Chapters ia both that are never agpointed to be read Whether the Church do well to appoint above an hundred of Apocryphal Chapters to be read and about an hundred eighty eight Canonical Chapters never to be read is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 certainly he that would adventure in a Sermon to say de facto That the Church had appointed the whole Bible to be read over once a year had taught his tongue not much to regard Truth So had he also who adventured to say pag. 23. That it is required of the people that they repeat aloud the Confession of sins No such thing is required of the people rather it is required that they should repeat the Confession of sins with a lowly and submiss voice Should all lift up their voyces aloud there might be more confusion then Mr. D. is aware of But though I am confident Mr. D. is mistaken about the two last mentioned particulars yet I must profess I am not clear about the Churches meaning in either of them After order taken for the reading of the Psalms we are thus directed Then shall be read distinctly with an audible voice the first Lesson taken out of the Old Testament as is appointed in the Kalendar except c. Any man by this would think that the first Lesson were alway by the Kalendar appointed to be taken out of the Canonical Scriptures of the Old Testament yet the Kalendar appoints many Apocryphal Chapters to be read for the first Lesson Is Apocrypha become a part of the Old Testament I know our Church had no intention to make it so yet the Phrase used by her in a Complex Notion sounds as if she did I suppose therefore she calls all Books preceding the New Testament whether Canonical or Apocryphal by the name of the Old Testament If this supposition hold than the admonition to all Ministers Ecclesiastical prefixed to the Second Book of Homilies will warrant them to change all the Chapters Apocryphal that shall fall in course to be read on every Sunday or Holiday into a Chapter of the New Testament for in that Admonition such Liberty is granted or rather such course is prescribed in reference to the less edifying Chapters of the Old Testament But perhaps by assenting and consenting to all and any thing Ministers have given away their liberty to make any such exchange Let those whom it concerns consider Where I live I have little opportunity to hear Apocrypha read publickly and if in my Family I make choice of Divinely inspired Writings to read I hope I am no transgressour of the Law Nor really do I know what is meant in our Liturgy by a loud voice In the old Common Prayer Book after the absolution the Minister was appointed to begin the Lords Prayer with a loud voice In the new loud is changed into audible and we are also required at that time to repeat it after the Minister which was not required in the old But now coming to look upon our directions for the rehearsing of the Lords Prayer after the repeating of the Creed I find that not only the Minister but Clerks and people are appointed to say it with a loud voice I cannot think the phrase is meerly varied by Chance nor yet do I see the Reason of the variation nor do I observe any either Priests or people thus to vary by straining their voice higher at one time than another Perhaps our last Amenders of the Liturgy did put audible instead of loud in some places that we might know that voice was loud enough on the Ministers part which the people could hear but what shall be called either an audible or loud voice on the peoples part Are those people that kneel at one end of the Church to speak so loud as they may be heard of those who kneel at the other end or loud enough to be heard of the Minister or only loud enough to be heard of those who are next to them Mr. D. hath had many occasions and opportunities to assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed and therefore is ignorant of none of these things Let him be him be intreated to help us poor Ingrams for our Countrey Priests are as unable to untie these knots as our selves All this I have written not out of any dislike to those who put out their Books in the defence of the English Liturgy for I should be right glad of the pains of any who would justifie it against all the Objections with which it is pressed provided he would do it like a Scholar and like a Christian grounding whatever he writes upon such Reasons as are apt to move those who have Consciences and do remember that God will bring them to a strict account for all that they do in his Worship but Mr. D. evidently is no meet person to make our Churches defence for he has been so highly rewarded is so overwhelmed with Ecclesiastical Preferments and Dignities that the World will hardly think any thing put him upon writing besides filthy lucre If he would have done our Church service be should have contented himself with some one Ecclesiastical Preferment spending himself in that going to his people from house to house perswading them to credit the Liturgy by excelling all those in Virtue that used no Liturgy he should have conjur'd them to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to use their best wisdom so to order their affairs as that they might have leisure to come Morning and Evening every day and receive the benefit of their Churches Liturgy but as the Apostle said That they who themselves were circumcised kept not the Law so we say that they who have assented and consented do not observe the Orders and Rules to which they have given assent and consent nor yield that Obedience which they have sworn to yield How few be they that Catechise half an hour every Sunday and Holiday How few be they that have called and advertised notorious evil-livers not to approach the Lords Table until they have truly repented and amended their naughty lives How many have subscribed the Articles who never so much as read the Homilies that by the Articles they are to approve I once happened into the Company of the Rectour of a Parish who signifying to me that he had lately been with the Bishop to receive Orders from him I asked what things were required of him in order to Ordination He told me among other things he had subscribed the three Articles in the 36 Canon but when I demanded of him what those Articles were he confessed he knew not what they were nor had he ever seen them but followed his Leader and not long since one had confidence enough to come to a Reverend Minister of my acquaintance with a purpose to perswade him to Conformity but my Friend arguing for his Non-conformity from a very plain passage in the Liturgy he denied that there was any such passage
