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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33979	A supplement to a little book entituled, A reasonable account why some pious nonconforming ministers cannot judg it lawful for them to perform their ministerial acts in publick solemn prayer, ordinarily, by the prescribed forms of others : wherein is examined whatsoever Mr. Falconer in his book called, Libertas ecclesiastica, and Mr. Pelling in a book called, The good old way, have said to prove the ancient use of forms of prayers by ministers : and it is proved, that neither of the two aforementioned authors have said anything that proveth the general use, or imposition of such forms of prayer in any considerable part of the church, till Pope Gregories time, which was six hundred years after Christ, nor in any church since the reformation, except that of England, and (which is uncertain) some in Saxony.	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.; Falkner, William, d. 1682. Libertas ecclesiastica.; Pelling, Edward, d. 1718. Good old way.	1680 (1680)	Wing C5343; ESTC R18940	53,644	120

A Supplement TO A LITTLE BOOK ENTITULED A Reasonable account why some pious Non-conforming Ministers cannot judg it lawful for them to perform their Ministerial Acts in publick solemn prayer ordinarily by the prescribed Forms of others Wherein is examined whatsoever Mr. Falconer in his Book called Libertas Ecclesiastica and Mr. Pelling in a Book called The Good old way have said to prove the ancient use of Forms of Prayers by Ministers And it is proved That neither of the two aforementioned Authors have said any thing that proveth the general use or imposition of such Forms of Prayer in any considerable part of the Church till Pope Gregories time which was six hundred years after Christ nor in any Church since the Reformation except that of England and which is uncertain some in Saxony Multa videntur dicuntur quae non sunt LONDON Printed in the Year 1680. COURTEOUS READER ALthough where the question is about the lawfulness or unlawness of any action the pleading of Antiquity be a great impertinency and if the Plea be true it can rise no higher than a presumptive argument and be so far from a demonstration that it is not a good Topick for there is no prescribing to error So that nothing can incline the scale of Conscience in which every one is obliged to weigh every Proposition relating to his practice but his apprehension of the revealed will of God either from the letter or reason of Holy Writ yet because every one is not thus spiritually instructed and it makes a great noise to hear men talking That the Church in all ages all the Fathers judged otherwise than these men and if it were true in any case it ought highly to oblige all Dissenters again and again to examine those arguments upon which they have founded their particular practical judgment I who know the world too well to believe all that I read in mens Books have thought it reasonable to examine what Mr. Falconer and one Mr. Pelling have said to prove the pretended antiquity of forms of prayer as generally used or required to be used by Ministers in their publick Ministrations as to Prayer I the rather did it because truly Mr. Falconer hath said as much as hath been said on that argument or as that Cause will bear The Reader will find Mr. Pelling hath added little but words I must profess to my Reader there appears to me no shadow or pretence of proof of the matter in question till Pope Gregory and Boniface's time more than 600 years after Christ nor do I believe any can be made to satisfie any inquisitive man I leave it to thee to judg whether I have not given a reasonable answer to any thing brought by these two and shewed that they have made no proof that can satisfie the conscience of any man of any reasonable understanding and thinks the thing is unlawful if indeed it were a thing granted indifferent these little flourishes might do something but the conscience of a good man judging a thing unlawful from grounds of Scripture and Reason cannot be dispossessed of that judgment by any thing but by Scripture and Reason and though the general judgment of the Church might stumble him if his opinion were contrary yet that general judgment must be proved not meerly talkt of and plainly proved too before it can have any operation at all Now whether either of these Authors have done this I leave thee to judg The one of them is very confident and can speak nothing of this nature in a lower stile than with questionless doubtless without all doubt The other though much more modest yet possibly hath some freer and smarter expressions in his Pages on this Argument than in any other part of his Book But my humour is always to suspect a soft place in that part of any Book where I meet with most confidence or passion Reason is so beautiful and noble a thing that it needeth not the service of passion or paint of confidence It commends it self to the next rational soul it meets with without any such black patch or foot-boy at its heels I will freely tell thee my opinion about forms of Prayer in publick Ministrations not imposing upon thee with any such thing as questionless and without doubt I do believe that forms of Prayer are very ancient that is that there were by some good and pious men forms of Prayer made both for their own publick use and for the private instruction of others and teaching them to pray without forms I do think that our Saviour Christ made the Lords-Prayer for the temporary use of his Disciples not so as to oblige them to use no other or to use that Sillabically but to pray for those things either in those words or other words and that they might for a time use that very form particularly until his Resurrection and Ascension after which I believe they were obliged to a more particular mention of his sacred name I believe that forms of Prayer were much more in use before the pouring out of Gods Spirit in the days of Pentecost than after for although the effects of that effusion of the Spirit were some of them peculiar to the Apostles such as speaking with Tongues Miracles Healing c. yet from that day to this I believe from Zach. 12. 10. there hath been a more full effusion of the spirit of grace and supplication upon all both Ministers and people than ever was before generally Notwithstanding which in regard that until men come to believe and be Christians indeed they have not the Spirit of God and even then the Spirit of God works in them by the use of means I do believe there were many forms of Prayer made by good men teaching beginners in Christianity how to pray and what to pray for I am not difficult to believe that many both Ministers and people in those days might make use of such forms till their exercise in Scripture and in the ways of God rendred them as to them needless and turned what were before helpers into hinderances of Devotion But I believe it cannot be proved that for more than 400 years after Christ any one Church commanded her Ministers generally to use such and no other in any part of their publick ministration though possibly some particular men that had not the gift of Prayer or at least feared themselves or suspected they had it not might use some forms made before by themselves or some others Pope Gregory the Great who is commonly call'd the worst of all that went before him though the best of all the Popes that followed him I believe was the first that commanded the general use of forms of Prayer by Ministers in their publick Ministrations Platina saith thus of him What should I speak more of this most holy man for all the ordering of the Ecclesiastical Office especially the old one was by him invented and approved Haec in Canonem redegit

