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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41326	The liturgical considerator considered, or, A brief view of Dr. Gauden's considerations touching the liturgy of the Church of England wherein the reasons by him produced for imposing the said liturgy upon all, are found to be so weak, his defence of things offensive in it so slight, the arguments against the liturgy by himselfe afforded, are so strong, that some, who upon His Majesties declaration did incline to the liturgy, are now further from it, by reading his wordy discourse about it : also some reasons humbly rendered, why many ministers, as yet cannot conform to that liturgy, but not out of disloyalty, pride, ingratitude, peevishness, nor schismatical petulancy, as the sarcastical pen of this uncharitable doctor hath published ... / by G.F.	Firmin, Giles, 1614-1697.	1661 (1661)	Wing F956; ESTC R843	47,787	64

you may speak out not onely our King that now is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but his Royal Father said that He would easily consent that what was inconvenient for matter or manner should be amended I have seen a paper printed I think about the year 1641 in which were divers things set down by some of the Bishops which they intended to Correct I perceive you intend to give it but a gentle purge I pray Sir are you the man alone intrusted in this work truly I do not take your judgment to be the measure of all the judgments of the Divines in England though you say your Liturgy must be of all our Devotions in publick pag. 27. But of this more afterwards Sectio secunda THe second Consideration is 2. He defends the Liturgie His endeavouring to defend it against the objections brought against it Object 1 The first of which is that Prayer which is used after Baptism wherein thanks is given to God because he hath been pleased to regenerate this Infant Here he defends Baptismal Regeneration briefly of which in a more proper place afterwards Object 2 The second Objection is this That some men and one Minister he saith he knows have charged it with a Lye in the beginning because the words are not the same with the Text in Ezek. 18.21 22. And these men he loads with Impudency Ignorance Blasphemy intolerable Confidence pag. 24 25. The Doctor wants not words what shame hath he poured upon these men and that one Minister I wonder who he is This indeed I have heard That take these words 1. As the Line before them orders the Minister to read with a loud voice one of these Sentences of Scripture which follow and this is the first At what time soever a sinner repents him c. 2. As these words are said to be the Sentence of Scripture in Ezek. 18.21 22. 3. As they have these words saith the Lord annexed In this sense I have heard them charged with a Lye not denying what may be drawn by Consequence from Scripture For my own part I have been much offended with these words 1. Because they are said to be a Sentence of Scripture in such a Text. 2. As they have helped to procrastinate Repentance and have been a Trap-board for Hell your meaner so●t whom you labour to edifie have got these words At what time soever c. laid them up 3. As they help to bolster up many a wretch who when he comes to dye and his lusts forsake him now from the bottom of his heart as he phansies he repents and there is Comfort for him But all that you have said will not save those words from being very false in the sense mentioned in which I am confident they were spoken and how much that which is very false differs from a Lye in this case judge you And truly Sir if this be the taste you give us how you will correct the Prayer-book the Jesuites have by their Index expurgatorius done more service to their Romish Synagogue in purging out of Authors what was good than you will do service to the Church of England by purging out what is unsound Let us read what you say All the words of that Sentence in the Common-prayer book are not in that place Ezek. 18. 21 22. This is very true say you Then say I it is very false that those words are the sentence of that Scripture You confesse it You say All the words are not c. how many think you are I have viewed these Verses in the old English Translation when that prayer-Prayer-book was composed as I suppose there I find above 63 words in our Translation about 59. and though I easily yield you wicked and snner turn and repent for Synonomies yet I find not above five of the same words in the Common-prayer Book which are in that Text which the Common-prayer Book refers unto So that they are not All indeed How then But say you the Evangelical Soundnesse and Sence is more fully united and comprehensively set down in the Book of Common-prayer than in these verses cited in the Margin Hold a little 1. The Lord inspires his holy Prophets immediately with such words to expresse his will and mind which are written by his Pen-man 2. Shall ordinary men take these words and alter them and that very much as I shall shew and this Sentence thus altered be called the Sentence of Scripture in that Text. 3. Yea shall men say the sense is more fully united and comprehensively set down in the Sentence altered than in those words the Lord did immediately inspire surely then it is better well let us see what will follow 1. Thus we may alter the whole Scripture and make a new Scripture of it and tell the people we give you the same Bible that God inspired his Servants to Write but in a sence more Evangelical and fully united than in those words the pen-men wrote them So that we have mended the Scripture By the same reason you alter two verses you may twenty so make a shorter Bible 2. When we preach and quote Texts we may read them otherwise than they are in the Original or any Translation and when the people look for the Texts in their Bibles and cannot find the verses as we quote them we may tell them we give the sound Evangelical sence more fully united c. than you have in your Bibles or in the Original were not this a good Answer Doctor who is bold 3. This Doctor is so exact in our Prayers to God that he will bind us all to the very same words in a Common-Prayer-Book we must not pray for the same things by our own gifts though more enlarged thus he ties us up to mens words in his humane Invention but for Gods words he can plead for the altering of them leaving abundance out 4. I deny what you say That the Evangelical Soundness and Sence is more fully united in the Common-Prayer-Book For the Evangelical sence must lie in the bottom of the heart Now that you are fain to interpret else we could not tell what the sence is of those words 2. But especially thus it appears 't is not true for in Ezek. 18.21 22. The nature of Repertance is opened if you ask what is Repentance I answer out of Ezek. It is the turning from all a mans sins and keeping all Gods Statutes But in your Common-Prayer-Book there is not one word of this only the Definitum Repentance mentioned 3. In Ezekïel there is nothing of the Time expressed but in your common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book there we must read with a loud voice the first words At what time soever The Texts you adde make nothing to your purpose The question was not what may be gathered from Scripture by Consequence this was yielded but whether those words in the common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book were the sentence of Scripture in Ezkeiel 18. Methinks a great Doctor yea now an elder Bishop should

