many other Books that were thrown into the fire to him it happened that a Common-Prayer-Book fell between his hands which he joyfully received open'd and read till the flame and smoak suffered him not to see any more and then he fell to Prayer holding his hands up to Heaven and the Book between his Arms next his Heart thanking God for that mercy in sending him it Acts Men. pag. 18 18. Doctour Taylor in the Conference between him and Gardiner Jan. 22. Anno 1555. There was saith he set forth by the most innocent King Edward for whom God be praised everlastingly the whole Church-Service with great deliberation and Advice of the Learned Men of the Realm and authorized by the whole Parliament Which Book was never Reformed but once and yet by that one Reformation it was so fully perfected according to the Rules of our Religion in every behalf That no Christian Conscience can be offended with any thing therein contained Acts Mon fol. 1521. Mind the words of this Holy Martyr No Christian Conscience can be offended with any thing therein contained and yet what Swarms of Exceptions fly in the Face of it A plenteous showr of Rain seldom brings forth more Mushroms or Toad-Stools then the late Luxuriant Age hath produced Exceptions against this Book Concerning which take the Judgment of Mr. Hooker Whosoever doth measure them by number must needs be out of love with a thing that hath so many faults Whosoever by weight cannot choose but esteem very highly of that wherein the wit of so scrupulous Adversaries hath not hitherto observed any defect which themselves can seriously think to be of moment Eccles Pol. B. 5. Sect. 27. The examination of these Exceptions will be our third Step. III. The Exceptions commonly brought against our Liturgie are either general or more particular First In general two things are chiefly laid to its charge 1. It is a Superstitious Worship In answer to this First I presume that as they say Proverbially Every man that talks of Robin Hood never shot in his Bow So every one that cryes out Superstition doth not well understand what Superstition is for Superstition in the proper and strict Notion and signification of the Word is the Worship of Idols or Dead Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Superstites Thus St. Paul tells the Athenians I perceive that in all things you are too superstitious Act. xvii 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus I suppose no man hath the Fore-head to charge our Liturgie with Superstition Superstition in an improper and more generally-received Notion is when things are either abhor'd or observed with a zealous or fearful but erroneous relation to God By means of which the Superstitious serve either the true God with needless Offices or defraud Him of Necessary Duties or bestow such honour and service upon others as is proper for and should be peculiar to him onely That our Liturgie confers any Honour or Service proper and peculiar to God upon others no man hath yet affirmed That it requires needless Offices to be performed to the true God no man can say who believes that God who made oar Bodies as well as our Souls requires the external Worship of our Bodies as well as the inward Service of our Mind A man cannot express too much in the out-side provided the invisible part come not short of it and I must-say I know not how the stifness of the Knee can be 〈…〉 from defect of Humility at least if not of true Piety also Secondly There may be as much Superstition in rejecting of our Liturgie as in retaining it as much Superstition in opposing as in asserting Ceremonies A Negative Touch not Taste not Kneel not Bow not may be Superstitious as well as the Affirmative An ignorant fear of displeasing God 〈◊〉 such a Form or Circumstance of Worship â—ay be Superstitious as well as a Blind Zeâ—â— or Fear is of all Affections Anger excepted the unaptest to admit any Conference with Reason While a man Superstitiously fears lest he should offend in doing this or that he sins against God and his own Soul in leaving that undone which his Reason if he hearkened to the Voice of it would tell him he might and ought to do This is the first and great but you see groundless Exception against our Liturgie The second is like unto it namely that Our Liturgie is Popish or too near Popery being taken out of the mass-Mass-Book To this I answer First In the words of Learned Mr. Hocker It were violent and extream to say that in nothing they may be followed who are of the Church of Rome They acknowledg the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to be the Word of God They make Profession of all the Articles of the Faith one God one Saviour one Baptism it will not I hope be deemed Popery in Us to do so because they do it Some things they do