Protestants abroad were much offended with the Rites and Offices of the Church of England Thus their great Founder T. C. in his Preface to the Admonition Out of the Realm they have all the best Reformed Churches in Christendom against them i. e. The Presbyterians against the Church of England In his Admonition he frequently appeals to the best Reformed Churches and particularly p. 286. Our Ordination by Bishops is strange from the use of all well reformed Churches in the World In the Solemn League and Covenant they all Swore To endeavour the Reformation of Religion according to the Example of the best Reformed Churches Ordinance of Parliament for taking away the Common-Prayer Jan. 3d 1644. Resolving to Reform Religion according to the Example of the best Reformed Churches Preface to the Directory The Liturgy of the Church of England hath proved an Offence to the Reformed Churches abroad That we may answer the expectation of other reformed Churches The Presbyterians assembled at the Savoy in the Year 1660 declare That in the Liturgy are things that have given offence to Learned and Judicious Drvines of other Reformed Churches In their Petition for Peace p. 9. And if you should reject which God forbid the moderate Proposals which now and formerly we have made we offer to your consideration what judgment all the Protestant Churches are likely to pass on your Proceedings And again p. 10 How strange must it needs seem to the Reformed Churhes to the whole Christian World c. p. 13. The Pastors of the most Reformed Churches take this Conformity to be Sin And after this manner they declare all the World on their side and that the Foreign Churches admire at the stiffness of the Church of England by which contrivance though never so false they raise the heats and clamours of the ignorant and unthinking part of the Nation against the Church of England And still they go on to clamour against us without any proof though they have been so often urged to it and I here challenge them all to produce any one Authentick Act of any National Reformed Church in the World which hath at the least Reflected upon or Censured the Established Church of England And yet all this however vile and base is no more than we might justly have expected from the Professed Enemies of our Peace and Establishment but that which raised the admiration and astonishment of all Sober Men was to see the Professed Sons of the Church of England Men of Rank and Dignity embark'd in the same bottom of mistake and error and pursuing the same hideous outcries against us a mistake they could not run into but for want of good Books or good Company which would have informed them better and too much consining their Studies and their Conversations to that ill sort of Men. So that now our Church may justly take up the complaint of David Psalm 55. 12 14 15. It is not an open Enemy that hath done me this dishonour for then I could have born it but it was even thou my Companion my Guide and mine own Familiar Friend We took sweet Counsel together and walked in the House of God as Friends Of this sort is the Discourse concerning the Ecclesiastical Commission p. 24. The Eyes of all the World be open upon us all the Reformed Churches are in expectation of something to be done which makes for Vnion and Peace And a Letter to a Member of Parliament in favour of the Bill for a Protestant Union p. 5 For them that have not Episcopal Orders there will be such a provision made as will satisfie all the Ministers of the Foreign Protestant Churches Again p. 6. And for French and German and other Foreign Christians of the Reformed Religion I am well assured by Letters sent from Holland Geneva Switzerland and other Places not to speak of the Churches of the Lutheran Communion which write the same that they esteem the Conditions proposed in this Bill which hath been communicated to them as Terms fit for uniting of Protestants Where by the way I cannot but admire at the speed and diligence of this Persons Correspondence the King had not accepted of the Government till February after this the Convention is declared a Parliament and then after some more necessary things for setling the Government a project is set on work for a Bill of Union and yet he had sent a Copy of the Contents of it to Germany Holland Geneva Switzerland c. and received their several Approbations of it in March for that Paper is Licensed April 1st And yet it 's more strange that even the Churches of the Lutheran Communion should approve the conditions of that Bill of Union It was not long before that an excellent Author of undoubted credit gave us an authentick account of a Letter from several Ministers in Germany That the greatest part of the Protestants of Europe have been extreamly scandalized at our Dissenters That the Dissenters ought by no means to have separated themselves for the form of Ecclesiastical Government nor for Ceremonies That the Bishops have justified themselves from the reproach of being Popishly affected and of Persecuting the Dissenters they have made it appear that they were only Calumnies invented by their Enemies to render them odious to Protestants How much better would it be for the Dissenters to re-unite themselves to the Bishops with whom they differ only in some Points of Discipline And now quite contrary all the Reformed Churches expect that we should comply and unite with the Dissenters But without crossing the Seas we may make a fair guess at the incredibility of all this Foreign Account by the very next Pretence which gives as strange an Account of our selves at Home I am not singular in this for amongst all those who have appeared in the Churches cause as well against Dissenters as Papists I do not know one single Person that is not a well-wisher to this Bill and I believe they will all tell you so The direct contrary being manifestly true not only in several of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners who were call'd together to consult of that matter but also in the far greater part of the whole Convocation And if that Author be mistaken in the Age he lives in we have great hopes to think he is as much mistaken in the Ages past for so it follows Arch-Bishop Usher Bishop Sanderson Dr. Hammond and a long Order of other most Worthy Men of the last Age whose Memory is most precious in our Church had they been now alive would with all Zeal have promoted this Bill of Vnion Which very Paragraph is the reverse of one of Mr. Baxters in his Answer to Dr. Stillingfleet I am past doubt that Richard Hooker Bishop Bilson Bishop Usher and such others were they now alive would be Nonconformists yea I can prove it c. and if so they would not be for the Bill of Union which hath been generally opposed by the Nonconformists
a great Example before us in the Prince of Denmark And lastly For the Church of Scotland not to mention the several Synods and Acts of Parliament by which Bishops set forms of Prayer c. have been established amongst them and the same Rites as are in the Church of England Not to mention the great number amongst them that at this time are vigorous Asserters of Episcopacy Let King James the First speak for all in his Speech delivered in the Star-Chamber An. Dom. 1616. I say in my Conscience that the Church of England of any Church that ever I read or knew of present or past is most pure and nearest the Primitive and Apostolick Church in Doctrine and Discipline and is sureliest founded upon the Word of God of any Church in Christendom And having thus far seen the great Esteem the Reformed Churches abroad have for the Church of England as by Law established let us next fee what Opinion they have of the Presbyterians and other Dissenters amongst us I will begin with Calvin who in his Book De Necess Ref. Eccl. saith If any be found that do not reverence such an Hierarchy i. e. such as we have in England and subject themselves to the same with the lowest Obedience I confess there is no Anathema whereof he is not worthy And again In a well-setled Church diversities of Customs is not to be suffered Next for Beza in his Epistle to the English Puritans from Geneva A. D. 1567. of his Epistles p. 97. I tremble to think that any should perform their Ministerial Duty against the Will of her Majesty and the Bishops And in another Epistle to Archbishop Grindon A. D. 1566. speaking of the same Persons It s in vain for them to pretend weakness in a Kingdom where the Gospel hath been preach'd so many years and been confirmed with the Blood of so many Martyrs Gualterus in his Epistle Dedicatory of his Homilies upon the 1st Epistle to the Corinthians calls those morose and ignorant who for things indifferent trouble the peace of the Church of England and separate from her Communion Who whilst they endeavour to reduce the Church of England to that model and form which they have fancied disturb her peace which we heartily rejoyce to see restored among you To which I will add his Words in his Letter to the Bishop of Ely A. D. 1572. I would never have sent my Son into England the only Son by my Wife Zuinglia whose memory is dear to me except I had throughly perswaded my self of our consent and agreement Casaubon in his Ephemeris A. D. 1610 Nov. 1st in Moulin's Def. p. 7. hath this Prayer Thou O Lord Jesus preserve the Church of England and give a sound mind to the Nonconformists who deride the Rites and Ceremonies of it The Learned Bochart in his Epistle to Durel Those who refuse to communicate with the Church of England because of her Ceremonies are Schismaticks find your Liturgy very good and well ordered Capellus in Thes Salm. de Liturgia Of late there arose in England a froward scrupulous and overnice not to say Superstitious Generation of Men who not only blame but Cashire and Abolish the Liturgy used hitherto in their Church for causes very trivial and almost of no moment at all the Lord grant that they may come to a better mind Mr. Claude in his Letter published by Dr. Stilling fleet The Dissenters holding their Assemblies apart separating from the publick Assemblies c. is real Schism odious to God and Man of which the Authors and Patrons cannot avoid rendring an account before the Tribunal of God Mr. Le Moyne in his Letter A. D. 1660 published by Durell If ever any made their ungratefulness notorious they are the English opposers of Episcopacy What good have these troublers of Israel that are so contrary to Bishops done for well nigh Twenty Years that they have ruled Have not all things grown worse Heresy grown bold Did ever Satan work more mischief than since the time that these Men became Masters for a re-union of all the foreign Reformed Churches the King of England must preserve the Bishops And in his Letter published by Dr. Stillingfleet Whence is it that some English Men have so ill an opinion of the Church of England and divide rashly from her as they do Is not this to divide from all the Ancient Churches from all the Protestant Churches which have always had a very great respect for the purity of that of England I look upon these Men as Disturbers of the State and Church and who are doubtlesly animated by a Spirit of Sedition Societies composed of such Persons would be extreamly dangerous and could not be suffered without opening the Gate to disorder and advancing towards ones own ruine to cantonize themselves and make a Schism to have the liberty to vent such vanities is very ill conduct Mr. Goyon in his Letter published by Durell Those are in a Dream and dote who have an Opinion that the Conscience is wounded by living under the English Liturgy and they wrong us very much when they quote us to foment a Schism extreamly scandalous And thus I have given the judgements of the most eminent Men of the Reformed Religion of France Holland and Geneva and shewed what opinion they have of the Church of England as by Law established and what opinion they have of the Dissenters from it and whoever seriously considers these things will find no reason for us to alter our establishment in order to an union and complyance with the foreign Reformed Churches It s hard to meet with any one considerable Protestant Writer that speaks ill of the Church of England besides the Dissenters that live amongst us and some few that have been prejudiced by them And should we compare the Eulogies and Praises that these Foreign Divines give the Church of England with the opprobrious Language it generally receives from our own own Dissenters we must conclude that they and the Foreign Divines are not of the same judgment I will mention only the Divines of the Savoy Conference p. 3. where we have their Synodical Judgment in these words We take the Common-Prayer to be a Defective Disorderly and inconvenient mode of Worship it would be a Sin to use it c. How different is their Language from that of the Foreign Divines But lest it be objected that these are only general Expressions I have mentioned and that notwithstanding all this the Foreign Churches would be glad to have these Alterations made which have been proposed I will next consider most of the things that have been insisted on to be changed and see whether the Foreign Reformed Churches will be better pleased with them as they now are or as those that delight in change would have them And because the Kalendar is the first thing insisted on to be altered we will begin with that and first the Reading of Apocryphal Chapters in the Church and especially