to those Numerical words or syllables Luther and Calvin's use proveth it not I hope but yet we think we may lawfully use any form of Gods prescription the question is Whether we may use no other nor that with the least variation Our Brother's second argument is yet weaker The Disciples said Lord teach us to pray as John taught his Disciples What then was it not an apposite answer for him to tell them That now they must call God Father and pray that his Name might be sanctified his Kingdom come his will be done c. unless he set them a form of words to which they might not add nor diminish The Disciples did not say Lord tell us what words and no other we must use in prayer But thirdly saith our Brother our Saviour gives in the phrase of prayer but doth this conclude so do we sometimes give our Children forms which we desire not they should use as forms but directions to speak to the like purpose For Cyprian Tertullian and Gregory who lived 300 400 800 years after Christ they were not like to know Christs intention in this more than we and for their use of it as a form We do not think it unlawful to use those intire words and phrases as a part of our prayers nor indeed any other Scriptural forms of words that are proper But on the other side are they not two great presumptions that our Saviour never intended it as a form 1. That we never read in Scripture that it was so used afterward 2. That the name of Christ in whose name Joh. 16. we are commanded to pray is not in it unless by implication as it hath been in all prayers of the Church since the Ascension of Christ the prayers concluding for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ To compremise this business I believe it was as a form given to the Disciples being then but children and not perfectly instructed to the Kingdom of God and they might or might not use it as a form until they should be more fully instructed and inabled but not with any obligation upon them or the Church after them necessarily to use those numerical words in that order nay that after Christs Resurrection it was their duty to add something more to their prayers asking plainly and expresly in the name of Jesus Christ For he tells them Joh. 16. 24. Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name how could that be true if they had used the Lords-prayer till then and the petitions there had been so put up in the name of Christ as appears to have been his will now vers 23. Our Brothers next instance is pag. 103 104 105. from the example of the Jewish Church here he tells us That the Jews did use prayers with their sacrifices and had their hours of prayer These things he proveth well from Lev. 1. 10. Act. 3. 1. and that Aaron was to confess the sins of the people over the live-goat Lev. 16. 21. What is all this to the purpose none doubts but that Priests and people prayed under the Old Testament as well as the New But the question is Whether by stated forms or no 2. He tells us there are evidences in Scripture of such forms 2 Chron. 29. 30. The King commanded the people to praise God with the words of David and Asaph That is with such and such portions of holy writ do not all men grant that some parts of holy Writ may be sung in publick Worship The Nonconformists will allow no other he instanceth in Joel 2. 17. Hos 14. 2. Deut. 21. 8. Deut. 26. 3 4 5 13 14. It is true in all these Texts there are some short very short forms of prayer as they lye before us they are so But 1. can our Reverend Brother think so short phrases or sentences as some of them are were ever used as the only solemn prayer used at that time 2. Is there any Record that they were ever syllabically used 3. Is it said you shall use these words and no other 4. Is it not ordinary for us in our Sermons directing people only to what sense to pray in our Sermons to say Go to God and say c. and then give them a short prayer which we never intend they should use as a form 5. Is it not reasonable to think this was all intended in these passages when we consider the length and solemnity of the Prayers recorded in Scripture of Solomon Ezra Daniel Hezekiah Jehoshaphat For the practice of the Jews in later days I shall only say this 1. That he knows how little credit is to be given to any testimony of the Rabbins and what time the earliest writings of theirs appear'd 2. How ill their practice can be pleaded who our Saviour saith worshipped God vainly teaching for Doctrines the Traditions of men 3. That I observe Luk. 4. 16. that when our Saviour at Nazareth went into the Synagogue the Clerk did not bring him any common-prayer-Common-prayer-book but the book of the Prophet Isaias which he made use of § 6. Let us now leave these pretences of more ancient proof and come to consider what hath indeed been the practice of the Church since the Apostles times for our Reverend Brother thinks it probable that while the miraculous gifts of the Spirit continued Prayer was performed by them For the time succeeding the Apostles it must be divided into three periods 1. The first is the purer period of it before the Bishop of Rome got fully into Saddle this as to Doctrine held to a great degree for 500 years but as to Rites and Ceremonies scarce half so long as we shall possibly shortly shew 2. The second is the depraved period of it which was for a 1000 years as to Doctrine 1200 and more as to some matters of Rites and Government 3. The Reformed period of it which was from the year 1516 and is yet going on For the first of these Periods we have not so full and clear an evidence of what was the practice of the Church as we could desire For though it was after the year 600 that the Bishop of Rome got the Title of Vniversal Bishop and some years after that before the Church of Rome was furnished with all her present accoutrements and 1200 before Transubstantiation was setled Yet betwixt that and 1500 they had time enough to burn all the Writings of the Ancients from which the practice of the Primitive Church might appear to us or so to correct them and interpolate that we might see little or nothing that could be made use of to shew the Novelties of their Doctrine and practice yet Bernardus non vidit omnia some things scaped their eye or correction of which our Divines make good use Let us see what our Reverend Brother produceth for the first 300 years which all Divines say was the most pure times of the Church It is not our part to prove the Negative it lyeth upon our Brethren to