as men some things as wise men some things as Christian men in these we may follow them Some things they do as misled and blinded with Errour As far as they follow Reason and Truth we fear not to tread the same steps in which they have gone and to be their followers While Rome keeps that which is antienter and better others whom we much more affect leaving it for newer and changing it for worse we had rather follow the perfection of them whom we like not then in their defects resemble them whom we love Eccles pol. B. 5. Sect. 28. We are sorry saith Learned Doctour Covel that their weakness taketh offence at that which we hold as an honour and a virtue in the Church of England namely that we have so sparingly and as it were unwillingly dissented from the Church of Rome with whom if the Corruptions of that Church would have given us leave we would have willingly consented in their whole Service which being unsafe and unlawful we follow them notwithstanding in all wherein they follow those Holy and Antient Fathers which first planted the Truth among them Modest Exam. pag. 185. Secondly It is no ways probable were our Liturgie Popish that the Papists would be such violent Opposers of it We are assured by an Argument of Christ's own making that it is not Popish for saith our Saviour Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation and an house divided against an house falleth Luke xi 17. John Ould in Queen Mary's days wrote against the Papists in Defence of the Common-Prayer-Book And Cranmer made a Challenge That if he might be permitted by the Queen to take to him P. Martyr and four or five more they would enter the Lists with any Papists living and defend the Common-Prayer-Book to be perfectly agreeable to the Word of God and the same in effect which had been for fifteen hundred years in the Church of Christ Thirdly It is a known truth that our Reformers retained not any part of the Popish Service but reformed their
Congregation of Christians in all the World hath received and embraced the Episcopacy we contend for To this all the Fathers without exception of any one bear witness He among them who ascribes least to Episcopacy St. Jerom who was not a Bishop but a Presbyter of an inferiour Order whose Testimony therefore may stand in stead of many saith In toto orbe decretum est ut unus de Presbyteris electus caeteris superponeretur ad quem omnis cura Ecclesiae pertineret It is universally decreed that one chosen from among the Presbyters should be set over the rest to whom the whole care of the Church should appertain And that this was the universal Custom of the Church appears by this because those Hereticks who made a separation from the Church Catholick did yet retain this Order among them Thus the Authour of the Homilies upon St. Matthew Hereticks in their Schism have all those things among them which are proper to the true Church Similiter Ecclesias similiter Scripturas similiter Episcopos caeterosque Clericorum ordines They have their Congregations Scriptures Bishops and other Orders of the Clergy as the Church hath Aerius indeed in a Pang of indignation because he missed a Bishoprick which he stood for would have made himself equal to the Reverend Bishops by broaching this Doctrine Presbyterum ab Episcopo nulla differentia discerni debere That a Presbyter ought not to be distinguished by any difference from a Bishop but this errour of his was condemned by the whole Church When one wrote to St. Jerom Nihil interest inter Episcopum Presbyterum There is no difference between a Bishop and a Presbyter he reproved him sharply in the Answer which he returned Hoc satis imperite This was not said for want of ignorance In portu ut dicitur naufragium you make shipwrack as they say Proverbially in the Haven Thirdly The Episcopacy under our present consideration is of venerable Antiquity in the Church having it's rise in the Apostles time In proof of which we can have no better Evidence then the Catalogue of Bishops in Irenaeus Eusebius Socrates and Theodoret who begin from the Age in which the Apostles lived Now no man can deny his assent to such Grave Authority so unanimously conspiring in matter of fact without incurring the guilt of singular irreverence and pertinacy It is as if one should deny that which all the Roman Histories affirm that the Consulship of Rome began from the Banishment of the Tarquins Will you hear St. Jerom Alexandriae a Marco Evangelista Presbyteri unum semper ex se electum in celsiori gradu collocatum Episcopum nominabant Ep. 85. The Presbyters of Alexandria ever since St. Mark the Evangelist having chosen one from among themselves and exalting him to an higher place stiled him Bishop St. Mark died in the eighth year of Nero about the year of our Lord 62. whose