understand Ignoratio Elenchi Then you come to prove the lawfulness from parallel Texts in the N. T. where the Apostles do quote Texts out of the old T. not verbatim but to the sence as Hebr. 10.5 6. from Psal 40.6 7. and bid the Supercritical Censors compare words So Mat. 27.9 Not verbatim out of Jeremy but most out of Zechariah Answ What Franciscus David would say to this I know but spare his words and I could propound a sad question here which I should thank those who could resolve me I must leave it and see your Logick 1. Because the Apostles did so when guided as the Pen-men of the Scripture Therefore ordinary men may do so prove the Consequence 2. As to the sence in Heb. 10. unless it be where the Apostle follows the Septuagint in those words A body thou hast prepared the sence and words are the same with the Psalm it is not as in your Common-Prayer-Book to give us five words of 59. and not the nature of the thing though there be a little difference from the Psalm 3. As to your quotation out of Mat. 27. I can give you the same Answer but adde withal it seems I must needs take your Reconciliation of the Texts when I may make bold to tell you as Learned men as your self Salvà Reverentià have other notions of that Text. See Voetius disp Selat l. 1. p. 159. Salomon Glassius Philolo lib. 2. p. 156. So that your example fails How well you have cleared your Liturgy and deservedly charged your Adversary with Impudence Ignorance and Blasphemy Let the Reader judge Sectio tertia AFter this from p. 26. to p. 35. he fills his pages with his Rhetorical Encomiums of his Liturgy and then Answers other Objections so methodical is this Rhetorician Some discreet regulation in the Musick he will allow Object 3 What this singing of service is I cannot tell p. 35. I was never acquainted with places where this Trade is set up I suppose none so void of Christian Reason to sing any thing but Psalms Hymns or Spiritual Songs in the Church Now as to Musick if the Doctor means only Vocal I shall declare my opinion thus I could heartily wish That in all Churches we had some persons that had good voices and skilful to sing their parts when we sing Psalms I think it doth very much help to the very nature of the Ordinance that men should skilfully sing to help raise the Affections and not to make a shreaming instead of singing If the Doctor contends for Instrumental Musick I shall only desire him to Answer Aquinas Sum. 2a 2ae q 91. a. 2. against it Object 4 The Fourth Objection some make against the Liturgy is the Ceremonies concerning which p. 36. he tells us his Opinion after the old fashion in Rhetorick but in p. 38. his zeal breaks out telling us This National Church as all others have power and authority from God to judge what is decent as to any Ceremony in the worship of God which God hath left indifferent in its nature which the consent of the major part of the Church c. may enjoyn c. and that this is most true and undeniably to be maintained even to the death he is so tedious that I am weary with transcribing What Is it not only true but most true I know one thing truer Doctor and what to be maintained to the death Bishop Wren give him a clap on the back for this Heroick Sentence we shall have a Ceremonious Martyr at last but Doctor it shal be you shall maintain it to the death for me Reader if you have better eyes than I pray see if you can find what Texts of Scripture he brings for this bold Assertion and why a National Church may do this more than the Church of Corinth Philippi Ephesus c. else it may be if we say these Apostolical Churches know their power as well as Dr. Gauden yet in them we find no such Ceremonies as in our Liturgy and if they be useful for us they were for them it may be if we urge this he will tell us they were indeed Apostolical but not National Churches and could not but prove that As to this Question I only hear of excellent books written about it my purse and distance cannot reach them but such they are in the judgement of understanding men as they are not Answered so never can be from Scripture and sound reason but by the old way of Prisons and silencing Only a word to the Dr. in pag. 36. You say these Ceremonies are signal marks of Faith Humility Purity Courage c. I pray to your Decencie and Significancy add Efficacy and to Efficacy Necessity as it was of old and so without them no Ordinances nor Ministry then you are right They are indifferent before enjoyned but what are they when enjoyned I have read Necessary give me leave to say What God hath left indifferent in his Church in matters of Religion I do not say in common Humane Society and things of civil order wherein I confess the Magistrate may direct and restrain it is not in the power of any creature to make necessary That creature who doth it takes one step above God for God le●ves liberty you will not allow it If a Lord should leave it indifferent to his Servants to wear what coloured Cloaths they would so not foolish and the Steward will force them all to wear White or put them out of his Service is not this Steward above his Lord What is any creature but a steward to God I cannot see but such a creature takes as much upon him as God did for take all the Ceremonies of the old Law consider them abstractedly from Gods command they were as indifferent as your Ceremonies there was no goodness in them why God did command them when they were in the highest use of them as suppose in their day of Atonement if God had declared that he repealed his command concerning all those Ceremonies in that very Instant they had been all indifferent to any use What difference between the High Priests Garments and your Surplice as to their own abstracted nature I know no Moral good in one more than the other And truly if you can ordain things in the worship of God which shall signifie spiritual things and shall have in them an aptness and Efficacy to stir up our dull minds as you were wont to say and now these must be used for being enjoyned they are necessary I cannot see how much you are inferiour to God only thus indeed God did not make a sign of a sign as you do in the Cross move a mans finger over the face of a Child and say I sign with the sign when there is no sign at all left for Courage Constancy and Faith and I know not what but no more of this I pray Answer the Books upon this Question Sectio quarta HIS third Consideration about the

