously and fraudulently with the other party The second thing the Patrons of the Booke could not alledge any thing for it and for others that they held but such Popish stuffe as they did foot upon Lastly some of those Patrons upon their returne became persecutours of such as stood for the whole truth The last Evill effect but not the least is against God we mean directly or more ommediatly for indirectly all the other Effects were against God but as all sin provokes God so corrupt worship is that sin against which the jealousie of God is inflamed and he becomes a consuming fire yea the Lord calleth such worship by way of transcendencie abomination If Moses would not sacrifice in Egypt because it was an abomination to the Lord as hath been said why should we provoke the Lord by abominable service All systems of Theologie are full of this in the Thesi therefore we will not insist upon it â—ut come as briefly as we can to adde something to that which hath been spoken of the Hypothesis or Service-book which M. Calvin calleth as hath beene said in his letter to Franckford the leaving of the popish dregs so the papisticall Ceremonies therein contained are truly called by that Franckford Booke burthem yokes and clogs to Gods People and his service besides those which have been names we will speake but a word or two more namely of Festivall dayes to Saints at least transitive though not determinative as the Papist excuse their Idolatry The other is kneeling at the Communion the former is an intrenching upon Gods prâ—rogative For â—oâ—e can appoint an holy day but he who haâ—â— maâ—e the dayes and hath all power in his own hand which is cleare first from the denomination of them in both Testaments in the old they are called the solemne feasts of Iehovah not onely because they were to be kept to Iehovah but also because they were of his appointing and so in the new Testament as we read but of one for the selfe-same reasons it is called The Lords day another instance of clearing is from that brand of rebuke that is put by God upon that Ieroboam that made Israel to sinne he and he onely that the Booke of God speakes of took upon him besides all his Idols and Idolatrous tricks not to appoint another Numericall day but the same day of another Moneth namely the eighth Moneth where God hath appointed the seventh Moneth and that out of respects speciously politicke because in the eighth Moneth all the harvest would be in and they might feast more freely Secondly that the Lords feast being finished in Ierusalem they might come to Ieroboams feast but these fig-leaves could not cover his scarres but the spirit chargeth directly upon him that that was the Moneth that he had lyed or coined to himself Gretzer the Jesuite commends the English though it be nothing to our commendation Quod Calvino papistae Anglice c. That as the Popish-English-Calvinists are freer in other Rites and Ceremonies than the Puritanes in France and Germany and other where so they are in holy-dayes And to say the truth we are too free indeed for as a learned man observeth we have more holy dayes than ever God gave to the Iewes we will not insist on this subject they who will know more of it let them read Altare Damâ—scenum only we will point at these two places which may fully shew the unlawfulnesse of them Ye observe yeeres and dayes I am afraid of you Let no man judge you in meat or in drinke or any part of a holy-day Yet those holy-dayes though then out of date were better than ours for they were of Gods appointment and so are not ours Followeth in the next place Kneeling at the Sacrament the last particular that we are like to touch upon for if we should reckon up all a great volume would not hold them This Pâ—pish moderne posture of not above 400. years standing which as hath been said and Peter Martyr witnesseth Propter
the Lord should be against them as it had beene against their Fathers yea they should be consumed both they and their King and as Samuel to terrifie them called for thunder and raine so we have felt both thunder and raine Judgement yet mixt with mercie both from the mediate and immediate hand of God and do feel it at this present and to the end we should clear his House of corrupt worship The yoake of the Philistims was never removed from the necke of the Israelites till they put away their strange Gods and Ashtaroth their speciall Idoll But when their humiliation was joyned with Reformation then the Lord gave not onely deliverance but also Victory over and freedome from their Enemies II. From the Danger of not doing A word now of the particular Danger whereof we make bold to give you notice as God hath honoured you in calling you to be the Reformers of Church and State so the work is great as Nehemiah said and the danger proportionable if it be neglected When God putteth his select Servants upon high Imployments whether they be Magistrates or Ministers knowing best their weaknesse and the many Impediments he puts them on ever and anon to be couragious not to feare or be afraid and the ground of all is have not I commanded you So the Lord giveth the Prophet Ieremy a charge to speak all that the Lord should command and backeth it with a threatning be not dismayed at their faces lest I confound thee both the Hebrew and the Septuagint hath it lest I make thee afraid Saul his disobedience in sparing Agag and the fat of the cattle notwithstanding all his faire pretexts with the fearefull punishment inflicted by God upon him may be a terrour to all men in place that they do not the work of the Lord by halves and quarters but that with Caleb they follow the Lord to the full The Lord hath laid his Command upon you to put away the Excommunicate thing and to cleanse his house of Idols and Idolothites and blessed be that God whom you serve ye have begun by your Edicts though men of disobedience hinder the worke but follow home the worke we intreat you and remember