positively and indefinitely he saith though men have prayed long by it that the rest of their lives might be holy and righteous yet they still continue profane and unrighteous To which I answer This being the judgment and sentence of the Author or of any that read his Pamphlet let them return speedily with a penitent heart for and from these thoughts For I see not but they may be ranked with the man of sin St. Paul speaks of in the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians chap. 2. vers 4. who as God sitteth in the Temple of God shewing and professing himself that he is God For in the I st of the Corinthians chap. 3. vers 17. A Church of God a Congregation of believers are there called the Temple of God Now this man or any following this his opinion living with or among a Church of God a company of true Worshippers of God he or they holding and professing the aforesaid opinion are got into the Temple of God hereby professing themselves that they are God in judging and condemning a great part of God's Church before Christ to whom is committed all Judgment be come in the clouds to justifie some and condemn others Or if they may not be ranked there I am sure they may with them St Paul in the 2 Epistle to Timothy chap. the 3d at the first vers and so on said should come in the last and perilous times namely blasphemers and despisers of those that are good which evidently belongs to them if ye do but consider the conversations and spiritual comforts of the late reverend Bishops Deans Prebends and of others outed sequestred persecuted imprisoned and murthered both of Clergy and Laity that were constant Worshippers of God in that Form of the Service-Book in publick whilst it could be so used and in private afterwards Seeing that these through the grace and help of God serving God that way might and I believe did in and from their hearts say in St. Paul's hope as well as words 2 Epist to Tim. chap. 4. vers 7. namely that they had fought a good fight and kept the faith and that there was laid up for them a crown of righteousness Nay their blasphemy and unparallelable despications upon this their condemnation are yet more evident and rise yet higher in their not excepting our late King Charles the blessed Martyr It cannot be denied but that he was a constant Worshipper of God in Publick by the Service-Book And prayed even to the last unto God by it Now I do positively say and who shall contradict it that there was much sanctifying grace to him from God upon his Devotion and Worshipping God thereby which will be evident if his Book Composed by him were but perused Where ye may see a testimony of his Spiritual Comforts and of Sanctifying Righteousness vouchsafed him of God yea and of his possession of Christ's and Steven's Spirit at his approaching death in both freely forgiving and fervently praying for his cruel Enemies Nor can it be thought but that God through the use of that Service-Book did vouchsafe him help cheerfully to drink off that Cup of Death so imbitter'd by his Enemies especially considering the true report goes of his Morning-Worship the day before he suffer'd His Majesty being to receive the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper the Morning before his Passion being the 30th of January The Service was to be performed by the Book of common-Common-Prayer which Bishop Juxen then officiating observed punctually and coming to the second Lesson to be read named it the 27 chap. of St. Matthew At the Bishop's naming the Lesson being the History of our Saviour's Passion His Majesty in all probability not eying the Calender as then it concerned him not to do steps to the Bishop and in meekness asked Why he did apply that Chapter to the present occasion The Bishop replied to this purpose and said It was the portion of Scripture that by providence was appointed for the second Lesson by the common-Common-Prayer Book for the Morning-Service Then said his Majesty Go on So that at the dreadful hour of his death being then at greatest need of help to suffer as Christ Jesus was in his bloody Agonies at the approaching of the hour of his Passion God by this his appointed Lesson for his Majesty's Passion made the Common-Prayer Book do for this blessed Martyr at that time what the Angel did for Christ when appearing to him in his Agomes from Heaven strengthning him for thereby questionless God helped his Majesty to pass towards the gate of death calmly undauntedly and chearfully as he did as thousands can yet testifie nor can I see how it should be less or otherwise seeing that God thereby gave an unexpected and extraordinary Testimony to him that that day he was to suffer with him even as he did one for many and consequently to reign with him and that he should this life ended be with him in Paradise sitting with the noble Army of Martyrs praising and magnifying the God of his salvation And last of all to conclude against this most false and damnable determination of the Author let it be consider'd of that God hath often given testimony of his acceptance of that Form of Prayer and of the Worshippers of him thereby seeing that when God at any time hath shewed his Indignation against the sinful people of this Land by his sore Judgments upon some places thereof why the repenting Inhabitants humbling themselves before this God and seeking his atonement and reconciliation in this Form of Worship and Service together with some few set Prayers and Portions of holy Scripture fitted to the present occasions why I say this Common-Prayer Book with those few apt alterations have oft-times done for England what David's rearing an Altar at the Word of God and offering burnt-offerings and peace-offerings thereon did for Israel 2 Sam. chap. 24. ver 25. it hath not been long before the Lord hath been intreated and the Judgments stayed To the 7th Consideration How much hurt it hath done in shouldering and thrusting out many godly painful soul-saving Preachers c. I presume that in this Consideration the Author hath respect to the times before the beginning of the long Parliament and the Wars they raised against his late Majesty of blessed memory when according to the Law of the Land as now it is the same the Ministers that would not conform to the Book of common-Common-Prayer could neither hold their Livings nor Preach In this respect he means the service-Service-Book shoulder'd and thrust out many godly painful soul-saving Preachers this being the sense of the Author in this former part of the Consideration as I verily believe it is it contains this following Proposition Those Ministers that would not conform to the Book of common-Common-Prayer were godly painful soul-saving Preachers Answer To make which Proposition true the Author must have recourse to some of their new light for I am sure that the old light the Old and
well Reprobation as Election by giving too much credit to divers Authors of those Opinions and by not well comparing Scriptures with Scripture touching those Points And could I think that my Grant of what they cast upon me wrongfully would any thing further their return to us herein I speak it God bearing me witness I would take it all upon me per modum altissimi silentii But Sir I have found upon Inquisition that both those Reports have been rais'd and spread abroad by one not of their Judgment The falseness of that Report that I was against Infant Baptism will be apparent in that I have Testimony under his hand that raised it and malitiously spread it abroad that at least a year and a half before November the 19th 1660. I did in my Sermon from several places of Scripture maintain the Lawfulness of Infant Baptism Oportet mendacem esse memorem And I have to the same Testimonial the Subscriptions of the three chiefest men in Hardwick and Pulsham St. Mary the Virgin besides my Accuser Which Notes then deliver'd in Hardwick Pulpit were drawn up by me in 1656. after my Living of Wighton in Norfolk was taken from me and conferred upon Mr. Robert Hocknell And those Notes were drawn up by me at the request of divers going for Anabaptism to know my Judgment about that Point which Notes sent them altered their thoughts and strayed their further progress therein And whereas many say from the afore-said Mouth that I was against the Common-Prayer Book I now write for I confess that for some short time after his Majesty's Restauration I omitted Officiating by the common-Common-Prayer Book but did begin with the Confession Absolution and Lord's Prayer therein and after the Lessons repeated the Apostles Creed and after the Prayer for his Majesty and other Prayers and Collects I could repeat memoriter until I might as I expected hear from Authority the re-injoyning the Observation thereof punctually With which Service so performed the Loyal Party for a while rested contented but soon after the death of Thomas Glean Esq a man of known Loyalty to the Crown and Conformity to the Church of England the Major now Sir Peter Glean his Son was offended left the Parish Church in his own person went to Shelton and told me so he would do till I observed the Book of common-Common-Prayer as I ought to do Whereupon considering with my self that I was for set Forms and had no Exceptions against our Liturgy and that the major part of the Parish was for that way I told Sir Peter I was resolved if the Parish procured the Book punctually to use it I remember Sir Peter's Expression presently was this Cosin I am as glad of your Resolution as of an Hundred Pounds given me And the next Sunday after according to mutual agreement he deliver'd to me in presence of the Congregation before any thing said by me the Book of common-Common-Prayer and desired my Observation of it which was performed by me accordingly But Sir were all truth that is suggested against me I know not why the remembrancing me thereof should allay my Proceedings herein according to my Promise though so â—st alledged by them as I judge for that end considering the Charge given to St. Peter Luke 22. v. 32. When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren And truly had I been against set Forms of Prayer and our Liturgy as this Author was at the drawing up of these Considerations and afterward should have been convinced of the Greatness of the Error and the Damage to the Church of Christ through perseverance therein as my Conscience tells me they all are guilty of who stand off from joyning with us herein the first thing I should have undertaken should have been to imitate St. Paul converted to the Faith by the heavenly Vision who forthwith Preached that Faith he once destroyed Gal. 1. v. 23. I should soon have endeavoured thereupon by this way I now am in to have brought men to unite in this way of Devotion with our holy Mother the Church of England Thus praying God to bless you with Health all happiness and length of days I rest very much devoted to serve and honour you whil'st Richard Lewthwat Norf. VVE whose Names are here under-written do Certifie whom it may concern That Richard Lewthwat Rector of Hardwick in our said County hath to our Personal Knowledge for the space of two Years last past been of a Peaceable Sober and good Conversation hath by his Doctrine been Instrumental under God for the increase of our Knowledge and Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and profitable to the Instruction of our Youth And that in our hearing at least as we compute a year and half since did in his Sermon from several places of Scripture maintain the Lawfulness of Infant Baptism Witness our Hands c. And he doth Affirm to us That it is yet his Judgment and Opinion This I Affirm from the bottom of my Heart Witness my Hand Rich. Lewthwat Tho. Gleane Peter Gleane Tho. Sayer Joh. Ebbettes Subscribed this 19th day of November 1660. THE PREFACE TO the Readers but especially to them of the same Judgment and Practice with him that occasioned the ensuing Discourse is composed chiefly to remembrance them with the great concern and necessity of the being of Uniformity in Doctrine and Discipline among them that in the Apostle's sence name the Name of Christ or that do take upon them the profession of Christianity And for the evidence of the necessity hereof among us I shall mind them first with that of our Saviour in his Prayer a little before his Passion John 17. vers 11. Holy Father said he keep through thy Name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are Judas having received the sop as in the 13 Chapter of this Gospel vers 39. and was gone from Christ and the other Disciples to betray him then Christ in his Prayer desires the Father to keep his Disciples in his absence through his Almighty Power in an holy Unity of Faith Spirit and Worship which is the sum of these words namely that they may be one as we are For in these words Christ did not respect the substance of the Father and himself in which respect indeed they both were one but the consent and agreement betwixt them as doing or having of things done which was ever one and the same as is evident from that of the Apostle to the Hebrews quoted out of the Psalms Hebr. 10. vers 7. When the Father's will is for the Son to come the Son is as ready to come be it from whatsoever happiness to whatsoever misery it shall be When the Father will be pleased with no typical Sacrifices longer but will have the substance the Son to take a body of our nature fitted for a Peace-offering to be sacrificed for the expiation of our sins then the Son's will is one with his Then said he lo I come to
