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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42092	The compleat conformist, or, Seasonable advice concerning strict conformity, and frequent celebration of the holy Communion in a sermon preached (on the seventh of January, being the first Sunday after the Epiphany, in the year 1682) at the Cathedral, and in a letter written to the clergy of the archdeaconry of Durham / by Denis Grenville.	Grenville, Denis, 1637-1703.	1684 (1684)	Wing G1938; ESTC R8783	37,668	65

I fear more than in these relating to this City on this Account I leave to God and your own Consciences to judge Beseeching him that by a seasonable shunning of the Sin you may effectually avoid the Punishment Now to God the Father c. Soli Deo Gloria ADVICE CONCERNING Strict Conformity and frequent Celebration of the Holy Communion c. Reverend Brethren SINCE the most Reverend PRIMATE of all England hath at this time judged it expedient to restore the Blessed Eucharist in his own Metropolitical Church and sundry other Cathedrals so far to its due Honour as to revive those Rubricks which necessarily suppose a weekly Celebration thereof in all Cathedral Collegiate Churches and Colleges and that there is reasonable ground to hope that other Cathedrals will speedily follow so good an Example I humbly conceive it the Duty of every Arch-Deacon and other Ordinaries that have Jurisdiction to improve this present occasion by stirring up all the Clergy committed to their charge to imitate as far as in them lies an Example so pious and worthy of their high Station by celebrating the Holy Communion more frequently than of late hath been accustomed in Parish Churches even as often as the Circumstances of their People and Cures do require and will bear it being the Duty of every Parson of a Parish to quicken his Flock to repair more frequently and with more zeal to God's Altar since God's Providence and the care and wisdom of our Governours do now at an extraordinary conjuncture of Affairs invite them thereto when not onely the Church of England but other Reformed Churches nay all the Christian Churches in the World call for solemn Devotions Prayers and Praises to God Accordingly I do very gladly embrace this happy occasion to invite you my Brethren to put your helping hand to this pious work of Reforming the unaccountable neglect of the blessed Sacrament the most necessary and assured means of Grace and Edification which has by the Indevotion of the Age too far prevailed whereof our Governours now seem very sensible not onely in Parochial Churches but even in Cathedrals themselves to the great scandal of our Religion and detriment of Mens Souls Craving therefore the liberty to remind you that as God hath put it into the Hearts of our Reverend Prelates to rectify this great abuse in sundry Cathedrals so it seems to be in a particular manner the Duty of the Clergy of our Diocese to lead on others within the Province by their good Examples in this great piece of Piety and Devotion since we did by the zeal care and vigilance of our deceased Prelate sooner than other Dioceses arrive to a high pitch of Conformity and more exact observation of the Laws and Rules of our Church established by Authority and expressed in our Common-prayer Book I may say it without Injury to others than any other part of England In this Order established among us by Bishop Cosins we have been encouraged to continue by our present Diocesan in his publick Discourses to the Clergy in his primary and later Visitations and more particularly in his last Discourse which he made to the Clergy in the Church of St. Oswalds in August 1683. when he advised all Ministers to take heed how they governed themselves by their own Fancies in the Execution of their Office rather than the Rule of their Book And I hope you will all do me that Justice as to ackowledg that I have always endeavoured ever since I did relate to the Arch-deaconry of Durham which is somewhat more than twenty years faithfully though weakly according to my bounden Duty to see the Injunctions of both these my Lords the Bishops put in Execution without allowing any Liberty to any of the Clergy to vary from the clear Rules of the Church whereto they have given their assent and consent and that among other matters I have not failed to use some honest zeal to move you to the frequent celebration of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper the main end both of our Services and Sermons desiring that it should be administred in every Church so frequently that all Persons might have an opportunity to participate so often at least as the Law requires under Penalty which is thrice in the year But sundry of the Clergy notwithstanding mine and more powerful Arguments in several Episcopal Visitations having not been prevailed on to administer the very Sacrament it self oftner than so which renders it impossible for a confiderable part of the People to comply with that important Obligation I could not satisfie my Conscience to let slip this very fit occasion of pressing them to the performance of their Duty in this particular that tho' through the profaneness of the Age the number of Guests may chance to be very few at the Lord's Table yet that there might not lie so much Guilt at the Clergies door as not to furnish the Table and give the People frequent Invitations thereto nor more Guilt at the door of the Arch deacon in ceasing to press them to a Duty of so great moment as the frequent and Reverend Administration