the Church of England hath given any direct Precept for reading that part of the Communion Service at the Lord's Table which is to end without Actual Consecration This I am to make good by two Ways First by probable Circumstances begetting this Persuasion Secondly by Examining the Pregnancy and Validity supposed in the Reasons to the contrary mentioned and urged by Mr. H. My first Part I shall endeavour to make good by fetching somewhat farther my Conjectures For I suppose 1. that the constant profession of our Church in following the Scripture as a true Rule of Doctrine and Worship and that as interpreted by the most Ancient Sound and Holy Church of Christ met here with no Obstruction or Exception little or no cause being given her to swerve from her professed Rule of Charity and Conformity Now as I have if my memory fail me not intimated unto you in Personal Discourse I do not find that any where in Ancient Churches nor at this day out of England in Reformed or Unreformed in Eastern or Western Churches that the Office of the Church was so divided as that one part of it should be said in one Part or Quarter of the Church and another in another Part but where it began there it ended It may seem therefore a more necessary than curious Inquiry to learn whence our Church took up that Custome so strange every where else For tho after greater Concourses of Christians for their greater benefit drew down the Office of the Church from the Eastern Part and Quire into the Body of the Church for better Distribution of the Service among the Multitude yet still the Office designed for the day was entirely compleated in one Place Neither can it be said that our Desk-Service or common daily Service is a distinct Service from that of the Communion Service which some alledge others making a threefold Service by vertue of the Litany added to the rest upon Special days which I think can scarce be made good yet if all this were true which I shall rather yield than here dispute still we shall want an ancient Precedent to warrant this division of our Service into sundry Places For as for that Ancient Distinction of the Missa into that of the Fideles and the Catechumeni whereof that consisted in the Celebration of the Lords Supper and the Communicating therein This was called Sicca because there were only certain Prayers preliminary and common to all designed for Baptisme as well as Baptized without Consecration and therefore was also sometimes call'd Nautica because it might be used at Sea on Ship-board where they judged it not safe to consecrate yet as I was saying in one and the same Place when joyntly used they were performed This Distinction mentioned coming nearest to the Resembling and Justification of our stop of the Communion Service where there is no Consecration at the end of the Prayer for the Holy Catholick Church is much asserted by Bartholomaeus Nervius in his defence of Cassander page 890 891 of Cassanders works And is acknowledged by Chemnitius Exam. Trident. pag. 363. Part. And more largely by Cassander himself out of Waldensis Socrates and Durantus in the 34 Ch. of his Liturgies Which I chuse to speak of here as well to justifie the like Practice in our Church as also to shew that such Distinction in the Office can be no sufficient ground to just ifie distinct Places of Worship And therefore we are to fetch the causes from some other ground than this And I am of opinion that such search will be lost Labour out of our own Church And that in our own Church will be found a Singular Oeconomia as St. Chrysost would call it and Condescension to gain in the Spring of our Reformation by all means some For in truth I am not so well read in or so well remember the Antiquities of our Church as to be able to say when the Desk or Reading Pew in the Body of the Church came first to be appointed tho I remember some no modern Articles of Bishops Visitations enquiring after them as appointed But when ever they were first appointed I presume to say That they were intended not for Prayers at all but for Reading the Scriptures and Homilies to the people in the English Tongue which they had not the happiness a little before at all to enjoy But the whole Service of the Church was as in Ancient Churches all at the Altar as they call it the People then having not forgotten to gather together before the Priest and humble themselves as formerly in times of Popery For they had not drunk in the Popular Superstition of following Teachers scaring them as Children with Bugbears of Superstition in places And when the ordinary daily Service was brought into the Desk as most commodious at the time of celebrating the Lords Supper which was adjudged then requisite to be continued all Holydays and Sundays the Communion Service was continued as formerly at the Altars as at first or the Table in the stead and place of the Altar And I do really believe but cannot demonstrate that until the first Book of Edward 6. enjoyned all the Reformed Service was as formerly at the Altar But in that first Book I find no Rubrick directing the Service in the Body of the Church or Chancel But in the 2 Book of Edward 6. this Rubrick is premised The Morning and Evening Prayer shall be used in such places of the Church Chappel or Chancel and the Minister shall so turn him as the People may best hear c. Here is mention made of the most commodious Posture at one Place for the People