A JUSTIFICATION OF Set FORMS of PRAYER And in Special of the LITURGY Of the Church of England In Answer to And Confutation of Vavasor Powel's Fourteen Considerations against all Composed and Imposed Forms of Prayer By Richard Lewthwat M.A. and Rector of Wethersdale in Suffolk LONDON Printed by A. Godbid and J. Playford for Robert Clavel at the Peacock in St. Pauls Church-Yard 16â—9 To the Right Honorable Henry Earl of Arundel Lord Mowbray c. and his Virtuous and Religious Countess Great Sir BEing put upon the Vindication of Set-Forms of Prayer and especially of the Liturgy of our Church and hearing of your Honour's resolution and beginning according thereto of becoming one in Religion Worship and Service of God in the way of the Church of England with your Illustrious and Devout Consort as ye are become one by Wedlock I thought it my bounden Duty upon the first Opportunity to make known to your Lordship and your religious Lady the great joy there is among us Protestants at your coming in as also to throw in my Mite and small help to settle and continue your Lordship in the Religion you profess with us which I can do no way better than by commending to you with our God and Saviour the daily reading and searching of the Holy Scriptures And as to perusing of Books upon them of which I may say with the Preacher in his prediction namely Ecclesiastes 12.12 there is no end I shall presume to recommend the same Method my Tutor at the Vniversity gave me to settle me firm in our Protestant Religion which was to be conversant in the Homilies of our Church and in the 39 Articles and Rogers upon them And withal I beg your Lordship's favour to do what I intended with all holiness and meekness of Spirit to have desired of your Honourable Father the Duke of Norfolk had he not gone beyond Sea namely to vouchsafe the reading of this short Tractate made publick at the request of divers persons by him who officiated sometimes as Chaplain to your Honourable Family and who is and shall be a truly devoted and well-wishing Servant to your Lordship and your religious Consort and to both your renouned Relations whilest he shall be Richard Lewthwat To my Reverend and Worthy Friend Dr. Laurence Womock Professor of Divinity and Archdeacon of Suffolk Reverend and Learned Sir ACcording to my bounden Duty and the earnest Desire was in my heart to reduce as many as I could of that great number of Scismaticks and Separatists that are about us to the Unity and Communion of our Church among other things in order thereto having received the worthy Tractate of Mr. Robert Conold most fit to help on that my Design I commended the perusal thereof to the chief head of the Independant Faction and most inflexible heart to Reformation about us so I take him to be for he told me then it would be to no purpose he being as in his own expression an old grown Oak in the Principles he was in But through much importunity I got promise of him to read it over and give me his Judgment of it both he granted upon condition that I should answer to things against the late Common-Prayer Book of our Church that were in Print that he would send me Whereupon I promised to give my Answer to the chief Objections whereby I became engaged to return an Answer to him of the things of greatest concern therein which promise of mine will be made good and he obliged to return something about that Tractate of Schism if there be deliver'd to him what I have drawn up to Mr. Powel's Fourteen Considerations in the beginning of his Book of which promise if he fail I hope there will be conviction of him and of his constant hearers and thereupon conversion of them to another Judgment and Practice Now having made known to several persons the said Considerations and my Answers thereto as I have at times drawn them up and my purpose of delivering them to the party in Writing Divers pâ—râ—â—ns have advised and desired me to endeavour the publishing of them by the Press alledging withall several Reasons to perswade me thereto As first because the Factions spreading them by Copies may willingly adulterate the Original and so disable it as to the conviction of them they communicate it to Secondly because if not Printed it will not be so commonly had for the benefit of the Multitude of their weak Proselytes who are captivated and held in the sad bondage of the following and like erroneous Rudiments and Traditions of the Jesuitical Heads of the several Factions in the Kingdom And thirdly because they hearing of my Promise made long since and not yet performed he and others give out that the Allegations in that Pamplet against Set-Forms of Prayer cannot be answer'd by my self or any of my Judgment Upon consideration whereof 't is presumed that if my Promise be not performed and published it may occasion the more secure Settlement of them in those dangerous Errors as also make a greater seduction of others to them than otherwise would have been For which reasons I have pitched upon the latter way of publication hereof if Authority shall permit Now if your self shall upon perusal approve the Answer as Orthodoxal and that it may be helpful to the bringing back but of the simple yet as I presume conscientious Multitude ledd away through good Words and fair Speeches as the Apostle speaketh of those who have caused Divisions and Offences contrary to sound Doctrine Then I most humbly beg that your self would Patronize this small Work being Dedicated to your Protection To which request if you shall condescend 't is very probable those Adversaries of our Church will not dare to rally Forces again about the present concerns or to give me another challenge fearing that if so you may become Second upon the next Quarrel whose success in conflicts of this kind they know to have been such that they will not venture upon any further Undertakings about this matter But Reverend Sir whilst I am arguing against these and other Errors near of kin to one another and reading these Answers to Mr. Powel's Errors to some loth to come out of them they tell me I am not of the same Opinion as formerly they say I was against Infant Baptism and the Book of common-Common-Prayer I now write for Sir to say a little to these Charges 'T is well known to your self by my Letters word of Mouth and Practice but best known to my self that I can easily take upon me by acknowledgment of my Errors and Mistakes for God's glory my own and others Eternal Safety all the shame and Temporal Evils incident thereupon which is much evident when through your discovering to me the Error I was in your self knew I came as willingly as through your help safely down from that high and dangerous Precipice I had climbed up to of absolute and irrespective as
hast standred thine own mother's son In the third place God's Spirit denys ye to be Churches of Christ or else at least he charges ye with such evil Customs as none of them have or at least as they ought not to have for those words of the Apostle 1 Corin. 11. v. 16. belong to you and to such as you are If any man seem to be contentious we have no such custome neither the Churches of God The Factions do not only seem contentious they have too deeply engaged themselves therein for either their own or others spiritual good In the last place Ye are by the Apostle deliver'd with the incestuous person up to Satan As I may say he hath excommunicated you Romans 16. v. 17. Mark them that cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine ye have learned and avoid them If ye will be holding forth the Word as ye call it the Apostle would have ye have no other Auditors than the Walls and Stools are with ye he orders all to avoid ye none to hear ye or associate with ye unless for your conversion And now from my Heart for your conversion to us in the Apostle's words to the Corinthians the 1st Epistle chap. 1. vers 10. I do exhort ye and beseech ye in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ That ye all speak the same thing that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together with us in the same mind and in the same judgment And to prevail with ye all to joyn with us speedily in Worshipping the God of Peace and Unity I convince ye in the words of the Apostle Philippians 2. vers 1 2 3. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfil ye my joy that ye be like minded have the same love being of one accord of one mind with us Let nothing henceforth be done through strife or vain-glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves So biddeth farewel to ye all Richard Lewthwat February 26. 1677. Mr. Lewthwat I Have heard read and consider'd of your Treatise Intituled A Justification of set Forms of Prayer and in especial of the Liturgy of the Church of England in Answer to and Confutation of Vavasor Powel's Fourteen Considerations against Composed and Imposed Forms c. And upon the whole matter I conceive it may be very Useful and Profitable especially to the vulgar sort of seduced Dissenters to with-draw them from their former Errors and procure their Return to the Way of Divine Worship prescribed in the Church of England if you will be perswaded to permit it to be made Publick by the Press Hen. Nerford B. D. Rector of Attleburgh Norf. I Edward Atkinson Rector of Bunwell Norf. desire the same thing To the Composers Imposers Readers and Hearers of COMMON-PRAYER to the Disputers and Writers for COMMON-PRAYER I Would desire ye all in the Name and Fear of the All-seeing Almighty and All judging God to set these following and the like Considerations to your Hearts and your Hearts to them First How jealous the Lord of Heaven and Earth is of his own Worship and of all the Parts and Circumstances thereto belonging Deut. 5.9 Hos 5.11 Matth. 15.3 Col. 2.21 Rev. 22.14.20 2. How abominable and unacceptable to this holy just God have been and is all Idolatrous Superstitious and False Services and all that do serve him in any way or thing which he hath not himself commanded and appointed Deut. 7.25 26. Isa 30.22 and the 66.3 4. Jerem. 9.13 14. Ezr. 20.4 3. How sorely and severely hath he punished those Kings Priests Prophets and people that have been false Worshippers and swerved from his holy Commandments 1 Kings 11.6 Numb 11.34 4. Consider whether God doth call upon any of you all to offer him any such Service as this is and whether he may not say to you as he did once to Judah Who hath required this at your hand Isai 1.12 5. How inconsistant with the day and light of the Gospel is this Service God having sent his Word more fully and plainly to direct his Ministers and People and given his Spirit in a more abundant measure to help and enable them to call upon him 6. How little good if any at all hath been done by the long use of the Service-Book though men have prayed long by it that the rest of their lives might be holy and righteous and yet they still continue profane and unrighteous 7. How much hurt it hath done in sholdering and thrusting out many godly painful soul-saving Preachers and in bringing in and maintaining so many ignorant scandalous lazy and formal Priests and Curats to the deceiving and utter undoing of precious souls 8. Whether the imposing of the Scotish Liturgy which in some things was better though in some others was worse than the English was not the beginning and the first cause of the late grievous Wars and if so whether men should not be more cautious to do the like for the future 9. Whether if the truth were throughly and truly weighed and examined the first end of Composing the Common-Prayer-Book which do's so much symbolize with the Mass was not to bring Papists to Church but it effected so little therein not because they so much disliked it as because it was not in Latin and commanded by the Pope that it rather confirm'd them in their Mass-service 10. Whether some may not intend by the re-establishing this Book to oppose and put down that excellent and gracions Spirit of Prayer and Preaching which God hath poured out upon his Ministers and to make this a snare and net against all Preachers and people that out of Conscience cannot conform thereto 11. Whether any persons can produce any such Liturgy or Form of Prayer from the beginning of the World either among the Jews or Geztiles till above three hundred years after Christ when Anti-Christ began to exercise Papal Power 12. Whether if there were no other reason but that this Book hath been so much Idoliz'd by the generality of men and offensive to so many Christians it should not be done with as the Brasen Serpent was by Hezekiah 1 Kings 13. Whether one end of Christ's coming into and one part of his work in the World was not to redeem men from the Rudiments and Traditions of men of which this is one And whether it be not a sin against the Blood and Spirit and Gospel of Christ to impose maintain and continue still the use of the same 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Heb. 9.10 11. 14. Whether at the great and terrible day of Judgment any Magistrates and Ministers or People can justifie before Christ the making imposing reading or hearing of this or the like Service And whether good men as far as they build with this Material will not suffer loss And whether those can stand then in the Judgment