those Achans but above all put away that Ashtaroth the Service-book for that we may well call Fundi nostri calamitas the very Caterpiller of Gods Husbandry To shut up this Motive from the point of danger be pleased to take notice how God beares in upon Moses that great Commission to Pharaoh to let his people go and that both by words and signes namely by turning his rod into a serpent his hand made leprous and the waters turned into blood which were not onely to confirm him in his message against the feare of his adversaries but more particularly to teach him that if he withdrew himselfe in part or in whole from the worke the Plague of Leprosie of Blood and Biting with Serpents should be upon him yea God put Moses upon a present tryall of Obedience and Faith by causing him to take the Serpent by the tayle notwithstanding of the danger to be bitten by it we speake to the wise who can apply it better then we CHAP. X. Of the Covenant THe third Motive for removall of this Booke may be taken from the Protestation dated May 5. 1641. Confirmed sent abroad and solemnly sworne unto yea and bound up with a publique Covenant on the publike day of Thanksgiving by Ministers and People so that it is an inviolable Covenant stricken betweene God and us like unto that in Nehemiah which is there called a sure Covenant a written Covenant to which our Princes Ministers and People seale unto from which we cannot depart except we will incurre that fearfull Judgement threatned against Covenant-breakers Emblemed out unto us in Scripture by dividing of the Sacrifices and causing the parties to goe betwixt them admonishing that God will so divide them in his wrath if they forsake the Covenant The subject of the Covenant consisteth of three parts In the first we are sworne and tyed to maintaine all the Rights of Religion King and State In the second to oppose all Persons and Things that do oppose the three former mentioned and more specifically to oppose with all our life and power all Popery and Popish Innovations which Expressions are thrice mentioned once in the Protestation or oath and twice in the Explanation the third and last piece of the subject is the Peace of the three Kingdomes England Scotland and Ireland which we by Oath are also bound to maintaine Hence two Arguments will offer themselves one more directly and the other by way of consequence For the former if all Popery and Popish Innovations are to be opposed then it will follow that the Service booke and Ceremonies should be opposed and by consequence by your Authority abolished Verba Statuti sunt amplianda non restringenda the words of Acts and Statutes for good and against evil are to be taken in the largest extent but the words themselves are universall enough Now that the service-Service-Book and Ceremonies therein contained and pressed upon mens Consciences are Popery We and many others have cleared yea they are Popish Innovations Nam omnia quae à Christo non sunt nova sunt all things that are not from our King Christ in his worship are meere Innovations as Tertullian was wont to call Praxeas hesternum Praxeam a yesterdayes upstart so one and all of them are Exotick and upstart things It is true indeed by the Malignity of the Masters of those Ceremonies the bulke was increased and would have been like the Crocodiles who grow so long as they have a being if you had not come in place of the Tutyrites a creature terrible to the Crocodiles which leapeth upon their backs and brings them to the shoare but otherwise for the kinde they are all non ejusdem farinae sed furfuris the same kinde of Bran and as the Woman said of the Foxes If one be good all are good For the further confirmation that they are Popish we have proof from that Treatise of Ceremonies annexed to the Service-Booke in some antient Copies we have read that they thought good to retaine some Popish Ceremonies but in another Coppy they call them the old Ceremonies retained still all one in effect The latter argument from the Protestantion by way of sequell is from out mutuall Covenant and Oath joyntly and severally to maintaine the Peace of the three Kingdomes which is impossible to be done in the Opinion of our Brethren the Scots without Identity of Discipline and Worship witnesse the very words of the Arguments by the Scottish Commissioners given to the Lords of the Treaty perswading Conformity in these to be the chiefe meanes of Peace We vvill transcribe some passages for all vve cannot leaving the thing it selfe to your honours revievv It is say they to be
Body is come for us then to imitate them in this foolish Relique or to devise a Priestly garment of our owne head in Gods worship is to rob Christ of his honour exceedingly and to make our selves deeply guilty of will-worship Had not God himselfe clothed those garments in the Law with a particular and punctuall command for matter and monner they had beene foolish and ridiculous things they made the holy garments saith Moses as the Lord commanded which later words as the Lord commanded are repeated as the learned observe nine severall times in this Chapter intimating that they did not swarve one jot from Gods direction teaching all Gods servants thereby as the learned apply it ut se contineant intra limites verbi Dei that they containe themselves within the limits of Godsword bring nothing into the service of God of their own invention for the Apostle cals that {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} wil-worship this being so it appeares what evill workers those Ministers are who with an high hand doe display this Banner of the Man of sinne against Gods owne face in the time of his worship interposing betwixt Gods presence and the worship and diverting of the blessing upon the worship for Moses is said to blesse the worke of the worship upon on this ground because he saw it done as â—ehovah had commanded The Hebrewes adde and that truely that because