the Book of Tobit by which saith one of them we give too much countenance to the Church of Rome and supplant Canonical Scripture c. Now to see how very little reason is for this Objection let it be observed 1. That our Church always calls these Books Apocryphal and thereby sufficiently distinguisheth them from the Canonical and her self from Popery 2. In the Thirty Nine Articles of Religion she declares That she reads them for example of Life and instruction of Manners but yet doth not apply them to establish any Doctrine 3. All our Divines that have written upon this Subject especially Reynolds and Cosins have so Learnedly and unanswerably baffled the Papists that they have never thought good to reply to them 4. Our Church hath taken so great care in this matter to avoid giving offence that several of these Books are never Read in the Church at all as the Maccabees Books of Esdras Prayer of Manasseh and the famous Fifth Chapter of Tobit about him and his Dog which hath been left out of our Church from the beginning of King James the 1st almost an 100 Years the other Books that are ordered to be Read in the Church are never read on Sundays but only Week-days Now our Church in allowing of them sometimes to be Read doth much better agree with the Primitive Church than she would if they were shut quite out for 't is certain that they publickly Read them Athanasius or the Author of the Synopsis calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. not received into the Canon but read in the Church Ruffinus in Symb. Alii libri sunt qui non Canonici sed Ecclesiastici a majoribus appellati sunt Tobit Judeth c. quae omnia legi quidem in Ecclesia voluerunt non tamen Professi ad Authoritatem fidei confirmandam i. e. There are Books which are not Canonical but Ecclesiastical as Tobit Judeth c. all which are read in the Church but not produced to confirm any Article of Faith Which is exactly agreeable to the words of St. Hierom in his Preface to his Commentary upon Proverbs and which are quoted and approved of by our Church in the Thirty Nine Articles Gregorius Magnus in Moral l. 19. c. 13. Art 6 may speak for the succeeding Ages where he calls these Books though not Canonical yet published for the Edification of the Church That they were Read in the African Churches appears from one of the Carthaginian Councils at which St. Austine was present 3 Carthag Can. 47. That they have been all along read in the Western Churches appears from Isidore de Eccles Off. Rabanus de instit Cler. c. And lastly the Lectionarius published by Pamelius and which goeth under the name of St. Hierom and hath been of great Use and Authority in the Western Churches gives an account of particular days when particular places of the Apocryphal Books were appointed to be read in the Church As to the Greek Church besides the author of the Synopsis already mention'd Origene in his Epistle to Affricanus saith that the history of Susannah was read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every Church of Christ And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Churches make use of the book of Tobit And as to their present practice besides their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 printed at Venice A. D. 1596. which contains their several lessons for the whole year and hath several taken out of the Apocrypha we have the express authority of one that lived amongst them Mr. Rycaut in his History of the Greek Church p. 372. In the Greek Church they receive the Apocryphal Books as we do in England In the Ethiopick Churches they read the Athcpocryphal Books as appears from Ludolfus's History of those Churches and lastly by the works of Hippolytus Origen St. Chrysostome St. Hierome Theodore◠Asterius Leo Magnus and others it appears that the Fathers not only wrote Comments upon these books but frequently preach'd upon them and took their Texts thence not to mention that Conradus Pellican Drusius and some other Reformed Divines have without any offence wrote comments upon them as upon other parts of the Bible If from this general agreement of all the Christian Churches in the World we consider in the last place the judgment of the Reformed Churches we shall find them also agree with us 1. For the Lutheran Churches they gerally use them as we do and Alsted in Theol. Pol. p. 287. gives this account of them that they are sacri secundum quid populare quadam ratione merito proxime a vere divinis locum obtinere possunt i. e. that they are in a sense sacred and deserve the next place to the Canonical Scriptures And Chemnitius in examen post 1. de ser can speaking of the Apocryphal Books saith A fidelibus in Ecclesiis leguntur i. e. they are read by the Orthodox in the Churches And then for the Churches of the Calvinists first hear Calvin himself in Psychopannichia Melius nos decent sacrae literae corpus quod corrumpitur aggravat animam i. e. the holy Writings teach us better that the corruptible body oppresseth the Soul And yet those Sacred Writings are the book called the Wisdom of Solomon from whence that sentence is taken Conradus Pelicanus in his preface to his Comments upon the Apocryphal Books saith of them that they are Ecclesiastici ac Biblici in Ecclesia Catholica ab Apostolorum temporibus fuerint cum reverentia lecti i. e. these books are read in the Church and bound up with our Bibles and have with reverence been read in all Christian Churches from the very time of the Apostles and he was a famous Professor at Zurich Lud. Capellus in Thes Salm. expresly approves of the Declaration of our Church in her 39 Articles and saith that profit may come to the Church by their being read publickly and so they were read in the Primitive times for the instruction of manners Episcopius Professor at Leyden in Tom. 2. Part. 2. p. 75. though the Apocryphal Books cannot serve to confirm an Article of Faith yet may profitably be read in ' the Church And indeed of the Dutch Churches we have their solemn judgment declared in the Synod of Dort Art 6. We make a difference betwixt the Canonical and Apocryphal Books which last are the 3d and 4th of Esdras Tobit Judeth c. which the Church may read and take instructions in them agreeable to Canonical Scripture The Bibles of Holland Geneva and other reformed Churches have these books printed Quere in Deodats Ju 〈…〉 Bibles and bound up with the Canonical as we have and in the Preface to the Apocryphal Books they commend the very sentences of Ruffinus and St. Hierom which declare for the publick reading of them in the Churches And the like is done by the Publishers of the Harmony of the Confessions of all the Reformed Churches Printed at Geneva and lastly the Reformed Churches of
France in their Book of Discipline p. 391. have this rule Les livres de la Bible soit Canonique ou autres ne seront transformez en Comedies ou Tragedies i. e. the books of the Bible whether Canonical or others shall not be used in Plays in which Words they first call these Apocryphal books part of the Bible and then take care that they be not prophaned And thus it 's evident that all the Primitive and Purer Ages of the Church all the Eastern Western and African Churches all the Lutheran and Calvinistical Churches beyond Sea do either read these books publickly in their Churches or very expresly approve of it nor is there any one instance of any Reformed Church that since the Reformation read them publickly as we have done but still continues to do so and our English Dissenters are condemned by all the Churches in the World in leaving them out of their Bibles who were the first body of Christians as far as I can find that ever did so To make this the more evident I shall here give a Catalogue of the publick large Bibles of all the Countries I could meet with in all which upon examination I find the Apocryphal added for the same intent as in ours viz. For the Example of Life and the Instruction of Manners A Catalogue of Bibles Printed with the Apocrypha English with Archbishop Cranmer's Preface Lond. 1541. By Coverdale Lond. 1550. By Command of Q. Eliz. Lond. 1578. Welch Lond. 1588 Scotch Edenburgh 1596. English translated by Wicliff a M. S. with a Prologue in which are these words Holy Church readeth Judeth and Toby and the Books of Maccabees but receiveth not them among Holy Scriptures so the Church readeth the two Books Ecclesiastici and Sapience to edify the People not to confirm the Authority of Teaching Bohemian 1613. Danish at Copenhagen 1550. French at Geneva 1588 At Amsterdam 1669 German 1604 Of Luther's Translation Heidelberg 1617 Dutch at Frankfurt 1580 Armenian at Amsterdam 1666 Spanish by Protestants Amsterdam 1602. Hungarian by the Protestant Bishops of Hungary at Hannover and Oppenheim 1608 Muscovitish at Ostrogoth 1581 Italian by Deodate 1607 Latin by Castalion dedicated to King Edward the 6th Bas 1573 By Junius dedicated to William Prince of Orange 1592 By Robert Stephens Paris 1540 Critici Sacri 9 Tomis Lond. 1666 Hebrew Polyglott 〈◊〉 Lond. 1567 Septuagint Syrtach Vulgar Latin And indeed amongst all the Bibles which I have seen I find them only left out in the Spanish Bible examin'd by the Inquisitors printed at Ferara 1553 and that of New-England in the Virginian Tongue printed at Cambridge in New-England 1663. So that if to comply with our English Dissenters we must strike out these Apocryphal books I know no Bibles we shall follow but that of the Inquisitors of Spain and the Commissioners of new-New-England And to conclude this head I shall put down these five observations First That no Papist ever made use of this as an Argument that our Church own'd these Books as Canonical so that there could be no feal ground for this objection Secondly That there neither is nor ever was any one Christian Church in the whole World that had set Lessons appointed for every day in the year as we have but some of them were taken out of the Apocrypha Thirdly That no one foreign Church whatsoever did ever declare themselves