of the Holy Sacrament I have judged meet at this time thus to apply my self unto you The serious consideration of such a Duty now incumbent upon me did first put into my Thoughts the publication of the foregoing Sermon the conclusive and Applicatory Part being an Exhortation to that Duty which not onely your unworthy Arch-deacon but our Superiours at the Helm call you unto hoping that it may by God's Blessing give you some occasion to consider the greatness of the Sin of this Age in the contempt of this most holy Institution of our blessed Lord and Saviour and the fitness of this present Conjuncture for all us of the Clergy to return to the discharge of this most essential part of our Ministerial Function which hitherto we have to our shame and sin too generally neglected It is now a matter of Prudence as well as Piety to remove so great a scandal since this Return to our Duty begins regularly and is the result of the wise and godly Counsels of our Governours The chief Metropolitical Church by its Example inviting all Cathedrals to Celebrate the Eucharist according to the Rubrick every Lord's Day at least The Example of Cathedrals begins already God be praised to encourage this good work of Piety for the encrease of Devotion wherein they seem decently to admonish the Parochial Churches to a proportionable frequency That as the Mother Churches advance on towards the Primitive practice of a daily celebration of the Sacred Memorials of Christ's Death and Passion so may they as obsequious Children advance as far as is practicable and morally possible for them towards a weekly Communion by celebrating the Holy Sacrament at least Monthly in all considerable Towns and populous Villages For even a daily celebration of the Sacrament was retained by the Apostolic zeal of our Blessed Reformers and required

termed a Communion For a private Mass when no one Communicates with the Priest or when there doth if the People are deprived of the Cup can neither in Logick or Grammar deserve the name The Church of England would by no means descend so low as the Church of Rome doth in her expectation from the Laity that Church requiring Lay-men to receive absolutely but once in the Year under Penalty but imposeth on every one of the People in the most busie Circumstances and in the most inconsiderable Parish or Chaplery where there be fewest Communions an Obligation to receive at least three times in the Year looking on it as certainly it is an intolerable Relaxation to let People go lower Which yet it is to be feared is as high or higher than many of us go who live nigh a Cathedral where there are Celebrations Monthly and cannot be denied Weekly if any reasonable Number of devout People did heartily desire that great Priviledge that the Church allows them Which rightly considered is the greatest Benefit and Happiness of a Son of the Church of England as it is one of the greatest Honours and Ornaments of our Common-Prayer-Book that there is a Rubrick or Rule which supposeth a Priest weekly Officiating at the Altar There is not among us a more undeniable Relique or Remainder of Popery which may be truly so termed than the notorious and scandalous contempt of the Communion This was I well remember declared in one of our first Synods of the Clergy by our Diocesan after the Restoration No Church in the Christian world pretends more and shews less respect to the Communion than the Church of Rome most of their Tokens of Respect being the highest Dishonour and disgrace that was ever cast upon the Son of God and his holy Sacrament of his precious Body and Bloud This sad Contempt of the chiefest means that ever Christ instituted for the support of Religion which loss of ground in the Church of God gave the greatest Wound that ever was given unto Piety hath been fairly or rather foully Copied by the Separatists from the Church of England insomuch that we may term seldom Communicating to be a piece of Fanaticism as well as Popery the holy Eucharist being never so disgracefully Rejected and vilely Trampled on as in the Times of Schism and Rebellion when those who shewed great Zeal for Sermons in many places daily were contented without a Sacrament Yearly nay those that would have three or four Sermons on a Sunday did not once in some places Celebrate the Lord's Supper in three or four Years no I dare affirm and I know what I say in thirteen or fourteen years together A blessed Reformation So egregious and lamentable a Contempt of Christ's Death and the last Commands of a dying Saviour Do this in Remembrance of me as we see our Adversaries on both hands do concur in should create a holy Indignation in us who in some things are forward enough to have a kind of Antipathy against them and oblige us to distinguish our selves by a contrary Practice as much as possible from such false and pretended Catholicks and Protestants who by their Pretences thereto God knows have almost brought both Catholick and Protestant Religion into Contempt And here a kind of Spirit of Opposition or Contradiction whereby too many do only measure their Religion would be very laudable and the most effectual means under God to preserve us from the Machinations or Malice of either True Piety as it is the best Policy will be the most sure defence against our Adversaries of every Persuasion Let us be sure to be in truth and reality what they Profess and would be thought to be sticking closely nay giving up our selves intirely to God and Goodness in a sincere spiritual and devout use of those means of Salvation