to hear But no mention at all of divers places either in the first Service or in the second where is order taken more especially for proper Habits at the time of celebration of the Communion but nothing else implying but one Place as yet Now when the Places become distinct by erecting a Reading Pew I am of opinion that it was then and after permitted to Officiate then in the Second Service as we call it in the Desk till the Canon of Consecration which the Ancients would call the Canon of the Mass began For in such Junctures and Cases I believe it was the command of the Church there only to minister And from hence I gather a Solution of the Riddle and of the Objections made for the Direct Precept of our Church for Ministring the whole Office of the Communion at the Lords Table The Difficulties and Arguments for the Indispensable Obligation to it are founded upon the certain Command which I grant ought Religiously to be obeyed that command certainly appearing Command Direct none is pretended but Indirect and Implicite is endeavoured to be proved by Mr. H. and others from a two-fold Rubrick the one requiring that the Minister stand at the North end of the Table which he cannot do unless he be there This is very true But can he not be there
Indisposition in the Body Natural would prove worse than the Disease For as Plato was wont to say To multiply Laws upon every light occasion seeming useful is to cut off Hydra's Head in place of which many will suddainly Spring up Which by the way were to be wished would be duly considered by our States-men who presently finding the Subject in the least Incommoded must make a Law to cut off that Grievance not foreseeing greater Evils ready to break out upon that Law But to return The Case is much different in the Service at the Lords Table and in the Desk when as the first by many is never heard and the Second sometimes not heard by some few Another Objection may be That as for the better hearing the former Part of the Com. Service was brought into the Desk so by the like Reason ought the other Consecrating Part be there also fixed To which my reply is that First this by the Rubrick of that Office was and is left to the Discretion of the Ordinary who hath Power to bring the Com. Table into the Church I suppose when he Sees the Chancel uncapable of so great a Company as is to Communicate Ordinarly Next I Answer That there is a great Disparity in the Cases For when People actually Communicate they are not only Permitted but invited to leave their Remoter Places and Humbly to Present themselves in the Chancel at a Competent distance so that they may heighten their Meditation by beholding and Inflame their Devotions more fully by hearing the Liturgist Officiate But in the first Part this is not Permitted nor would be liked Will you Please to hear the Judgment of Martyn Bucer in his first Chapter of his Censure of the English Service concerning this Point It is very Harsh for one that was much more Gentle then his Fellow Reformers of that time His Words are these Vt enim chorus sit tam procul sejunctus a reliquo Templo in eo tantum Sacra represententur quae tamen ad omnem pertinent Populum Clerumque hoc Antichristianum est I English nothing to you For you know this to be severe And little less is that of Merick Causabon Son of Isaac and Late Prebend of Canterbury in his Treatise of Preaching Pag. 21. If I mistake not Speaking thus However this Occasion being given me I cannot but profess my Great Dislike that the Service and Sermon should be Parted any where the one in one Place and the other in another if it may possibly be avoided Especially at such a distance as it is here with us in the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ in Canterbury I Conceive it one Reason that so few are acquainted and by Consequent not more in Love with the Service I leave this to Consideration But I gather from St. Aug. words in his first Book Contra Epistolam Permeniani Ch. 7. That tho the Priest minister'd in the Chancel yet the People both heard and understood and said Amen to the Prayers as these words Testifie Populus autem cujus ille Sacerdos est adhuc foris gemit Nam cum Episcopus solus intus est Populus orat cum illo quasi subscribens ad ejus Verba Respondet Amen This being within of the Bishop and this foris or without of the People who answered Amen to his Prayers was much different from our Church and Chancel For indeed they seem to be divided not much otherwise than that Place within the Rails from the rest of the Chancel or as myself have seen in some Greek Churches as a Skreen with two Doors divides one Part of an Hall from another which hindered not the People from partaking of what was there within done by the Bishop or Priest But when Zeal toward the most Sacred Place as they judged that wherein the Service of God was specially performed caused men to build Ample Chancels distinct from the Body of the Church to Speak the Plain truth they fell into a Pious Errour and brought great Inconvenience into the Publick Service of God in the Judgment of all those who look upon unknown or unheard of Worship as contrary to true Christian Communion Of the Number of which seeing our Church hath ever Professed it self how can we fairly suppose she should contradict her own Doctrine by her Practice And thus far of my Second Proposition My third and last Proposition for 't is more than time