Successour St. John the Apostle yet living was Amianus to him succeeded Abilius to Abilius Cerdo After the Death of St. James Simon succeeded him in the Bishoprick of Jerusalem After St. Peter's departure Linus Anacletus and Clement or as some St. Peter yet living sate in the Episcopal Chair at Rome as Evodius and Ignatius did at Antioch A Record of such Antiquity confirmed by Ignatius the Disciple of St. John cannot be rejected by any save such onely who have no Faith for any thing that themselves saw not Who may as well deny that ever there was a Philip of Spain or Lewis of France or Henry King of England as that the persons before mentioned were Bishops of their respective Sees Fourthly The Episcopacy we intend is approved by Divine Right or as Bucer expresseth it Visum Spiritui Sancto utinter Presbyteros unus cur am singularem gereret It seemed good unto the Holy Ghost that one among the Presbyters should have the especial care of the Church Of this we have an undeniable Argument in the book of the Revelations where we find Christ from Heaven commanding St. John to write unto the seven Angels of the Churches of Asia The Title of Angel may I acknowledg be applyed in a general signification to every particular Pastour or Presbyter But here it is manifest Christ intends one in each Church onely whom he stiles the Angel in a proper and peculiar sence For It is no ways probable that Churches so large of such vast extent as Ephesus Smyrna and the rest were had but one Pastour or Presbyter in each of them Nay it is certain and evident concerning Ephesus that in the days of St Paul there were many Presbyters ordained or constituted to feed the Church of God Acts 20.17 And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called the Elders of the Church and said unto them verse 28. Take heed unto your selves and to all the flock c. to feed the Church of God And we may as rationally conclude concerning the rest that there were many Pastours in each Church Why then should Christ direct his Epistle to one the Angel if there had not been one among them of a Superiour Function and more eminent Dignity Sub Angeli nomine saith St. Augustine Epist 162. laudatur praepositus Ecclesiae Under the name of the Angel he commends the Prefect of the Church Angelos Ecclesiis Praesidentes dixit Hierom By Angels he understands the Presidents of the Churches And for Smyrna Polycarpus was without controversie Bishop of it ordained by St. John as Bullinger himself acknowledgeth and Irenaeus saith of him l. 3. c. 3. Polycarpus non solum ab Apostolis eruditus c. Polycarp was not onely instructed by the Apostles and conversant with divers of those persons who saw our Lord in the flesh but in Asia he was constituted by the Apostles Bishop of the Church of Smyrna whom I saw saith the Father while I was a young man I wholly wave many other Evidences and descend to a late Protestant Writer Marlorat in locum St. John saith he mentions first the Church of Ephesus in respect of the dignity of the place Nec populum aggreditur sed Principem Cleri utique Episcopum And he doth not apply himself to the people but to the Principal of the Clergy to wit the Bishop And because the Authority of Mr. Beza and Doctour Reinolds may possibly go furthest with those who have no great friendship for the Episcopal Dignity let us in the Point in hand hear them To the Angel saith Beza id est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quem nimirum oportuit inprimis de his rebus admoneri ac per eum caeteros collegas totamque adeo Ecclesiam That is the President who first ought to be admonished and by him his Colleagues and so the whole Church Reinolds in his Conference with Hart c. 8. Sect. 3. saith Though there were in the Church of Ephesus many Presbyters and Pastours to Administer to that Church yet there was one ever those many whom our Saviour stiles the
taken it justifies his doing of evil by doing of worse Since therefore through the goodness of God and his Majestie 's undaunted Resolution the Reverend Bishops are restored to the Church and sent as Governours by the King if you be Members of this Spiritual House you must submit to their Directions and Injunctions in all Rites Ceremonies and Circumstances of Religion Which fairly leads me to the last thing intended the Consideration and Vindication of the Liturgy of our Church The Calves of our lips our Prayers are a service more acceptable to the God of Heaven then Hecatombs of Oxen Thousands of Rams or ten Thousand Rivers of Oyl An Heathen could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prayers are a more acceptable Sacrifice to God then Oxen. That part of our lives which we spend in Prayer is the most celestial and Divine Prayer is a Duty so absolutely necessary for