without fear shame and sorrow that have cast out persecuted imprisoned or otherwise afflicted the true Preachers and Servants of God who did choose to obey God rather than men And to observe his Divine Will rather than the Traditions of men Consider what I say and the Lord give thee you understanding in all things 2 Tim. 2.7 I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right and I hate every false way Psalm 119.128 With these fourteen Considerations Vavasor Powel begins his Invectives against Liturgies set-Forms of Prayer and Common-Prayer Books c. which was Printed at London for Livewell Chapman Anno 1661 and was deliver'd to me to peruse and to give my judgment thereof the fore-mention'd part whereof I have consider'd and according to promise do return some of my thoughts upon these considerations in the following words To the Opposers Contemners and Neglecters of Common-Prayer and to the Disputers and Writers against Common-Prayer I Would desire you all in the Name and Fear of the All-seeing All-mighty and All-judging God to set these following Propositions Conclusions c. to your Hearts and your Hearts to them being evidently enough though secretly closed and couched in the wombs of the fore-mentioned Considerations But before I come to open the Contents of the Considerations which I presume are framed especially for a Scare-crow to the Worshippers and Servers of God in the Way of our Church of England by the Book of common-Common-Prayer and by a Composed Form or Forms of Prayer by the Ministers before their Sermons I desire all that admire the reasons laid down against this kind of Worship to consider that the Author doth not intend only the Condemnation of our Common-Prayers but of any Common-Prayer whatever hath been Composed or shall be for he writes to the Disputers and Writers for Common-Prayer and to the Composers Imposers c. of Common-Praver which terms are indefinite and are equipollent in Logic to Universality so that the Author is against all Common-Prayer whatever have been or shall be Composed or Imposed c. so that you may see by the Immediate succeeding discourse there is no less then a condemnation by the Author of David of St. Paul of all the ancient and modern Churches and Divines yea and of Jesus Christ himself that came into the World to seek and to save that was lost And now to shew ye the blindness of this Guide Disputing and Writing against Common-Prayer and the danger of them that follow him and such as are of his erroneous Judgment First I desire ye to search the Scriptures as concerning this matter where we find Records that Common-Prayers and set-Forms have been Composed Imposed and Used by them that were sanctified yea by them that had Authority from Heaven to instruct and guide men in the Worship and Service of God In the 1 Chron. 16. vers 7. Then on that day David delivered first this Psalm to thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren if ye look upon what follows ye have the form of the Thanksgiving If ye look before that 7th Verse ye shall see the occasion thereof and the Quire appointed to sing it unto the Lord in the Ears of the Congregation But come we to look into the Gospel and that in the 11th of St. Luke at Verse the first our Saviour's Disciples desired him to teach them to pray as John also taught his Disciples hereupon Christ composed a Prayer the Form being Our Father which art in Heaven c. yea and imposed it upon them to be used by them when ye pray say Our Father which art in Heaven c. Now this Prayer was and is Common-Prayer 't is a Prayer belongs to every one of Christ's Disciples because it sutes all their occasions and 't is commanded That they use it as oft as they pray When ye pray say Our Father c. but yet not so injoined that they should use no other when they pray but that as good Expositors give the meaning as is the practice of the best Reformed Churches and men of the soundest judgments they should either at the beginning or ending or in some part of their Devotions send up the desires of their hearts to God in that form of Prayer And if upon these Considerations that Prayer be not Common or a set-Form of Prayer I know not what is meant by the notions of Common or set-Form of Prayer King Charles the First of most blessed memory in his Contemplations upon the Ordinance against the common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book saith of this our Lord's Prayer that it is the warrant and original pattern of set-Liturgies in the Christian Church Further considering Christ's Disciples request there 't is more then probable that John the Baptist had Composed a set-Form of Prayer to be used by his Disciples in their Devotions and Service of God One Precedent more I shall mind ye of for justification for Composing and Using set-Forms of Prayer in the Churches of Christ which I bring from the practice of St. Paul in the beginning of his Epistles to the several Churches of Christ St. Paul knowing as he saith in the 1 Corinth Chap. 3. Verse 6 7. That 't is not of his planting nor of Apollo's watering by the word alone that Grace is begotten or increased in men but that 't is by God's blessing the word thereto doubtless hereupon it was that he ever began his Epistles with prayer to God for spiritual blessings to be to them through the word he sent them And if ye peruse the beginning of his Epistles he being to bring down the same blessings upon the several Churches from God by his Epistles and Prayer to God he useth ever the same set-Form of Praâ—er Rom. 1. Vers 7. and Ephes 1. Vers 2. his Prayer for them is in the same form of words Gâ—ace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ See St. Paul having the same mercies of Grace and Peace to seek at God's hand to be power'd down upon those Churches by his Epistles to them his heart ascends up in desire to God for their spiritual benefit thereby in the same words Nay and 't is not a Common-Prayer or Liturgy for himself only to pray by but for others also for himself and Sosthenes 1 Corinth Vers 2. for himself and Timothy 2 Corin. Chap. 1. Vers 2. and Philip. Chap. 1. Vers 1 2. and Colos Chap. 1. Vers 1 2. Yea 't is a set-Form for himself Silvanus and Timotheus Epist 1. Thessal 1. Vers 1 and 2. Thessal Chap. 1. Vers 1 2. Yea further 'T is a set-Form for himself and the Brethren with him at Rome praying to God through the means of that Epistle for the re-establishing the Galatians in the Gospel from which they were fallen 't is the Prayer for them all Grace be to ye and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ Galat. Chap. 1. Vers 1 2 3. So that the
summ of this alledged out of St. Paul's practice to justifie set-Forms of Prayer whose Desire and Prayer to God for Israel was That they might be saved as Romans the 10th Vers 1. amounts to this That St. Paul Sosthenes Silvanus Timotheus and the brethren with Paul at Rome did put up their Prayers to God for his bestowing spiritual blessings upon the several Churches of Christ through the word of â—â—ace did put them up I say in a Common-Prayer in a set-composed or as the Separatists call it stinted Form of Prayer And considering that the afore-mentioned Christians and Saints continued so long in a Common set-Form of Prayer for those Churches I cannot think but the pride ignorance heady and high-minded Spirits of these men had they lived in days together would have charged St. Paul and the rest that joined with him in Devotion for the Churches with what they cast upon the painful orthodoxal conformable Clergy of our Church in the seventh Consideration where they call them Ignorant Scandalous Lazy and Formal Priests and Ministers to the deceiving and utter undoing of precious souls and should they have had but such Revenues Salaries Tithes and Gleabs gone along with their Labours as our reverend Bishops Deans and Chapters and some of our Clergy had with theirs their Conformity and Uniformity in Prayer especially it being so short how holy soever their lives had been was crime enough for their Houses to have been Plunder'd their Estates Sequestred and their Persons Imprisoned And now to leave off the further confirmation of this unjustly condemned Practice of Devotion by the use of set-Forms of Prayer in the times of the Old and New Testaments and in the times of the Antient Churches before Popery and in the days of the Reformed Churches fallen from the Pope I shall only commend to your consideration the Prayer of St. Chrysostom wherewith we even close our dayly Devotions as in all probability he and the people he was over did conclude their Worship of God in their set-Forms of Prayer Almighty God who hast given us Grace at this time with one accord c. I confess 't is not the Forms of Prayer be they never so Admirable as to Expressions without the fervent desires of the Heart be the man never so righteous that utters them that do avail ought with God but when a man from the ground of the heart ascends up to God in Forms be they never so antient short or Common provided they be lawful as to the Matter and laudable as to the manner of the Expression supplicating praying interceding and giving of thanks then they become at the Throne of Grace such as St. John in the 5th of the Revelations Vers 8. saw in Heaven when the 24 Elders fell down before the Lamb namely barps and golden vials full of odours even the prayer of Saints And hereupon was the exellency of David's Prayer of which he speaks Psalm 11â— Vers 58. I made my petition with my whole heart There are recorded in the Scripture divers Forms of Prayers and Thanksgivings Composed by David and other devout Worshippers of God questionless for the use of themselves and others in the frequent Commemorations of God's Mercies to them and for their Supplications to be made unto God their wants being again the same or alike as formerly But now that which made these Forms of Prayer effectual David mentions in the same place where he saith he did it with his whole heart All the powers and faculties of his Soul were now acting in their several places so as he might prevail with God to supply his wants And a devout soul setting dilligently to this as St. Peter and the rest of the Twelve resolved to do Acts the 6th Vers 4. namely give themselves much to prayer as David did namely petition the Lord with his whole heart let it be in a set-Form that that praying soul goes to God that soul cannot want success long For if the Spirit it self as St. Paul speaks Romans the 8th Vers 26. be not yet helping his Infirmities it will not be long before he be with him making Intercessions for him i. e. working in him gronings that cannot be uttered nor long unanswered by his God if the things petitioned may be consistant with God's glory and the petitioners true good and what hinders that this soul praying to or praising God in a Form as before limited may not be accepted of God seeing God hath his whole demand of him in a way not inhibited by him as is evident Prov. 23. Vers 26. My son give me thy heart So that what St. James said of faith without works and of faith with works may be said of Common or set-Forms of Prayer without the heart going up to God with them and with the heart going up to God in or by them In the 17 Verse of the second Chapter he saith that faith if it hath not works is dead being alone and in Verse the 26th as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also faith with out works is like the body without the spirit it acts nothing to the good thereof Even so the best Forms of Common-Prayer if there be wanting in the man that utters or uses them a spirit or heart of supplication they prevail nothing with God for him they may be Vials but they are without Odours or Incense and so no sweet savour to God But then in the 22 Vers the Apostle that faith by works was made perfect and in the 23 Vers that by virtue thereof faith was imputed to Abraham for righteousness and he was called the friend of God Even so Common Forms for Prayer by fervent earnest supplicating hearts going to God in them the Common Prayers but as dead in themselves are thereby made perfect yea lively and the praying man thereby is owned of God and dealt by as his friend I shall now end my reasoning for the lawful and justifiable use of Common Forms of Prayer that suit our wants our hearts being in a praying condition with the practice of our Saviour in his bitter Agonies Matth. 