of this the presence of God was in it Wherefore we humbly intreat your Honours as ye would have God to be in his worship and his blessing upon it and upon you and us in a perfect hatred of that menstruous Cloth and garment spotted with the flesh to cast it out and all the rest as Carcasses of abominable things but withall we intreat you to set the Masters of the Wardrobe on packing with them It is observed as a custome among the Papists that they bury their Prelates in all their Pontificall robes of which a learned Divine tels us he could give no reason except they meant they should doe service when they were dead that had never done any being alive If your Honours will lap up the Prelates in the Seare cloth of their owne Surplices and intombe them them in the Tabernacle of the Service-Booke imbalmed with the strange oyntment of their owne Ceremonies and bury them under the Oake that is in oblivion as Iacob did the Idols of his family and as our neighbors brethren have done with the like stuffe then the fear of you shall be upon all your enemies and the childe that is to come shall blesse God for you CHAP. XI The Objections NOw we come in the last place to remove some Objections which we shall shew to be of no great weight and therefore we use the fewer words The first is from the Antiquity of the Service-Booke to which Doctor Halâ— and others have received an answer by Smectymnuus but say it had Antiquity without truth it were no better than a custome of errour Et nullum tempus occurrit Deo there is no prescription to the King of Kings The second Objection Many good men have used it and liked it well for answer Testimonia humana non faciunt fidem Mans approbation is not current of it selfe but as it buts upon the faithfull witnesse otherwise it is an inartificiall argument as Logicians call it the Patriarchs used and did many things that were not approveable some good Kings of Iudah as Amaziah and Iehosaphat tooke not away the High places were they any whit the better for that yea the suffering of them is set up as the Kings fault it were better to follow Hezekiah that tooke them away Master Wommâ—cke alleadgeth for the service-Service-booke that Rome is not demolished in the first day and so we alleadge against it that good men in mending times did either see as farre as their Horizon or at least as they durst So wee have more light and are set upon their shoulders therefore it is both sinne and shame for us not to see more and doe more than they did Hezekiah did more than Iosaphat and Iosiah more than they both Thirdly it is objected that it hath many good things in it that is answered already the Alcoran and Talmud have many good things in them yea the Apocrypha Bookes have many excellent truths in them are they therefore to be presented in Gods worship The fourth objection is from a more convenient course of correcting of it than of cashiering of it For answer what King or State did ever yet thrive in moyling and toyling themselves to make cleane the Popes leprous stuffe to bring it into the worship of God but all that ever prospered in that worke made utter extirpation Popes will be content to heare of reformation and give order for it to their Cardinals but they are joyned to their Idols as God speakes of Ephraim Let them alone Secondly this is not Gods course in reforming of his house as the rubbish of the Leprous house was to bee cast out into an uncleane place as hath beene said so polluted pieces of Idolatrous service are not to be brought by any cleansing into the House of God God commandeth his people to throw downe the Altars of the Canaanite where under Altars are comprehended all other abominations they were not to set a new trim upon any of them but because they obeyed not the Lord they smarted for it Blessed bee God who hath put it into your hearts to strike at Altars 〈◊〉 Pictures Crosses and all the Popish Idols wee are in good hope you will not leave a Popish Relique in the Land neither in Church or Street and then we may be sure there shall no Canaanite dwell in our Land this scraping and picking that Master Wommock speakes of will be no better then paring of the nayles and shaving of the haire which as the Great Turke said of his Army will quickly grow againe yea and grow againe the faster too good medicines in naturall things may be extracted out of ranke poysons but so cannot pure worship out of things polluted being mans inventions therefore the Prophet Esay telleth us that nothing will serve but the casting away of the polluted thing not cleansing of it The fifth and last objection is from Acts of Parliament which the Service-book-men make the staffe of their confidence and yet in truth being well tryed it shall be found that they abuse the state and consciences of men most grossely Doctor Hall and others strike much on that string as Parliamentary Acts peremptorily establishment yet they make but very harsh Musicke A man would thinke that Doctor Hall being a learned Divine would first have laid this worship of Liturgy in the ballance of the Sanctuary and tryed the weight of it there and if it had proved too light as surely it would then to have counted it a