THE LITVRGICAL CONSIDERATOR CONSIDERED Or a brief view of Dr. GAVDEN'S Considerations touching the LITVRGY of the Church of ENGLAND Wherein the Reasons by him produced for imposing the said Liturgy upon all are found to be so weak his defence of things offensive in it so slight the Arguments against the Liturgy by himself afforded are so strong that some who upon His Majesties Declaration did incline to the Liturgy are now further from it by reading his wordy Discourse about it ALSO Some Reasons humbly rendered why ma●y Ministers as yet cannot conform to that Liturgy but not out of Disloyalty Pride Ingratitude Peevishness nor Schismatical Petulancy as the Sarcastical Pen of this uncharitable Doctor hath published The second Edition By G. F. as Firm and Loyal a Subject to His Majesty as this CONSIDERATOR is Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought c. Rom. 8.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Mart. Sine monitor● quia de pectore oramus Tertul. You must give God His due by regulating aright His Church according to his Scripture King Charls the first in His dying Speech The Vices in Rhetorick are Sordidness ●ediousness Obscurity Flatness of Conceit Argu●eness and Minutiae Gawdiness Wordiness and empty Ostentation Dr. Reynolds Treatise of Passions Cap. 39. LONDON Printed for Ralph Smith at the Bible in Cornhil near the Royal Exchange 1661. An Epistle to the Reader by way of Apology for Ministers not receiving the Common-Prayer-Book Christian and Courteous Reader THE Judicious and Reverend Author of this ensuing Tract no less approved for his learning modesty piety and zeal to the unity of the Church and his * Witness his separation examined and published Anno 1652. and his answer to Dr. Owen's Schisme Antiseparation in the day of its prevalency and prosperity then for his loyalty and fidelity to the Kings Majesty in the day of His distress having entred the Lists with my Antagonist Dr. John Gauden by way of Answer to his confused Considerations of the Liturgy of the Church of England Prelatical censures beyond the bounds of charity or sobriety of many His Majesties best and most loyal Subjects who in prudence or conscience forbear the use thereof and his Sarcastical Comment on His Majesties Gracious Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical Affairs and the liberty thereby indulged and used as we presume on due and fit encouragement was pleased to vouchsafe me a view therof which I having seriously perused do find to contain an Answer so full and sober by Arguments so weighty and solid that I cannot but commend it to the reading and regard of all serious Christians who desire to have their Faith setled by right and religions Reason against the unsettledness of fancy to which the florid expressions of Rhetorick can only avail If thou hast read Dr. Gaudens Considerations thou findest the Liturgy set out in such excellency and extemporary conceived prayer so much debased by elegant expressions and florid Hyperbolies that thou canst not but be ravished in thine imagination but if with patience thou readest and ponderest this Tract and the Arguments therein produced with the extent and reflections of the same thou wilt find the Dr. hath indeed Hype bolized and verified what hath been observed of him viz ●hat his Rhetorick is better than his Reason that being exceedingly extravagant through the want of this for his speech sounds better than it informs and pleaseth as it passeth not as it is po●dered I have often heard of Queen Elizabeths Character of a Sermon first preached and then printed viz. That it was the best in hearing but worst in reading And that the Preachers Apology was that Her Majesty in reading had his Fiddle not his Fiddlestick My serious advice must be to this Reverend man if it be not below him to take it never hereafter to sunder these two for his Oratory loseth its lustre and efficacy with its sound This and works of this nature are commended to thee noc to the end it should maintain or promote the Controversies conce ning the Common Peayer Book which have been so high in nature Witnesse the troubles at Francksord An. 1554. in the times of Queen Mary and long in continuance ever since before the reign of Queen Elizabeth that would men with serious and composed spirits consult the Churches peace to which they so fairly pretend it would be found a sufficient Reason to abolish this Book and make void this Form of publick Worship which none dare affirm necessary and therefore must confess to be alterable when found inconvenient but to convince the World the Ministers who do yet demurr to the use thereof are not without conscientious grounds for their so doing which they could with much ease and equity digest into an Apology what serious Christian can observe the malici us vexations of Ministers by the spight of many Church-warders and particular persons prosecuting their faithful and able Ministers unto the loss of their Estates imprisonment of their persons and at least present interruptions of their Ministry though the want of a Standard wherby to try the Common-prayer Book which hath had its change by every of our Kings sirce the Reformation of Religion must needs render their conviction impossible to every understanding and conscientious Juror Or the Bishops wilful and pertinacious refusing to ordain institute or induct any Ministers unlesse they will subscribe the use of the Common Prayer Book to be lawful and that they will use it in all publick prayer and none other according to the Canon whose establishment by Law is donbted and denied notwithstanding His Majesties Gracious Indulgence in his Royal Declaration every way proportionable to that Authority by which these Canons were at first established or those heavy Censures and harsh Invectives proudly belched out by our Antagonist against all such as do not presently conform to the use thereof as guilty of peevishnesse ingrat●tude schismatical petulancy or pride not so much as considering what hath been by one well suggested That the prudence of some expecting the alteration promised in his Majesties Declaration doth supersede the Act which their desire of the peace Considerat of Liturgy p. ● Tho. Bold in his Rhetorick restrained pag. 3. unity and uniformity of the Church doth incline them unto Can I say these things be observed and men not see plainly that some pretending to the healing of our wounds do propose and persue wayes and methods which must needs bespeak them Physitians of no value nay of more cruelty than skill frustrating the very influence of His Majesty's plaister applied by His Gracious Declaration constraining men who otherwise might with all humble thankfulnes enjoy in silence the liberty indulged by open and publick Apologies to stave off the violent and unjust censures of proud and envious men Christian and Courteous Reader I have in Loyalty to His Majesty with such fervency and fidelity asserted His