John Rogers a very rigid Nonconformist did greatly animate Bishop Ridly as he himself acknowledges I please not my self in these comparisons should not have made them had not Mr. Durell's pen dropt somwhat a foul blot upon the name of Bishop Hooper's friend Peter Martyr whom he will needs represent to be so simple as to scruple the Cap because of its Mathematicalness But he was too wise to scruple the Cap on any such account And hath better deserved of the English Church than that he should so many years after his death be so flouted at as also Bishop Hooper should have had more reverence shew'd him than to be charged as he is pag. 239. with a strange weakness for sticking at our Ceremonies Let us now see how well Mr. Durell hath acquitted himself about forms of Prayer It must be acknowledg'd he hath sufficiently prov'd from the Testimonies of Reformed Divines that forms of Prayer of humane composition are not unlawful but the same thing had been long ago proved to his hand by a Nonconformist Minister Mr. John Ball in his Discourse against Separation as also by Dr. John Hoornbek in his Epistle touching Independency so that I cannot wel tel what it was that made Mr. Durell so copious on this subject unless he thought it wisdom to drive that nail which would go I do assure him I never yet met with a Presbyterian that thought forms of Prayer unlawful or that thought it simply unlawful for a Church to agree upon forms of Prayer to be used by Ministers in the Publick Congregation But if he can either prove that it is lawful for the Church to allow her Ministers no Liberty to use their own gifts for Prayer in the Publick or prove that our English Church hath left her Ministers any such Liberty then shall he do Knight-service In the first undertaking he will have the Presbyterians his adversaries In the second he will have Dr. Heylin and many others as Canonical as himself to cope with I have heard a Presbyterian disputing against sundry Passages in the Common-Prayer Book and wondring why the Convocation should tye all Colledges and Halls to make use thereof without any omission or alteration when as there is not in the whole Book any one Petition for the Universities and I was heartily troubled that I had not wherewith to remove my Friends admiration But had I ever heard him say that a Form of Prayer was a breach of the second Commandment I should have pittied his Ignoranc as I unfeignedly do the Ignorance of all those who account it any glory to a Reformation to leave in it no helps for some Ministers Infirmities In this number cannot be placed either the Assembly of Divines or the two Houses of Parliament that convened them They both intended the Directory that Ministers might if need were have some help and furniture in their Administrations and truly it was so sufficient an help and furniture that he who needed other could scarce be thought worthy to be a servant of our Lord Jesus Christ in the work of the Ministry Here I must be pardon'd if I reprove the presumption of Mr. Durell who trembles not pag. 3. to lay to the charge of Lords and Commons and Assembly of Divines the delivering of manifest untruths The untruths are there said to be First That the Common Prayer Book had prov'd an offence to the Reformed Churches abroad Secondly That it was abolish'd to answer the expectations of other Reformed Churches I say those are no untruths The Common-Prayer Book had proved an offence to the Reformed Churches abroad Apollonius hath signified so much in reference to the Walachrian Churches and others as famous as Apollonius have given us to understand as much in relation to the Churches of which they were Ministers as the Latine Apologist hath too plainly proved and can any one imagine that some Ceremonies prescribed in the Liturgy were not an offence to Martyr and Zanchy Perhaps those learned men did not count them simply unlawful but certainly they were offended with them and wisht them remov'd Was it no offence to any Reformed Churches that so many Legends out of the Apocrypha were appointed to be read in our Temples No offence to Reformed Churches that Infants Baptized were affirmed to to be undoubtedly saved Less colour is there to say there was a manifest untruth in asserting that the Common-Prayer Book was taken away to answer the expectation of other Reformed Churches For it is notorious that the Churches of Scotland and New-England did expect from the Parliament the abolition of the Liturgy and certainly they might with propriety enough be called other Reformed Churches if none besides them had expected the said abolition as we can prove some others did I must also crave leave to censure the Manifesto of Mr. Durell publisht with a Noverint universi Let all the world know that there never was nor is yet any Reformed Church that hath onely a Directory and not a Book of Common-Prayer for the publick worship of God I ask were there no Reformed Churches in the times of the Apostles or men Apostolical I trow there were Yet it is certain saith Capellus that then there was no Prescript Form of Liturgy nor doth that Author give us any notice of any Prescript Liturgies untill Leaders and Doctors grew idle were there when his Manifesto was published no Reformed Churches in New-England or had these Churches Books of Common-Prayer and why I strange are Directory and Book of Common-Prayer made opposit were there not in some Reformed Churches Books of Common-Prayer that were appointed to be used but as Directories it being left free to the Ministers either to use those Printed Prayers or any other agreeable to them this freedome I am sure sundry eminent and worthy Divines in Holland have all along used Mr. Durell indeed saith that there is not one Minister in all Franoe but hath made unto himself a set Form which he useth alwaies and no other pag. 18. which is certainly a bold assertion and supposeth him to have had conference with every Minister in France or to have received Letters from every one or at least to have employ'd Agents that had made enquiry concerning every one which if true would argue him a man of wonderful intelligence Did never any one Minister in all France make unto himself above one set Form of Prayer Did and doth every one of them precisely keep himself to those very words which he put together when he first entred into his Ministry Did never any one after God had restored him to his Congregation from some eminent sickness put in any one word to express his sense of Divine Goodness I will here suspend my belief till I have received some farther Information or can better tell in what sense Mr. Durell would have his words taken for it may be he would have his own Phrases expounded as he himself pag. 17. expounds some Phrases in one of