complaining to Pope Adrian at the imposing of Gregory's Common-Prayer Book it should seem he liked some other possibly that which went about for St. Ambroses better but it seems the complaint ran so high that some Fathers just come from a Council met again to decide the matter spent a night in prayer having first laid both the Common-prayer Books that of Ambrose and that of Gregory on St. Peter's Altar to desire of God by some sign to shew which of those Liturgies he would have universally used In the morning they went in and found that of St. Ambrose lying in his place that of Gregory torn in pieces and scattered up and down From whence they concluded that it was the will of God that St. Ambrose his Office should lye still and be used only in his own Church Gregories should be scattered over the world And thus the Roman Mass-book which is one point in which we differ from the Papists was confirmed by a miracle too He that asked the question By what Common-prayer book the Fathers prayed that night when both their books were lockt up Might have remembred that we have heard of a Liturgy of St. Peter's only one would think that if he had been Bishop of Rome he might have been angry to have seen his Liturgy thrown out and one brought in patcht up by so many hundred years his Juniors especially having so much superstitious stuff in it which he never owned It may be it was for this he caused it to be torn so that night not enduring such trash should lye upon his Altar but then the Fathers were miserably out in their judgments upon the cause This is the truth as to the pretended antiquity of Liturgies and as to the imposition of them by Canon-law from 600 to 800 by Canon and Civil Laws 800 years after Christ § 15. In further proof of this I shall but offer what the Reader may see in Print and what I know to be true It pleased his most Excellent Majesty to grant his Commission out under the Broad Seal dated 25 March in the 13th year of his Reign to 12 Bishops and to divers others requiring them amongst other things to advise upon and review the Book of Common Prayer comparing the same with the most ancient Liturgies which have been used in the Church in the primitive and purest times c. The aforesaid Commissioners did so and being divided into two Parties the party which in some things dissented made this reply to that passage It is to be found p. 11. of the Printed account of their Proceedings Prop. 19. As to that passage in his Majesties Commission wherein we are authorized and required to compare the present Liturgy with the most ancient Liturgies which have been used in the Church in the purest and most Primitive times We have in obedience to his Majesties Commission made enquiry but cannot find any Records of known credit concerning any entire forms of Liturgies within the first 300 years which are confessed to be as the most Primitive so the purest ages of the Church nor any Imposition of Liturgies for some hundreds of years after We find indeed some Liturgical forms fathered upon St. Basil St. Chrysostome St. Ambrose but we have not seen any Copies of them but such as give sufficient evidence to us to conclude them either wholly spurious or so interpotlated that we cannot make a judgment wha in them hath any Primitive authority This Proposition was given in with the rest by these Divines to the rest of the Reverend Bishops and Doctors of Divinity who made the opposite party and it was not only signed by Dr. Manton Dr. Jacomb Mr. Calamy and many others but by the most Reverend and Learned Dr. Reynolds at that time Bishop of Norwich Here if ever the proof should have been produced of Liturgies generally used and enjoyned in the Church in the purest and most Primitive times Let us now see what Reply was made the Reader shall find it in p. 75. of the Printed account It is the 16 Section of the opposite Commissioners Reply in these words Sect. 16. That there were ancient Liturgies in the Church is evident St. Chrysostoms St. Basils and others and the Greeks tell us of St. James much elder than they and we find not in all ages whole Liturgies yet it is certain that there were such in eldest times by those parts which are extant Sursum Corda c. Gloria Patri c. Benedicte Hymnus Cherubinus vere dignum est justum c. Dominus vobiscum cum spiritu tuo with divers others Though those that are extant may be interpolated yet such things as are found in them all censistent to Catholick and Primitive Doctrine may well be presumed to have been from the first especially since we find no Originals of those Liturgies from ancient Councils This is all they say What was replyed to this is too large to transcribe the Reader may read it in the aforementioned Printed Account of the Proceedings p. 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83. But because every Reader may not have that book at hand I shall add a few words We know none will deny but that particular men might even from Christ's time have by them forms of Prayer either of their own composure or other mens but that from the beginning all Ministers in any Church were tyed to them that we deny nor can it be proved It cannot be proved that in the first 400 years there were any entire forms of Liturgy that the Ministers might before they began to pray say Sursum Corda Lift up your hearts or Dominus Vobiscum The Lord be with you and the people of course say And with thy Spirit are far from proving that there were any books directing them so to do It is known that the Doxology Glory be to the Father Son and Holy Ghost was not in any general use for more than 300 years after Christ In the whole Answer there is nothing to prove that for 500 years after Christ there were any such forms as all Ministers in any one Church or Province were commanded to use and to perform their Ministry in prayer by without varying from it But the Reader may at his leasure read much more in the Judicious Reply made by the Commissioners on the other side And if more could have been said upon this argument for the Antiquity of Liturgies it is not probable it would have been omitted by 12 Bishops and so many learned men besides several of which have since that time been made Bishops and some of them are so at this day § 16. Our Reverend Brother talks therefore at a great deal too high a rate when he tells us p. 110. of Forms of prayer embraced by the ancient Church whiles it retained its soundness and before the corruptions and distempers of the Church of Rome took place if by embraced he means used generally by all Ministers or commanded so to

saith Platina There were some free forms up and down and some particular orders in some Churches none forced but he brought them into a Canon Platina who was a later Popes Secretary saith he came not to be Pope before 619. Yet it plainly appears by Pope Gregories answer to Augustine the Monks questions which he sent to him out of England that he did not tye all to the use of his Missal It pleaseth me saith he that you sollicitously make choice of what you find in the Church of Rome or France or any other Church which may best please God and infuse it into the English Church which is yet young in the faith particularly instructing it in things which you can gather out of many Churches for things are not to be loved for places but places are to be loved for good things I therefore out of several Churches pick out what things are pious religious and right and do you accustom your English mens minds to these things collected in a bundle Some years after by succeeding Popes it was enforced and by Charles the Great about 800 if we may believe Durandus The Popes were then at such an heighth as they could not expect that they and their Bishops should be quiet if they had a Clergy consisting of men of parts and piety they therefore suffered any ignorant sottish persons to fill the Ministry who so they might be gratified in their lusts and laziness would fawn upon the Pope and the Bishops of those times and humour their superstition pride and luxury and grandeur provided they would humour them in sparing their lusts and their pains the latter of which was eminently done by enjoining all Ministers to use the same Missal and laying all Religion in the use of it and making Preaching a rare and almost useless thing or a Lecturing out of Aquinas