just Interest that it may rationally be concluded I would not in the least decline His just Desires or deviate from his Royal Command did not Conscience towards God countermand the Compliance with them And I am so much affected to the peace of the Church that I have of late preached what God assisting I resolve to practice viz. That many and great corruptions in Gods Worship are to be grieved for and patiently groaned under before Schisme be consented un o or seperation consulted Provided nevertheless I be passive not active in them I can keep communion under that Form of Worship whereby I cannot administer and heartily say Amen to the matter of those Petitions which are put up●n an order so confused preposterous and indigested that it seems to me to be so much below the gravity of the Church whose mouth I must be the seriousnesse of the Office whereby I minister the sanctity of the Duty I am to perform and the s●ored nature of the Object to whom they are presented that I dare not stand between God and his people with the same Calvins Epistle to Mr. Knox Mr. Wittingham and the brethren at Franck ford and therefore cannot but in my place and capacity contend against it and with Calvin in this very case allow their constancy who strive for a just cause being forced against their will unto contention and worthily condemn the frowardness which doth 〈◊〉 and stay the holy carefulness of ref rming the Church Let not men mistake us I profess it for my self and presume I may do it for many of my Brethren we are not against Set-forms of prayer or their use in publick we believe them lawful and convenient but not necessary and therefore not to be exclusively imposed they may be helps to weakness and happy expressions of special emergent occasions of prayer or praises in the Church I do believe the Church of the Jewes had certain Set-forms of prayer and praises but I believe also they were occasional and transient indited by the Holy Ghost and composed by Holy men for that present and peculiar occasion of this nature was the Song of Moses Deborah and Barak and Davids Psalme in 2 Sam. 22. and that at placing the Ark in the Tabernacle 1 Chron. 16. which beareth this Note upon it Then on that day David delivered this Psalm to thank the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his Brethren and many other Psalms and Set-forms which are referred to their special occasions for which having served they were added to the Canon of Scripture as witnesses of Gods dealings and directions of his peoples duty in all future Ages but were never compacted into a set Liturgy prescribed and imposed as the only standing Form of Worship the Jewish Rabbines tell us from Moses to Ezra more than one thousand years the Jewes had no stinted Forms of prayer in their Church and yet they had two considerable Reasons to have enforced it which we Christians have not their infant weak estate wanted Crutches and the time of the pouring out the spirit of supplication was not yet come 2. The Forms were indited by holy men in this very act inspired by the Holy Gkost I am easily perswaded the several parts of the Service-book were composed by single persons and who so will read Isidior Durandus His Parallel of the Liturgy and Mass-book and the Rationalists will find the time when the occasions on which and the reasons for which they were appointed in the Church Mr. Baylie hath assigned many parts thereof to the particular Popes Ecclesiastical policy Book 5. Pag. 265. and seasons prescribing the same and our own Hooker reports so much of the Letany or Rogations that chief part of our Service but that these things perished not with their Authors and occasions I see no good Reasons for it admit we that they were the good expressions of good men on good occasions yet they were only expressions of men not inspired by the Holy-Ghost and unwarrantably resolved into a Liturgy and made unjustly exclusive to the expressions of good men succeeding as in time so in capacity to express their own desires as their occurrent occasion should direct in no less sacred expressions the alterable condition of the Church doth necessitate their expression to be alterable I pray what part of our contended-for Liturgy as exactly perfect shall solemnize the saul-humbling memorial of the malicious mischievous Murther of His late Majesty to be held on the 30th of January or the God-praising memorial of the Happy and Honourable Return of his Sacred Majesty that now is to be observed Annually on the 29th of May. I hope men shall not be indicted for making mention thereof by conceived prayer or praises none being in the Book prepared or prescribed which can do it for it is most unreasonable that we should be imposed upon by the personall composures of private fancies who without warrant compose set forms and therein vent their own superstitious notions as hath been attempted by the books published as forms of prayer for the 29th of May and 30th of January the last of which was sent in the name of the Bishop of London to our Churches if by his Authority I conceive not more to the offence of many Godly men then Breach of the Laws and Usurpation on his Majesties Authority and abuse of his Royal Power punishable with a Praemunire In reference to this variation the Church might and must keep a standing Council to vary the Liturgy if we be not bound to dependance on the Spirit which the Apostle directeth when we know not what to ask Rom. 8.26 as the only help to our infirmities and so excludeth all prescribed prayers which must render the dictating power of the spirit uselesse unlesse the prayer be in an unknown Tongue or ambiguous phrase much at one with latine-service where the spirit is needed as an interpreter not dictator or most perfectly comprehensive words that the mind may expatiate upon and that is peculiar to the Lords prayer and so that must be our only Liturgy That St. John the Baptist taught his Disciples to pray I yield and that our Saviour teaching his propounded to them a most perfect prayer compendious for the manner but most comprehensive for the matter of the expression to be their pattern no serious sober Christian can or will deny but that they were confined to the only or constant use there of none do or dare affirm or that it should be to them the Dictator of a standing Liturgy cannot be rationally inferred because the prescription of it affords no premifes to enforce such a conclusion the Disciples who learned that they might teach the Church never improved it to such an end themselves prayed often and openly in the Church yet only in their own expressions for ought appears to us by holy writ and the nature and order of prayer being a serious expression of the hearts sensible conception doth