26. Vers 39 and 42. there is mention of Christ's praying to the father for the Cup to pass from him and having no grant and resolving to seek God further for it in the 44 Vers 't is said he went away again and prayed the third time saving the same words And lastly To prevail with ye to come off from the dangerous Frrour ye are in as concerning the present I shall mind ye with the Reasons King Charles the First of most blessed memory hath laid down for the present purpose in his Observations upon the Ordinance against the Book of common-Common-Prayer I will write down some Paragraphs in that Tractate that they that have not his Book may read the Judgment of that blessed Martyr concerning the matter now in hand In the sixth Paragraph his Words are these For the manner of using set
and prescribed Forms there is no doubt that wholsome words being known and fitted to mens understandings are soonest received into their hearts and aptest to excite and carry along with them judicious and fervent affections In the eighth Paragraph thus he writes I could never fee any reason why any Christian should abhor or be forbidden to use the same Forms of Prayer since he prays to the same God believes in the same Saviour professeth the same Truth reads the same Scriptures hath the same Duties upon him and feels the same dayly wants for the most part both inward and outward which are common to the whole Church In the ninth Paragraph he goes on thus Sure we may as well before hand know what we pray as to whom we pray and in what words as to what sense when we desire the same things what hinders we may not use the same words our appetite and digestion too may be good when we use as we pray for our dayly bread I will write down here the thirteenth Paragraph which though it justifies Common Forms of Prayer yet condemns not but rather approves what our Adversary so magnifies as to down with set-Forms of Prayer provided it be done with a religious and prudential care His words follow Though I am not against modest discreet and humble use of Ministers Gifts in publick the better to fit and excite their own and the peoples affections to the present occasions yet I know no necessity why private and single abilities should quite justle out and deprive the Church of the joynt Abilities and concurrent Gifts of many learned and godly men such as the Composers of the service-Service-Book were who may in all reason be thought to have more Gifts and Graces inabling them to Compose with serious deliberations and concurrent advice such Forms of Prayers as may best fit the Churches common wants inform the hearers understandings and stir up that fiduciary and fervent application of their Spirits wherein consists the very life and soul of Prayer then any private man by his solitary abilities can be presumed to have with what they are many times even there where they make a great noise and shew the affectations emptiness impertinencies rudeness confusions flatness obscurity vain and ridiculous repetitions the sensless and oft-times blasphemous Expressions all these burthen'd with a most tedious and intolerable length do sufficiently convince all men but those who glory in that pharisaick way And the said King Charles having in the 15th Paragraph shewed the necessity of the use of Forms of publick Composure in the performance of Sacramental Administrations and the like in the 16th Paragraph his words are as follow A serious sense of which Inconvenience in the Church inavoidably following every mans several manner of Officiating no doubt first occasioned the Wisdom and Piety of the Antient Churches to remedy those Mischiefs by the use of constant Liturgies of Common Composure And now for a close at present as to my Meditations upon the present subject of Common-Prayer what can solidly or commendably be said against the Use of Set and Composed Forms of Prayer to put up to God the servent desires of our hearts by If the said Forms be lawful laudable and convenient as to the Matter and Expressions suiting together with our wants seeing we have such a cloud of Authentick Authors for it as David Jesus Christ our Saviour St. Paul John the Baptist besides the Fathers the Antient Churches the devout and pious Modern Divines yea and I might have recounted even all late Reformed Churches till these late upstart anti-Christian heady high-minded late Factions arose disturbing the Unity and blessed Peace of our and other true Churches of Christ denying the Lord that bought them and without Repentance bringing upon themselves and their Proselytes swift destruction And now I shall end my Meditations as to what preceded the Author's proposed fourteen Considerations following now to be considered of in the very Words of the before quoted King Charles of Blessed Memory with which he ends his Observations upon the said Ordinance against the Book of common-Common-Prayer I wish saith he their Repentance may be their only Punishment that seeing the mischeif the disuse of publick Liturgies hath already produced they may restore that Credit Use and Reverence to them which by the Antient Churches were given to Set Forms of sound and wholesome Words And now having shewed the groundless Oppositions of the Author to Common and Set Forms of Prayer given me to peruse and to give my opinion concerning the aforesaid subject and having also from the Sacred Scriptures and otherwise justified the Use and manifested the Aptness of Common-Prayers for our Devotions Worship and Service to be put up and performed to God I now come to speak to the Fourteen Considerations which the Author proposeth to the World as unanswerable Evidences in his judgement to make the aforesaid kind of Worship and Service though never so Conscientiously Sincerely and Heartity performed to be damnable because abominable to God and not required of us by him as is to be collected out of his four first Considerations I shall therefore now spend a little time about the said Considerations and look into the Bowels of them they being in the whole like the great Horse framed at the Seige of Troy in the Body whereof were inclosed men enough to deliver up the City to Destruction For in this Fabrick and Womb of these Considerations are inclosed conclusions and opinions enough to deliver up treacherously the City of God the Souls Redeemed by Christ's Blood to Hell and its Assistants the Beseigers thereof to Eternal Destruction if impenitently followed and persevered therein I will therefore open the Door of this Monster composed by deceitful Workers having transformed themselves in the Apostle's sence into the Ministers of Christ And letting out the deadly Enemies therein the false conclusions shall slay them with the two edged Sword of God's Word and known Truth That they make no further devastation hereabout upon them for whom Christ dyed In he Considerations the Author falls from the way he begâ—n in as to the quantity of a proposition namely the universality of his condemnation of Common-Prayer in his Indefinite term for now he endeavours especially to keep the Common-Prayer Book of our Church of England from a glorious Resurrection which had been Crucified Dead and Buried so long time by the long Parliament and their Armies For all his Magazine is spent in killing again what they thought they had killed before for ever namely the common-Common-Prayer Book In the four first Considerations are contained four positive Conclusions which the Author endeavours to make good by Scripture and thereby to overthrow the common-Common-Prayer Book of our Church for which purpose even the whole part of the following Pamphlet is spent Look upon the first Consideration beginning thus How Jealous the Lord of Heaven and Earth is of his own Worship and of all the parts
that have been and are but such as our Saviour said the Scribeâ— Pharisees and Hypocrites were Mat. 23 ver 13. where he said they did Shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men did neither go in themselves nor suffer them that were entering to go in But before I pass from the Consideration and Proposition I must touch a little upon the latter part thereof which is also by the Author misapply'd to our Liturgy and them that use it He looks upon our Worshipping of God in that form to be a false Service and the chief places he brings to discover what a false Service is are Isaiah 66. ver 3 4. and Jerem. cap. 9. ver 13 14. where the Prophets give the reasons why God had no respect to Israels offerings and why he gave up the Land to perish and to be burnt and it was they say because the People had forsaken God's Laws and followed their own ways and their own abominations Now all this makes nothing against our Liturgy or the Worshippers of God by it for our Service-Book hath nothing in it against the Will of God or his Worship set forth in the Scriptures I conclude therefore that had the Author applied the false Service he there spake of and the recited places out of Isaiah and Jeremiah to himself and the rest of the Factious as to their Worship and Service he had done rightly for I am sure that their Service both as to Prayer and Instruction in most things was truly what they falsely charge upon us namely a false Service As to their Prayers King Charles the First of most Blessed memory hath evidenced the falseness of their Service seeing God by St. Paul to Timothy 1 Epist cap. 2. ver 1 2. exhorts That Prayers and Supplications should be made for Kings and all in Authority For in the last Paragraph but one in his Observations upon the Ordinance against the Common-Prayer Book His words follow thus One of the greatest faults some men found with the common-Common-Prayer Book I believe was this that it taught them to pray so oft for me to which Petitions they had not Loyalty enough to say Amen Nor yet Charity enough to forbear reproaches and even Cursings of me in their own Forms instead of Praying for me Look upon the third Consideration beginning thus How sorely and severely hath he punished those Kings Priests Prophets and People that have been false Worshippers and swerved from his holy Commandments 1 Kings 11.6 Num. 11.34 The Author's Proposition in this Consideration is as followeth God hath sorely and severely punished those Kings Priests Prophets and People that have been false Worshippers and swerved from his holy Commandments His Proofs as before Answ The Proposition is true but nothing concerns them that worship God by the Common-Prayer Book nor are the places he quotes for Proof against them that serve God that way for that the Prayers of our Church are put up to the true God we are not gone to the Abominations of this Amorites nor to the Abominations of this Author nor of his Followers the Lord keep us in the Worship we are in and of his Mercy bring them back to us To the fourth Consideration I shall say no more nor otherwise than the Author hath there said to us mutatis mutandis Let them consider whether God doth call upon any of them to offer him any such Service as theirs is and hath been And whether he may not say to them for their so doing as they have done as he did once to Judah Who hath required this at your hands Isa 1.12 Look into the fifth Consideration being this How inconsistent with the Day and Light of the Gospel is this Service God having sent his Word more fully and plainly to direct his Ministers and People