every person who acknowledgeth a Deitie that Nature hath dictated it to those who were strangers to the Scriptures and Aliens to the Common-Wealth of Israel The Mariners in Jonah when the Storm was upon on them cryed every man unto his God Chap. i. verse 5. and the Mr. of the Ship rebuked the Prophet himself sharply for neglecting this Duty with What meanest thou O Sleeper Arise call upin thy God verse 6. The Sun hath never yet beheld a person so impudent provided he did not say in his heart with David's Fool There is no God as plainly and directly to condemn this Duty In the exercise or performance of which we are diversly concerned after one manner as we are men private persons and after another as we are Christians and members of this Spiritual house on family the Church As Private persons we are left free to make choice of such Time Place and Form as the Exigence of our present occasions require Firs For Time either the Sixth hour as St. Peter in Acts x. 9. or the Ninth hour as the Centurion verse 3 either thrice a day as David at Evening Morning and Noon Psal lv 17. Or Seaven times a Day as He Psal cxix 164. Secondly For Place either in Closet Vpper-Room Garden Fields or elswhere with conveniency Thirdly For the Manner either taking unto our selves words and expressions of our own or making use of apt and pertinent Forms invented by others In all these Circumstances we are free and at our own election as private persons But as we are in Family Members of the house a publick body we are not left free but are under the direction on of our Spiritual guids or Governours in all these respects of time place and form In then two first of these time and place all who are called Christians agree that the King or Governours under him may prescribe that publique Prayers shall be made at such times and in such places onely But the third the prescribing a Form will by no means be allowed by some to the Spiritual Governours or any others And others who allow the King and those who are under him authority to prescribe a form of publique Prayer wil not admit of that which we call The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments I shall endeavour therefore first to vindicate set Forms of Prayer in General and secondly the Liturgy of our Church in Particular First For the lawfulness and expediencie of set Forms of Prayer I offer four Arguments First The Example of God himself and of some Holy men who were enspired by the Holy Ghost In the sixth Chapter of the Book of Numbers verse 22 and foreward you have a form of Blessing the people prescribed by God himself to Aaron and his sons The Lord spake unto Moses saying Speak unto Aaron and his sons saying On this wise ye shall bless the Children of Israel saying unto them The Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his face shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace And as God prescribed the Priests a Form to Bless the people so he prescribes the People a Form in these words And thou shalt go unto the Priest that shall be in those days and say unto him I profess this day unto the Lord thy God that I am come unto the Countrey which the Lord sware unto our Fathers for to give us Deut xxvi 3 and verse 5. Thou shalt speak and say before the Lord thy God A Syrian ready to perish was my Father c. When they went to Battel a Form was prescribed Deut xx 3. a form of Thanksgiving for victory and deliverance Then sang Moses and the Children of Israel this Song unto the Lord and spake saying I will sing unto the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously the Horse and his Rider hath He thrown into the Sea c. Exod. xx 1. This Song was composed by Moses and learned by all the People and repeated again in the same words by Miriam verse 21. And Miriam answered them Sing ye unto the Lord for c. King Hezekiah delivered from Death did not onely compose a Set-Form of Thanksgiving but used it all the Daies of his Life The Lord was ready to save me therefore we will sing my Songs to the stringed Instruments all the daies of our Life in the House of the Lord. Isa xxxviii 20. And the same Hezekiah commanded the Levites to ling praises to God with the words of David and Asaph 2 Chron. xxix 30. VVith the Words of David and Asaph that is with Forms composed by those Sacred Pen-men Secondly The Practise and Precept of our Lord Christ in the New Testament is a second Argument 1. This Practise Matth. xxvi 44. And he left them and he went again and prayed the third time saying the same words And again upon the Cross Matth. xxvii 46. My God my God Why hast thou forsaken me The expresse words ' of David Psal xxii 1. 