Worship are in our places and capacities bound to abolish all things abominable for their unprofitableness and inexpediency but in our places we can onely enforce such abolition by declaring against and not receiving assenting to or admitting as the standing order of publick Administrations that which in our consciences we are convinced is so inconvenient or otherwise qualified that it ought to be abolished as the Jewish did so the Romish Rites must lose their dignity by non-submission to them That our Service-book may be abolished without sin none can or will deny whilst the exceptions against it corrections of it Apologies for its faults and defects with the confessions of such who contest for it do proclaim it an humane Constitution subject to corruption and inconveniency and thereupon alterable at humane pleasure Three things necessitating the Church to abolish what is humane though in it self good are written on our Liturgy in most legible Characters First The similitude and symmetry of it unto the Popish S●rvice and Religion wherein it is both mov●ns minding us of those superstitious dreams and fancies which dictated the order and at first occasioned the use of the several parts thereof as the Sacrament of Pennance Doctrine of Venial sin and P●iestly Absolution the ground of the Confession Misreatur and Absolvtion the miraculous efficacy of the words directing the Kyrie Eleyson with the three-fold sin Original Venial and Mortal which directed it to Father Son and holy Ghost the sanctifying influence of the words of the Pater Noster making it necessary to begin and end nay essential to every act of Devotion and duty of Religion the miraculous power of particular Rogations the Reason of the Letany the hearing of the heavenly Quire which is suggested as the occasion of the Angelick Hymn and so of other parts which I cannot stand to mention but also movens inclining and apting us to receive and again professe that form of worship with little variation or difficulty This similitude and symmetry is apparent by these things 1. The original Extraction of it was and it cannot be denied from the Romish Breviary Ritual Missal and Pontifical Fox Acts and Mon. p. 1272. 1273 1274 1275. into which it may be with ease again resolved 2. By the order and several parts thereof which must run unto Romish fancy for a rational soundation the Word of God and nature of the duty not dictating any 3. By the groundlesse Insurrection of the Rebels of Devon and Cornwal on the introducing of it into the English Church witnessed in the Expostulatory message of King Edward the sixth in these words As for the service-Service-book in English it hath manifest Reasons for it pag. 1189. and yet p●rchance seeme●h to you a new Service and indeed is none other but the old the self-same words in English which w●re in Latine if the service of the Church were good in Latine it remaineth good in English for nothing is alter'd but to speak with knowledge what was spoken in ignorance 4. The attractive influ●nce it had on the Papists who for eleven years in Queen Elizabeth's time came to Church without any conversion to true Religion Abbot Bishop of Canterbury in his Explicatio illustrium quaestionum c. 4. p. 112. Morton's Appeal p. 46. but on the conformity of the English to the Romish service on which ground Pope Plus the 4th and Gregory the 13th offered to confirm it and the Fathers of Trent assured our Catholick Nobles that the Pope might do it without any dammage to the Catholick Cause And the Messengers from Rome entertained here by Secretary Walsingham at their return wondered their Lord the Pope was so ill advised or at least informed as to Interdict a Prince whose service was so like his own and caused the Bull against the Queen to be recalled 5. Bristow's Motive 34. The assurance Harding Bristow and Carrier those seducing Jesuites gave themselves that they might yet convert England to the Catholick Church whose Service and Ceremonies she yet retained Confid p. 45. sect 8 9. the l●st of whom saith expresly The English Common-prayer and Catechism containe●h no point of Doctrine contrary to the antiquity of the Romish Service 6. The Service was and yet is the Engine of Accommodation between Rome and England on the designed Spanish Match unto which none was more potent than the similitude and symmetry of the English to the Romish Service Cabala Lord Keepers Letter to the Duke p. 79. of which that the Court and Clergy of Spain might be convinced the Bishop of Lincoln then Lord Keeper caused the English Liturgy to be translated into Spanish by a Franciscan seeming Protestant and sent it to the Duke of Buckingham there resident to obviate the Exception Ecclesiastick policy lib. 5. sect 28. and facillitate the Enterprise This to some seemeth an Exception of no value and I concede to the learned Hooker that 't is too hard to say in nothing we may follow Rome for in what they do as men Nature will necessitate what as prudent men Discretion will advise what as Christian men Religion will constrain us to conform But our stumble is at what they do as Romish Babylon for as such disordered and superstitious service is derived from them and the difference is vast between Scriptures Sacraments and Ministery which must not nor can be changed because they passed through a Romish Chanel and human Constitutions of Method and Order which ought so to differ from as to speak detestation of what is Idolatrous and determine an incapacity if possible of being thereinto again resolved The removal of the High Places did not more advance the Reformation than the not-demolishing them did occasion and facillitate Israel's backsliding in Religion Sure I am the Primitive Fathers and our Protestant Writers apprehended God's mind to be that His People avoid the Symbols as well as abhor the Substance of False-worship and infer it from Exod. 23.13.20 Zech. 13.2 Deut. 7.15 Isa 30.22 1 Thess 5.22 Jud. 23. and interdicted in their Councells conformity to the Jews or Heathens in their Festivals Eusebius devita constant lib. 3. cap. 17. observation of Easter Fasting on Sundays Monuments of Martyrs adorning their houses with Bay-leaves and green Boughes and bringing Wine and Cakes to the Church and the like Concil Cartha Can. 5.14 15. Bract. Can. 32.73 Con. Phi. Can. 27. De Corona militum lib. de Idolatria August Confess lib. 6. cap. 2 Confutation of the man of Chester fol. 54. against all which * Tertullian urged with much earnestness our Arguments as doth also Ambrose to * Monica the mother of Austin who are seconded by Calvin Musculus Beza Zanche Peter Martyr our own Fulk Jewel Andrews Sutliffe and who not against the Papists in many things Rejected and the Rejection thereof defended by this very Plea And Bishop Pilkington in our very case of the Common-prayer book confesseth That in Mariage which is least offensive