and Scotus and the Legend and this was the whole trade till the Reformation 1516. Nor can I think this would have so generally been swallowed by people but for another unhappy accident About this time Latin was the common language of Italy France and Spain and in that language their Divine service was but the Goths and Vandals and other Barbarians over-ran these Countrys and possessed them for many years which corrupted the Latin tongue so that it was understood no where ordinarily though the Italian French and Spanish languages are manifest Dialects of it but still the Mass-book was not altered Thus came in the Latin service used in Popery till the Reformation understood by very few of them that heard it So the Papists worshipped they knew not how and being ignorant were very tame The Reformation began in Germany 1517 in England not to speak on till Edward the Sixths time 1547 and had a present interruption of five years after it had been on foot seven years then began something more to purpose with Queen Elizabeth 1558 in France at Geneva it was sooner 1535. It is true our first Reformers both in King Edw. 6. and in Q. Eliz. time thought fit to compose a Liturgy or rather to reform what was used in Popery leaving out the idolatrous and highly superstitious part of the Mass-book Yea they thought fit to command the universal use of it under penalties which may charitably be interpreted to prevent a Popish Clergy or a Clergy newly reform'd from Popery using their old Mumpsimus Nor indeed in that face of things was it reasonable to expect that any number of Ministers should be able to pray as they ought in publick and if they were not they might for a time lawfully use forms Yet whoso will read the Book called The troubles at Francfort will find that even then all godly Ministers and people did not judg it lawful which much more appeared in the succeeding years of the Reigns of Queen Elizabeth King James and King Ch. I. In the mean time it must be agreed many both learned godly and worthy Ministers did thus perform their Ministerial acts in solemn publick prayer and so do many now which speaks them to judg it lawful The Ministers in Scotland the Nonconformists in England all those in New-England judg otherwise and we believe many hundreds that conform in England think it just lawful not eligible only a thing may be submitted to rather than lay down their Ministry If this be not as to matter of practise the true state of the case as to Forms of Prayer to be universally enjoined or used I must confess I do not understand it and should gladly learn of those that are wiser But let us now enquire what is said by Mr. Falconer or Mr. Pelling THE Summary OF THE SUPPLEMENT TO The Reasonable Account SEction 1. The reason of the Supplement What Mr. Falconer saith little concerneth the Nonconformists in the terms he hath expressed it Sect. 2. There may be a double sense of Mr. Falconer's assertion of God and Christ appointing forms of Prayer in the first they are true and granted by Nonconformists in the second they are false and denied by them Sect. 3. God may make things necessary by his command which without it are unlawful Sect. 4. The only medium to prove that forms of Prayer made by men are lawful to be used by all Ministers propounded but not proved Sect. 5. An examination of what Mr. Falconer hath said to prove that God and Christ appointed forms of Prayer to be used without variation in Devotion What he saith of the Lords-Prayer examined His reasons answered why he thinks our Saviour gave it as a form They conclude not Two great presumptions to the contrary The thing admitted nothing proved by it His instances from the Old Testament examined Five Reasons making it probable that those instances were never intended by God as Syllabical forms to be used without variation The practice of the Jews in or after Christs time invaluable Sect 6. An examination of Mr. Falconer's answers to the Nonconformists proof from Justine Martyr and Tertullian that in the first 300 years after Christ there were no such Liturgies used by Ministers A further proof added from Socrates Scholasticus extending to more than 400 years after Christ. An answer to Mr. Falconer's pretended proof from Justine Martyr Ignatius Origen Cyprian nothing is proved from them as to the first 300 years Sect. 7. His proof from Constantine's making prayers for his Army makes against him signifying that then there was no publick Liturgies Constantine did nothing but what Nonconformists will allow and practice Sect. 8. Nonconformists do not grant that forms of Prayer have been of general use by all Ministers or imposed upon all by any Church since the year 1300. Neither the Canon of the Council of Laodicea nor that of Carthage proves it nor that of the Council at Mela 402 more than as to Ministers of that Province upon a special cause Sect. 9. It is doubtful whether there was such a third Council at Carthage Justellus saith if there were they

Church of God whose practice should be any thing of a law or president to us Thus far we have delivered our selves from the vulgar and indeed no other than a poor popular prejudice of a dissent from the concurrent judgment of the Church in all ages We consent with the five first ages and for the ten latter we also agree with the pure Church of God in Bohemia and the Valleys of Piedmont for ought we could ever hear proved relating to their practice For other Churches no reformed Churches this day in the world but thinks twenty things unlawful which both the Greek and Latin Churches in those ages practised § 17. We have but one prejudice more to deliver our selves from and that is the Judgment of the Reformed Churches since the Reformation To try which let us but again repeat what we say We say Forms of Prayer are in themselves good and lawful Good as means of Instruction and lawful to be so used yea and also for Devotion until men have obtained an ability without them fitly to express their minds to God in Prayer or when though they have that gift yet through the hand of God in some natural inability they are hindred from the use of it We say also that where in a Nation or Church there is a multitude of Ministers needful so that it cannot be expected that a sufficient number should be found so competently qualified as they should be it is reasonable there should be forms made which Ministers may use or not use according as they find their abilities But we say it appeareth to us unlawful for those to use them to whom God hath given such an ability for the reasons before mentioned Now let us see how much in this we in judgment differ from any Reformed Churches The first Reformed Churches were in Germany and Switzerland whether those to whom Zuinglius was the head or the Lutherans were the first is hard to say They by degrees abolished the Mass they would have done it at first if they could But alas their people were newly come out of Popery and they must drive the pace they would go Let our Author if he can shew us that any of the Churches adhering to Zuinglius whose Reformation was the purest had any such form of Prayers as no Ministers might vary from or was enjoyned to use under a penalty The Liber Ritualis he speaks of in Bohemia and the Agenda in the Palatinate he will find to be no more than a general Directory and Order no prescription of words and phrases Let any one read Scultetus his Annales Rerun Evangelicarum he will find the Agenda of the Churches of Nordlingen Walshat Strasburgh Zurich let