Hypocrite first c. A Second of Mr. Durell's Impertinencies is his Quotation pag. 40. of the Bohemian Churches for the peoples saying Amen at theend of Prayers Did the Presbyterians ever say the People might not say Amen at the end of Prayers are they not rather judged by their Adversaries to erre by affirming that it were meet for the people to say nothing else but Amen Thirdly What made him pag. 43. Waste paper to prove that Confirmation is used in most Reformed Churches Did not Mr. Hanmer and Mr. Baxter write whole books in the commendation of Confirmation Did the Presbyterians ever more heartily desire any thing than that adult persons might before they were admitted to the Lords Supper he ordered to make a Confession of Faith and to declare their Resolution to own that Faith and to walk according to it Did they not alway with grief of heart complain that Confirmation had never been practised here in England or else had been turned into a meer form Fourthly Wherefore are we told page 37 38. That the Lords Prayer and Ten Commandments and Creeds are sung in some Reformed Churches as also the Magnificat the Benedictus and the Nunc dimittis Do the Presbyterians question the lawfulness of singing any of these or do they require any more than that they should be put into Meeter and set into such tunes as ordinary people might follow I my self have heare an eminent Presbyterian Divine on a day of Humiliation read and sing the Lords Prayer as it is Translated and Printed at the end of our Psalm books Yea where as Mr. Durell tells us That the French Church does not sing the Lords Prayer and the Creed of the Apostles because both the Rhyme and Language were somthing course and old Presbyterians never left off to sing according to the Vulgar Translation its oldness and coursness notwithstanding and if hymns should be made out of other places of Scripture by men wise and skilful who is there that would blame them Fifthly Who ever quarrelled with the French Churches for having great silver Chalices for the Communion as he tells us they have pag. 32. Or who would be offended if richer Churches had the ten Commandments in Letters of Gold and the Creed and the Lords Prayer in the same form I have heard one of the chief Presbyterian Ministers did rejoice that the Lords Prayer was by the Painter drawn in very visible Characters upon a wall just over against his Pulpit for by that means if at any time he happened to be as much out in repeating of that form as Mr. Durell lately was in the repeating of the Belief he might help himself and not put himself and others to shame as Mr. Durell did Sixthly He tells us pag. 32. That in all Reformed Churches men used to enter into the place of publick worship with their hats off which is as great an untruth as ever dropped from writers pen unless it be understood of places of publick worship whilst publick worship is actually performed in them and if it may be so understood then the Presbyterians would hugely approve of it By the Directory it was enjoined that all enter the Assembly not irreverently but in a grave and seemly manner gravity and seemliness do include putting off the hat which yet would be a ridiculous action if a man should use it as too many now a days do as oft as they go through the Church though none be met for worship and though they themselves intended no worship nor does the Directory any where condemn the manner which Mr. Durell tells us hath obtained among the French Ladies viz. to unmask themselves when they come into the Temple provided they do not unmask themselves out of a vain or wanton design if they should do so they know by whom they are condemned I but saith Mr. Durell the devoutest sort both of men and women use to kneel and make a Prayer for Gods blessing before they sit down and this the Directory prohibites Had he said that the devouter sort use a short Prayer when they took no seats and came to perform no service to God then he had said something to excuse the actings of some among us The peoples making a secret Prayer before they sit down in their seats is not forbidden by the Directory unto all or unto any but these who come into the Church the publick worship being begun and whether it be more meet for such to betake themselves to their private devotions or to join with the Assembly in that ordinance that is in hand let the learned judge for they are wise Seventhly All might have been spared that is brought pag. 33. Of Peoples standing bare in time of Divine Service and at the Administration of Sacraments In the very Church of Scotland all are uncovered at the Administration of the Sacraments here in England men had left off to put on their hats in time of Sermon which Mr. Durell seems to distinguish from Service had Mr. Calamy and others been hearkened to Eighthly Above all what need we be told pag. 22. That Calvin wore a Gown and a Cap Were not Presbyterians accustomed so to do in the Universities Those sent down by the two Houses to Cambridge did all of them preach in the University Church in their Gowns and in their Hoods and I never heard of any but Brownists that questioned the using of the very same Churches that the Papists had used yet we have fine stories of that pag. 28. As also of the Ring in Marriage as if there were some odde Nonconformists that did scruple being Married with a Ring He tells us also of Matrimony in the publick Congregation pag. 47. celebrated also by a Minister just according as the Directory orders but if he would have gratified us here in England he should have told us that all Reformed Churches do count Marriages valid though made without and against the consent of Parents as also that they have Officers whom they allow to give Licenses for Marriages though there have been no Banes published nor any thing equivolent thereunto but to affirm this had been somewhat too gross Pag. 48 and 49. He minds us that in most Reformed Churches the dead are buried with great solemnity singing of Psalms and Funeral Sermons as if Presbyterians had scrupled the Preaching of Funeral Sermons or had not been wont when desired to Preach them I believe if Comparison were made Presbyterians formerly preached more Funeral Sermons then Prelatical men do now and that very many of those for whom Sermons are now Preached are addicted to Presbytery Mr. Durell should have called to remembrance that our Church hath appointed no Funeral Sermons nor required any more of her Ministers save only to meet the Corps at the Church Stile and so go either into the Church or towards the Grave to say or sing some versicles out of Holy Writ I do not find that by the old Liturgy it was required