offended with the Church of England in this matter but as I have shewed generally approve it Fourthly That these very persons who complain of our reading Apocryphal Chapters for Lessons make no complaint of having Hymns printed in their Bibles before and after Davids Psalms in meeter and being frequently used in the Church instead of them Which is agreeable to the practice of Holland where that Church before Sermon sings a Hymn composed by one John Wittenhaven as we do any one of our Psalms Fifthly That the great Promoters of this objection do not stop here but urge it to the laying aside Sermons and Homilies as not being within the Canon yea and the Scripture and Lessons themselves and as we have reason to fear laying aside all publick service whatsoever T. C. in his admonition p. 221. would have no Homilies read in the Church because nothing but the voice of God and holy Scriptures should sound in his Church and this will destroy Sermons and Preaching also The Author answered by Bishop Nicolson in his Apology p. 184. is angry with our Church for reading two Lessons and would have but one And that Lesson also is in danger by the Author of the Letter to the Convocation p. 21. where he proposeth the leaving out the first Lesson in the Afternoon upon short days and in Country Parishes to read Prayers without Lessons So that upon the whole however it seems to some a small to others a reasonable matter I do not say to leave out for then that should have been done at first but to reject the Apocryphal Lessons yet in this we shall separate from the Primitive the Eastern Western and African Churches from most of the Reformed Churches we must alter the 39 Articles of Religion which have been so generally received and applauded for they declare that the Church doth read them We must alter our Apologies and Canons for there Canon 30. Juells Apol. p. 170. it 's declared that it was so far from the purpose of the Church of England to forsake and reject the Churches of Italy France Spain Germany and other Churches in all things which they hold and practis'd that as the Apology of the Church of England confesseth it only departed from them in those particular points wherein they were faln both from themselves in their ancient integrity and from the Apostolical Churches To this agreeth the Apology for Protestants by a French Divine and translated A. D. 1681. p. 23. As to the reproach cast upon our first Reformers it is one of the greatest injustices in the world for nothing can be clearer from their own writings than that it was never their intent to subvert the ancient Government of the Church nor to abolish those Religious Rites and Holy Ceremonies which the piety of the primitive Christians had introduced but only to take away the abuses of them So that in making unnecessary changes in these things we shall destroy the very foundation and principle of the Reformation And that this rule is properly applied to the matter in hand is evident from the declaration of our Church at the beginning of the Liturgy where the reading of the Lessons as is appointed is called a godly and decent order of the ancient Fathers agreeable to the mind and purpose of the old Fathers Upon all which accouuts it is evident that we ought not to consent to the taking away the Apocryphal Lessons and that the Reformed Churches do not desire it of us Secondly As to the Rules and Tables for finding Easter great objections have been raised against our Church
to the beginning of the Reformation and they generally all of them used the Cross in Baptism for 1500 years and its strange that all the Christian Churches for so many years should be guilty of so dangerous an evil as the sign of the Cross in Baptism nor do I know of any one Church in the World that condemned or so much as shewed their dislike of it for 1500 years And for the present age it 's still retain'd in all the Churches of the Roman Communion in all the Greek Churches Rycant p. 168. in the Churches of the Jacobites Brerewoods Enq. p. 153. in the Churches of AEgypt Pagitt's Chistianogr p. 104. in the Abissine or AEthiopian Churches Ludolfi Hist AEthiop l. 3. c. 6. in the Churches of the Muscovites Joh. Faber de relig Muscov in the Protestant Churches of the Ausburg confession the Sign of the Cross is generally used in Baptism and for the other Reformed Churches not one hath declared themselves offended with us for using it but several eminent amongst them have declared for it Bucer declared it an ancient and innocent Rite and that it might be decently and profitably used The Learned Casaubon in his answer to Baronius Exerc. 13. Sect. 33. commends our holy and prudent Bishops who have retain'd this use of the Cross amongst us Peter Martyr declared it lawful to profess our selves Christians by the Sign of the Cross Beza himself speaks favourably of it in his book adversus Baldvinum And Goulartius of Geneva declares it to be a ceremony indifferent Apology for Protestants by a French Divine p. 87. Touching the Sign of the Cross which the Church of England retains to understand it as they do as a visible mark that the Infant Baptiz'd is enroll'd as Christs Souldier should not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ Crucifyed and fight under his Banner I see no ground at all of exception against this Ceremony And William Durel in his Sermon on 1 Cor. 11. 16. had amongst other things given the Reformed of France an account of our using the Sign of the Cross he by several Letters from De L' Angle Bochart Daille and other eminent Divines of the French Church received its due praise and approbation And now Gods Providence hath settled so many thousands of them amongst us they readily and willingly make use of it and approve it Secondly For Godfathers I find â—hem not only required in all the Eastern and Western Churches but more particularly Zuinglus in his Book de Bapt. is much for the use of them and saith that the clamours raised against them were only by the Anabaptists Calvin in the form of Baptism composed for Geneva and which is still used there requires Godfathers at Baptism and they promise for the Childs Christian Education as in the Church of England And in an Epistle to Farell he hath these words We require of the Godfathers that they promise to see the Children when grown up instructed in the Faith they are Baptized in If there be no Godfathers it 's certain the Baptism is prophaned Beza in his Epistles frequently declares for the use and necessity of them and particularly in Ep. 24. reckons them among the Constitutions of the Church that bind the Conscience And Epist 8. to the Bishop of London That Infants be Baptized in the publick Congregation with a set form of Prayer that there be Godfathers to engage fortheir Christian Education c. these are plain and honest Rites such as give no occasion to Superstition and who is there that dare condemn them In the Laws of the Church of Geneva Sect. 38. The name of the Infant and Godfather must be Registred by the Minister This was heretofore enjojned by the Archbishop of Canterbury in his Diocess and I have seen some Registers in that Diocess whereby it appears that injunction was observed for some time Sect. 39. None are to be Godfathers but the faithful and those of our Confession Sect. 40. they that are suspended from the Lords Supper must not be Godfathers In the Discipline of the Reformed Churches of France chap. 11. Sect. 7. Tho we have no express commandment of the Lord for Godfathers and Godmothers in Baptism yet because the custom is ancient and introduced for a good end those that will not follow so good an example but present their Infants themseves should be earnestly exhorted not to be contentious but to behave themselves according to this ancient custom which is good and profitable Sect. 12th The Minister shall diligently admonish the Godfathers and Godmothers to consider the promises they have made at the celebration of Baptism c. and to this agreeth the Synod of St. Foy A. D. 1578. at Samues 1596. at Montpellier 1598. which last saith that Godfathers are obliged not only to instruct the Children in Piety but also in case of necessity to provide for their maintenance Sect. 18th the names of the Godfathers and Godmothers of the Infant shall be registred Which last thing of Registring them as it 's generally practis'd by the reformed Churches abroad so is very agreeable to the practice of the Primitive Church and particularly taken notice of by Pseudo Dionysius the Areopagite To all which I beg leave to add the observation of Monsieur Larroque an eminent Minister of the French reformed Church in his Book entituled Conformite de la Discipline Ecclesiastique des Protestants de France avec celle des anciens Chietiens A. D. 1678 and p. 208. he thus writes L'usage des parriens c. i. e. the use of Godfathers and Godmothers to present Children in Baptism is very ancient Tertullian makes mention of them in his book of Baptism chap. 18. St. Austin in his 23d Epistle the pretended Denies the Areopagite who tells us that they are of Apostolick Institution Gregory the 1st in his book of the Sacraments Caesarius of Arles in his 12th Homily the SixthCanon of the Council of Mets. A. D. 888. and indeed the subject of that whole Book is to justify their Discipline from the antiquity of it and agreement with the primitive Church I therfore mention this because Arguments of this nature are so very much slighted by our own Dissenters This author in the Title page of his book prefixeth this sentence from the Laws of Theodosius Statuimus observari quod prisca Apostolica Disciplina Canones veteres eloquuntur i. e. we command that those things be observed which the Apostolick Church and old Canons declare for and appoint Which I think is more fully explain'd by St. Austin Epist 118. ad Casulan In iis rebus de quibus nihil statuit scriptura mos populi Dei instituta majorum pro lege Dei tenenda sunt i. e. in such things as the Scripture hath not determined the custom of the Christian Church and the constitutions of our Ancestors should be observed as the Law of God To return Godfathers are also used in the Dutch Rohemian and all the