him see if he can find any thing of a form of Prayer excepting the Lords Prayer nor that imposed but ordinarily used It is true Luther and his party were a little laxer and Luther made a Mass-book correcting much in the Popish Missal but leaving in too much to the great offence of his Brethren as may be learned from another place of Scultetus I know not but they might impose for Luther though a great man yet was too much of a Dictator and for every one to conform to his humors but yet I no-where have read that he did command his Missal to be read by all Ministers that adhered to him And for what he did as to his composition of a Missal it was rather judged to cross Carolostadius and others and uphold his notion of the Corporal presence of Christ than for any other reason Next to this was the Reformation of Geneva and England For Geneva what Mr. Calvin's judgment was I cannot tell I have not his Epistles by me to examine Mr. F's Quotation but however he was but one man though a great one it should seem by the settlement there if it were his judgment when he wrote to the Protector it is like it was altered or his Colleagues were of another mind or he only approved it for a time in regard of the State of the Church being newly crept out of Popery for in the French Liturgy there is no tying up Ministers to the use of their forms though indeed they propose and commend some forms it saith The Minister shall make such prayers as seem good to him fitting for the time and matter he is in his Sermon to treat of In another place The form is according to the discretion of the Minister In a third place They use this or some like it In a fourth place He prayeth after this manner What their practice is I cannot tell The work of our Reformation was slow so as Scotland got the start of us though we set out first Dioclavius tells us Alt. Damasc p. 613. We have indeed in our Church Agenda and an Order to be observed in our publick Devotion but none is tyed either to the Prayers or Exhortations in our Liturgy they are proposed for Examples c. In all the 13 years saith he that I exercised the Ministry in that Church I never neither at Sacrament nor in other parts of my Religious Serivce used either the Prayers or Exhortations in our book nor did many more every one was at liberty and it seems child-like to me to do otherwise In England we used onother method more conformable to the Saxon Reformation than to that of Switzerland Strasburgh France or Scotland or what was afterwards in Holland Our Countrey was wholly Popish our Priests zealous for them our common people so ignorant that their Priests might have perswaded them that it was their duty to eat Hay with an Horse not an English Bible to be found in the Nation until the middle of King Henry 8. Reign The Reformation went on under the Conduct of a Popish King till Edward the 6th came to the Crown Our Reformers did not think fit at once to abolish all the Popish trash Though therefore they first turned much of the Popish mass-Mass-book into English leaving out much Idolatrous and Superstitious stuff yet they left in it too much which caused a second common-prayer-Common-Prayer-book to be made in the time of Edward the 6. though his whole Reign was but seven years then came Queen Mary and destroyed all and the zealous Protestants went out of the Nation fixing some at Frankfort some at Basil c. At Frankfort the Ministers that first fixed there used no prescribed forms in their publick worship till at length Dr. Cox came amongst them with the Common-Prayer book made in Edw. 6. time which made that woful stir of which we have an account in the book called the Troubles of Frankfort In short Dr. Cox got the Magistrate on his side and forced the rest away to Geneva and other places When Queen Elizabeth came to the Throne all know how great a man Dr. Cox proved By his means and some of his stamp the Common-Prayer-book was again revised and published all Ministers enjoyned to use it but what a dissent

Reading the Scripture Singing of Psalms Prayers and Adlocutions These he will have to be Biddings of Prayer the Deacons saying Let us pray then telling them what they should pray for So then Preaching was no part of the Sabbath-days Service which I should rather understand by Allocutiones considering that there is a book called Dies Dominica so abundantly proves it and we have such plentiful proof of it from Chrysostome Justin Martyr c. But a thing never thought on by Christ or his Apostles Bidding of Prayer that forsooth must be made one of the parts of the Sabbath-service Most ridiculous But in all this good Reader consider what little of proof there is besides the Authors Questionless and without doubt Cyprian speaks of solemn things Offices he puts in and are there no solemn things but Prayers made by forms He hath sursum corda And do not those who pray by no forms ordinarily begin with Let us lift up our hearts to God Cyprian saith they pray continually and earnestly and might they not do so without a book Origen saith they used Prayers appointed but doth he say the words they should use in those prayers were also set and appointed them Origen reciteth a form of three lines and he might for ought we know or say to the contrary both make it and use it but is it proved that the Church generally used that form His interpretation of the Petitions mention'd by Tertullian as part of the solemn Service of the Sabbath to be Collects is a new whimsi of our Authors and I think his Exposition of Tertullians sine Monitore is as new and precacious for Tertullian's preces delegatae they signified all the prayers which the Congregation put up to God by their Ministers delegated and instructed to speak to God in the name of all the people who upon this account by Greg. Naz. is said to have had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a kind of Mediatorship between God and man he being the peoples mouth unto God There was then in the Church-Meetings but one voice heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Chrysostome Homil. 36. in 1 Cor. That is There ought never to be but one voice in the Church He that readeth readeth alone and the Bishop saith he is in the mean time silent He that sings sings alone and when all sing together 't is all as one voice c. Our Author in the last place spends much Paper upon a quotation from Justin Martyr It is too long to transcribe p. 62. he comes to his Collections from it 1. He saith the Catechumeni were taught to pray the congregation of believers praying with them he would have them taught to pray by the Deacons admonishing them to pray Admonishing whom did they think we admonish those not admitted yet into Church to pray in the solemn Assembly of the Believers Surely the latter and they told them the general matter of Prayer This certainly concludes they had no stated forms of words which they used and might use no other So fair a proof is this 2. In the next place he collecteth that the Catechumeni did in a form make confession of their faith What is this to the purpose 3. In the third place he gathers from Justin Martyr that the Catechumeni were brought from the water to the congregatiou and Sermon ended they went jointly to prayer So then they had a Sermon and prayers after it but how doth it appear this was by a form of words from which they might not vary Questionless saith our Author it is pretty that he should think his Questionless should make a good argument But he hath found the form in Clements Constitutions a book