and given his Spirit in a more abundant measure to help and enable them to call upon him This Consideration in the beginning of it considering what in the beginning of the Treatise the Author writes to the Composers Imposers c. of Common-Prayer contains manifestly in the Author's opinion this following Proposition as a truth To make use of set Forms of Prayer in the time of the Day and Light of the Gospel to put up the desires of our Hearts to God by is no way justificable 'T is plainly his opinion for he saith that this kind of Service is inconsistent with the Day and Light of the Gospel And the following part of his Consideration is in manner of a reason to confirm it for he saith that in the Day and Light of the Gospel God hath sent his Word more fully and plainly to direct his Ministers and People and given his Spirit in a more abundant measure to help and enable them to call upon him than by that way of Common or Set Forms of Prayer In the beginning of my Confutation of this Author in my justifying set Forms of Prayer as there limited and that from the practice of our Saviour in his drawing up and commanding the use of his set Form As also from the practice of David of St. Paul Timothy and others I have sufficiently overthrown this Proposition and his Argument and Reason also brought for confirmation of it considering that it was the time and day of the fullest Light and Promulgation of the Gospel and of God's enabling Men by his Spirit to call upon him that ever was since in which was the justification of set Forms of Prayer after by the forementioned Examples and Precedents Well but yet for further Answer let enquiry be made what time the Author here means by the Day and Light of the Gospel in which he says the Spirit was given in a more abundant measure to help c. For satisfaction herein It was not meant of the time of Moses David Christ John Baptist or the Apostles for as hath been shewed set Forms were consistent with those Days of Light and help of the Spirit to call upon God 'T is certain therefore that by these words in his consideration namely the Day and Light of the Gospel the Author means the times of the late Wars and horrid Rebellion the times he wrote and inveighed against the best set Form for publick Worship and Service of God that ever was extant before it namely the Common-Prayer Book before this And now as for a fuller Answer I grant that with those their Days of Light which was as great a darkness as ever was since Christ as to Spiritual things the Glorious Liturgy of our Church was inconsistent being a Worship and Service according to God's and Christ's Rule and Doctrine for that the practice of the Opposers of the Common-Prayer Book was diametrically opposite to the Day and Light of the Gospel of Christ and his Apostles and therefore could have no more Concord together than St. Paul said 2 Cor. 6.17 Christ and Belial could have which was none at all therefore it was notable policy though nothing of true
Religion of the Counsil of Belial to use His Majesty's expression to Crucifie the Common-Prayer Book by an Ordinance for had the Liturgy of our Church and their Belial their Army stood together it would have been soon as it was with Dagon when the Ark of God and it stood together which soon fell down and brake in pieces their Army would soon have moulter'd to nothing what a confusion and consternation would have been among them and upon them had that Book or the substance of it either been in use by their Ministers as by the express word of God is commanded should have been 1 Tim. 2. vers 1 2 3. What thoughts of heart would have been in those rebellious spirits when being sent up to fight against his Majesty and his Forces before they had gone to Battel they must have prayed to God to be the preserver of him and them they were going to destroy for so 't is in the Litany according to the Command of God that it may please thee to be the King's defender and keeper and to give him victory over all his Enemies and in the Prayer for him 't is strengthen him that he may vanquish and overcome all his enemies So that had they continued our Liturgy as was their duty to have done or had their Prayers been according to God's direction in his Word they must as much as in them lay have been by Prayer blessing and strengthning his Majesty and cursing and weakning themselves in their Enterprises by preceding Supplications for both To end therefore my Answer as to this in general I confess indeed the former common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book and almost all Prayers according to God's revealed will in his Word yea and all found Scripture Doctrine were inconsistent with the times of the day and light of the Gospel by the Author's calculation but in the light of the Gospel in the times of Christ and his Apostles they were consistent and justifiable for they had then no contradiction nor discouragement by God in the Old Testament nor by Christ and his Apostles in the New as is sufficiently proved at the beginning of my Tractate This may be sufficient to that fifth Consideration if not go on as followeth But to give the Adversary the fairest play that may be and to save him and his assistants the labour of replication perhaps they will plead their more abundant help of the Spirit to call upon God than formerly from their mode or manner of praying and that in three respects First in respect to the length of their Prayers or Secondly in respect to their Extemporary and Unpremeditated way of praying Or Thirdly in respect to their more powerful and argumentative way they use in their Prayers to prevail with God for the things they ask I will briefly consider what may be said for them and what against them as to the before-mentioned respects First They will say 't is evident they are much more inabled by the Spirit to call upon God than formerly considering the length of their Prayers To which I answer This is of no moment to them that will be guided by the Precedents and Precepts in Scriptures as to this mode of praying For first the practice of the Saints and holy men of God have in the weightiest matters and concerns been short in their Prayers put up to God Abraham's Intercession for Sodom and Gomorrah designed for destruction was but short Gen. 28. vers 23 24 c. Jacob in his great fear that Esau should destroy him and his going to God by prayer for safety his Prayer is past over in four short Verses with all the Arguments he used to prevail with God Gen. 32. ver 9 10 c. Nay Christ himself seeking by prayer for the Cup of Death to pass from him his Prayer was short every time in his Address to the Father Matt. 26. vers 39 42. Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt his Prayer was as short the second time and the third time it was no longer than at first for it was the same The Precepts of God and his Spirit are against this mode of long Prayers and therefore no argument from the length of their Prayers that they are more inabled by his Spirit to call upon God See for this 1 Ecclus 5.1 2. as concerning hearing when men come at the House of God he would have them very attentive as to the length of their Prayers he orders them to be short God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth therefore let thy words be few And our Saviour in his Sermon upon the Mount directing how to Pray effectually orders as well concerning the length of Prayer as to the matter thereof Matt. 6. vers 7. When ye pray use not vain repetitions as the heathen do the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is translated ne inania loquaemtra which our Church renders very well use not vain repetitions where our Saviour forbids tautological words variety of Expressions to one and the same purpose Learned Sharpâ—â—s in his Symphonia Prophetaâ—um Apostolorum saith That the word there used by our Saviour is taken from one Battus a soolish Poet in those days whose Verses were tedious to a loathing by means of many divers and vain words to the same signification So that there our Saviour admonished his Disciples and all men that their Prayers be not nauscous through tediousness or multiplicity of words which is abliorred of God and devout souls Vos 9. praedicti Capitis after this manner pray ye that is in a concise and short manner Further If in respect to the length of their Prayers they or their hearers will conclude their more abundant help of the Spirit to call upon God they do deny the Nature and being of God and Christ as described in the Scriptures for James 1. vers 1â— With God is no variablerese nor shadow of change And Hebr. 13. vers 8. Jesus Christ the same yesterday to day and for ever Now if it be through the help and direction of the Spirit that their Prayers are so constantly long over they were by the direction of God and Christ and by the practice of Abraham the Prophets and others inabled formerly by the Spirit to call upon God then it must follow that with God is variableness and shadows of change and Christ is not now the same by his Spirit he was formerly for if they have now help to pray as they do by the Spirit of Christ then it follows he is now for long Prayers and whilst upon Earth by himself and by his Spirit in the days of the Apostles and Prophets he was altogether for short Supplications All therefore that can be granted the Adversary as to the usual mode of long Prayers is this That they are carried and helped thereto either by an heathenish ignorance or by that which is far worse namely by a Spirit of
Saviour in Luke 11. vers 11 12 13. to make men importunate and diligent seekers of God in Prayer If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father will be give him a stone or if he ask a fish will be give him a serpent or if he ask him an egg will be give him a scorpion No the summ is this an earthly Father will give a Child upon request the things he hath need of Ay but what follows how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Ghost to them that ask him But if there be never so much willingness to help yet if there be not ability to relieve there will be but a slack and faint address made though there be never so much want But now ye may see our Church here after the Practice of our Saviour hath made provision for the latter as well as for the former for it ascribes to him power to forgive all sins and to amend all sinfulness of life in man in attributing to him almightiness as well as it preached before his willingness in those words placed before the Confession and Supplication Almighty and most merciful Father See Exod. 32. Vers 31. And in the close of this Confession and Prayer the Church follows Christ there and the Saints of God close There our Church helps a devout soul to plead strongly with God for forgiveness and assisting grace by way of an humble remembrancing of God of his PRomise made to Mankind thereupon in Christ Jesus And citer that pleads with God for his help to amend their lives that they might be instruments for his glory thereby And indeed it ye look upon the Absolution upon the second Collect at Morning Prayer which is for Peace upon the third which is for Grace upon the second at Evening-Prayer which is for peace of Conscience peace with God upon the Prayers for his Majesty the King for the Queen the Duke of York and the Royal Family for the Ministers of the Word and all Congregations committed to their charge and upon most of the Pravers to be used with the forementioned Prayers in our daily Devotions they are fitted to awaken and help our Faith and â—â—…erchy to strengthen our wrastling souls with God by Prayer that we might overcome him as Jacob did at Peniel and the Lord not able to deny us blessings meet for us and his own glory And now look upon some of the Prayers and Thanksgivings of them that have so dispised the former and are so much more inabled by the Spirit to those Duties by their own Pretensions and see which have come nearest the help of our Saviour and the powerful and argumentative way of the canonized Saints in the Calendar of the Spirit of God At a Market-Town in Norfolk there being a Meeting in order to setting up the Presbyterian Government the Minister in his Sermon instructing the Lay-Elders as to the due execution of their places told them they must be as exquisite Chirurgeons who have Hauks eyes Ladies hands and Lions hearts But one of that Faction taking on him to pray a Blessing upon the work of the day among other things he desired God he would give the Lay-Elders Hauks eyes Ladies hands and Lions paws That I shall not omit of one in his Prayer before his Sermon in his Thanksgivings