2. VVe have his Precept likewise in prescribing the Pater Nester not onely as a Pattern but Form of Prayer For though he say in St. Matthew After this manner therefore pray ye Our Father c. Matt. vi 9. yet he saith in St. Luke When ye pray say Our Father c. Luke xi 2. Since therefore Christ in whom all the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledg were hid in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily to whom the Spirit was not given by measure prescribes and practisech a Form of Prayer the Sons of men may without disparagement to their Parts or Gifts lawfully make use of a Set-Form Thirdly The Example of St. John Baptist who taught his Disciples to Pray by prescribing them a Form which occasioned the Disciples of Christ to desire and him to answer their reqnest in giving them a Form Luke xi 1. To which that excellent Person whose loss the Church could hardly have sustained had not God by his Providence in taking him from us near the time of His Majestie 's
happy Restauration swallowed up our Sorrows in victory of that Joy the ever-to-be-Honoured Doctour Hammond adds an Apostolical Example from that saying of Saint Paul in the first to the Corinthians xiv 26. How is it then Brethren When you come together every one of you hath a Psalm Which saith he refers to some of the Psalms of David or Asaph which were then ordinarily used in their devotion and because every one had his several Psalm it is therefore reproved by the Apostle as a thing tending to confusion Fourthly The Practise of the Universal Church He who lists need not glean after the Reapers but may fill his Bosom with sheaves of Testimonies collected by the diligent hand of Cassander and since by the late VVriters concerning Liturgies The Greek Church hath Records of Liturgies or set Forms of Prayer made by St. James contracted by St. Basil and again abbreviated by St. Chrysostom And Histories mention a short Form of St. Peter's which alone they say was used in the Roman Church for a great while And we have mention likewise of St. Mark 's Liturgie But though these may admit some scruple or doubt St. Augustine I am sure speaks of some Forms retained in the Church and still to be found in our Liturgy particularly that in the Administration of the Lord's Supper of Sursum corda c. Lift up your hearts Of which he saith that they are Verba ab ipsis Apostolorum temporibus petita expressions borrowed from the very times of the Apostles And for many other particular Forms used by us we find them in Cyril of Jerusalem his Catechism Ignatius is clear and express for a Form 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ep. ad Magnes Let all meet together to the same action or place in Prayer Let there be oue Common Prayer one minde And waving plenteous Instances take one Grand Testimony of Set-Forms in stead of many The Milevitan Councel c. 12. Plaeuit ut preces quae probatae fuerint in Concilio ab omnibus celebrentur nec aliae omnino dicantur in Ecclesia nisi quae a prudentioribus tractantur vel comprobatae in Synodo fuerint ne forte aliquid contra fidem aut per ignorantiam aut per minus studium sit compositum The Councel thought good that the Prayers which were approved in the Councel should be used by all and that no other should be said in the Church but those that had been weighed by the more prudent or approved in a Synod lest any thing through ignorance or neglect should be done against the Faith These are some Arguments among others for the vindication of Liturgies or Set-Forms of Prayer in General I proceed to consider Secondly The Composition of our Liturgy the Liturgie of the Church England and in pursuance of this I shall advance by three steps I. The Derision Scorn and Reproach which is cast upon our Liturgy by many is so far from being a stumbling-block or stone of offence to scandalize any discerning Christian that it is rather an Argument evincing the dignity and excellency of it For First The best things when they are set up as a mark to shoot at by persons possessed with disdain or dislike of them may be cavilled at and faulted easily scorned and derided Some Criticks have been so bold as to finde fault with the Frame and order of the great Fabrick of the World and called it Blasphemously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confusion or Confused mixture and it is reported of Alphenso Surnamed The Wise one of the Kings of Castile that he used many times to say That if he had stod at God's elbow when he made the World many things should have been ordered better then they were in die first Creation Secondly We ought not to be Scandalized at our Liturgie in respect of the scoffs jears of its adversaries because it is no more then the Holy Ghost hath foretold concerning these times by the Apostles St Peter and St. Jude There shall come in the last days scoffers 2 Pet. 3. There shall be Mockers