not heard of 300 years after Clements death out of what hole soever it is now come All he saith else is no more to the purpose than that Prayers being ended they saluted one another with an holy kiss they received the Sacrament and prayed again and praised God in a copious and large manner by their Minister And these prayers being concluded the people jointly cryed out Amen What proof there is for forms of prayer comes out of the forged Constitutions of Clement and this Authors strong fancy not out of Justin Martyr and our Author p. 62. confesseth Justin Martyr tells us no such things but yet he saith They did it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cyril he talks of as so ancient was an Author lived near 500 years after Christ and was not like to know so exactly what was done in Justin Martyrs time Any writer now would be lookt on to give a very incertain account of what was done in England Anno 1200. nor would any give much credit to what he should write It is a great vanity men have when they are eager of a thing to fancy all they meet with to look that way if they do but see a word or a letter or two of that nature I knew a Dignitary of our Church who was strongly conceited against the Morality of the Sabbath and therefore was engaged to put another sense upon the fourth Commandment or to leave us but Nine Moral Precepts in the Decalogue He at last finds in Origen and Epiphanius a place or two where Christ was call'd The great Sabbath and presently writes a book about a new 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mightily triumphing That he had found out Gospel in the midst of the law The sense of that Commandment was nothing else but remember to sanctifie the Name of Jesus Christ When alas the old Fathers meant no more than that Christ in whom alone is rest for our souls was typified by the holy day of rest appointed by the law and though Christ be our rest our great rest yet he is not a day of rest which is that which the Commandment only speaketh of Just so I observe it is in this Controversie Some men are so mightily zealous for stated and universally imposed forms of prayer that where-ever in any of the Ancients they meet with the words Liturgy Offices Common-prayers Prayers solemn Services they presently think they have a full proof for forms of prayer composed by others to be used by all Ministers When as alas there 's nothing more weak and ridiculous and these arguments speak nothing of reason but only a fancy disturb'd by unreasonable passion A Liturgy signifies nothing but an order of Ministration in holy things which may be without one form of prayer only directing the time or times when the Ministers shall pray Offices in the ancients signifies no more than Duties The approbation of the term Offices to forms of prayer to be used at Burials Christnings c. is but a very modern Popish Device to suggest to silly souls that Ministers did not do their duties if they did not use their Missals and Rituals c. and surely Prayers and solemn Services may be without forms and so may Common prayers too I am the more confirmed in this by what our

and ignorant as to the generality of their Ministers they made it their business to put out and put in to the Writings of the ancients what they pleased to forge Writings to be theirs which were not so and suppress others that were so which is evident from the Writings of Papists as well as Protestants Sixtus Senensis Possevine Bellarmine were all Papists so was Erasmus Rivet and Cocus were Protestants they have all books extant to teach us to distinguish betwixt the true Writings of the Ancients and those pretended to be theirs but not so And there is no doubt but it was through meer carelesness if they left a word or line in the ancients against any point of Doctrine any way of Worship any Rite or Ceremony in credit at Rome or used in their Church 5. From them came Justin Martyr Ignatius Clement Tertullian Ambrose Augustine in short all the Writings of the Fathers we have except possibly some two or three of the Greek Fathers yet the most famous and common Editions of them are all Popish and come out to us with their puttings out and puttings in what they pleased 6. From hence will appear what little credit is to be given to any thing in any of the books published under their names any further than it is agreeable with the Scripture and bottomed there 7. Allow me the Editions of the Fathers and Councils which the Papists have let us have I hardly know one Doctrine of Popery or one Idolatrous or Superstitious Practice Rite or Ceremony at Rome but I will bring as good proof for as either Mr. Faulconer or Mr. Pelling have brought for the Antiquity of forms of prayer generally used 8. From hence it follows that those who lay such stress on this point of Antiquity in the case are but doing the Papists work laying a foundation for the Papists to build all their abominable Doctrines Idolatries and Practices upon and he is half a Papist that is resolved to believe all those things true which may be found in the ancient Writings as we have them We have so much charity for those great and holy men as to believe they never wrote any such things though some Popish Monks and Fryers have fathered them upon them 9. If any will yet believe what they find in their Works as we now have them he stands obliged not to do it rashly but to read 1. what both Papists and Protestants have wrote as to that book of theirs out of which the Quotation is 2. Then to consider what was the signification of the words Liturgy Merit Offices and an 100 more in that age and whether we have not put a new sense upon them not known in their times 3. To consider how far in the judgment of Protestants the Church was corrupted in the times when those Fathers wrote 10. This I take to be a tedious work the Prophet Isa 8. 20. hath taught me a nearer and safer course To the law and to the testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them Does any say but how will you know the sense of the Scriptures I answer from my own conscience and reason comparing things spiritual with things spiritual and hearing the judgments of others before I determine Will they say but you may be deceived it is true so might the Fathers but in things necessary if I use prayer I have a promise The Spirit shall lead you into all truth I am sure I can from Scripture be as certain of the Will of God in any case as I can be that any one leaf of the Fathers were ever written by them and if it were I am sure they were fallible men as well as I and in many things did err The pressing and laying so much stress as men do some men on authority and antiquity is in truth nothing but a mighty facturing for Popery and it is impossible but learned men must understand so much Besides not one often who talks so much of the Fathers and antiquity regards what Edition he quotes or makes use of and all know that where there is one of the Ancients to be got so much as of Erasmus his Edition who was a Papist but seemeth just and honest there are ten of filthy and most corrupt Popish Editions where the Reader can safely trust nothing And thus much shall serve for Mr. Pelling for I am not concerned as to what he saith for the English Liturgy let it be as fine a thing as it will if it be unlawful for me to use any in my Ministration in prayer it is most certainly unlawful for me to use that and at that boundary I stick till better reason than I have yet met with removes me from it FINIS For the Reverend his very Worthy Friend c. SIR YOU must think me either very regardless of the Obligations you have laid on me or which I had rather chuse very inconcerned in the New Argument for Forms of Prayer from Matth. 