and many other things we are too like unto the Papists and that it is our fault generally that we differ no more from them in all our Ministry I wish we find men convinced of the Nature and resolved for the Duty of Seperation from Babylon and Antichrist of which if they doubt they may well plead for this grand prop of their uniting Fabrick so suitable to what is catled Catholick Religion but for us we judge Separation not sufficient unlesse it proclaim Detestation and resolve union to be the result of Papists murning Protestants and cannot but endeavor to abolish what is like and suitable to their service But Secondly The Scandal given by this Service-book doth constrain the abolishing of it That it hath been a stone of stumbling and Rock of offence unto the sin of some and sufferings of others no observing Protestant can possibly deny and it hath been made most plainly legible by the troubles of Frankford constant complaints of men fearing God in the times of Queen Elizabeth and King James at the Conference at Hampton Court Anno 1603. the Corrections promised though not performed the Apologies and Challenges of the silenced suspended Ministers of Lincoln Devon and Cornwal the High Commission and Visitation Censures the earnest Petitions and importunate Remonstrances from London and all parts of England the Commotions of Scotland sinful separations from the Church of many weak men hereat scandalized obduracy aad ostentation of the Papists complaints of the Reformed Churches and finally by the concurrent judgment of the lare * Preface to the Directory Assembly of Divines and Determination of Lords and Commons in Parliament Assembled on this ground and consideration among others laying it aside by their * Ordinance for taking away the Common-prayer book Jan. 3. 1644. Authority unto the unspeakable joy and content of many pious and prudent men That offences and stones of stumbling occasions of sin or ruine ought to be taken out of the way and abolished none that know the word of Christ Mat. 18.6 7 8 9. the wariness and warnings of the Apostle who would rather never eat fiesh than offend the weak 1 Cor. 8.9 10 11 12 13. Rom. 14. or the worth of immortal souls can or will deny Thirdly The scandal symmetry of the Service-book doth not so much satisfie us and stir us up unto the desire of abolishing the same as to see it so shamefully Idolized by not only the Vulgar but such as affect to be accounted the Fathers of the Church in which respect it calls as loudly for a zealous Hezekiah to make it a Nehushtan and break it in pieces as ever he did the Brazen Serpent This Idolizing of the service-Service-book is grown most obvious and common having been super-superlatively expressed by the applause of it acclamations for it as the unum necessarium of salvation only way of Gods worship and all of piety unto the thrusting out Preaching and planting in the Church a Reading Ministry appropriating to it the effect and attributing to it the honor of all Gods Ordinances palliating all prophaneness and neglect of piety by the bare use of the service-Service-Book and zealously persecuting unto bonds and death if possible all that decline to use it thinking they do God good service I have been often astonished at the high devotion to it D. John Gauden and commendation of it by meaner persons but the considerations of our Antagonist hath scrued it to that heighth that if it presage and provoke not its utter extirpation I cannot but conceive men want sense or zeal In his florid expressions he thus extolls magnifieth our Service book unto that heighth that I tremble to transcribe his terms This Liturgy is the most excellent means to preserve the truth of Christian and Reformed Religion Considerations of the Liturgy pag. 10 11 12 42 43. it is necessary for the holy harmony and sweet communiou of all Christians mightily conduceth to the salvation and edification of the meaner sort of people the Christian Religion cannot easily be planted nor thrive among the Countrey or common people without a setled constant Liturgy imposed and used nor can the Reformed part of Religion be preserved in England to any flourishing degree without the Liturgy be maintained as the firm and most impregnable Bulwark against Romish Superstition upon the Liturgy dependeth the peace and unity of this Church as much as the House did on its Pillars which Sampson pulled down The Liturgy is the only bond of Loyalty Love and Duty to Soveraign Majesty the only Basis of Glory Charity Vnity Safety Reformation and true Religion that in the variation of the Liturgy England must shake hands with all these And much more to this purpose in which if he say true we must cast off Confessions of Faith cease from Catechising silence Preaching suspend Statutes slight Sacraments receive and read the Service-book the Ark of Gods presence assurance of Salvation all in all of Piety and Morality Almighty instrument to convince of sin convert to God conjoyn to the Church confirm against Error and conduct to Glory It is sure time and reason this holy Book be placed on the Altar handled and opened by the Priest only with no less reverence than the Jews Thorah or Papists Mass-Book or rather cast out of the Church with indignation But our Second Exception against the service-Service-Book on which we pray we may not be pressed to the use of it is this 〈◊〉 The form and onder of this Liturgy is Superstitious Second Exception against the Liturgy or unsutable to Publick Solemn Worship I shall not now meddle with the matter of this Book which by its ambiguous phrase is obnoxious to the Exceptions taken to it Be that good yet forma dat essentiam the form and order must constitute it solemn publick worship And in that I conceive something will be found Superstitious an evident 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Will-worship humane invention without beyond divine prescription His Spi●itual House pag. 144. I must tell Mr. Masterson who affects that term it seems to be a plain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an over-earnest importunate unwarrantable approach to God which can expect no other Answer than Who hath required these things at your hand not directed by the Word or dictated by the nature of a duty but founded in the superstitious fancies of men Of which nature I judge these particulars 1. The whole extraordinary Service Epistles Gospels Collects and Lessons appointed for Wednesdays Fridays Lent other Holy-days whichmaketh a difference in days and gives them some dignity above others and sets them in a parity with the Lords day sanctifi'd by God our Saviour and that in honor of the Saints or memory of the parts of our Redemption which abstractedly considered are mysteries not mercies and this without any appointment of God See my Fastning St. Peters Fetters Sect. 3. pag. 55. who only can make Time holy or