which are undoubtedly of Christs own Institution not fondly pretending to be Honourers of God's Word and yet down-right Contemners of his Worship whereof this Sacrament to which we are approaching is the most excellent part nor Friends to his Sanctuary when we are none to his Sacraments nor to be zealous Assertors of the Religion of our Church and yet live contrary to the Established Rule of God's Worship i. e. our common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book wherein every Member of our Church though they are not engaged thereto by so Sacred a Tye as the giving an Assent and Consent publickly in a Congregation hath a part to act and a great one too which would require much serious study and consideration and which by a few particulars I hope to demonstrate First It is without all doubt that every Lay-man of our Communion is bound to assist at as the Minister is to say Divine Service daily when God placeth him in such blessed Circumstances as you are to enjoy the same and the necessary and indispensable Affairs of his Life and Calling will permit and when they will not which is a just Impediment on days of business to send if possible some Person of his Family to be a Representative and keep up its Interest in that continual Sacrifice appointed by God and the Church to be Offered up in behalf of the whole Congregation and which extends to the Faithful that are lawfully absent as well as the present Secondly Without all dispute it is the Duty of every Person when he comes to God's House to labour as much as in him lieth to secure a whole Service and more especially the Beginning and the Conclusion I mean the Confession and Absolution together with the Final Prayers and Benediction which a multitude of People through their slothful negligence in repairing to and profane haste in departing from the Temple seldom enjoy all the Year long thereby losing the chief ends of their coming and such People too oftentimes their own Consciences can bear me Witness who are very loth to be Herded among Non-Conformists Thirdly It is of unquestionable Obligation that all Persons of every Sex should joyn not only with Heart but Voice at all the appointed parts of the Service belonging to the People and study the Order and Rules of the Book to which it is a horrid shame and sin for any to be a stranger so as to be by no means ignorant of what is Incumbent on them making it their Business or at least their Divertisement at home in their Houses especially when God hath blessed them with a Harmonious Voice to qualifie themselves for the performance of their Duties in Publick I mean chiefly the Eucharistical parts of the Office which are the special parts of God's Publick Service and which truly make it the Sacrifice of Praise the best Fruit of our Lips and part of our Christian Sacrifice which we are to offer up to God continually all the days of our Lives by and through Christ our High Priest now entred into the Heavens giving Thanks unto his Name Fourthly It is every Persons Duty that hath no Infirmity of body to observe punctually

but also in Parish Churches not only in great Cities and Towns but even in the Country whereof God be praised in this Diocese we want not some Instances we of the Clergy ought to proceed farther towards a right and due administration of the holy Sacrament using our utmost diligence in the administration thereof in our Churches and utmost zeal in quickning of people to repair to it with due Reverence and frequency not doubting but that in a short time by God's blessing we shall see the Lord's Table as well furnished once a Month in Country Parishes as it hath been of late even in some Cathedrals and Weekly Sacraments in them ●re long as well frequented as Monthly have been for the time past For these means of Grace being of Christ's own Institution must be acknowledged the most effectual to revive Devotion and encrease Religion in a profane Age. And consequently the frequent and Reverend Administration of the holy Sacrament and the peoples right use of the same being the most probable course that can be taken in order to the salvation of their Souls it becomes the duty of every faithful Priest zealously to embrace this blessed opportunity to concur with the will of their Superiours for the enjoyment of more frequent opportunities As the decay of true devotion and Divine Charity in the World did first occasion among Priests this deplorable negligence whereof there is great ground of complaint so the inexcusable neglect of Administring the holy Eucharist hath sadly encreased Indevotion and uncharitableness among Men. If we then do heartily and sincerely desire the Revival of Christian Piety and brotherly Love let us betake our selves to the right use of those admirable means that our dear Lord and Saviour instituted to the very end and purpose to beget and encrease those and all other necessary Graces in Mens Souls Whether we consider the present circumstances of our own Church and Kingdom or the publick state of Christendom we have at this time an especial Call to the Duties of the Altar We have here in this Nation of late received some never to be forgotten Mercies at the hands of our Heavenly Father nay God hath extended his Love also this year past in an extraordinary manner to all Christendom in preserving the Christian Army against the Infidels and some very remarkable returns of Gratitude to Almighty God are incumbent upon all that profess Christianity For God having removed in a good measure our Fears at home and defeated