the North of Tay thre never was above Three or Four Meeting-Houses and these too very little frequented At Perth where a Presbyterian Minister hath got the Church not One in Ten go to hear him not one of the Magistrates The like at Cowpar in Fife at st Andrews Sterling Burnt-Island c. Even in Edenbrough the Presbyterian Ministers are not so much frequented as the Regular Clergy Whatever Friends the Presbyterians there had a Year or Two agoe they arethis day diminished by a Third the People have enough of their Cant and are weary of their Sermons 2. Those Reformed Churches that are not governed by Bishops earnestly desire them To this purpose the Scottish Forbs in his Irenicum Printed A. D. 1629 p. 202 hath these Words Such was the condition of Protestants in many Foreign Parts that being forced by utmost necessity they allowed Presbyters to ordain they heartily wish'd that they might be ordained by Bishops but when they could not obtain that of the Bishops without wicked conditions c. nor could the prohibition of Popish Bishops hinder their Ordination from being valid since in those Countries the Presbyters and Pastors had the chief power over the Christian i. e. Reformed Churches This they did not out of any contempt of the antient Canons but out of absolute necessity as appears from the Apology of the Protestants for the Consession at Ausburg Art 14. We have often testified that we earnestly desire to retain the ancient Ecclesiastical Politie and degrees in the Church but the Bishops i. e. Popish compel our Priests to renounce their Doctrine c. Wherefore in some Places this Politie is destroyed which we heartity desired to keep this we declare before God and the World that it should not be imputed to us that we have no Bishops When at the Synod of Dort an English Bishop had set forth the usefulness of being governed by Bishops for repressing Heresy and Schism c. the President of the Synod made answer Nos non samus adeo felices i. e. We are not so happy Peter Moulin in his Preface to his Fathers Answer to Perron tells us that the want of Bishops in the French Church was the necessity of their condition that they desire the same Government we have in England if they might be so happy When they moved Cardinal Richlieu to allow them Bishops he flatly denied it them They could never get of the Civil Power a toleration of Bishops their Politick Statesmen would never give way to it nothing hath been more eagerly opposed by the Pope and his Creatures than that the Protestants should have Bishops The Apology for Protestants written by a French Divine p. 60. This may suffice to satisfy the Scruples of those that take offence at Episcopal Government we have cleared the Point of Episcopacy p. 62. The Ordination of Priests ought to be without all dispute the Bishops work p. 63. The Superiority of Bishops to Pastors has continued from the very time of the Apostles or their Disciples as is already made appear And therefore in England the Papists have always laboured the Destruction of our Bishops as zealously and heartily as the Presbyterians themselves That virulent Papist Sanders in his Book de Schism Angl. p. 167 confesseth that nothing would more gratify the Church of Rome than the pulling down of Bishops Deans and Prebendaries in England And Parsons in his Book of the Reformation of England see Moral Pract. of the Jes p. 313 proposeth this as the necessary Method to bring England to the Romish Religion And Cardinal Barbarini was so sensible of this that he said he could be contented that there were none of their Priests in England so there were no Bishops Dr. Stillingfleet Pref. to the Unreason of Separation p. 9. The Papists returned their Thanks to the Rump Parliament for having delivered them from the Tyranny of the Bishops Christian Moderator p. 32. And that the Papists had a chief Hand in pulling down our Bishops in England is confessed by Albius in his Exegesis p. 145. If Papists may not be believed in this matter I hope Mr. Baxter may and he declares in his Grotian Religion p. 95. That the Papists had a Hand in casting out our Bishops I shall end this undoubted Truth with the words of Two Eminent Persons of the Church of England Sir Henry Yelverton in his Preface p. 9. It 's now sufficiently known what wonder the casting out of Bishops was to the Reformed Churches abroad and what publick Triumph to the Roman Conclave Bishop Sanderson in his first Preface to his Sermons It 's well known what rejoycing the Vote against Bishops brought to the Romish Party how in Rome itself they sang their Io Paeans upon the Tidings of it and said Triumphantly now is the day ours now is the fatal blow given to the Protestant Religion in England Upon which account we have great reason to believe that the Romanists have used their utmost endeavours to hinder the Reformed of France from having Bishops as they heartily desired 3. Let us see what opinion the Eminent Divines of the Foreign Reformed Churches have of our English Bishops 1st Calvin in his Book de neces ref If they will give us such an Hierarchy in which the Bishops do not refuse to be subject to Christ have him for their only head i. e. in opposition to the Pope and be united to the truth of the Gospel then if there be any that do not reverence such Bishops and submit to them I confess there is no Anathema which they do not deserve and in his Epistle to the Duke of Somerset c. he commends our English Bishops as such 2d Bucer de Regno Christi We see by the perpetual Observation of the Church from the Apostles time that it pleased the Holy Ghost to have one Person set over the Presbyters to have the care of the Church and govern it and therefore he is called a Bishop And again in his Works p. 565. These Orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons have ever been in the Church by the appointment of the Holy Ghost And again in resp protest apud Goldast Tom. 2. which Bucer was the Author of How much mischief the Reformed Churches have suffered for want of Bishops no one can easily find Words to express Forbs p. 132. 3d. Beza in Ep. p. 18. Speaking of Bishops Priests and Deacons adds the Holy Ghost appointed those Orders Contra Sarav ad 518. Art 3. If England continue to keep her Bishops and Arch-Bishops let her enjoy that singular Blessing of God which I wish they may always have And again If there be any that reject all sort of Episcopacy God forbid that any but Mad Men should joyn with them 4th Spanheim in Epist ad dub Evang. Vol. 3. At Geneva they have a great esteem for the English Bishops and daily pray for their Prosperity 5th Le Moyne from Leyden published by Dr. Stillingfleet p. 405. As for the
Episcopal Government of England what is there in it that is dangerous or may alarm Mens Consciences and if this be capable to deprive us of Heaven who is there that entred there for the space of 1500 Years for all that time all the Churches in the World had no other Government c. 6th When the Presbyterians had in their Solemn League and Covenant condemned Episcopacy the Ministers at Charenton and of the other Reformed Churches in France the Professors Ministers and Consistory of Geneva and other Reformed Churches in those Part were so scandalized as that they feared it would bring an indelible Scandal upon the Reformed Churches c. King Charles's Large Declaration p. 75. 4. When any of the Eminent Men of other Reformed Churches censured the Church of England it was upon our being falsly represented to them What Calvin wrote against our Liturgy was only upon the sight of the first Edition of Edward the 6th's Common-Prayer Book and a Malicious Account he had received from some at Franck fort Beza in his Letter to Archbishop Whitgift March 8. 1921. Declared that in his Writings touching Church Government he ever opposed the Romish Hierarchy but never intended to impugne the Eccesiastical Polity of the Church of England nor to exact of them to frame themselves after the pattern of our Presbyterial Disciplene he wisheth that the holy College of our Bishops may for ever continue and maintain their Right and Title in the Churches Government c. And if Beza at any time wrote otherwise he was abused by slanderous reports which caused him to do it saith Bishop Bancroft in his Survey p. 141. And his Guess we have confirmed by a Letter from Gualter to the Bishop of Ely A. D. 1572. and Printed by Archbishop Whitgift We admonished your Adversaries not to move any Contention in the Church for matters of so small importance and we thought the matter had been Buryed when contrary to all Mens expectations there came Two English Men from Geneva and bring from Master Beza whose Ears they had before filled with forged Accusations Letters full of Complaints and desire that we would help the afflicted State of England and advised me to make a Journey to you to which was joyned the Report of these two who reported the same things to us that they had done at Geneva and set down in Writing many Superstitions which they said were now defended in England but afterwards Letters from D. A. a singular honest Man delivered you all from blame Since that time we have had nothing to do with those lying busy-bodies for not long after it plainly appeared that they went about and were the chief Authors of Disturbances in the Palatinate Churches and brought much trouble and disquiet to them Wherefore I beseech you that you would not have any ill opinion of Gualter who bears a singular affection to the English and is perswaded of our exact consent and agreement c. In our late Civil Wars Milton and Georgius Hornius under the Counterfeit Name of Honorius Reggius a Professour at Leyden and some others were hired to give a false and abusive account of the Church of England to the Foreign Churches and the very Assembly of Divines at Westminster wrote a Letter which was sent to the Belgick French Helvetian and other Reformed Churches to assure them that the King made it his business to root out the Protestant Religion and used all means possible to reduce the whole Nation to Popery Bibl. Regia p. 64. And of this we have as much reason to complain now as ever it being notoriously known that not long since a Gentleman of considerable quality made a Journey on purpose into France to represent the Bishops and Clergy of the Church of England as Popishly affected it being the lot of this Church to be misrepresented by Men of Designs and Malice for both Papists and Fanaticks as may best serve the turns of its Enemies in different Seasons 5. Let us see what opinion the Universal Church hath of such as in opposition to Bishops are ordained by Presbyters the 31st of those that are called Apostles Canons If any Presbyter despise his Bishop and set up separate Meetings let him be Deposed and the People Excommunicated The 5th Canon of the Council at Antioch decreed that if any Presbyter despising his Bishop separate himself from the Church and make Meetings of his own after the First and Second Admonition he ought to be condemned and not allowed to Preach and if he still go on to disturb the Church he ought to be punished by the Secular Power as a Seditious Person This Canon is received into the Code of the Canons of the Universal Church and was confirmed in the 4th general Council at Chalcedon Act 4. Athanasius in his 2d Apology tells us that Coluthus a Presbyter passing by the Bishop of Alexandria ordained several Persons all his Ordinations were declared void and all that he had ordained were reduced to the order of Laicks And I want an instance of any one Reformed Church in the World where Bishops are established that Ordination by Presbyters in opposition to them is allowed as valid and I think the Church of Rome is the only Church in the World that being governed by Bishops allows of Presbyterian Ordination not regularly and of course but by an extraordinary faculty from the Popes inexhaustible Power Of which see Willet in Synopsi Papis controv 16. q 2. Theol. Rhem. in 1 Tim. 4. 14. Forbesii Iren. p. 176 177 178 179. where he largely proves it from the Canonists Schoolmen c. I am sure the Papists have often objected it to us that we have no Priests because we have no Bishops Bancroft's Survey p. 166 and have taken a great deal of Pains to set about the Nags-Head Fiction and destroy the order of our Bishops which shews how glad they would be to have them all destroyed Lastly such Eminent Divines of the Foreign Churches that have come into England and had only Ordination by Presbyters and received Preferment here have readily and willingly received Episcopal Ordination and now it hath pleased God to send over so many French Ministers into our Kingdom I do not find but that they readily and chearfully comply with our present Establishment in this particular also From all which it 's evident that the Presbyterians will not comply with Hypothetical Reordination that in most of the Protestant Churches they are not ordained but by Bishops or Superintendants that where they have neither they heartily wish for them and desire them and account Ordination by Presbyters in opposition to Bishops to be Schismatical and not allowed in any Protestant Church in the World and by consequence our doing it in England cannot be a likely way to promote the Peace and Vnion of the Protestant Churches A set Form of Prayer was seriously opposed by the Presbyterians at the Savoy who p. 23. tells us that serious Godliness is like to