blessed God for the twelve Bishops being sent to the Tower in the long and mad Parliament because that thereupon God had set Christ Jesus twelve steps higher in his Throne than ever he was before Another Minister being to Preach a Funeral Sermon at another Minister's Parish he that officiated before the Sermon read the 8th of Ecclesiastes where in the 4th Verse 't is said Where the word of a King is there is power and who can say to him what doest thou The Minister that was to Preach being for the present Rebellion fearing the people in all probability might have been brought to or continued in Loyalty upon the remembrance of Solomen's Doctrine used this poisonous Antidote in his Prayer before the Sermon O Lord though Solomon hath said that Kings cannot be controuled yet we thy people know by the Spirit that Kings may be questioned and call'd to account I will insert but one more Expression in Prayer which was lately told me by one that heard it being present himself at a Church in Suffolk in the Prayer of a Minister in great esteem in those days After some Groanings and small coughing Respits these words came forth Lord go on with thy Reformation while it is time and after some more coughing Respits he went on thus For if thou dost not thou wilt not know what to do And that these and such like ridiculous and profane Expressions and dead argumentative helps were too frequently used in the Prayers of those so boldly assuming to themselves a superlative or extraordinary help of the Spirit to call upon God are in common charity and probability to be received as truth even by those that have not heard them or the like to them considering the report as to such like particulars left to be published by King Charles the First of most blessed memory being then in his own thoughts but a few steps from the grave For in his Observations upon the Ordinance against the Book of common-Common-Prayer in the twelfth Paragraph there having stigmatized many of their Prayers with statness rudeness confusion ridiculous repetitions yea with sensless and oft-times blasphemous Expressions c. In the thirteenth Paragraph he concludes to my present purpose in these following words Wherein they must be straâ—â—â—…ly impudent and flatterers of themselves not to have an infinite shame of what they so do and say in things of so sacred a nature before God and the Church after so ridiculous and indeed prophane a manner But notwithstanding what hath been last sâ—â—d I cannot but grant that some of them infatuated with the same spiritual pride and self conceitedness have been more prudent and careful than others in composing and wording their Publick Prayers but yet if they be weighed in the Sâ—des and with the Weights of the Sanctuary with the Collects and Prayers of our Liturgy so despised by them their best Prayers will be found lighter than the other in the judgment of meek humble and devout souls knowing how to pray as they ought through the help of the Spirit of God Look upon the sixth Consideration which begins thus How little good if any at all hath been done by the long use of the Service-Book though men have prayed long by it that the rest of their lives might be holy and righteous yet they still continue profane and unrighteous The Author's opinion there is thus Those men that have made never so long use of the Service-Book and have prayed never so long by it to God for a sanctified and righteous life have never attained to any part thereof It appears plainly to be his opinion for
New Testament neither by Precedents nor Precepts therein can they prove themselves to be either in a godly or soul-saving way of themselves or of them that did adhere to their Doctrines For so soon as his Majesty's Grant was ratified for the two Houses of Parliament to sit during their pleasure there was soon a foundation for a Rebellion laid by them and the Synod of Divines sitting with them Which was no sooner done but those Dissenters from the Common-Prayer Book some having gone beyond Sea and others retiring into secret places at home for a while soon joyned all their Forces to carry on the late most damnable Rebellion and Disobedience So that instead of being owned godly and soul-saving Preachers they may justly be termed what the Pharisees were of John the Baptist namely an off-spring of Vipers For as 't is the property of the off-spring of Vipers to destroy their Dams that gave them their being so did these forsaker of the Service-Book soon help to destroy our most gracious Sovereign that under God gave them their safe being and preservation as English-men and for a long while destroyed their Mother the true Protestant Church of England which gave them their spiritual saving and Christian light and grace if ever they had any So that for the just condemnation of the former part of the Author's 7th Consideration what God said against Judah and Hicrusalem by Isaiah chap. 1. vers 2. may justly be applied to these opposers of the King State and Church of England Hear O Heaven and give car O Earth for the Lord hath spoken I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me Now something would be said to the latter part of this 7th Consideration where the Service-Book lies under a great condemnation in respect to bringing in and maintaining many ignonorant scandalous lazy and formal Priests and Curats to the deceiving and utter undoing of many precious souls In which latter Paragraph I presume the Author had respect to the Times before the long Parliament and the late unhappy Wars and do mean thereby that the Ministers in the foregoing times which would subscribe and conform to the Book of common-Common-Prayer though but of mean parts were admitted to Livings and suffer'd to serve their Cures in which respect I presume the Author means the Service-Book brought in and maintained many ignorant c. as above said To which Accusation I make this ensuing Apologetical Answer I remember that in those times many of the Clergy brought into the Ministry in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory as also for some while after by reason of a scarcity of Learned Men occasioned by the sharp Persecution of such Divines in Queen Mary's days and in another respect alledged by a Bishop at the Conference at Hampton-Court I say I remember many of those Ministers of very mean ability were then alive and remained in their Livings And indeed I confess that in that respect it may be said that the Service-Book brought in and maintained some Ministers of but mean Abilities but yet were nothing so impudently and wickedly ignorant as Butchers and other Mechanick Teachers put into publick places after the said Service-Book was crucified for though these former Ministers knew not much yet what they knew they knew rightly but these latter thinking they knew any thing as St. Paul 1 Corinth chap. 8. vers 2. they knew nothing as they ought to know In the next place the Author saith this Service-Book did bring in and maintain scandalous and lazy Priests and Curats that is first men of an open wicked Coversation To which I Answer 'T is a charge as nonsensical as false and as false as any thing can be Let him shew where the Rubrick or any part of the Book yea or any Canons or Constitutions of our Church give Toleration or countenance of any such Minister in that Office If there be any such scandalous Minister in the Church the fault lies in the Officers in not presenting of them not in the Service-Book nor in them in Ecclesiastical Authority For as our Bishop when Arch-Deacon hearing by flying reports of some scandalous Ministers to be in his Jurisdiction and meeting with no Informations thereof at his general Visitation he told the Officers of the reports but withall told them there could not be a debauched Clergy in England unless there were a perjured Laity And whereas the Author saith they were lazy that probably might be spoken how diligent soever because they prated not nonsensically twice or thrice a week in the Pulpits as some of their gang did use to do But if the Works and Sermons of most of the Clergy Printed and weekly Preached were duly consider'd of both in these times and in the days he complains of in this Consideration they would be found generally a Clergy so labouring in the Word and Doctrine as they might be thought justly worthy of double honour and in that respect free with St. Paul from the blood of all men neither deceiving nor undoing any soul as the Author uncharitably and blasphemously charges here upon many Ministers To the 8th Consideration Whether the imposing of the Scottish Liturgy which in some things was better though in some others worse than the English was not the beginning and the first cause of the late grievous Wars and if so whether men should not be more cautious to do the like for the future I presume that upon this Consideration the Author would have this believed and granted that the Imposing of the Scottish Liturgy to be used in their Publick Worship and Service of God was the beginning and the first just cause of the late grievous Wars Or thus That the Scots and late long Parliament in England were justifiable in Levying Wars against his Majesty King Charles the First and his Loyal Subjects upon sending or commanding or commending to them the aforesaid Liturgy to be used in their Publick Worship and Service of God One of these Propositions or Assertions containing the meaning of the Author in this Consideration in the close thereof he makes use and application in these following words And if so whether men should not be more cantions c. The Proposition being granted to be truth whereof he would have no man doubt He makes the Application by way of an inferential Caveat or Advice And that is that no Men Kings or Church should afterwards commend or tender the like that is any Liturgy or set Form of Prayer to the people especially of Scotland to be used in the Publick Worship of God for the future considering that Wars have been raised before in Scotland and England thereupon To which I Answer Considering the Scots received Knox his Form of Prayer and England ever had one I shall not conclude with the Author that the Imposition of that Liturgy was the first cause or beginning of the late grievious Wars Which I heard Mr. Peters boast of in
St. Laurence Pulpit the peculiar Thanksgiving day for the Defeat at Worcester in the intention of the Contrivers and Managers thereof though it might be made use of by way of occasion to hasten to the Execution of their long before contrived rebellious Design and wished desire Nor shall I here enumerate or debate their pretended just grounds for their War Nor shall I argue to evidence the unlawfulness of those Insurrections otherwise then by remembrancing men of the displeasure of God with them for those their Enterprises manifested sufficiently in the succeeding events and issues thereof For we see the Presbytery in Scotland and their Confederates in England the Presbyterian Covenanters here the beginners of that horrid Rebellion soundly basted wholly subdued baffled and made the laughing stock of the World by the Sword of their own Party What became of the Hothams that so hindred and disabled his Majesty of most blessed memory to defend himself against these and other enemies in seising his Garrison and Magazine at Hull And as to this Topick I shall desire at present nothing more to be had in memory but the end of that heavy scourge and rod of God's Protestant Church and his beloved Kingdom of England I mean the Independant and Cromwellian Army and the imparallelable High-Court of Injustice the chief whereof though the generality had mercy died not the common death of English offenders but that death by the providence and justice of God appointed by the Law of the Land for the worst of Malefactors and so let all the implacable Enemies of our Church and gracious Sovereign perish And now I 'le have done speaking to this 8th Consideration in the same manner the Author ended it even by way of Application Seeing that God brought upon that party that raised Wars upon the imposing justifiable and pious Liturgies as I presume the Scottish was and am sure the English formerly was and this now is such a miserable and wretched end as the just wages of that rebellion as he did upon the chief heads thereof Let all men henceforth be so cautious as not to dare to think in the least of Disobedience or Levying Wars upon the same or such like grounds as the former Rebels did against this Church and in the close our dread Sovereign or Crown of England To the 9th Consideration Whether if the truth were throughly and truly