that this Discourse were ended is this That upon Supposition that once it was the real Intention of our Church that no Part of the Second Service even when there was no Communion should be said any where but at the Communion-Table Custom hath both weakned that Law and Interpreted the meaning of the Church so far otherwise that it cannot deserve that odious Name of Conventicling to Read one Part of it in the Desk This I purposely set down thus and directly oppose to the main Column of this Gentlemans Discourse built on the contrary which he farther Buttresseth as I may so Speak with many Inferior Reasons As the unreasonableness of Custom to overthrow a Law For tho saith he well Pag. 6. a Custom not prevented by a Law maketh a Law yet where a Law goeth before inconsistent with the Custom Custom cannot and ought not to Null that Law being not orderly Rescinded Again I give his meaning not sticking to his words it is a Grievous Affront to the Kings Majesty and Authority thus by Custom to be Baffled It is a Great Breach upon the Churches Authority to have her Canons and Orders thus slighted It is an Intolerable Presumption for Private Priests of their own Heads without good Authority to judge of what is Convenient or Inconvenient what is Decent or Indecent what Superstitious or not Superstitious contrary to Publick Decrees and I may add it is the Pest and Ruin of this and all other Established Churches the Pretended Charitable Complyance with pretended tender Consciences of Private Men against the Conscience and maturer Counsels of Superiours All this I acknowledge to be very important and deserving due Consideration Which I shall endeavour to give to it by opening briefly the Power and Nature of Custom not only when there is no Written Law to the contrary but where there is And this I shall do by running through and giving Instances in all sorts of Laws as Civil Common Law with us Canon Law with other Churches as well as ours in all which it will appear what Great Influence and Efficacy Custom hath over them and so no such new notorious or Intolerable thing is said or committed in Custom here predominating over the General Rule here supposed by that worthy Gentleman I shall begin with the Judgment of that Learned Dr. Eaden late Master of Trinity-Hall in Cambridge Inferiour to few of his Time and none of this Nation in knowledge of the Civil Law as I am assured by those that knew him better than I did It being
more unworthy a wise or humble Minister than this knowing that to be true which Seneca saith de Vita Beata Cap. 2. Vulgus veritatis pessimus Interpres The Common sort are the worst Interpreters of truth of all Men yea taking in what there presently followeth Vulgus autem tam Chlamydatum quam Coronam voco I mean saith he by the Vulgar some Robed or Gowned Persons as well as the Rabble and so we Ministers may be in danger to be of the Number and so we are indeed compared with our Governours Once more Seneca in the same Place against Courters of the Common People Argumentum Pessimi Turba est 'T is an Argument the thing is very bad which the Rout approves very much Did you never hear of the Expert Master of Musick who gave his Scholar a Box of the Ear when he took him playing to the Admiration of the Vulgar Presuming he must needs be out and play amiss or the Common Sort would never have liked him so well Which it were to be wished were not too often to be found in Popular Preachers who the worse they Preach the more they are applauded by such People whom Chaucer in his Squires Tale thus describes but too truely As People deemeth commonly Of things that been more Subtilly Then they can in their leudness Comprehend They deemen gladly to the badder end And such are the Judges we commonly choose to be directed by But I pass that and come to a worse reproach than the former by far an Argument of a very mean Understanding and low Spirit in the Accuser viz. That he was once a Papist and tho Converted still looking towards Rome an Imprudent and Unchristian Aspersion 'T is true as I am informed in his greener and younger Days he fell into the Snares of Rome And 't is no less true and more to the honour of our Religion that in his Maturer Judgment and Years returning to himself he returned to the Church of England also and preferring it above all other Faiths or Factions desires nothing more than an exact Observation of her Rules and Manner of divine Worship And this Last it seems so troubles you as it does a great many more such true Protestants which the selate times have produced or rather brought to light to the disgrace of all Reformation that you take Liberty to mock and rail him out of that Conscientious design suspecting the Invalidity of your Argumentations to that end For as we see it to be the crafty Practice of Pilferers and Thieves having stole any thing from their Neighbours the first thing they do is to pull off or deface the Mark that it may not be known to whom it belongs so Phanatically disposed Persons make it their business to tear away the Rites and Ceremonies belonging to and Characterizing the Worship of the Church of England from the Will-Worship of Sectaries that it may become their own without Controul But are such reproaches as you give to one converted to our Religion the best Entertainment and welcome you can afford out of the Penury of your Civility or true Piety Have you a mind to drive him back