THE JUDGMENT OF THE Foreign Reformed Churches CONCERNING THE RITES and OFFICES OF THE Church of England SHEWING There is no necessity of Alterations In a Letter to a Member of the House of Commons Arch-Bishop Bramhill's Works p. 494. All Protestants both Lutherans and Calvinists did give unto the English Church the Right Hand of Fellowship Casaubon's Prayer A. D. 1610. Thou O Lord Jesus preserve the Church of England and give a sound mind to the Nonconformists who deride its Rites and Ceremonies LONDON Printed for Robert Jenkinson A. D. 1690. To the Honoured A. A. A MEMBER Of the Honourable HOUSE of COMMONS SIR WHEN we parted at the Election you desired me to give you the Judgment of the Foreign Protestants about the Church of England and particularly as to the Rites and Offices of which the Author of the Letter to the Convocation tells us p. 23. That if the Convocation do not alter them most certainly the Parliament will The very talk of Change you know breeds a Ferment in the Nation and be sure the discontented will make their advantage of it but if the Nation finds the Parliament as steddy as the Convocation the Heats will soon be over and the Kingdom return to her Settlement and Peace Nolumus leges Angliae mutare was an Answer first in Parliament and that in opposition to some Ecclesiasticks who would have introduced several Foreign Rites and Customs into the room of received and approved Constitutions quae huc usque usitatae sunt ac approbatae Optatus Milev l. 3. p. 75. tells us of his time That there had been a Report spread by some that came from the Emperor that Alterations should be made in the Liturgy which startled the People but when they saw their Solemn Customs and wonted Rites observed and that nothing was changed added or diminish'd in their Divine Service they were quieted again Those Governments have been observed to continue longest that have been most steddy in their Laws and the Jews who were immediately governed by God had their very Rites and Ceremonies unaltered for almost 2000 Years their great Law-giver foreseeing that every considerable Alteration in an establish'd Religion or even its Rites and Modes would put the State into Convulsions and indanger a Revolution As to our present Conjuncture it was a great oversight in those that carryed on the Design of a Comprehension to begin with a Toleration and its unreasonable to think that the Dissenters will unite with Vs so long as their Separation is allowed Nothing that you can do will promote their Vnion with Vs but that which makes it their Interest and that can be only done by Rewards and Punishments and therefore the taking off the Sanctions of the Laws and making the Separation easie was beginning at the wrong end and a certain way to make a Comprehension ineffectual But since the Vnion proposed is not confined to our Nation but extended to all the Protestants in the World that are now united in their Interests I have here according to your Desires given you a true account of the great esteem and veneration they all have for the Church of England and particularly for those very Rites and Customs that are now disputed and what Offence and Scandal our Dissenters give them so that by an impartial Consideration of their Opinions you and all the Nation may be satisfied that making of Alterations in the Instances proposed will be so far from promoting a closer Vnion with the Foreign Protestants who have always esteemed Vs as the very Center of Union that its the most certain way to hinder it For what concerns the late Convocation I shall refer you to an excellent Paper Entituled Remarks from the Country upon the Two Letters relating to the Convocation and Alterations in the Liturgy SIR I am Your most Humble Servant N. S. THE CONTENTS 1. THE Dissenters from the Church of England constantly appeal to the Foreign Protestant Churches as Persons of their Opinions p. 2. 2. Some Inconsiderate or Designing Persons of the Church of England have joyned with them in this Appeal and Complaint p. 3 4 5. 3. This Opinion Confuted in general p. 6 7. 4. The Opinions of Beza Spanheim Diodate Casaubon Bochart Dumoulin c. concerning the Church of England Established p. 8 9 10 11 12. 5. The Opinion that the Foreign Reformed Divines have of our Dissenters particularly the Opinion of Calvin Beza Gualter Casaubon Bochart Capellus c. p. 12 13 14. 6. These General Opinions applyed to the Matters proposed to be Altered by the Authors of the Letters to the Convocation and in behalf of the Bill of Vnion and the Opinion of the Foreign Protestants is shewed as to Reading the Apocryphal Books in the Church p. 14 15 16 17 19 20 21. 7. As to the Rules for finding Easter p 22 23 24 25. 8. As to the Names of some old Saints and Bishops in the Kalendar p. 25 26. 9. As to the Reading the old Version of the Psalms p. 26. 27 28 29 30 31. 10. As to the retaining the Athanasian Creed p. 32 33. 11. As to the Cross in Baptism p. 34. 12. As to Godfathers in Baptism p. 35 36. 13. As to Kneeling at the Sacrament p. 37 38. 14. As to Excommunication for Contempt p. 41. 15. As to Ordination by Bishops only p. 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52. 16. As to Set Forms of Prayers p. 53 54. 17. As to Established Rites and Ceremonies c. p. 55 56 57. 18. One Word to the Dissenters p. 58. 59. ERRATA PAge 6. l. 24. Humphred read Humphrys p. 17. l. 27. Populare read Populari p. 20. l. 2. Polyglot Latin read Polyglot Bible p. 22. l. 35. Venral read Vernal p. 26. l. 18. Evispine read Crispine p. 31. l. 24. perpagato read propagato p. 43. l. 34. pretented read pretensed THE JUDGMENT OF THE Foreign Reformed Churches CONCERNING THE RITES and OFFICES OF THE Church of England THERE have been Three Reasons much urged of late for making Alterations in the Rites and Offices of the Church of England at this Juncture the 1st relates to our selves the 2d to Dissenters and the 3d to Foreign Churches To the 1st it hath been answered that we do not need Alterations to the 2d that they do not desire them and the 3d is the Subject of this Discourse And though the Learned Books of Durel Comber Falkner and others might have rendered such a design needless yet so long as the Adversaries of our Peace and Establishment go on to amuse the Nation with old Fictions and Stories we must not cease to repeat old truths and plain matter of fact to confute them not doubting but that as truth is great so it will prevail It hath been the constant practice of the Preshyterian Party to boast of their Harmony and Agreement with the Foreign Reformed Churches in those things wherein they differ from us and frequently insinuate to their Followers that the
the Church of Rome and the Decree of Pope Gregory and therein we shall not only take away our agreement with the Greek and Eastern Churches but shall more than ever be cryed out against by the Dissenters for complying with the Church of Rome Or else we must establish a particular method of our own and that would look very ill and far from promoting the peace and union of Christian Churches that in a thing so very indifferent in its own nature we should fall from and contradict all the Christian Churches in the World How much such an alteration would tend to promote Faction and Schism I leave all the World to judge I pass by the silly objection of our keeping two Easters in one year For if by year we mean the exact revolution of 365 days according to all rules now used in the Christian World we must keep two Easters in one year every third year or thereabouts Or if we mean that we keep two Easters betwixt one 25th of March and the next this may be easier mended by beginning our year only at Jan. first as is the more usual way and so there is never two Easters in one Almanack And if we kept Easter according to the true New-Moons and the true Equinox the same objection would continue and always must so long as our beginning of the year is betwixt the Paschal Terms whereof the first was always fix'd at the Equinox which now happens before the 25th of March this being the nature of movable Feasts I may very well pass by also the objecting of the Saints and Bishops Names continued in our Kalender which as it's generally used in the Lutheran Churches so is evidently done for a Civil and not any Religious use as hath been long since declared in the Preface to Peces Privatae published by authority A. D. 1573. The words are Not that we repute them all for Saints or holy men but that they may be as notes of some certain things and fixed seasons the knowledge of which is very beneficial of which sort are Hilary Valentine David St. George Martin Swithin Lammas Giles Holyrood Evispine All-Souls Leonard Cicilia O Sapientia c. And so as far as I can see the only way to continue peace and union amongst our selves and with other Protestant Churches is to continue the Kalender as it is Pass we next to the grand objection against the old version of the Psalms used in the common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book and the way proposed for the amending it not by taking that of our Bibles which is not liked but a more correct one in their hands So the Author of a Letter from the Country p. 6. The Psalter added to our Liturgy is not now so defensible when there is a more correct in our hands then complains of its manifold variations from the Hebrew and frequently mistaking the sense this must needs create no little scruple in Mens minds by having inconsistent and differing Translations Again p. 13. in comparing the two Translations of the Psalms we find them in some things inconsistent and one time the one to deny what the other affirms viz. Psal 105. 28. And again the Letter to the Convocation p. 15. must we be forc'd to read the old Translation of the Psalms and impose that on the people for true Scripture which in so great a number of places quite differs from it Here is in all this complaint not one word of the singing Psalms which are not only different in Words and Phrases from both of them but in the sense also as being composed from a more ancient English Version than either of them And so the Protestant Churches of France continue to Sing the Psalms according to Marrot's composition full of uncouth words and expressions Apol. for Prot. p. 76. and read their Bible according to a Version made at the beginning of the Reformation p. 82. which looks as if the Authors of these Objections were of a Presbyterian Original i. e. have a great Veneration for Hopkins and Sternhold and a natural antipathy to the Common-Prayer However weighty this Argument be to us at home yet Foreigners are not concern'd in it And tho however we do not do it most certainly the Parliament will as saith the Author of the Letter to the Convocation p. 23. It was far otherwise in Queen Elizabeth's time when the Convocation was very earnest upon this very design of altering the Translation of the Psalms in the Liturgy and were by the Parliament seriously disswaded from it Hammond L'Estrange's Alliance of Divine Offices p. 75. But the best is this confident guesser is here mistaken also and our old Translation hath outlived that Parliament Not to mention that if we lay aside this Version and take a new correct one never yet Printed into our Liturgy the objection remains as at first and here may be as much difference betwixt the Psalms in the Common-Prayer of a new more correct Edition and that in our Bibles as is now Nor was it ever proposed or so much as hinted in the Commission to the Convocation to have a new Translation of the Bible As to the Translation used in the Liturgy it is not made from the Version of the Septuagint nor from the Vulgar Latin as is evident to any one that will compare them And King James's Translators of the Bible declare of the meanest of our English Translations of the Bible that they were the Word of God And tho in some places it seems rather to agree with the Septuagint yet it seems done chiefly in such places where we have great reason to believe that the Septuagint is more correct and more agreeable to the Original Hebrew So Psalm 14. 5 6 7. are not in our present Hebrew Bibles but yet are quoted thence by St. Paul Rom. 3. 10 11 12 13 c. and Psal 51. 4. our Common-Prayer reads it and clear when thou art judged agreeable to St. Paul Rom. 3. 4. but the Version used in our Bibles is different from both Clear when thou judgest And if we would but take the pains to compare both Translations of the Psalms with the common Version of the New Testament it will be easie to find many places where our old Translation is more agreeable to the New Testament of which take these few instances Mat. 1. 43. He trusted in God let him deliver him now if he will have him Psal 22. 8. in the Liturgy He trusted in God that he would deliver him let him deliver him if he will have him Psal 22. 8. in the Bible He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him let him deliver him seeing he delighted in him Rom. 10. 18. Their sound went into all the earth and their words unto the ends of the world Psal 19. 4. in the Liturgy Their sound is gone out into all lands and their words into the ends of the world Psal 19. 4. in the Bible Their line is gone out through all the earth