in a signal manner our common Enemy abroad gratulatory Sacrisices were never more seasonable Such stupendious Mercies as we have been partakers of deserve more than one single day of Thanksgiving and the most acceptable returns of Thanks that we can possibly make to our gracious God will be those praises that are from Reformed Lives sincere Hearts and mortified Souls devoutly offered to him at his Altar Gratitude is the most essential Grace to a good Communicant and doth denominate the Eucharist The best standing Monument then of our thanks unto God will be our vigorous endeavours to restore this blessed Sacrament to its due Reverence and esteem being to us the communication of the Body and Blood of Christ This seems to be the sence of the Fathers of our Church in chusing this critical Minute to restore the holy Eucharist to a Weekly Celebration in Cathedrals to their high honour and praise and the great comfort of truly devout Souls We have had more than sufficient experience both in Church and State of the dismal effects of Irregularity in God's publick Worship and there is little ground of hopes that we shall ever be delivered from the contagion of Conventicles as long as the example of our own People and too often God knows our own Clergy spawn new Nonconformists i. e. while they are but half Conformists themselves they give wrong measures to disaffected or indifferently affected people and insinuate into them very wrong Notions of Conformity so that much more exactness of obedience to the Laws of the Church both in Priest and People must be concluded absolutely necessary towards our settlement And therefore all Priests would do well to remember that their publick assent and consent to their Common-prayer Book the subscription of the 3d Article in the 36. Canon and the sealing with their Saviours Blood at their Ordination all their holy Vows and Resolutions to practise such diligence in their Office and holiness of Life as is incumbent upon a good Priest do render those that have not made it their serious endeavours to observe their Rule of Conformity grounded on the Law of God established by the Authority of the Church and State and confirmed by their own Acts and Deeds highly guilty both before God and Man In the next place Lay-people also would do well to consider that they have publick Obligations to observe their Common-prayer Book when they are in the publick Assembly as far as it concerns them as is shewn in the conclusion of the Sermon To which Law there must be better regard had than there hath been or we are like to continue in very tottering circumstances But all the noise that hath been or can be made by Clergy or Laity about Conformity will signifie nothing but aggravate mens guilt if both are not really Conformists which no Man can be who is a contemner of the holy Sacrament of our Lord's Supper Our respect thereto is the best Argument that we can give either of our Conformity or Christianity And truly those that pay no more regard to the Sacrament than they are driven to by the very penalty of the Law give very bad proof of their sincerity in either The right and due Administration of the holy Communion of our Saviour's Body and Blood is equal to all our Services and therefore the exactest Conformity without the due reception of the blessed Sacrament makes a person but half a Conformist nay indeed but half a Christian And it is matter of greatest wonder that such multitudes who live in the constant neglect of those sacred Mysteries and pledges of Christ's Love so as not to receive once a year can imagine themselves either They are indeed so far from giving undeniable proofs that they are true Conformists that they give no demonstration that they are not Papists nay very Heathens The Nation blessed be God begins to be somewhat sensible hereof as we may judge by those advances that have been lately made towards good order and regularity even among the people of London who if they go on as they have done for these two years last past they may by their good make some amends for the evil Example that they have given to the Nation and contribute to the cure of those Wounds which so bad a President hath given to Conformity To compleat then that excellent Rule of Conformity which the Church of England aims at there is an absolute necessity to restore these sacred Pledges and highest

cases where the resolution of the Bishop or Arch-Bishop cannot be procured Secondly In the manner of performance of his Duty more or less to Edification as to some circumstances whereto the Book does not extend Thirdly As to the Liberty of choice which the Book allows of in point of variety of Forms c. Fourthly In all occasional Addresses from the Desk made after the Nicene Creed the usual time of Addresses to the people either voluntary within the compass of the Rubrick or imposed on Ministers by the King or Ordinary of the place or else at any other times of the Service pro Re natâ Fifthly In the choice of Texts or Subjects of Sermons from the Pulpit as well as in composing and managing of them to Edification with discreet and pious zeal which is a Province of so large an extent that Ministers are very unreasonable that desire farther Liberty of Prudence and which hath been and is still so notoriously abused that there seems to be some manifest necessity for a restraint of the Liberty of the Pulpit as well as for the return of Ministers to an exact observation of their Rule so as to go generally one way in the practice of such Orders as are clear