weighed and examined the first end of Composing the Common-Prayer Book which doth symbolize with the Mass c. In this Consideration are couched divers Propositions of the Author concerning the common-Common-Prayer Book One may be this The first that is as I presume the chiefest end of the Author 's Composing the common-Common-Prayer Book was to bring Papists to Church Answer This is the first charitable Expression that I have hitherto observed Mr. Powel to have given them that were the Authors of this kind of Worship but had he made known in plain and full terms the other gracious designs of those men thereby as namely to help good meaning hearts to God by the only Mediator in Heaven Christ Jesus and not by Saints and Angels as also secondly as St. Paul directs 1 Corinth chap. 14. vers 15. to help those had in them a spirit or heart to pray that they might perform it with understanding and be able to say Amen effectually and servently I say had Mr. Powel mentioned these and other the gracious ends of the Composers of the Service-Book God's mercies and way of salvation being then vailed to the generality of men being set forth only in an unknown Tongue I say he and others thereupon might have owned them to have had to the people of England the like Imployment the Angels had to the Shepherds and the World at the Birth of Christ when vailed to many by the meanness of his coming in the flesh namely this to set forth by that Service-Book the glory of God in his peace on earth and good will towards men that so England might be in a right way to believe in Christ and so to call upon him that they might not perish but have everlasting life And to be short as to speaking to this ninth Consideration what though it be granted that it symbolize with the Mass book or that many things be in it that are in that seeing there 's nothing in our Liturgy but what is good lawful or useful to Edification as will be evident to men doubtful thereof if they will but peruse diligently Mr. Thomas Comber's Companion to the Temple or otherwise termed A help to Devotion in the daily use of the Common-Prayer In two Parts To the 10th Consideration Whether some may not intend by the re-establishing of this Book to oppose and pull down that excellent and gracious Spirit of Prayer As to their excellent Gifts or helps by the Spirit as to Prayer And as to their godly painful soul-saving Preachers both which they have assumed to themselves in the First and Seventh Considerations and have re-assumed in this Tenth Consideration under the notion of an excellent and gracious Spirit of Prayer and Preaching As to their mistake in presuming to such Gifts and Abilities I refer the Reader hereof to what I have before written concerning their Praying and Preaching upon those Fifth and Seventh Considerations And to make a short business as to speak to this Tenth Consideration I 'le give them my thoughts of the ends of re-establishing the former Book with some few Alterations and divers Additions of several Prayers and Services fitted to several accidental occasions The first whereof might be to answer such moderate Dissenters I call them so in comparison of them of these latter days as was Doctor Reynolds Mr. Chadderton and the others with them at the Conference at Hempton-Court on the behalf of other Ministers and themselves whose desires as to the Book of common-Common-Prayer then were that it might be fitted to more increase of Piety as our Common-Prayer Book now is Another end might be to oppose and pull down as it was high time to do the long tautological heathenish pharisaical extemporary nonsensical erroneous damning kinds of Praying and Preaching were then and had been too long in use in England A third end of confirming this Book might be to revive and re-establish this most blessed and excellent help for Devotion and Worship of God that ever was heretofore in the Church of Christ and to countenance Orthodoxal Preachers and so to maintain sound Doctrine which had for a long time been shut out of publick places for Worship and Instruction by an usurped Authority over this Church and State And whereas he concludes it made as a snare and net against such as out of Conscience could not Conform thereto I am sure no man can have any ground now for such accusation or uncharitableness if they do but consider the religious care taken by his Majesty soon after his Restauration to answer the Doubts and Objections of such
Pretensions in appointing a Committee of Bishops for that purpose where and when Bishop Reynolds had the Chair So that indeed all that can be said as to the Book in the intention of any of the Composers thereof as concerning net or snare in respect to the Penalties made thereby to be inflicted upon the Nonconformists to it they were only made against perverse obstinate and wilful opposers of the same and so are to be clear'd from the charge of any evil intention against tender Consciences To the 11th Consideration Whether any person can produce any such Liturgy or Form of Prayer from the beginning of the World either among Jews or Gentiles c. As to the justification of Liturgies and set Forms of Prayer I have spoken at large in the beginning of this Fractate and shall therefore answer the Author's Question in this Consideration no otherwise than as our Saviour answer'd the Question put to him in the Temple Mark 11. vers 29 30. And that is by giving a Question to him and his followers to answer and it is this Whether any persons can produce any such long tautological extempory nonsensical Prayers or any such soul-destroying damning Doctrins or Sermons since the beginning of the World either among the Jews or Gentiles or any Churches of Christ till this Rebellion in Scotland and England as theirs were Let any of them answer me this Question and I will answer further to this 11th Consideration To the 12th Consideration Whether if there were no other reason but that this Book hath been so much idolizeâ— by the generality of men and offensive tâ— so many Christians it should not be done with as the brazen Serpent was by Hezekiah 2 Kings 18. vers 4. The opinion of the Author may be set forth in this Proposition The generality of men have much Idolized the Book of common-Common-Prayer and 't is a just offence to many Christians also Here the Author chargeth first a great evil to have been committed by most men in praying unto God and in worshipping of him in thaâ— Form of the Common-Prayer Book And that is that they have Idolized it Now to Idolize a Creature or Thing is taken several ways out of mentioning two of them is first to esteem it as their God or Saviour In this respect it may be the Author means the generality of men Idolized the Service-Book To which I answer I am confident there 's not a man will set hiâ— heart to that part of the Consideration for who can think men so ignorant as to esteem that their God or Christ to save them which is that Form whereby they go to God and Christ their Redeemer and Mediator for forgiveness of sins and salvation But then secondly To idolize any thing is inordinately to set the heart upon it trusting in it more than in God and above him in this respect Covetousness is called Idolatry Colos 3. vers 5. Thus Mr. Wilson in his Christian Dictionary But thirdly We commonly say men idolize a thing when they have a greater respect to and esteem of a thing than it deserves In this respect I presume the Author means most men did idolize the service-Service-Book which he thinks sufficiently manifested by their so constant and frequent Worshipping and Invocating of God thereby To which I answer Considering the Counsel or rather the Command of God as to the frequent performance of this Duty of Prayer and Thanksgiving by St. Paul 1 Thess 5. ver 17 18. where he bids us Pray without ceasing and in every thing give thanks because 't is the will of God in Christ Jesus Considering that I say King Charles the first of most blessed memory in his Observations upon the Ordinance against the Common Prayer Book doth fully make void the Author's fore-mentioned Charge and Reason alledged for defence of it in the Eighth and Ninth Paragraphs The King's words I could never see any reason why any Christian should abhor or be forbidden to use the same Form of Prayer since he prays to the same God believes in the same Saviour professeth the same truths reads the same Scriptures hath the same Duties upon him and feels the same daily wants for the most part both inward and outward which are common to the whole Church Sure we may as well before hand know whâ—â— we pray as to whom we pray and in what words as to what sense when we desire the same things what hinders we may not use the same words our appetite and digestion too may be good when we use as we pray for our daily bread Now considering all this where is any cause for taking away this Book of common-Common-Prayer from the people as the brazen Serpent from them of Israel and Judah But 't is no marvel that the Author and his Followers charge men with Idolizing this Book in offering in Publick unto God their Prayers and Thanksgivings thereby according to the Order and Authority of the Church when I have heard them charge men with idolizing the Lord's Prayer using it but according to the Command of Jesus Christ himself that is in the several Services and Prayers of the Church fitted and appointed to be used upon several occasions before Mattens or Even song be over whereof by especial command of Christ the Lord's Prayer is to be part Luke 11. vers 2. When I consider the impudent Charge I my self heard from one of the Author 's chief fellow Chaplains against some of the Petitions of the Lord's Prayer in condemning one of them in the Pulpit unlawful as to the matter and another not fit to be used by most Hugh Peters at Norwich said of that Petition thy will be done c. What said he pray for an impossible thing and condemning another Petition said See what the Petitions are of that you call the Lord's Prayer as also when I consider the total neglect of our Lord's Prayer in these mens Devotions drawn up by Christ for a Form of Prayer as well as for an help to compose our own Prayers by I say when I consider these things then what David said seeing the transgressions of the wicked of his heart I say of mine namely thus I have said in my heart that they say in their hearts though not in right down words that Christ in Composing and Commanding that Prayer to be said as oft as men pray is accessary to a very great and general guiltiness of Idolatry in this last respect at least Or if they should not own this yet I am sure the total neglect of using it in their Devotions prove plainly they look upon it as a Prayer unworthy to be used which is no less than in their hearts to blaspheme the Saviour of the World But then further he saith the Book was offensive to many Christians He doth not say it was offensive to the Brethren or the weak Brethren as is usually the Phrase in the Scriptures in such cases as this here of the Author And
