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