and their words to the end of the world Rom. 11. 10. And bow down their back alway Psal 69. 24. in the Liturgy And ever bow down their backs Psal 69. 23. in the Bible And make their loyns continually to shake 1 Pet. 3. 11. Let him eschew evil Psal 34. 14. in the Liturgy Eschew evil Psal 34. 14. in the Bible Depart from Evil. So that it was no doubt the wisdom of those that compiled this Version in our Liturgy to consider the Authentick Translation made by the Holy Ghost in the New Testament and if we should admit the same Version of the Psalms into the Liturgy which is in the Bible these men of scruples might be at as great a loss to reconcile the Psalms and the second Lesson read presently after them as they now are to reconcile the two Versions of the Psalms and at as great a loss to reconcile both with the Singing Psalms which were certainly composed by as old or older Version than that in the Common-Prayer-Book As to that one place Psal 105. 28. which hath been often urged by the Presbyterians from the very days of Queen Eliz. and as often answered so that I cannot but admire at the ignorance of the diligent Will. Prynne in this matter who in his Pacifick Examination of the Common-Prayer p. 6. where having proposed this objection against the Translation of Psalm 105. 28. tells us that it was occasioned by the Printers omission of one syllable to wit Obedient for Disobedient not the Translators But to pass this by Hooker and Fuller in Miscel shew that the Translation in the Liturgy best agreeth with the Hebrew and their judgment is comfirm'd by the Septuagint Syriack Arabick and Ethiopick Versions In the old Latin Versions it was read both ways as St. Austin observes Tom. 8. enarrat in Psal and yet it made no disturbance in the Church in that or the following ages Not to mention that both Versions are very good sense and not at all contradictory in the Liturgy they were not obedient refers to the Aegyptians mention'd v. 27. In the Bible they rebelled not refers to Moses and Aaron v. 26. and even so our old Version is to be preferr'd it being more natural for a Verb to refer to the last verse than the last but one but both are very good sense and as properly retain'd in our Church as the different readings were by the Jews preserved in their Bibles And whoever shall give himself the trouble to compare the Versions of the Bible shall have far greater objections than this Deut. 21 12. She shall pare her nails in the Margent of our Bibles She shall let them grow Gal. 2. 3. in the Greek Titus was not circumcised In many Latin copies Titus was circumcised And again v. 5. in the Greek To whom we have not yielded in the Latin To whom we have yielded and this latter was used by Ireneus l. 3. c. 13. a Greek Father By Tertullian l. 5. in Marcion p. 463. St. Ambrose in locum c. and many of the Fathers as St. Hierom Primasius Sedulius Haymo c. freely take notice of both readings I might instance also in 1 Cor. 15. 51. where some read We shall all sleep of which St. Hierom hath a large discourse Also in Mat. 2. 6. compared with Micab 5. 2. and many other places not to mention what those very Translators of the Bible whose Version is contended for declared That they in many places set diversity of senses in the Margin for that to determine of such things as the Spirit of God hath left in the judgment of Judicious questionable can be no less than presumption As St. Austin saith That variety of Translations is profitable for finding out the sense of the Scriptures so diversity of sense in the Margin where the Text is not so clear must needs do good yea is necessary as we are perswaded But if any Learned Person hath taken pains to make a more correct Version than either of these the English Church now useth I hope he will not envy the Church the benefit of his labours but will make it publick as Rob. Gell. Printed an Essay towards the amendment of the English Translation of the Bible Lond. 1659. But I can by no means think it proper to have it proposed to the Convocation who upon some short examination of it should Authorize it When the Clergy are called to the Convocation they are most of them remote from their Boods and in London want leisure to examine the many difficulties that will arise St. Hierom made a more exact Translation of the Psalms than that the Latin Church before used he made it publick and proposed it to the care and study of Learned Men to examine it and when an Universal Approbation had for some Ages given it Authority it was at last received into the Church instead of the other but not till some hundreds of years after the time of St. Hierom. And when Gregory the Great about the year 600 composed Hymns for the use of the Church it was out of the old Version of the Psalms Nor can it seem strange that the same Church should use two different Versions of the Psalms for this was done in all the Western Churches in the time of Gregory the Great who in his Epistle Dedicatory in the beginning of his Comments upon Job saith Sedes Apostolica utraque utitur the Roman Church useth both Editions Leander in Spain about the same age wrote a comment upon both Versions and Card. Bona tells us that the old Version was in frequent use till the time of Pius V. is still used in the Church of the Vatiean and continued in their Breviaries When only a Catechism was composed not by a single person but a whole Assembly of Divines at Westminster it was Printed and sent about and publick intimation made to the Assembly in Scotland that whoever had any objections might put them in And when a great many Learned Men were called together by King James l. to correct and review the Translation of the Bible they were no less than three years about it as they themselves tell us in their Preface So that I heartily desire that Reverend person would publish his new Version and when time and an universal approbation hath given it authority it may be received into the use of the Church not in the common-prayer-Common-prayer-book only but Bible also And this hath been done by several who have made excellent composures of the Singing Psalms and far better than those we now use and yet the prudence of our Church hath not yet thought fit to give any one of them the stamp and seal of authority for this reason chiefly because the Church hath been long used to these she hath and can sing many of them by heart which as it's the best reason for the continuance of the old Singing Psalms so is much more a reason for the continuance of that Version in
our Liturgy which is also sung in our Cathedrals and Colleges and is much better than the other Psalterio Hieronymi ex Hebraicis pâ—propagato Ecclesia Romana locum non concessit quia veteri certis constricto numeris modulando assuetae Christianorum aures universeque adeo Ecclesiae alterius novitatem ferre nunquam potuerunt Huetius de interpret p. 109. Not to mention that in the year 1660 there was far greater reason to take the new Translation which only had been in use for 12 years together into the Liturgy than to do it now the old Edition hath been in constant use for thirty years together and yet that wise Convocation refused to do it then The Translation of the Bible made in the time of King James I. was upon the importunate complaints of the Puritans that they could not subscribe to the Common Prayer-Book since it maintain'd the Bible as it was there Translaed which was as they said a most corrupted Translation and yet they were some of the first that quarrelled at it as soon as it was made and few or none conform'd upon that account and the Papists presently clamour'd against us for altering our Translation so ost And the very Translators after they had examin'd all the old and made a new Translation declared That there was no need of a new Translation nor of a bad one to make a good one but only to make a good one better Next let us consider the project of leaving out the Athanasian Creed occasioned by 4 four questions proposed against it whereof the last is from the Council of Ephesus against all additions being made to the Creed and so strikes at the whole Creed as well as the condemning Sentences Letter from the Country p. 14 15. Must we always pronounce all damn'd that do not believe every tittle of Athanasius ' s Creed Letter to the Convecation p. 15. And both these give ample incouragement to that Heretical and virulent Book which at that very time was publish'd against that Creed and no less against the Trinity it self the Book sold openly many of them were given about and magnified by the party without any controul of that sort of men of Latitudinarian principles till at length it received a just censure from the honest Clergy of the lower House of Convocation tho at that very time to the admiration and scandal of all sober men that very censure was there also by great and leading men opposed It 's objected by the Author of the Letter from the Country p. 14. he finds a great dispute between the Greek and Latin Church about the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son now the first question is whither of these two Churches be in the right Now the prosession of the Holy Ghost from the Son is in the Nice Creed also received in our Liturgy and confirm'd by the 39 Articles of our Religion and Art 5. expresly declares that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the Son and so here is an Article of Faith call'd into question Not to mention the exact Harmony and Union of all the Protestant Churches of the World in this point I except only Arrians Socinians and such other Hereticks who ought not to be call'd Protestants And therefore the leaving out of the Athanasian Creed upon such a reason must needs give great offence to all the Protestant Churches in the World More particularly the Athanasian Creed is at this day approved of and Authoriz'd by the Confession of the Reformed Churches of France first Published A. D. 1561. We receive the three Creeds Apostles Nicene and Athanasian Creed because