and express Here in these like things all Ministers have sufficient opportunity to evidence to the World their prudence but for Ministers to pretend to use prudence where it is absolutely forbidden by the Law is to expose the Law-makers and themselves and being contrary to known Duty is certainly desperate Imprudence and a manifest contempt of the wisedom of the Church which hath always judged it a dangerous thing to give Liberty to Ministers to exercise their own prudence over-much in their Ecclesiastick Ministrations and accordingly hath from time to time more closely tied up their hands And a reslection on the undue Exercise of what Men too often term Prudence caused a great Church-Man often to say that What was left to the Discretion was left to the Indiscretion of the Minister It is not of less moment for all Divines to have a very right apprehension of true Moderation than of Prudence The mistakes concerning which two excellent Vertues have been of fatal consequence to our Church and Kingdom Now this all men may be sure of that it can be no more true Christian Moderation sor Ministers to indulge the Peoples Sin than it is prudence in Ministers to allow themselves in the neglect of known Duty much less to do both namely neglect known Duty as to themselves and indulge known Sin in reference to their People And it is to be feared that all those Ministers who live in the constant neglect of the known Rules of their Common prayer Book which are very few clear and practicable are justly liable to a Censure of this nature or at least would do well to suspect themselves since they do not onely run Counter to the Judgment and practice of some very great Lights of the Church all down along from the Reformation but discern so bad a fruit and Issue of their specious Compliances that the Dow-baked Parson as well as the Par-boiled-Justice appears to be without Dispute a great Promoter if not Author of our Schism A notable Instance nay a kind of demonstration of the truth of what I say is this namely that here in the Bishoprick of Durham where the Clergy have been more than elsewhere abridged in undue Liberties and compliances hath appeared constantly a better face of uniformity and Order than any where else in the Nation And on the other side where the greatest Liberty hath been taken and most compliances used under the colour of Prudence and Moderation there Conformity hath always more visibly declined and Fanaticism encreased and grown to such an incredible height and pitch of Insolence that our danger of that hath been as great as our Fears of Popery This needs no proof but may very well deserve much serious consideration And I do in the name of God and by vertue of my Office with all Humility and Earnestness beseech all you my Brethren at present within my Jurisdiction with great seriousness and sincerity to ponder and examine what I have from time to time very earnestly by word of Mouth recommended unto you and now again seasonably in imitation of the zeal of our Superiours repeat unto you in Writing that whether my honest Desires and Injunctions are complyed withal or no I may give some Evidence to the World that I have honestly discharged my Conscience in setting before your eyes not only some past Arguments of Conformity which have been often insisted on but the fitness of this present Conjuncture for all of you respectively to enflame your Zeal and to compleat Conformity in your Parishes since it may more easily be done than many Parishes in other parts of England can be brought to that Order which the most Irregular place among us hath all along enjoyed since the Restoration But truly till we do in all Parishes come up to such a frequent Celebration of the Communion as the Law requires i. e. that the Communion may be so often Administred that every person may have opportunity to receive at least three times a year we shall have no reason to be over-proud of our Conformity for since the most considerable and substantial part of God's Worship i. e. the Sacrament of his most blessed Body and Bloud is so much neglected we are very deficient in the use of the chief means of Grace and so very far from true Conformists though we should advance on in many other points of Order which would be much now to our Reproach if we should not since we have very good Example given us lately not onely in remote parts of England but in our Neighbour Jurisdiction nay even in some Corporations where we despaired of Conformity and more particularly in the Town of Newcastle upon Tine which we cannot deny by the blessing of God a worthy Vicar and good Officers and Magistrates is now reduced to as considerable a degree of Conformity as any large Corporation being a Sea-port Town in the Nation there being now not any Conventicle on any day and very full Churches on days of publick Worship as well as some competent number of People to attend the publick Prayers of the Church every Morning and Evening on days of work and business and is every day making greater steps towards the Uniformity that is aimed at in the Church of England And here before I leave the present Topick of Diligence in the Office of a Priest in the exact observation of our Rule in opposition to the pretended moderation of the Age which we have sorely felt to be in reality great Rigour and Cruelty permit me to mind you that as I never did or do approve of the Exaltation of Mens private Prudence above the Churches in any direction that is apparent to the understanding and easie to be practised and there are