in the last time Jude 18. Though therefore men stile it in derision The English Mass-Book and The Starve-us-Book and what not that is ugly these may argue the Unchristianness of the persons that belch them forth but they do not evince the Anti-Christianity of our Liturgie Thirdly As when one goes forth to encounter his Adversary with a Rush or Reed onely in his hand we rationally conclude that he hath not a Sword or Spear in his Armory So when men bring railing Accusations onely against our Liturgie we may safely conclude That it is because they are destitute of every thing that is solid or substantial to charge it with Vtatur motu animi qui uti ratione non potest We may indulge them the liberty of their Passion who know not how to make use of Reason II. Though some persons have through ignorance or malice bitterly reproached our Liturgie yet God hath raised up others who have fairly blessed and put a Crown upon the head of it Mr. Calvin himself hath afforded it such a fair Testimony under his Hand that one would think his Disciples for their Master's reputation at least should forbear to blaspheme it Quod ad formulam precum Rituum Ecclesiasticorum valde probo ut certa illa extet a qua Pastoribus discedere in functione sua non liceat Tam ut ccnsulatur quorundam simplicitati imperitiae quam ut certius ita constet omnium inter se Ecclesiarum consensus Postremo etiam ut obviam eatur desultoriae quorundam levitati qui novationes quasdam affectant Ep. 87. wrote to the Duke of Somerset the Protectour 22 Octob. Anno 1548. Concerning your Form of Prayer and Ecclesiatical Rites I do much approve of a certain Set-Form from which it shall not be lawful for the Pastours in their Ministration to recede as well for their sakes who are ignorant and unlearned as that the Consent of the whole Church may thereby the better appear And lastly to prevent the Desultory Levity of some who affect Novelties Arch-Bishop Cranmer having Translated King Edward's common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book into Latine sent it to Mr. Bucer and required his Judgment of it who answered That there was nothing in it but what was taken out of the Word of God or which was not against it commode exceptum being taken in a good sense There are some things indeed quae nisi quis c. which unless they be interpreted with candor may seem not so agreeable unto the Word of God and which unquiet men may wrest unto matter of Contention Upon which occasion that Book was surveyed and in those particulars subject to such Cavils corrected I shall add onely to these two Foreign Testimonies an equal number of our own Countrey-men both Martyrs Mr. John Hullyer Fellow of King's College in Cambridg who suffered Martyrdom in Queen Mary's days Anno 1557. being at the Stake among
Breviary Processional and mass-Mass-Book as they did their Doctrine retaining nothing but what the Papists had received from purer Antiquity which argues onely a fair compliance in us with the Antient Church and not at all with them And if it be said that some Papists have boasted that our Service is but their Mass in English It is certainly a most unreasonable thing that they who will not believe the Papist in any thing else should believe them in their vain boast against us and thinke it an accusation sufficiently proved because some Papists have impudently said it Fourthly The truth is the Papists condemn our Book as much of Schism as the Consistorian do of compliance they accuse it as much of departing from the Church of Rome as the others of remaining with it Now there cannot be a surer evidence of the innocency of our Liturgie then the contrary Censures which it hath undergon between these two Persecutours in the extream it being the dictate of natural Reason that Virtue is infallibly known by this that is it accused by both the Extreams at guilty of either as for instance the true Liberality of mind is by this exemplifyed that it is defamed by the Prodigal for Parcimony and by the Niggard for Prodigality Thus you have some thing in Reply to the Objections in general whereby it appears that our Liturgie is neither Superstitious nor Popish The particular Objections are exceeding many but as Mr. Hooker in his Ep. Dedicatory to his fifth Book for the greatest part such silly things that the easiness renders them hard to be Disputed of in a serious manner I shall briefly consider the most principal of them First For the Litany against which a Cloud of Darts are cast Mr. Hooker a Person of whom it is hard to say whether his Sobriety or Learning may challenge the greatest admiration tells us that the absolute perfection of this piece upbraids with Errour or something worse them whom in all points it doth not satisfy Eccles Pol. B. § 41. Of the rare