that the Corps should be brought into the Church though now I find one or two Psalms appointed to be read after the Minister and people are come into the Church and by Comparing the old and new Liturgy together I find where in the old was the word Minister in the new there is constantly the word Priest so that whereas a Deacon may preach to us and Baptize our Children he may not bury our dead which seems to be a Mystery worthy Mr. Durells unridling Our Clergy men themselves seem Strangers to this mystery for nothing is more usual among them than to set Deacons to bury their dead nor can I in that old Liturgy which I follow find any notice given that the office for the burial of the dead is not to be used at the burial of such as die unbaptized in the new Liturgy such notice is given the reason whereof I am not so happy at present as to know why should Infants that die unbaptized through no fault of their Parents be denied such a burial as Baptized Infants have Mr. Durell is a knowing man and can satisfie us about these matters and brings us no question many Reformed Churches where the same usage obtains but why did he bring in his Friend Mr. Drelincourt saying pag. 49. That he should account the Custome of the Ministers of the Reformed Churches in France being silent at dead mens burial unsufferable were it not for their present condition That learned worthy Divine knows that the Reformed Churches in Holland are under no such condition as the French Churches and yet their Ministers are perpetually silent at the burials of dead men Is their Custome unsufferable I believe he will not so pronounce and therefore will scarce think himself civilly dealt with to have a Fragment of a private Epistle thus published especially seeing it reflects disgrace upon the Ministers of his own nation who are Pastors in Holland I have been too tedious in examining this impertinence The Communion also he tells us pag. 44. Is constantly celebrated at certain set times in all Reformed Churches And is there any thing in the Directory against the celebrating of it at certain set times Does it not say that it is frequently to be celebrated And take order that notice shall be given before hand of its celebration nor does the Directory any where forbid the Administring of the Communion unto those that are sick in private houses though if it had so done it might have justified it self by the Example of many of the best Reformed Churches Let Mr. Durell when he is at leisure enquire whether one of the Assembly of Divines did not Administer the Sacrament to Captain Hotham when he was just going to be Beheaded or whether he was ever censured for so doing I will enlarge my Catalogue no farther by the instances already produced it appears that Mr. Durell may well be called Mr. Impertinent But I shall now by sundry instances make it evident also that he hath thrust sundry things into his book that are like enough if they fall into the hands of a weak Reader to be prejudicial and pernicious and to alienate him from our Church He tells us page 8. the Hungarian and Transilvanian Churches are as Pure and Reformed as any whatsoever but page 10 11. he spoils all and takes a great deal of pains so to do borrowing a book very rare and scarce and out of it acquainting us That in those Churches Ministers swear obedience Canonical unto Presbyters as well as Bishops and That Ministers are to be governed by certain Laws by an eminent sort of Presbyters called Elders as well as by Bishops Then which what can be more derogatory to the Episcopal Power Place Juriisdiction and Ordination in Presbyters as well as Bishops and what Eminence will there then be left for Bishops what will there be left to a Bishop more than what the Presbyterians have a thousand times over acknowledged themselves ready to yield him It may be he thought he should heal his wound by saying as he does page 8. That these Elders are indeed Bishops and the Bishops Archbishops But I say they are indeed but a more Eminent sort of Presbyters so they are expresly called and they can be no other because they were never by Ordination put into an Office or Order superior to that of Presbyters and observable it is vid. pag. praedict That the Minister acknowledgeth himself in his Oath to receive the function of the sacred Ministry from the there present Ministers of God and most Faithful dispensers of his Mysteries Which are Phrases agreeing unto all that are entrusted with the word of Reconciliation So that this Testimony looks with a very evil eye upon Episcopacy and so does much more the Testimony of the Bohemian Churches related pag. 11 12 13. for in that we have Presbyters Ordaining Bohemian Bishops a thing that sounds dreadful to an Episcopal ear This story will strengthen the Presbyterians and be a second unto that with which they are wont so much to confirme themselves I mean the History of Pelagius Bishop of Rome being ordained by two Bishops and one Presbyter These Histories do at least prove that Presbyters and Bishops were of the same Order and that Presbyters as well as Bishops may lay hands upon Bishops and confer the power of making Ministers Indeed the man makes himself ridiculous who goes about to look for any Bishop properly so called among the Waldenses and he does gratifie the Presbyterians not a little page 38. whilst he tells them That the French Churches sing at the end of the Commandments these four verses which answer to our Lord have mercy upon us and incline c. for this is the very thing that Presbyterians desire that these words might be uttered at the end of the Commandments and not at the end of every particular Commandment pag. 45 46. he takes Mr. Calvins pen and drops a very foul blot upon our Church for the custome of Receiving thrice a year which is known to be our custome for no man is bound to Receive oftner is by him the called vitiosus mos i. e. a vitious custome at least if not a custome full of vice But page 53. he calls us all Fools by Craft for these are his words That every National Church ought to have Vniformity within it self hath alwaies been the judgment of all sober and wise Christians and is at this day the good example of all the Reformed Churches in the world I assume that there ought to be Uniformity in every National Church hath not alwaies been nor yet is the Judgment of the Church of England what Conclusion hence arises every one seeth but the Conclusion is so horrid that I will not form it My Assumption I prove from the Canons of 1640. which are so far from determining that there ought to be an Uniformity that they expresly allow a Difformity desiring in reference to the Rite of doing