26. 44. that I should put you to the trouble of a second Letter to mind me not to overlook it and particularly to give you my thoughts upon it Indeed Sir the Argumentation from it savours fo little of a Scholar or a rational man that I did not think you in earnest But calling to mind that the Gentlemen we have to do with think they have a conclusive argument in the case from the ●… Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 command that prayers should be made for all men 1 Tim. 2 which surely may be made by each Minister for his Congregation and shall not need be prescribed in a book and what your self told me that you heard a late Bishop of Bath and Wells say That it was very probable that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Parchments left at Troas which St. Paul took such care Timothy should bring were the Church-prayers or Liturgy forgetting as you well note that there St. Paul prayed some time without them I began to assume some more deliberate thoughts of that Text Mat. 26. especially reading what you write that you had once met with it in Print and had often heard it in Sermons and Conferences For Sermons men now-a-days use more Rhetorick than Logick but methinks in Prints and Conferences they should be more Logical Let me therefore consider the Text Mat. 26. 44. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we translate it saying the same words so saith Mark 14. 39. Luke mentioneth but one prayer Now Sir how 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 can be translated the same words judg you it must be the same word if any thing ●nd we know though our Saviours prayer were very short yet there was more than one or two words in it But Sir this Topick speaks either a very great ignorance or a wilful design to lead others to mistake in those that use it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not signifie always a syllabical word but the thing

was from it both all her Reign and after that all King James his Reign is too sad a story to repeat Whereas had it pleased God so to have moderated the spirits of our Bishops in the beginning of her Reign that they had only composed a Liturgy and left Ministers to a liberty as in all other Reformed Churches it is all had been quiet It is very like that the most of the Ministers at that time being very little practiced in Praying or in Preaching would have used and been studying to pray without it and long ere this we might have had flourishing Church shining in every corner with a Ministry that needed no book to have told them the words and syllables they must put up their prayers to God in When on the other side these contests about this thing have carried some few into great extremes on both sides Some on one side thinking that there is no true Prayer but by the Liturgy at which they are very devout but studying to shew all manner of slight and irreverence at other prayers believing them no true worship of God no whole-faced Son of the Church must use any prayer in his family no Lady or Gentlewoman any other prayer in her Closet but this Common-prayer It was a great objection against a person of great Honour and Piety appearing for Knight of the Shire in his County though he constantly attended publick prayers and received the Sacrament as constantly that he used fanatick Prayers in his family that is his Chaplain there prayed not by the publick forms at all times This madness not to say profaneness by the way is to us a sufficient argument against our use of any set publick forms in our Devotion we ought not to nurse up people in these most erroneous conceptions to speak no worse of them If people will adore humane constitutions at this rate they must be to us Nehushtan On the other side this madness hath run some to that excess that they will allow no forms to be lawful of any use in any time for any persons their children must not learn the Lords Prayer nor a form of Catechism none must hear a form c. But the number of these is very small and their judgment is as invaluable Forms of prayer are lawful useful many a good man learns to pray by a form as Scholars learn to write by their Masters first guidance of them and holding their hand They are useful and lawful for Devotion for persons that have not an ability yea for Ministers in that case The people always pray by the form of him that ministreth The Minister doth well if he can do no better he conducts the people that they may in faith say Amen he guides himself But if he have an ability otherwise to do we cannot think he doth his duty and we are sure every Minister should have an ability from himself both to pray and preach How hard it is to keep out of extremes I challenge any to shew me how our judgment thus stated and opened dissents from the Revelation of the Will of God in Scripture or of any valuable persons in the Church of God in any age § 18. It is an easie thing for men to talk of all the Fathers and the Church in all ages but it is an hard thing for those that talk at this rate to prove what they say in any tolerable measure A man is right in his own cause until his neighbour cometh and searcheth him out When men have worn out their tongues and pens in writing and speaking vain words they will be found to have spoken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the words of men puft up with a desire to prove some unproveable thing or with an opinion We will not say our opinion is infallible but we will in sincerity say it is what we cannot dispossess our selves of by any ratiocination within our selves or with others Some will say we have a liberty to use our gifts before Sermons in our Families in our Closets the Vanity of that is shewed But is not the Administration of the Sacraments a great piece of our Ministry what liberty is left us as to that or by what rule are we restrained in any part of our Ministry or how long shall we have it in any allowing this principle We owe no such Idolatrous Reverence to any Father or Person or Church as to take their judgment against the plainer letter or Reason of Scripture this were to set up one higher than the highest no nor to practice any thing upon the recommendation of men or in obedience to them contrary to what our consciences tell us is the Will of God in Scripture This were not to set up man above God possibly but above Gods Deputy in our souls All the Reverence we can owe to man in that cause is to examine our opinion to the utmost again and again to compare things spiritual with things spiritual But if after all our Consciences say It is not lawful to the utmost we can discern it is not lawful Though as to the reality of the truth of the notion it is not all one yet as to our practice it must be all one as if God said from Heaven It is not lawful for you But in the present case there is no other prejudice appears against us from the judgment of the Church in former ages than what was against the whole Protestant Religion objected by Harding It is not probable that God would leave his Church in Errors a thousand years We confess the judgment of what the Papist calls the Church for a thousand years is in a great measure against us But so it was against many points of the Protestant Religion Bishop Jewell durst not make his challenge for more than the first 500 years to them to shew any one point of their new Creed maintained in We make the like challenge as to this point of the lawfulness of forms of prayer to be universally used by Ministers or imposed upon them It certainly robbeth God of the most natural proper Calves of our lips and makes our lips but Ministers to offer up others sacrifices when we have a male in our own flock § 20. I shall conclude with the Reformed Church in Holland I have not seen their Agenda but I am assured by a Reverend Divine Pastor of one of those Churches in England that they are not so tyed up but that they have a liberty in all parts of their publick worship to use their own prayers and do accordingly use it And this I take to be enough to have spoken on this Argument until I hear what will be said against any thing here spoken WHen I had finished this discourse I had an intimation given me of something spoken upon this Argument by one Mr. Pelling Chaplain to his Grace the Duke of Somerset in a book called The good old way Though I was pretty well satisfied that I could