effects of which he gives us there two famous Instances the one of Mamercus Bishop of Vienna about 450. years after Christ the other of Sidonius Bishop of Averna who by the frequent and fervent use of the Rogation or Litany obtained of God the aversion of portended Calamities and the removing of Famine and a Potent Enemy which besieged them This part of our Service the Litany was Called by the Ancients 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 earnest or intense Prayer and in the Greek Liturgy simply 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 intense or earnest And therefore the Courch requires the Congregation or People to be more exercised in it then in any other part of the Service Concerning which three things have been offered to be justified against any Gainsayers but no man hath yet entred the Lifts 1. That there is not any where extant a more particular excellent enumeration of all the private or common wants of Christians so far as it is likely to come to the cognisance of a Congregation 2. Not a move innocent blameless Form against which there lies no just Objection and most of the unjust ones that have been made are reproachful to Scripture it self from which the Passages excepted against are fetched As for instance That it may please thee to have mercy upon all men from 1. Tim. ii 1. I exhort therefore that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men Not a more artificial composure for the raising of our zeal and keeping it up then this so defamed part of our Liturgy For which and other Excellencies undoubtedly it is and not for any coniuring or swearing in it as some Blasphemously have said that the Divel hath took such care that it should drink de peest of the bitter cup of calumnie and reviling Secondly For the Responser and following the Presbyter or Priest in the Confession of Sins and Profession of Faith They were designed by the Church from the example of pure Antiquity to very profitable uses as 1. By way of mutual Charity the people returning a prayer for the Priest who begins one peculiarly for them The Lord be with you saith the Priest And with thy Spirit Answer the people 2. To quicken devotion which is but to prone to dull and slacken by continual heairng 3. To engage every one present to be no idle or unprofitable spectatour or auditour of the Service onely Thirdly For the three Creeds the Apostles Nicene and Athanasius his Creed they have been of old a badg of the Church a mark to discern Christians from Infidels and Jews I have not yet heard of any thing objected against the matter of any of them The Apostles Creed whether delivered by the Apostles to the Church by Oral Tradition that famous Tradition so much mentioned by the Fathers or gathered out of the Writings of the Holy Apostles is the sum of the whole Catholick Faith the Key of the Christian Faith That of the Councel of Nice was made in that famous Assembly of 318. Bishops against the Heresie of Arrius who denyed the Coeternity and Coequality of the Son with the Father Athanasius his Creed composed by that Father who alone opposed himself to that Torrent of Arrianism which had over flowed the whole world was both in the East and Western-Church accounted as a Treasure of great price There is not any imaginable ground of rejecting either of these unless is be to gratifie the Separatists who are professed denyers of one Article the Holy Catholick Church Fourthly For the Doxology or Glory be to the Father c. it is a very antient Piece the former Versicle of it being according to good Authours composed by the first Councel of Nice and appointed by those Fathers to be used in the Church as a lesser Creed or Confession of the Trinity and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Consubstantiality of the Son and the Holy Ghost with the Father At which it hath therefore been the Custom antiently to stand up Confession of God being a praising of Him to which that Posture is most due and proper And for the other Versicle As it was in the Beginning c. when the Macedonian Hereticks excepted against the Divinity of the Holy Ghost as a Novel Doctrine Saint Jerom Opposition to them added that unto the former Versicle Fifthly For the reading of the Commandements and the Responses after them It must be acknowledged that it is not antiently to be found in the Church as a part of the Service no not till King Edward's second Liturgie by which yet we have this Advantage That Popery cannot be charged upon it yet it will appear to be a profitable Part of Devotion For the Priest after a Prayer for Grace to love God and keep His Commandements Almighty God unto whom all Hearts be open c. is appointed to stand and read the Commandements distinctly to the People and they to receive them in