a fixed possture of body and mind without unnecessary variation of place or gesture from Desk to Table now kneeling anon standing and therefore transient salutations affectionate friendly Christian wishes quickning versicles desultory short options by leaps and starts which may beseem Ejaculatory cannot square with the more serious and composed frame of solemn Prayer 4. These expressions must be openly uttered by the Minister the People attending the same in sil●nce that on due apprehension they may give their assent and enforce it with their Amen for the Minister is their mouth to God and Amen is the part and onely part that good order and Gods word doth appoint the people in their Assembly and then their popular Responds concurrent Acclamations the peoples Rogations supplicative or deprecative Options on the Ministers rehearsal of Mercy Misery or Duties do square better with the confused vulgar clamors condemned in the Heathen than chains solemn publick Prayer 5. These expressions must be uttered at once in a set and continued discourse without interruptions by intermingled duties unnecessary stops abruptions salutations versicles responds abbreviations pauses and postings on again with a Let us pray when nothing but prayer is in hand all which do better sute the sacred phrensie of the fanatick Heathen Priests in their Idol and fantastique service and devotion than that solemn Worship of God which ought to be the result of the spirit of a sound mind On consideration of this unsutableness to solemn publick prayer I should have told the learned Hooker That though God as a great God knoweth our wants and is more gracious than to make His Answer depend on the artificial order and method or frame of our prayers yet when in the sight of men wespeak with God after the manner of men Ecclesiastick polity lib. 5. sect 34. pag. 253. it is our duty to speak in that g●●ve serious and composed order that may bespeak us men of sound minds and so sensible of the nature of the Duty and Majesty of God worshiped in it that our Rudenesse may not engender Irreverence and expose our God and His Service to the scorn of men Nor is it an argument of any force that our first Reformers rejoyced in this Service and the Non-conformists themselves used it For we must not be acted by Example but Rule and conceive our case different from the one and the other To the first the Infancy of Reformation might rejoyce in and grow up under that order of Divine Service which the adult estate thereof must cast off because some of the Martyrs rejoyced in some broken pieces and rude Translations of the Scripture must we therefore be therewith contented and not correct them We our selves at the first comming out of Popery should have thought a Bohemian Cup at Sacrament or a Masse in English to be a very high attainment not knowing things more excellent but when enlightned must not therein acquiesce Calvin wrote to the Church at Franckford that if godly Religion had flourished till that day there ought to have been an order of Service better corrected and many things clean taken away And shall we who have enjoyed true Religion more than 80 years since that time yet continue and contend for that service-Service-book as if ashamed to give place to better things We must indeed confesse the Non-conformists used some parts of this Service but we humbly conceive our case is different from theirs they had been educated under and insensibly yoaked with it and drawn to subscribe a promise to use it and None other by reason whereof they groaning under it as their burden were to consider how to obtain a Regular Release from the corruptions which by reason of the peace of the Church credit of their Ministry and sidelity as far as might be to their Promise prudence did forbid to cast off with violence wherein yet there wanted not some witnesses against it But our case is to take on us not cast off the service-Service-book on just grounds and by lawful Authority laid aside to which we generally were not engaged wherein we may well be warned by the burden of our Progenitors and have reason to look before we leap the rather because we are under a sacred Oath which will duly if not directly bind against it And this leads me to our third Reason for not receiving and using the Book of Common-prayer which is this The Common-prayer book hath been expelled by a lawful Authority and stands excluded by a most publick National Third Exception to the Liturgy solemn League and Covenant That the solemn League and Covenant is just and lawful in its Matter and publick and National for its Quality I have demonstrated in my Fastring St. Peters Fetters It s positive exclusion of this Service-book will be evident on these Considerations 1. Every of us stand obliged in Sincerity Reality and Constancy to endeavour Reformation of Religion in England in Worship according to Gods Word and the Example of the best Reformed Churches But the Word of God allows not nay it condemns an order of Service which is symbolical to Idol-worship superstitious and unsutable to solemn publick Worship and no Reformed Church hath received and used our service-Service-book Not using Corruption is the least act of our Endeavour for Reformation that we can perform 2. We are obliged to endeavor to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdoms to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Worship And that must be by bringing Scotland to receive our Liturgy which must be done by convincing them of its consonancy to Gods Word and conformity to the best Reformed Churches and that before their forme of worship we have sworn to preserve if in this point any be better than themselves for bellum Episcopale hath already proved too feeble an Argument or by considering their Directory and getting it established in the two Kingdoms unless the Word of God and Reformed Churches can point us to a Medium of some purer way of Worship 3. Preface to 〈◊〉 Directory Though the Directory was not directly and explicitely Covenanted yet the Assembly of Divines advised the Parliament ordained and Ministers of most Counties of England received and attested it in pursuance of their Covenant as most agreeable to the Word of God and example of the best Reformed Churches and the Kings Majesty hath graciously sworn to use it in His Royal Family and ●n the same principle give his Royal assent to the injunctions for it passed or to be passed and endeavour to establish it in all his Dominions Now Lex currit cum praxi and Oaths are well interpreted by concomitant and subsequent actions I think it worth the serious enquiry of such who pretend and pursue a correction of the Service-book whether the Directory be not according to the Word of God and example of the best Reformed Churches and how far the Covenant b nds unto it lest by a correction our King and Kingdom