that perhaps because he would not have the Church of England nor the Worshippers of God by the said Book to have the honour to be thought to share with them in the happy events of their ways Verily I think none shall need to be offended at their secluding them from their Fellowship or Fraternity therein for both Presbyterian and Independant in most of their undertakings were but like Simeon and Levi brethren in Iniquity and at the last day without repentance must have the same doom they had from their father Jacob Gen. 49 vers â— Cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel Well but to take it in his own terms that it was offensive to many Christians This term of Christian was the ancient and best name was given to true believers in Christ after his Assension this name is in the opinion of Divines that St. James spake of in 2d chap. vers 7. which he saith was the worthy name whereby believers were called And Divines describe a Christian as followeth namely to be one that is endowed through Grace with Faith and the holy Ghost serving God in righteousness and true holiness all his days as a person dedicated to Christ Now if the Author should produce any Christian according to this description which I am confident he cannot do or according to any description hereof congruous to the Scripture sence that ever was offended at the worshipping of God in this Form of Prayer yet there 's but little said to the Author's fore-mentioned purpose namely of that Book being an offence to many Christians it being but an offence taken where none is justly given I can easily grant that the Book of common-Common-Prayer was offensive to such Christians as this Author means and as himself was and so was many parts of the whole Bible In the 1st Book of the Kings chap. 22. vers 8. Ahab loved not to enquire of the Lord by Micaiah because he prophesied no good concerning him but evil And if the Author and others offended at the Book would publish the reason thereof from their hearts 't is probable 't is because there 's nothing of good for them there but evil being in those perverse ways For as I said before should they have used that Liturgy in the time of the Wars using the Forms of Prayer they must as much as in them lay have been blessing them they were fighting against and cursing themselves and their cursed undertakings And truly from those Lessons Epistles and Gospels culled out of the Scriptures and injoined by the Liturgy to be read in our daily Service The whole Book is but a Micaiah to them prophecying no good to them but evil for therein they must have found themselves an Army fighting against the Almighty God to their sudden both present and eternal overthrow and confusion without repentance Now to have done speaking to the groundless exceptions against the common-Common-Prayer Book in this 12th Consideration I have this following Opinion That if the Author and his Party could upon the two former reasons have procured our Church and the Civil State of the Kingdom to have serpentized the Book of common-Common-Prayer as Hezekiah did the Nehushtan they would be soon Scribling and Printing either to have the Scriptures the full set and stinted Rule for Faith and Obedience to be taken away and destroyed they having the Spirit in a more abundant measure than formerly as to help to call upon God as in Consideration the Fifth So also to set up upon their Assertions another fuller and righter Rule for Faith and Obedience leading to salvation or else at least to have the Romish Priviledge of an Expurging Index to have the Texts in the Scriptures expunged and left out in the Printed Bibles that make for Obedience and Subjection to the higher Powers either in Church or State And also all places that command or commend Unity Order Peace or Conformity in or to the Churches of Christ and whatsoever in the Bible make against their Opinions and Practices Which Opinion of mine may be looked upon as charitable or true considering among other things of that kind I could instance and prove was acted at Much-Hâ—â—â—…um Church in Hartford-shire by Mr. Hardwick Chaplain to the Earl of Warwick usurping the Cure after Doctor Pask Master of Clare-Hall was outed and sequestred for the said Hardwick reading in the Church for part of his own or the Morning-Service before Sermon the 1â—2 Psalm having read to the last Verse which contained God's Promise of clothing the Enemies of his anointed with shame c. he passed by the Verse and then went on Which Mr. Hern there present observing went out of the Church immediately and according to his resolution upon Hardwick's not owning one place of Scripture as well as another heard him no more the time he lived in Town And thus the Dissenters from the Church of England that have lived and do live among us through pretence of their New Light which is the blackness of darkness here their contrary Revelations to those in the time of the Gospel and before and through their false and groundless Expositions of holy Scripture they have darkned the Heavens of God and the light of his Grace so in this life that they have done in this our Age as our Saviour said the Scribes Pharisees and Hypocrites had done then Matt. 23. vers 13. namely shut up the Kingdom of Heaven before men neither going in themselves nor suffering many that would enter to go in Blessed Lord in whose hands are the heads and hearts of all men lighten the darkness of all their understandings change and soften all their hearts that they may recover their strength and strengthen all them they have seduced before they go hence and be not seen To the 13th Consideration which is this Whether one end of Christ's coming into the World was not to redeem men from the Rudiments and Traditions of men of which this is one And whether it be not against the Blood and Spirit and Gospel of Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Hebr. 9.10 11. The Opinion of the Author in this Consideration may be set forth in two Propositions The first is this One end of Christ's coming into the World was to put an end to the Use and Observation of the Ruliments and Traditions of men and to the Use of the Common-Prayer Book Established in the Church of England by Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the First in the years 1500 and 1600 after his coming into the World or going out of it The latter part of the Proposition is evidently a conclusion flowing from the Consideration for he saith that this Book of common-Common-Prayer was one of the Rudiments or Traditions that Christ came to put an end to In answer to which Proposition I say The end of Christ's coming into the World was to compleat the love and kindness of God to Mankind which was the redemption and
the Father who of his everlasting love gave him a ransom for Mankind by his death And indeed to foresee and foretell things before they happen or come to pass is peculiar and proper only unto God as is evident Isaiah 41. vers 22 23. And therefore in this respect I can grant that the Common-Prayer Book had a being at or before Christ's coming But how can the Author make appear that either Christ or his Spirit have disallowed of it As for our Saviour he was so far from being against well composed Liturgies and consequently of being against ours because as King Charles the First the blessed Martyr said upon the Ordinance against the Common-Prayer Book in his seventh Paragraph that he held this to be a well composed one that indeed Christ composed a Liturgy himself to be used by all that should be his Disciples as Luke 11. vers 2. which Liturgy or Prayer of our Saviour as the aforesaid Martyr said in the Tenth Paragraph of those Observations was the Warrant and original Pattern of all set Liturgies in the Christian Church And I say especially of ours the Author so much inveighs against because if it be not the best that ever was extant before it yet it was a Liturgy inferiour to none So that for a blessed return and compliance of Dissenters to an Union with our Church I shall exhort all that shall peruse this small Tractate to consider diligently as to the Answers here to the several Errors couched in these Considerations so also diligently to ponder the exhortation of St. Paul to the Philippians chap. 2. vers 2 3. Fulfil ye my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind Let nothing be done through strife or vain-glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves The second Proposition in the 13th Consideration is this The Book of common-Common-Prayer is against the Blood and Spirit and Gospel of Christ For proof whereof he alledgeth 1 Pet. 1. vers 18 19. Hebr. 9. vers 10 11. Answer Sure this man hath eaten shame as in the Proverb and digested it that he dare charge such apparent untruths upon our Church which is as full for Christ his Spirit and Gospel as any of the Churches in Christendom I appeal to any man that hath perused the Liturgy and Doctrine of our Church for the truth hereof for condemnation of this present Error Our Church in our Common-Prayer Book owns Christ the only Mediator of Redemption by the Merits of his active and passive Obedience according to that in 1 Pet. 1. vers 18 19 Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things c but with the precious blood For every where our Liturgy owns with the Apostle there that wâ— are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ And for evidence hereof consider the conclusions of our Prayers and Collects therein and they shall see all begged there of God for the sake merits or worthiness of Jesus Christ And if any man do but consider the Communion Service and that of the Sacrament of Baptism he must be wilfully if not maliciously blind to say that our Church or Liturgy is against the blood of Christ Further For evidence of the Author 's false charge here let men consider what Blessings and Thanksgivings we do annually offer to God for his giving his Son to us our all-sufficient Saviour and Redeemer in the joyful Commemorations of his Birth Resurrection and Ascension c. We own him the only Mediator of Intercession in Heaven and thereby to have obtained of the Father the sending of the Holy Ghost upon the Disciples in the day of Pentecost And that daily through his Intercession he sends the Holy Ghost into our hearts to sanctifie us to lead us into all truths guiding us thereby into the way of Peace and Salvation How are we then against the Blood or Spirit or Gospel of Christ If our Adversaries will peruse that Service-Book and the Doctrine of our Church contained in the 39 Articles and the Homilies they shall find all things therein agreeing with the Gospel and the Writings of the Holy Ghost deliver'd by Moses the Prophets Apostles and his other Penmen So that to conclude my Answer as to what is objected against the Common-Prayer Book of our Church in this 13th Consideration or elsewhere I cannot think but that if St. Paul were now upon earth taking the care of all the Churches as before he did he would give the like approbation of our Church both for Doctrine and Discipline as he did of the Colossian Church Coloss 2. vers 5. where he saith He was with them in Spirit joying and beholding their Order and stedfastness of their Faith in Christ To the 14th Consideration which is this Whether at the great and terrible day of Judgment any Magistrates Ministers or People can justifie before Christ the Making Imposing Reading or Hearing of this or the like Service To which I answer affirmative They all may justifie their so doing before Christ as hath been evidenced in the Answers to the Propositions and in what hath been laid down before for justification of set Forms as before limited in these Papers But then further In this 14th Consideration the Author would have men consider Whether good men as far as they build with this material namely by worshipping of God by this Book of common-Common-Prayer will not at the day of Judgment suffer loss To which I Answer Having consider'd of this Quaere and the excellency of building upon Christ the foundation of our hope by way of worshipping and serving God by way of Prayer and Thanksgiving as in our bounden duty to do and performing the said duty according to the Form of our Common-Prayer Book I see not how the Builders that build with this Material devoutly and fervently in spirit can suffer loss thereby that is lose their labour in so calling upon God For further evidence whereof I refer the Readers to my Observation of the great benefit King Charles the First of most blessed memory and divers there mentioned yea and the whole Kingdom have reaped thereby in my foregoing Discourse upon the the 6th Consideration But last of all he puts the Quaere Whether those can stand then in the Judgment without fear shame and sorrow that have cast out persecuted imprisoned or otherwise afflicted the true Preachers and Servants of God who did chuse to obey God rather than men and to obeserve his Divine Will rather than mens Traditions To which I Answer That if by the true Preachers and Servants of God he understand the Nonconformists to our Church before the 〈◊〉 Rebellion or if he thereby means the rebellionâ— Army and their Chaplains then his Argument â—alls to the ground because then he argues ex non supposins ex non supponendis of things not granted not to be granted for that they were neither true Preachers nor true Servants of God for evidence whereof I refer the Reader to my Discourse upon the first Proposition deducible out of this Author's 7th Consideration And for further Answer to this Quaere what the Author proposeth to the World to be consider'd of I wish earnestly might be laid to heart of all them that are alive of the late Rebellion for their true and unfeigned repentance that they might obtain at God's hand forgiveness of their sins that are as red as Crimson in Persesecuting Imprisoning Impoverishing Murthering and otherwise afflicting King Charles the First of most blessed memory the careful and godly Hierarchy of our Church the true Preachers of God's Word and others the most faithful Servants of the Almighty who did chuse rather to obey God and to observe his Divine Will rather than the Fanatical Inventions and Traditions of a rebellious multitude FINIS