they are agreeable to the word of God By the Belgick Confession of the Synod of Dort Art 9. we willingly receive the three Creeds the Apostles Nicene and Athanasian Creeds By the Confession of the of the Churches of Saxony Art 1. we have always constantly embraced the three Creeds and their natural sense and by Gods help we will always imbrace them By the Confession of Wirtenberg Art 1. we believe one God and three Persons as they are explained in the three Creeds the Apostles Nicene and Athanasius ' s. By the Confession of the Palatine Churches Art 1. we believe all things contained in the Holy Scriptures as they are explain'd in the Apostles Creed Nicene and Athanasius ' s. By the Confession of the Bohemian Churches Art 3. particularly we receive the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds By the Confession of the Churches of Poland and Lithuania who A. D. 1645. expresly received the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds The Russian Churches receive and use these three Creeds after the Psalms for the day the Priest readeth the Ten Commandments and Athanasius ' s Creed out of the Service Book Pagiâ—t Christianogr p. 81. The very Directory drawn up by the Presbyterians at the Savoy A. D. 1661. p. 26. orders the Athanasian Creed to be read in the Church and lastly when some Arrians would have had Beza left it out at Geneva he returned this answer Epist 56. certe in tuam gratiam non mutabitur in Ecclesia Symbolum Athanasij nec Nicenum cum nemo adhuc inventus est qui se opponeret quem Deus borrendo judicio non per diderit i. e. certainly for your sake the Church will not change the Athanasian Creed or the Nicene since no one ever yet opposed them whom God did not destroy Now let all the World consider what a strange way here is proposed for the Union of all Protestant Churches to the Church of England viz. by laying aside or leaving indifferent the use of this Creed which all the Protestant Churches in the World even those of Geneva Holland and English Presbyterians do in their very Confessions of Faith and Devotions so heartily retain and magnifie Proceed we next to Baptism and against this Office two things are objected 1. The use of the Cross 2. Godfathers 1. Against the Cross it 's proposed by the Letter from the Country p. 8. to leave the case wholly indifferent to use or not use the Cross p 9 If the Minister scruples the use of it let another perform that Service if any of the Layety let the Minister baptize without it And the Letter to the Convocation p. 9. the Cross in Baptism is become not only useless but also mischievous occasions dissentions and schisms is an ensign of War to make us fight against each other a Cross of torment whereon to crucifie the Lord of Life in his body the Church and rent its bowels asunder by those lamentable divisions which it causeth amongst us the Church of England cannot be guiltless if she do not something herein c. It 's a sad thing that the Cross of Christ should produce all this difference amongst Christians Well then let us take away the use of the Cross in Baptism and see whether there is likely to be a greater Union amongst the Christians Ask all Churches of the World fâ—om Christs time
must be undeniably allowed that antiquity never used Kneeling at the Sacrament it having been the constant practise of all the Churches in the World to communicate standing If you ask how this appears they have nothing to say but that the Primitive Christians in memory of Christs Resurrection for some Ages after it stood at their Prayers on Sunday and betwixt Easter and Pentecost by which they suppose that the Sacrament was received in the same posture as they said their Prayers Their Prayers at other times were upon their Knees as indeed this very Order supposeth Tertull. ad Scap. Quando non geniculationibus nostris siccitates depulsae i. e. When did not our solemn Prayers upon our Knees bring down Rain Origen in Num. c. 4. Hom. 5. Nam quod flectimus orantes c. where he relates the custom of the Church to pray Kneeling And in his Book de Orat. p. 157. he saith that they generally kneel'd at Prayers except in case of Sickness Now the Primitive Christians received the Sacrament on other days than Sunday or that space betwixt Easter and Pentecost and that they received it daily is evident from St. Cyprian Tertullian St. Austin St. Hierom and many other Fathers and by consequence if they received the Sacrament in a posture of Prayer they received it Kneeling And that there might be a through Reformation and no part of the Liturgy left entire some have had the confidence to except against the Collects themselves as too short and not so pertinent I shall only remind such of what the Devout and Judicious Dr. Sanderson said of them viz. That the Collects were the most passionate proper and most elegant expressions that any language ever afforded and that there was in them such Piety and that so interwoven with Instructions that they taught us to know the Power the Wisdom the Majesty and Mercy of God and much of our duty both to him and our Neighbour And if some late Collects are intended as a Specimen by which the old are to be mended I believe few will rejoice in the change Excommunication for contempt is complain'd of in both the Letters to the Convocation as a matter highly scandalous and that we thrust out of the Church the best of our People for some penny or two penny Cause in our Ecclesiastical Courts Now this Objection is proposed more peevishly than ever it was done by the Dissenters After T. C. in his Admonition p. 175. the Puritans Petition to Kings James I. A. D. 1603. That Men be Excommunicated for Trifles and Twelve-penny Matters So that from their Objection of Twelve-penny Matters this Author hath stretch'd it to Peny and Two-peny Matters But let us apply our Selves to the Protestant Divines of the Foreign Churches and see what they say to it The Dutch Divines in Sunops Pur. Theol. p. 710. say That the Penalty of Excommunication is chiefly incurr'd for neglecting and despising the Censures and publick Admonitions of the Church In the Ecclesiastical Laws of Geneva p. 44 45. They that do not obey the Orders of the Church after due Admonition are order'd to be Excommunicated If we look into Scotland and see Constit Eccles Scot. cap. de Offensis A small Offence or Calumny may justly deserve Excommunication if the Offender be stubborn and contumacious 1 Book of Discipl 9. Head All Families must appear once a Year before the Presbyter to be examined and if Children or Servants be suffered to continue in wilful Ignorance they must be Excommunicated c. And how severe their Excommunication is appears from the 7th Head No Person may have any converse with him that is Excommunicated not Eat nor Drink with him nor Buy nor Sell with him nor Salute nor Speak to him his Children born after the Sentence may not be admitted to Baptism c. And I must say the contempt is the greater when the occasion of it is so small Lay aside severe Penalties for Contempt and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is lost and to what purpose should any Court have a Power to determine if there be no power given it to force the Execution of it If we look upon Foreign Churches we shall find that they are more strict in having their Canons and Constitutions observ'd than we are in England I will not mention the Severities of the Scotch-Kirk and New-Englands Discipline as not being reasonable nor suited to the Nature of the Thing but in so plain a Case let Calvin and Beza the two great Apostles of Geneva speak for all Calvins Instit l. 4. c. 5. sect 10. Let no one that despiseth the Authority of the Church go unpunished much less let any Body be permitted to break the Vnity of the Church Christ looks upon such as Deserters and Runnagado's a separation from a Church of God is a renouncing of Christ nor can there be any greater Crime Again in his Comment on 1 Cor. 14. It s easy to prove that Ecclesiastical Canons ought not to be accounted for Humane Traditions since they are founded in the Word of God and have a manifest approbation from the Mouth of Christ Beza in Epist 1. Shall we say that Men ought to have Liberty of Conscience In no wife as this Liberty is understood that every one should Worship God as he pleaseth for this is a meer Diabolical Opinion to let every one perish that will it s a Diabolical Liberty which hath filled Poland and Transylvania with so many Heresies And again the same Beza in his Epistle 24. to some Dissenters in England Things in their own Nature indifferent change their Nature when they are commanded or forbidden by any lawful Authority Laws about Things indifferent bind the Conscience so that no one can wilfully break them without Sin To him agree the Dutch Divines in Synops Pur. Theol. p. 453. No Body can wilfully disobey the Ecclesiastical Constitutions about indifferent Things without Sin But because this is a Matter so very evident I shall only add that in the Directory made by the Assembly of Divines at Westminster p. 9. its expresly declared That no Persons should absent themselves from the Publick Ordinances upon pretence of Private Meetings And the Words of Mr. Baxter in his Reasons of the Christian Religion p. 485. No Christian must pretend Holiness against Vnity and Peace And every tender Conscience should be as tender of Church-Divisions and Real Schism as of Drunkenness Whoredom or such other enormous Sins We come next to consider the great Point of Orders and which seems to have been principally aimed at viz. The allowing of Presbyterian Orders as valid the Author of the Letter from the Country p. 10 11. proposeth three Expedients The first is Bishop Bramballs The second is Hypothetical The third is that of the Bill of Vnion To the first I answer that Bishop Bramhall did never allow of Presbyterian Ordination but did actually and with all the Rites and Methods of our Church re-ordain such as had been only