to be found and had not this man then well read and studied the Book to which he so solemnly gave assent and consent I profess where-ever I come I make it my business to reconcile people to the publick Assemblies my Conscience would fly in my face if I should do otherwise but I find my self unable to prevail with them through the prejudice they have taken up against the Liturgy and their prejudices are grounded for the most part upon the wicked lives of those that are the most constant Readers and frequenters of it I shall never upon this account cease to joyn in prayers and to hear Sermons but yet I rejoyce that a great Prelate lately in his Visitation openly declared in his Speech his resolution to proceed and deal more severely against those who should be found loose and profane than against those that differed from him only in Ceremonies The Lord give hearts to those whom it concerns to think immorality worthy of presentment and to set a mark upon all whose feet run into all excess of Riot and whose Tongues are set on fire from Hell that so we may have wherewith to stop the mouths of those who are bent upon Separation and employ their Rhetorick in nothing more than in perswading the people that God is departed from us It would be a small trouble to me to find the Non-conformists disarmed did I find the Weapons of their Warfare put into the hands of those who would use them more to the disadvantage of the World Flesh and Devil I have mentioned one thing that makes Mr. D. not the fittest person in the World to manage this Controversie that is his not being free from at least the suspicion of Covetousness I will suggest one or two more He seems to be very injudicious and therefore puts into his Book such cold Commendations of Church and Liturgy as do only not dispraise it I instance only in Monsieur Vauqueline whom he brings in Pag. 189. thus extolling our Liturgy The Book of Common Prayer is very far from any Idolatry and there is not in it any formal Superstition Is not this a rare Elogium But above all he disparages himself by giving flattering Titles unto men Pag. 87. he tells us that Monsieur Goyen is as versed in Antiquity as possible a Commendation too high to be given to any man and such as that Reverend persons worth will never suffer him to accept of or so much as to commend the love of him who gave it let any one read the Epistle Dedicatory to his Book he will find the Lord Chancellour so highly commended that any one may see the Commendations were rather given to his Place than to his Virtues all the Authority of the Nation hath lately sentenced him to Banishment and yet Mr. D. could not find so much humility as either to bewail his fault or his unhappiness who had bestowed such praises in a printed letter upon him whom the Kingdom has declared to have deserved ill of it and of the Church too I may well think you will begin to say what is all this to the Latine Book that I sent you Or how can I by all you have hitherto writ perceive your Judgment about it Surely Sir the things I have noted out of the English Book are sufficient to let you see that his 2d Book is not worth your reading Scarcely can you find more words put together to less purpose The very Title-Page sufficiently exposes him either to the scorn or pity of those whom he chose for his Adversaries Vindiciae Sacrae Ecclesiae Anglicanae What is this Holy English Church Does he mean that Company of men and women in England who exercise themselves therein that they may be holy as God is holy Quis Lacedaemoniorum vituperat Why is this Church vindicated that no sober man ever went about to accuse If by the Holy Church of England he mean the late Convocation then he hath written as our Episcopal men are wont to write and by the Canons of 1603. it is made a very dangerous point to deny that a Convocation is the Church of England by Repraesentation and I have no mind to try how near I can come to that danger without incurring it Seeing Mr. D. has professed with thankfulness that he learned Divinity under Amyraldus he may do well to try whether he can confute his Master in his Theses de Ecclesia nomine ac definitione and de ratione convocandorum Conciliorum which do not look very smilingly upon that form of Speech which we use in England or upon the way of constituting our Convocations Mr. Jeanes a man of a very Scholastical Head had called the Convocation The Church of England but in the Second part of his Divinity he wonders upon what account he or any one else could think it to be the Church of England he instances in his own Diocess in which there was one Dean one Prebend three Arch-Deacons whereas the whole Clergy of the Diocess chose but two so that he thinks our Convocations may be rather called Repraesentatives of the Bishops and Cathedrals than of the Church of En-England And he asks whether if the King should chuse two hundred into the House of Commons and the people one that Meeting could be called the Representative of the People of England Mr. D. who has used this Title should have done well to give satisfaction to such kind of Questions is these and to have shewed us Synods in other Churches the Major part of the Members whereof are neither chosen by the people nor by the Clergy instead of doing so he hath left it doubtful what he means by the Church And it is much more doubtful to me whom he means by his Schismaticks against whose vociferations he pretends to defend his Church When you have called a man Schismatick you have call'd him every thing but I believe no man in the world thinks that all those against whom he vents his spleen in this Book deserve to be called Schismaticks I am sure according to the definition of Schisme that is given by Dr. Hammond they are not Schismaticks Mr. D. seems to thrust out his sharpest sting against Mr. Baxter Now it is notoriously known that he constantly went to the publick Congregation it s known also that he has in the publick Congregation received the Sacrament of the Lords Supper according to the form that is by Law established he has Communion with the Church of England in all Ordinances takes a great deal of pains to resolve the doubts of those who scruple Communion with her and yet is in Mr. D's account one of the Heads of the Schismaticks Let him take heed that he do not throw this dirt into such mens faces if he do it will fly back into his own The Case of hundreds of Non-conformists stands thus When they were School-boyes or Under-graduates in the University the King called the so much talked of Long-Parliament in which