be plunged under a God-provoking Land-destroying perjury For sure I am the Directory and service-Service-book though amended in most things cannot consist and therefore we must be resolved in this before we receive that when something refined we may suffer we must not sin But here Captain George Masterson that Morpheus of our City A Captain in the Church-regiment for the Common-wealth Ruin● who gave in their Ensign The Law and the Testimony for their Motto wanting nothing but an inculca me tanquam salem insipidum to make him the E●ebolius of our age having turned his Belt into a Girdle and Buff into a Canonical Coat relinquished the Law and the Testimony to run to the Common-prayer Book unto whose plea borrowed from the Learned Hooker these Exceptions are framed biddeth a Stand to my March and tells us in Answer to our Covenant Herod and the Jews lying in wait for Paul sware That is true and if he will make good his Inference of the Covenant I will promise him to save the Hangman the labour and burn it and what I have written for it with my own hands in which if he fail See his S●i●itual House p. 130. he must needs be found wicked and fallacious but that is not strange to him therefore He tells us Lawful Authority is essential to make an Oath obliging but by his leave though it be to make an Oath lawful I deny it to be essential to make it obliging I believe he d●eams every unlawful Oath void but Bishop Sanderson will teach him better Divinity But that his Bowe may not break which could never hold to shoot one forcible Shaft he addes another Paradox To de●y the Covenant wanted lawful Authority is treason He lives indeed near the Inn● of Court and hath conversed much in High Courts of Justice and may blesse God for a gracious Prince that he is not as sensible of Treason as his brother Peters Yet I shall make bold to tell him I have deni'd it and do deny it and yet fear not to be indicted for Treason whilst I have the Authority of his late present Majesty owning them who enjoyned the Covenant a Parliament til his Patron Bradshaw became Preside●t I must be better informed in England's Consti●utions if Lords and Commons sitting in Parliament are not a lawful just though not a full and compleat Authority to th● Orders and Ordinances of which the people owe subjection in which my observation of daily obedience the non-contradiction of the Learned in the Law and the Act for their Continuance making sober and judicious men to doubt of their yet existence though the present Aspect of the Nation cannot bear it doth very much confirm me and yet I would have him know I think I have and shall approve my self a much more loyal Subject to his Maiesty than himself who not onely rejoyced in the death of our late murthered Soveraign but blasphemoufly triumphed over his most Sacred Majesty in the day of His distress at Worcester in these and the like terms The enemy did and might rationally expect See his considence in man preached the last day of the sixth Month 1651. dedicated to John Bradshaw p. 16 17. that if he could set his foot his wearied foot on English ground his strength would take root downward and bring forth fruit upward it could not but be expected on all hands that the further he rolled the greater strength he would gather Yet behold admi●e God though at his entrance he leave our Army fourscore miles in his Rear their flesh wearied and spiri● almost languishing through the continued difficulties they met with in a strange Land though he appear in a Countrey very fond of him though he march with an Idol in the head of his Army the name of a King to which the generality of this Nation are very superstitious too ready to ●ow down and submit their necks to a Tyrants foot yet behold his strength is at a stand much about a scantling as it was when he fled out of Scotland Let us remember Newbery and Marston and Naseby remember Dunbar and Fife and Sterling Is not this a most faithful Subject and judicious man to charge Treason on all such as esteem the Two Houses of Parliament a lawful Authority Yet This Authority was that which expelled the Liturgy and received to their Ordinance for that purpose so much of assent from his late and present Majesty that makes me sure it amounts in equity and conscience if not by the punctilioes of the Law to a full and compleat Authority especially considering it to be enforced by the Emphasis of an Oath Courteous Reader I will hold thee no longer but beg thy excuse for this too wide a Portal for the Authors more compendious Fabrick which hath been framed to fence off the force and fury of passionate and censorious men who think nothing but peevishness with-holds from using the Common-service book That the one and the other may inform convince and confirm is the hearty prayer of Thine and the Churches Servant striving for the purity plainness and simplicity of Gospel-Worship ZACH. CROFTON From my Study at Gravel-lane in Houndsditch London Jan. 26. 1660. Dr. Gauden's LITVRGICAL CONSIDERATIONS CONSIDERED The PREFACE Aphor. 1 HIppocrates tells us That in the cure of a sick person as the Physician must do his part so the sick person must do his part and the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Liebantius in his Scholia interprets Apothecarires and Chirurgions c. Assistants to the physician must do their part else the cure may be hindered How long this poor Church hath lain sick and languishing is too well known to the Christian World divers have tried their skill to heal us but have proved Physicians of no value How many thoughts this hath caused our Royal Soveraign the King of our Prayers since God hath in so wonderful a manner brought Him to His Throne he knoweth best I doubt not but He made His Prognostick so soon as He saw the Patient that the disease was most difficult of cure yea to bring this Church to such a healing and healthy complexion that God might delight to look on it was a thing impossible for any Physician but such a one who is infallible in the knowledge of the disease and of the medicines which must heal and could irresistibly cause the Patient to take the Physick and Omnipotently concurre to the blessing of it One thing that makes some diseases as the Hypochondriaca Affectio into which the perplexed thoughts and cares about our state may be enough to bring His Majesty so difficult of cure is found in our disease viz. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viscerum wherein the medicines which are good for one hurt another Some men pretending Antiquity for fifteen hundred years cannot be healed unless the Physician prescribe a Bill of six hundred yea a thousand Churches to one Bishop as Cyprian and Austin had if