ordained by Presbyters as is evident from that very Place in the Life of Bishop Bramhall from whence this Author quotes a Passage and what he did for Peace Sake was only this That in some of their Certificates of their being ordained by him he declared That this New Ordination did not destroy their former Orders if they had any c. And it s abundantly evidently that that Bishop did re-ordain many of them To the last of these three ways I return no Answer because he himself doth not tell us what it was that was proposed in the Bill of Union The second was the principal Method insisted on and that is Hypothetical Re-ordination in which the Office of Ordination was to be omitted and the Person kneeling before a Bishop the Bishop was to say If thou art not already Ordained I Ordain thee or else in these Words I pray God that thou be ordained c. And this is justified by the Instance of Hypothetical Baptism To all which I reply 1. That the Presbyterians the Persons we are to satisfy have already declared against Hypothetical Ordination so the Presbyterians at the Savoy in their Petition for Peace p. 2. We earnestly beseech you that Re-ordination whether Absolute or Hypothetical be not made necessary for the future Exercise of our Ministry now to grant them what they have already declared against is no probable way to the Union pretented 2. Hypothetical Baptism is of Two sorts 1 st When 't is not known that the Child hath had any pretended Baptism with Water in the name of the Trinity and then the case is not the same as this Of such hypothetical Rebaptization the 5th Council of Carthage c. 3. is to be understood where they commend the Words of Leo Iteratum dici non potest quod nescitur ess factum i. e. That cannot be said to be repeated which was never known to be done The 2d is when all that hath been done is exactly known but the authority of the Persons Baptizing or Authenticalness of what is done is called in question and in this case the Presbyterians do not allow of Hypothetical Baptism witness the Synops pur Theol. p. 617 Neque Baptismus conditionalis probandus est qui a Pontificiis observari solet i. e. neither do we approve of Hypothetical Baptism which is used by the Papists for they to gain respect to their own Church endeavour to perswade such other Christians as are admitted into their Church to be hypothetically Rebaptized of which we have one famous instance in the Church of the Abyssines reported by Ludolfus in Hist Aethiop l. 3. c. 6. Patres Societatis Habessinos omnes promiscue rebaptizaverunt sub conditione tamen si videlicet prior Baptismus non rite fuisset peractus quae res magnam illis invidiam conflavit i. e. The Jesuites rebaptized all the Habessines with this condition namely if their former Baptism was not rightly performed which thing occasioned great troubles against them Which troubles he reports cap. 13. The Habessines hated them for nothing more than their repeating of their Baptism as if before that they had been Heathens and Publicans And is it not evident that Hypothetical Re-ordination will produce the same troubles here when by this very Act our Church plainly supposeth that they were not ordained before But to make all this matter plain I will first set down the opinion of the English Presbyterians then the opinion of the Foreign Reformed Churches 1. For our English Presbyterians T. C. the Ringleader of that Party having been ordained by a Bishop is said to have renounced his orders and taken new orders from Presbyters in Scotland The Presbyterians reordained Mr. John Cuningham formerly ordained Priest by the Bishop of Galloway Ravil rediv. p. 29. A whole Synod of the Puritans at Coventry A. D. 1588 June 10 condemned Ordination by Bishops as unlawful and farther declared the very calling of Bishops unlawful Bancroft's Engl. Scotizing p. 86. T. C. in his Admonition p. 127 desires the Bishops to be laid aside from ordaining Ministers and to bring in the true Election by the Congregation And in his Prayer before his Sermon at Banbury printed in the Life of Archbishop Whitgift p. 47. O Lord give us grace and power all as one Man to set our selves against the Bishops Apologetical Narrative It s a sin to take Episcopal Orders or to own the Authority of Bishops And to mention no more in the Solemn League and Covenant the Presbyterians of both Nations swore to the Extirpation of Prelacy i. e. the government of the Church by Bishops And accordingly in Scotland the Presbyterians have generally persecuted all those that had Episcopal Ordination 2. For the Foreign Reformed Churches observe 1sit That the Churches of Denmark and Norway are governed by Two Archbishops and Fourteen Bishops The Churches of Swedeland are governed by One Archbishop and Six Bishops the Churches of Hungary and Transylvania are governed by Bishops the Reformed Churches of Bohemia have a succession of Bishops as we in England Pass we next to the Reformed Churches of Germany which are in effect governed by Bishops whom they call Superintendants Their Office is described in the Harmony of Confess p. 227. to visit Parochial Ministers to preside in Synods to examine and ordain Persons fit for the Ministry c. To which agreeth Carpzovins Jurisp Eccl. l. 1. Comenius in Annot. ad rat disc fratr Bohem. where he observes that St. Hierom calls a Bishop Superintendant in Armenia the Bishop is called Martabet which signifieth Superintendant saith Rycaut Hist of Arm. Churches p. 392. And Zanchy saith that the Protestants have Bishops and Archbishops but that instead of good Greek Names they call them by bad Latine ones Superintendants and general Superintendants And when in the Book of Policy A. D. 1581. for the Kingdom of Scotland the Office of Superintendants is described it is in these Words Imprimis The Superintendant of Orkney his Diocess shall be the Isles of Orkney c. The Superintendant of Rosse his Diocess shall be Rosse c. The Superintendant of Edenbrough his Diocess shall be c. The Superintendant of Glascow his Diocess c. In all Ten Superintendants for that Kingdom Then follows the Function and Power of the Superintendant He shall plant and erect Churches order and appoint Ministers Visit c. See the Proceedings at Perth p. 14 15. And in all such Churches where they have Superintendants there is no Ordination allowed but by them An Account of the Persecuted in Scotland p. 58. There is not a falser Proposition in the World than that the Inclinations of the generality of the People in Scotland are against Episcopacy and let us have a Poll for it when they will and you shall quickly see the Demonstration Of the Vulgus the Commonalty not a Third Man throughout the whole Kingdom is a Presbyterian And of Persons of better Quality and Education not a Thirteenth In all the Country on
be extinguished if only Forms be allowed in the Church and p. 55. The Abatement of Ceremonies with the Exclusion of all Prayers but what are Read will not satisfie us The Author of a Letter to the Convocation would have many of our Prayers and Services left to the discretion and choice of the Minister p. 21 22. And the Lords and Commons A. D. 1644 and 1648 ordained That if any Person used the Common Prayer Book he shall forfeit for the 1st Offence 5 l. for the 2d 10 l. and for the 3d Offence a Years Imprisonment and every Minister that shall not strictly use the Directory shall forfeit the Sum of Forty Shillings and whoever shall Preach Write or Print against it shall forfeit betwixt 5 l. and 50 l. The Churches of Denmark Swedeland Saxony and all other of the Ausburg Confession have their set Liturgies and forms of publick Worship yea the Churches of France Geneva and Holland have their set Prayers composed by Calvin himself as Luther composed Prayers for the German Churches and Zuinglius for those of Zurick The Divines of Holland in Synops pur Theol. Disp 36. Sect. 33. declare set Forms not only lawful but very profitable The attention of Auditours is much helped by having a constant form Some of the Churches of Zealand thus declared themselves to our English Presbyterians We account it grievous to condemn all those Churches which from the Apostolical times and the Primitive Church to this day have celebrated the publick worship of God by prescribed Forms wherefore we blame the precise singularity of those who cast out all Forms out of Divine Worship In almost all the Reformed Churches Church-Liturgies and Forms of Prayers are approved as profitable and conducing to Edification Capellus Professour of Samurs in France in Theses Salm. A set Form of Liturgy is highly useful and necessary hath been always used in all the Christian Churches in the World for above 1300 Years and now is used every where except only by some Vpstarts in England c. The Greek Church Armenian Coptick Ethiopick and all the Eastern Churches have set Forms of Prayer Calvin Epist 87. I do very much approve of a set Form of Prayer and Ecclesiastical Rites that it be so certain as that the Ministers shall not recede from it that hereby the levity of some Innovators may be hindred there ought to be a set Form of Prayer c. Baxter himself in his Def. of the Cure of Divisions p. 55. He that separateth from all Churches amongst us on the account of the unlawfulness of our Liturgy doth separate from them on a reason common to all or almost all Christian Churches upon Earth As to the Prayer before Sermon Calvin constantly used the same Form faith Beza in his Life it 's Printed at beginning of his Sermons on Job so had St. Austine after Sermon The Ministers of France Geneva and Holland use a set Form before Sermon Lavater of the Rites of the Church of Zurich saith 'T is not the custom of that Church for the Preacher to contrive new Forms of Prayer and repeat them in the Publick Assemblies but to keep the usual one And Durell tell us that there is not one Minister in France but hath made to himself a set Form of Prayer which he constantly useth before Sermon and no other So that in this also our Presbyterians are singular that they affect Novelties and extempore Expressions and Variations in their Prayers before Sermons I say that are singular and different from the Pastours of most of the Reformed Churches in the World I know it 's objected against our Liturgy that it 's taken out of the Mass Book as if the Lord's Prayer the Creed or other parts of our Service were the worse for being found there also but yet those that have strictly examined this find the Objection false L'Estrange in his Alliance c. p. 30. The beginning of our Morning-Prayer Sentences Exhortations Confession Absolution rehearsing the Decalogue c. are not to be found in the Mass Book nor any Popish Service And Dr. Stillingfleet in Antiq. Br. ch p. 232. All these parts are retained in the excellent Office of our Church not from the Church of Rome as our Dissenters weakly imagine but from the consent of all the ancient Churches in the use of them c. And p. 237. From which discovery it will appear that our Church of England hath omitted none of those Offices wherein all the ancient Churches agreed and that wherein the Brittish and Gallicane Churches differed from the Roman our Church hath not followed the Roman but the other and therefore our Dissenters do unreasonably charge us with taking our Offices from the Church of Rome And therefore the Romanists have ever been as zealous in opposing our Common-Prayer as the Presbyterians themselves Mr. Harding John Ould and other Papists wrote Books against it Several of our Martyrs were put to Death in Queen Maries Dayss for using the Book of Common-Prayer saith Fox in Acts Mon. And the Author of Calvino Turcismus p. 360 hath these words The English Liturgy as to the substance of it is more corrupt than the Turkish Alcoran as to the Form it in great measure agreeth with it And it 's not probable that the Papists would thus abuse a Book that was so like to their own Mass as the Presbyterians would have it Our Common-Prayer Book is now printed in Ten several Languages which cannot be said of any other Liturgy in the World and so great was the esteem our Forefathers had of it that I find in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth Coppin and Thacker were both punished for publishing Brown's Book against the Common-Prayer And now if all the Protestant Churches in the World have their set Liturgies it must needs be a very improbable way to promote the Peace and Union of the Reformed Churches by destroying the Liturgy we have always used And to pass by other things most of the Reformed Churches have declared in their Confessions of Faith that no Separation ought to be made for different Rites and Ceremonies where there is an agreement in Doctrine See Praef. ad Confess Helv. Art 17. 27. Conf. Gallican Art 32. Bhoem c. 15. Argent c. 14. Augustana Art 7. Polon p. 220. Calvin Instit l. 4. c. 10. s 27. Is so far from condemning Rites and Ceremonies that he would have them in every Church be fix'd and certain without which the Nerves and Sinews of a Church will quickly be dissolved c. O Ecolampadius in his Epistles p. 169 177 182 184. Is vehement in pressing every particular Church to an Vniformity in Ceremonies that tho they are different in several Countries yet all that are subject to the same Goverment should be bound to the same Rites c. And how little these eminent Reformers agree with our new Modellers will appear from the Letter to the Convocation p. 9. If any of the Laity scruple the Cross