in five of which he most grosly abuses him The first is That all Reformed Churches have Liturgies This I say follows not from any words of Capellus if Mr. Durell say it doth his Logick is his own let him make use of it The second is That the Liturgy of the Church of England is judged by this great man to be not onely pure and free from all Popish Superstition and Idolatry but also from all such things as were onerous and troublesome or which did contribute but little to the Edification of the Church as well as other Reformed Churches Twenty Cart-ropes will not pull this observation out of Capellus his words He onely speaks of the Liturgy made by the first Reformers of our Church which vastly differs from the present Liturgy that Mr. Durell takes upon him to defend The third Observation is of all most marvellous thus worded If these Liturgies ought to recede as little as possible from that of the Primitive Church as he doth intimate undoubtedly the Liturgy of the Church of England is the best and most perfect of them all If Mr. Durell will have this observed we will observe it as the issue of an over-confident fancy yet humbly praying that he would allow us to think that this observation hath no relation in the world to any words of Capellus If he may be judge our Liturgy differs more from the Primitive Liturgies then the Liturgy of any Reformed Churches for he sayes Primitive Liturgies were most brief and most simple consisting of a few prayers c. Now if we should grant our Liturgy to be very simple certainly it is not very brief nor does it consist of but a few Prayers let Mr. Durell officiate according to it Morning and Evening which I never knew any Conformist to do and I will be bold to say his Sermons afterwards shall not be over tedious The fourth Observation is That of all who call themselves Reformed the Presbyterians are the first that ever left off the use of set Forms of Prayer Capellus hath not the word Presbyterians in his work nor am I certain whom Mr. Durell understands by them perhaps he means the English Presbyterians but how came they to be Presbyterians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Capellus was too wise a man to say that they were the first that left off set Forms of Prayer he knew well enough unless he onely was a stranger in Israel that many years before the Assembly met at Westminster set Forms of Prayer had been laid aside and condemned as unlawful by huge multitudes who were angry with the old meer Nonconformist because he would not seperate from the English Church as well as endeavour a Reformation of some things The fifth Observation is That the many reasons for which the Presbyterians had rejected the Common-Prayer Book are very light and almost of no moment at all 'T is true that Capellus hath written something to this purpose but it is the same Capellus who hath written so many bug-bear words against our English Bishops in his Theses de descrimine Episcopi Presbyteri de vario Ecclesiae regimine the former Theses he concludes thus That there was no cause why the Bishops and their Patrons should so greatly insult and onely not grow insolent against those whom invidiously they called Puritans and Presbyterians And let it be observed that if the Presbyterians had onely reproved and not cashiered the Common-Prayer Book their Reasons might have been sufficient notwithstanding any thing Capellus saith to the contrary Sixthly Mr. Durell would have it observed That the Presbyterians themselves who are the known Authors of the Directory are in Capellus his Judgment a froward peevish and superstitous Generation of men Capellus does indeed call the Composers of the Directory morose and froward but seems unwilling to call them superstitious and the same Capellus had commended them for shaking off the Yoke of Episcopacy in his Theses de Vario Ecclesiae regimine Sect. 24. Let Mr. Durell when he puts out next English these words for they seem framed according to the Heart of the Presbyterians and let him then also tell us why he calls the Presbyterians the known Authors of the Directory That Assembly that presented the Directory to the two Houses was as to most of its Members when first called Hierarchical and under an Oath of Canonical obedience there are not very many of them living at present of them diverse conform and are as deeply engaged to use Liturgical worship as Mr. Durell himself let him therefore when he has opportunity enquire of them whether they consented to have the Liturgy cashiered and how they came to fall in love with it again and what made them so fearful least the old subscription should choak us when as they themselves can swallow these new ones that are far bigger and more bulky By this time I hope it is come to my turn to make some observations upon the Theses of Capellus and my Observations may be the fewer because I have already suggested so many and the first thing I observe is That the men against whom Capellus was so not could not be the English Presbyterians unless they were falsly represented to him for these are his words pag. 710 711. They with whom we have to do bewray a manifest enough hatred against Formula's of Symbols or Confessions of Faith and of Catechism and the both antient and recent use and custome of them received in the Christian Church If these are the men he had to deal with then had he nothing to do with the English Presbyterians no men having more contended for Confessions of Faith and Catechisms in set words than they Secondly I observe that he represents himself and his fellow Professors as not condemning or inhibiting a free use of Prayers composed by Ministers themselves Nay these are his words pag. 713. We plainly think it both lawful and consentaneous that they who can do it should discover their gift and industry in praying as in preaching this onely we will that the use of such prayers ought not to hinder the Liturgy constituted by publick Authority and to take away and abrogate all use of it out of the Church And a little after he adds We deservedly condemn the rigour of those who under pretext of a praescript Form of Liturgy do study to eliminate out of the Church all use of Prayers conceived by Ministers themselves Let Mr. Durell consider whether this Damnatory sentence do not fall upon many of his own Patrons and Abettours Thirdly I observe that when the Professor comes to contract what he had said he determines concerning Formula's as if Smectymnuus had too much influenced him for he saith first That they are not absolutely in every time and place and with all men necessary because the Christian Church wanted them for some time and it does not appear from sacred or exotick History whether the Jewish Church did not want them before Christ and