again and turn him out of Doors by your ill usage Or is this the Encouragement you can give to others to return to us I will here tell you a true story to this purpose which some Seamen with whom some Years since I was embarked told me upon their own knowledge which may suffice to advertize you of your absurdity in reviling Converts for having been in Errour A Moor or Turk was of the Ships Company who had renounced Mahometanisme and became a Christian An ill nurtur'd and malicious Fellow among them bearing him a spite would often be reviling him for his Religion calling him Mahometan and worse To whom the Man answered Ingenuously and Soberly What means this Man to check and reproach me so for having been a Mahometan I was so indeed but now I am as good a Christian as himself It happened about the same time that these things thus passed that there was an occasion for the English Railer to go up to the main top whence he was suddenly hurried away by a Blast of Wind as was supposed being never seen or heard of more Which they told me as an Instance of Gods Judgment upon a Reviler of a Penitent and I tell you But you say He looks towards Rome again How know you that Have you turned his Face that way in Abhorrence of your base Treatment I might so judge but that I am perswaded neither your Evil nor your good Word is of any account with him you should seem rather to be one of the Modernest true Protestants or as the late expression of a dying Man is Sincere Protestant who make all Popishly affected not approving their Prophanations of Gods Service and Seditious Zeal But I suppose you ground your Suspitions from what you here charge him with Irreverence at the Ministers Prayer and Sermon which in one of our Statutes say you whether he knows it or no is called Divine Service by Reading some Book of his own c. And I also am one of those that know not any Statute or Canon where the Sermon is called Divine Service And whatever may be said in large acceptation of Words I am sure it is not so in it's nature and proper use of Divine Worship And I am sure also the Prayer of the Minister in his Pulpit before Sermon is no part of the Service enjoyned but a Will-worship of Mens Private Invention more like to that of Nadab and Abihu than that of the established Worship which Sectaries have been wont so to traduce And if the Gentleman so carried himself at Church at such Private Exercises he offends less against the Constitutions of the Church than they who shew their Gifts rather than their Grace in using them whose Original and Design was to bring the Worship of God appointed by the Church into disgrace and contempt which accordingly Succeeded in late Years And if you plead a Custom as my self do against the Obligation of ministring constantly at the Communion-Table I may answer First this Custom hath not the like Grounds or Reason which it seemeth to me the forbearance of that hath Again Custom may make it Tolerable to do so but not Intolerable or Criminal to let it alone So that if any tender Conscience shall be offended at such strange Fire offer'd to God such a one may notwithstanding Custom modestly declare it's dislike by doing somewhat else not Scandalous in it self And therefore tho the Prayer be beholden to him that shall joyn with him in that Superstitious if as Mr. Cawdry and others of his Strain suppose Superstitio be Supra Statutum and incommanded Worship yet no man can Legally censure him that refuses to hear such Exorbitances And the same may be said of the Psalms Sung in Meeter and Tunes of Private Inventions I confess I have Read lately in the Writings of two Reverend and Learned Divines that it is a Vulgar Errour to say that those Singing Psalms want Lawful Authority But very desirous to know where and what that Authority is I found my self Frustrated and am so small an Antiquary in such abstruse things that I cannot help my self herein But have been sometimes of opinion that if any such Authority there be as those Reverend Persons intimate but instance not in that it must rather belong to another Ancienter and in my Judgment more Pious and Elaborate as to Art and Sense tho no less uncouth in Language Translation in Verse which I have by me and seems to be the Work either of one Man or divers concurring to the same thing and not Patch'd up by several Authors as the Common Singing Psalms are possibly that Ancienter I speak of may be the same which the Author of the Troubles of Eranckford Speaks of who tells us After the Death of Queen Mary the Exiled prepare themselves to depart for England from Geneva save such as stayed to finish the Translation of the Bible and Psalms both in Meeter and Prose Which yet whether they were ever allowed by Authority Istill remain Ignorant And thus I have passed some General Animadversions on the Censurers of Mr. Hart's Book Not intending to call in Question their particular Examinations from which I might have drawn somewhat pertinent to mine own Method of the same Subject But I choose rather to let it pass rudely according to the first and only Draught by me Whereby I suppose that if Mediocrity or Moderation be such a Vertue as it is cryed up for I may in this particular claim that Praise and obstain the Approbation of these Commenders of it Submitting what I say not altogether to them but most of all to such as are over me in the Lord from whose Determination I shall hardly swerve FINIS