said we bring up into this Argument That service the matter or bulke whereof is partly false partly foolish and frivolous should not be presented unto God But the parts of the service-Service-book whether essentiall or integrall are such as hath been fully proved Therefore they should not be presented to God We humbly intreat your Honours to lay this argument in the ballance of truth and if it weigh downe the Service-booke let the said Booke we pray you be cast out of the Sanctuary as light CHAP. VI Of the Manner NOvv vve come to the fourth particular namely the forme or manner vvhich is large as exorbitant and offensive as the matter the forme is the essence of a thing say the matter vvere good and the manner naught god vvould never like it for the old Proverbe is true God loves Adverbs better then Adjectives Bene better than Bonum It vvas a good worke in David to bring up the Arke from the house of Aminadab but one Philistine Ceremony spoyled the whole worke David therefore acknowledged the bâ—each to bee made because they sought him not in order when our Saviour taught his followers to pray in that plat forme of prayer which a Father calls the founâ—ation of all our prayers he layeth not downe onely the matter but also the forme when yee pray pray {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} after this manner hold fast saith the Apostle the forme of sound words which thou hast heard of me c. where hee layeth downe not onely the matter of Preaching but also the forme even so should prayer have a forme of sound words Conformers to the Service-booke make Ionas his Gourd of one place of Scripture Let all things be done according to order and decency But as the place is no shelter for them so wee wonder that they cannot see the grosse disorder of the Service-booke and Ceremonies and still call for order The Apostle rejoyced to see the order of the Colossians but it would have grieved him exceedingly to have seene the disorder of the service as he grieved at the superstition of the Athenians for it is Will-worship which the Apostle condemneth in the same place of the Colossiâ—ns but to some particulars and first to the Minister whâ—se change of voyce posture and place is strange and ridiculous for the first hee must say some prayers with a loud voyce not all what can be the reason of this but that of the Masse-Priests that there are some mysteries Tanquam sacra Cereris that the prophane Laicks should not heare Secondly for his posture besides the windings turnings and cringes his face must be sometimes towards the people and sometimes his backe Thirdly the Priest sayes somewhat in the Church somewhat in the Chancell getting himselfe from the people as farre as he can as if there were some outfall betweene him and the people or as if hee were the High-Priest gone into the Holy of Holiâ—s In the second place comes the unmannerly handling of the matter First they have many short Collects but a long and tedious Service the persecuted Christians indeed made short prayers upon the feare of the enemies approaches when they were forced to flye A good foundation we acknowledge but to turne this into a generall and continued rule will make but a scurvie building Now to the rest of the short cuts and shreds rather wishes than prayers as Master Cartwright truely calls them for which Doctor Boyce falls foule upon him with an invective declaration not with refutation which course suits not with learning much lesse with a Minister calling it a rude speech savouring more of the shop than of the Schoole but the abilities of the man is farre above his calumny and why doth he not fall a rayling at him for answering the Rhemists in charging the Masse-booke with the selfe-same fault where he calls them short shreds patched up together to make a wearisome service upon the long last what patched petitions how scatteringly and disorderly divided to the number of thirty or forty what interrupting pauses and posting on againe with Let us pray In this they are like unto little Girles who setting themselves as though they would sew they cut abundance of cloth into uselesse shreds doing no good but hurt and yet for further discovery of this unmethodicall and unmannerly dealing let us put this quere to the maintainers of this patched Service that Master Cartwright puts to the Papists for the mammocks of their Masse-booke If such a suit saith he were offered to a mortall man would he not rather thinke himselfe mocked by the suppliant than honoured After the same manner speakes God to the Jewes Offer the now to thy Governour will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person saith the Lord of Hostâ— and if any object that God speakes there of the Blinde and the Lame the answer is easily made whatsoever is not of God in his service for matter or manner it is blinde and lame for the closure of this dismembring of Gods service we annexe the tossing or driving the Service betwene the Priest and the People for either the People pray with the Priest or they repeat his prayer or they adde some responses or answers all unsuitable to Gods service Sir Thomas Moâ—e was so zealous in this way that he did officiate at the Masse in his Surplice If the Minister be Gods mouth and the peoples and stand between them in things pertaining unto God is it not a grosse absurdity That when an Ambassador of State is delivering an Ambassage to the King that the standers by or attendance though much concerned in the businesse should set in with the Ambassadors speech or repeat what he saith or interrupt his speech with a pause of a response This interrupting course in Gods worship is every way more grosse as much as the high and dreadfull God is greater than the greatest King and we are to take notice that God will not be moâ—ked To shut up the point one thing we cannot but wonder at why the Popish Prelaticall Priests doe admit the common people a share in saying of Service who will not have the people in any case to try much lesse to judge of the doctrines of their Teachers abusing the very Scripture that makes against them for they call themselves the Clergy alluding to the name {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which signifieth the lot or portion arrogating to themselves the Lord to be their portion and they to be the Lords But by way of opposition they account the people no better than unhallowed or carnall people calling themselves abusively by the name of spirituall which with the former name portion agreeth to all Gods people but we conceive the reason to bee this that by filling their braines with the froth of that stuffe and their mouthes with that confused noyse of words