Ezra and from the time of Moses Secondly That they are not commonly necessary but for order and Decorum Thirdly Where and when there cannot be had learned Pastours who are able to teach the people by their Sermons and proper Prayers that there Formula's are plainly necessary Fourthly Where there are learned and skilful Pastors a publick Form of Liturgy is very profitable and necessary to the Common Edification of the Church in the same Communion of Divine worship Fifthly That the use of such Forms cannot justly be condemned or disaproved nor ought it seeing it may be alwaies and every where profitable and most convenient and has obtained in the whole Christian Church all the world over for above 1300 years and does every where now obtain but with those Independant Novices Let Mr. Durell after this take heed how he commends Liturgies by the pen of his most applauded forreign Divines and let him know that all the pains he takes to make the French and Dutch Liturgies the same or near a kin with and to ours doth indeed tend to the reproach of Archbishop Laud. For if there were no difference or but small betwixt them why was he so zealous as his Historian represents him in prosecuting and pressing the French and Dutch Churches to have our Liturgy translated into their Language and used by them in all their Churches granted them in England however let me warn Mr. Durell to take heed that he do not go on with that designe he hath so oft acquainted us with I mean the design of Printing together the Formula's and Agenda's of all the Reformed Churches in Christendome for though this design might perhaps please himself as who is not pleased with the issue of his own Brain yet I much question whether it would be any way pleasing to the most Reverend and Right Reverend Prelates of our Church Certain I am that it is not many years since some of our greatest Ecclesiasticks plainly enough declared that such a designe would not much rellish with them for when the Prince Elector Palatine came over to visit his Unckle King Charles I. in England which was about 34 years ago some busie heads as Dr. Heylin calls them published a book intituled A Declaration of the Faith and Ceremonies of the Palsgraves Churches What was the effect of the Publication a course was forthwith taken to call it in for the same cause and on the same prudential grounds adds Dr. Heylin on which the alteration I before mentioned was made in the Letters Patents But I needed not so long to have insisted upon Liturgies having before told you what he must do that hopes to bring the Nonconformist to subscription he must prove that the Church of England hath left Ministers any power to make use of their gifts in prayer for if that be not proved they will shrewdly argue against the lawfulness of promises to bury their gift in a napkin but whether this be proved or no the Nonconformists that I speak with will be but Nonconformists not forsaking the publick Assemblies but rejoyceing to hear Christ Preached though not without some bitter reflections upon themselves I come to Ceremonies and the first of them that occurres is the Surplice concerning which my Nonconformists Friends say That if they used it as enjoyned by the Liturgy they must receive it as a vestment apt by some notable signification it hath to stir up the dull mind Now that I might satisfie their Scruple I have gone to some Conformists and enquired of them whether ever they experimented any such aptness in it to stir up their dull minds they most of them wondred at my Question telling me that by assenting and consenting they meant no more but onely to promise that they would not openly contradict any thing in the Liturgy you may easily imagine what motion this reply stirred up in my dull mind onely one answered that though he would not boast of his own experiences yet he doubted not but the holy Vestment had a fitness in it to stir up the dull mind but I asking him further whether it was apt to stir him up as a man or as an English man he gave me to understand that he was not willing to be pressed further I comforted my self however in this that Mr. Durell would tell me some stories of some great liveliness put into men by the wearing of the white Garment but he quite deceived me onely giving me to understand pag. 24 25. Of some of other Reformed Churches that to comply with the Lutherans do somtimes wear Surplices This is but cold kindness and that I may not be in debt to him for it I give him to understand That no Lutherans in the Low Countries do wear Surplices and they forbear to wear them not because the Magistrate would not give them leave to wear them but because they want a will to wear them which makes me think that they have no high opinion concerning the usefulness of them nor can I think that our own Ministers have any huge apprehensions of this exciting vertue of the Surplice for whereas they are enjoined to wear it as oft as they officiate I find few of them so to do many of them never wear it but when a Sacrament is to be Administred Perhaps I shall be able to afford my Nonconformists more help and assistance against his Scruples about the Cross in Baptisme His Scruples are founded upon this bottom That the Cross is made asign of the Childs Dedication to God and also a sign of his perseverance in Grace and such a sign they say is Sacramental which kind of sign the Church has no Commission from God to institute I have taken some pains that I might be able from the writings of Conformists to assoile this Objection Mr. Durell tells us Serm. pag. 29. That the Cross is indeed a visible sign but there is no invisible Grace answering to it and so no Sacrament I could not acquiesce in this for I thought Dedication to God and Perseverance were graces and if they be Graces I am sure they are invisible Graces I have also somtimes wondred seeing Baptism it self was instituted as a Dedicating sign and seeing by it we engage our selves to perseverance and God also engages to give unto Believers the Grace of Perseverance what might move our Church to institute the Cross as a new sign of any of these things especially seeing yet I never had the hap to meet with any who could from their experience averre unto me that the sign of the Cross with which they were signed at Baptisme had added to them any degree of manfulness nor by comparing several Baptized persons could I ever observe that persons Crossed at Baptisme were less inclined to be ashamed of Christ Crucified than those that were Baptized not being Crossed Indeed this sign of the Cross hath Ministred more matter of Scruple to the Nonconformists then any other Ceremony besides and therefore Mr. Durell