find in it nothing new but words and confidence yet for the satisfaction both of my self and my friend I procured the book in all haste and read it with as much greediness though with no great expectations as thinking it a barren subject out of which little Reason would grow but what we before had reapt and proved nothing but fallacy and falshood and for which little varnish of authority could be procured but what we had washed off with a cloth wetted in a very small degree of learning I read it from the first to the last line upon this Theme I at first observed that all which he pretended to was That forms have been allowed and used which may be granted without the least damage to our cause who do not argue all forms unlawful no nor all forms of prayer unlawful no nor the use of forms of prayer unlawful nor the use of all forms of prayer in praying unlawful but the use of forms of prayer for all men ordinarily and that in publick solemn prayer To prove which he hath not said a word but yet seeing he will not speak to what he should if he intended to speak any thing to the purpose let us consider what he hath spoken to his own purpose He will prove he saith p. 49. That set-forms of Divine Service were of use amongst the Jews 2. That set forms of Divine Service were of use also amongst the Primitive Christians 3. That after our blessed Lords ascention in that Interval betwixt the burial of the Synagogue and the setling of the Christian Church set-forms of Divine Service were allowed also even by the holy Apostles Three great undertakings Et quae non viribus istis conveniunt But if they were all proved would no more prove That it is lawful for all men ordinarily to perform their Ministerial Acts in Prayer by the prescribed forms of others than it would prove that it were lawful or not lawful for all particular men and women to marry or not to marry because marriage was lawful amongst the Jews and amongst the Primitive Christians and in the interval he talks of or that it was not lawful for some persons to marry in all those periods both which Propositions are true But let us see how he proves what he propounds to prove be it what it will And here we might have expected a Scriptural proof for the first and second of his periods and the third too at least the greater part of it falleth within the time of which the holy Scripture giveth us an account But alas of this we have very little and what we have of another nature is Apocryphal and proves nothing but to such credulous souls as will believe any thing which they read in any trifling Author 1. As to his first Period from the beginning of the world till Christs time I admire at the confidence of the Author to urge the Jewish worship as a pattern to Christians when he knows that Worship and Discipline were the two things which Christ came to alter and although he retained Prayer and Praise parts of natural worship and Exhortations which were all used amongst the Jews yet we find no forms of words in Prayer used by the Jews the retaining of which he directed Nor did he use or retain instruments of Musick in the worship of God nor did the Primitive Christians for Justin Martyr Qu. Resp 107. tells us That they looked upon the use of musick as a childish service of God and therefore used it not only plain singing 2. It lies upon him to prove that no Priest or Levite in the Jewish Church might use any forms of prayer or blessing but those he mentioneth in their ordinary publick Service and when he hath done that we will take the same argument and prove That neither the Disciples did nor any Christians ought to use any Prayer but the Lords Prayer because Christ hath said When you pray say or pray after this manner 3. Admit they did not this will only prove either that we must use no other or that we may use forms of prayer directed by God himself or by his holy Prophets or other Penmen of Scripture But it will not prove that all men either must use or may use forms of prayer never prescribed by God nor by any men to whom God had given authority to make forms of prayer or praise for his Church Surely it is no argument If we must or may use a form of prayer or praise directed by God or Christ by David Asaph Moses c. then we must or may use forms of prayer made by Pope Gregory Pope Boniface or by St. Basil or Chrysostome and it is impossible but men of learning must see the inconclusiveness of this Argument only they must say something and ad populum phateras any thing will serve those that understand not None that I have met with will say that we must in praying or blessing use the forms of prayer and blessing used in Scripture and no other So then they only say we may use them It is granted and what wonder is it if we may use such forms of words in prayer as are directed by Christ and those servants of his whom he appointed to write the Holy Scriptures for us which is the rule of all our Actions and contain all that we are to believe to pray for and to do though we judg it yet sinful for all Ministers to tye themselves to forms of prayers made by men that could never pretend to such an authority to guide the Church as to what is to be believed prayed for or done but only to rule it by seeing the Laws and Ordinances which Christ and his Apostles have given put in execution especially considering that neither Christ nor his Apostles whose proper offices it was to direct all things of lawful and necessary use in the Church ever did any such thing But after this Pope Gregory comes up and he forsooth thinks it fit to enjoyn such a thing Or admit it were Basil or Chrysostome 200 years before him which we do not believe the case is the same though not so scandalous I shall have done with what our Author saith as to his first period only minding him this is shooting at rovers and will never hit any mark but that which is in very ignorant and childish persons heads It is an arrogating the same power for the Governours of Churches since Christs and the Apostles times to ordain in matters of Worship which they had which is the same argument the Papists bring for their unwritten Traditions If I had a mind to discover mens infirmities I could take notice of many mistakes of our Author in this Paragraph but this is not my business 2. I proceed to his second Period where he saith That prescript forms of worship have been established for above these 1200 years last past no learned man can deny he delivereth himself in this bold