both the High-Commission Court and Star-Chamber were taken downa nd the High-Commission Court was taken down in words so general as were interpreted to reach all other Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and coercive power of Church Consistories by these two Statutes Dr. Heylin sayes That the two great Bulwarks of the Church were beaten down In the same Parliament also passed an Act disabling the Bishops to sit as Members in the House of Peers in this condition stood things until an unhappy War was begun betwixt the King and the two Houses during the beat of which War the two Houses Voted away the Episcopal Government established in the Nation and Bishops in the places where their Forces prevailed either were not at all or shewed not themselves Divine Providence so ord'red it that the Kings Forces were at last quite overcome and with them Bishops also were overcome so as they no where publickly and solemnly own'd either their Power of order or Jurisdiction so stood affairs until that his Majesty was restored but in the mean time young men that had applied themselves to the study of Divinity were under necessity either by the Statutes of Colledges or by accepting of Livings to enter into Holy Orders and to receive those Holy Orders from meer Presbyters by which Orders they acted for many Years the Lord accompanying their Ministry with great success the people every where receiving the Eucharist at their hands and bringing their Children also to be baptized by them the Parliament which had the happiness to bring in the King confirming them in their Livings but the present Parliament hath thought meet to en-act that all should be uncapable of Cure of Souls that had not Episcopal Ordination so as they finding themselves under this Dilemma that either they must nullifie their former Orders by Re-ordination or else quit their Livings chose to relinquish their Benefices so made way to the preferment of many every way of Mr. Ds own mind He himself perhaps he had not had so many Ecclesiastical Benefices and Dignities could they have satisfied themselves to keep their stations this is the Schisme of a great many of those with whom he is so angry And can be not forgive them such a Schism which proved so beneficial to himself and others It will be more difficult to forgive Mr. D. the Schisme that he himself endeavours to make contrary to the Intent of the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion by which we are commanded to bury the Actings of those that were indemnified in the Grave so as not to mention them to the disparagement of any but leave them wholly to the Judgment of the Great day but this bitter man as if he envied Church and State the Peace and Quietness they both enjoy will needs open the Grave of Oblivion rake into the dust and bring all old Stories and Transactions upon the Stage again Would any man be like minded how easie were it to recriminate Who knows not that a Primate of England and Metropolitan took up Arms in the Cause of the two Houses and had Money Voted him for his good Service Was not the Author of Politica Sacra Civilia an Episcopal Divine Doth he not at present Conform Is he out of his Living who writ the Jus Divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastici If we should make search into our Bishops Deans Prebends Priests might we not finde such as took the Covenant themselves and perswaded others to take it Nay might we not among them even among them find those that took the Engagement and came into the Livings of those that were outed for not taking the Engagement Nay if a man would make enquiry for Bradshaw's Chaplains are they not among the the Conformists Be they not also among them who justified the Murthering of the King And if it were allowable to Glory how many Non-conformists had suffered deeply in the Kings Cause before Mr. D. in the Isle of Jersy was either banished or molested but these are things wholly Heterogeneous to Conformity and Non-conformity So is also the whole series of the late War It hath been my hap as yet to know but of four meer Non-conformists that were aged experienced Divines at the beginning of the Warrs and they four so far as I can learn were all in their Judgments unsatisfied in the Parliament War It is like enough that there were many others that were satisfied in their Cause and acted for it But what need Mr. D. or I be sollicitous about this Does not the King understand his Supremacie Has not the Parlialiament declared it unlawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against him After such Declaration who is he that will dare to call the thing in Question I do not know that since his Majesties Return any Book has been printed asserting the Lawfulness of Subjects taking up Arms against a King unless that which was published as Mr. Hookers by Dr. Gawden dedicated to the King himselfe nor do I find any English Divine whose testimony the Writers for the Parliaments Cause did more build upon than Bishop Bilson the Great Propugner of Hierarchy whose words it would be Treason now to transcribe Mr. D. knows where to find them let him take them into his consideration and see how he can qualifie them for my part I do not love to exercise my self in things too high for me this I must take leave to say That Mr. D. hath manifested himself very grosly to be a respecter of persons for whereas he pours out contempt upon some now alive for expressions that fell from them in a time of trouble and confusion there is scarce one of his beyond-Sea Divines whom he does not quote with much Honour and Respect though they did in their Systems of Divinity and Comments on Scripture lay down the same Doctrine quarrell'd at in Mr. Baxter Doth he not know what pains David Owen hath taken to make his honest Calvin and his Learned Beza and Danaeus c. as guilty of delivering Trayterous Doctrine as the Jesuites themselves At least he knows that Paraeus his Book was appointed to be burnt at Oxford and yet him he makes use of Pag. 8th and pag. 337. c. Andrew Rivet also he chooseth as a man fit to be of the Synod and yet this Rivet in his Exposition on the 68 Psal determines very peremptorily for the lawfulness of defensive Arms and to the Ephori he allowes a liberty to take up offensive Arms. Peter Du Moylin and Spanhemius he would also have Chieftains in his Synod And yet these two the one in his Anatomy of Arminianisme the other in his Dubia Evangelica on Matthew 5th do make the Right of Civil things to belong only to the Godly or to the Elect then which nothing could be said more dangerous to greater or lesser Societies I know they both distinguish of a Right in respect of men and of a Right in respect of God denying onely the later unto the wicked