of this Salutation the people may not utter no not the Deacon and Durand gives a good reason in Rubrica de Salutatione Lib. 4. Sane Diaconus non dicit Dominus vobiscum per horas eò quòd non ita gerit personam Christi sicut sacerdos qui eâ in persona Christi utitur Howsoever it seemes a mocking of God and man that this salutation of the people should bee used where no people is and Innocent besides many other Popish writers doth confesse the acts of the Church which are yet extant in the distinction of consecration never to say this part of the Masse but where the people at least two persons are with the Priest yet now it is otherwise resolved from P. Damianus reasons that the Priest in his chamber alone may well say Dominus vobiscum albeit none be with him because hee must say no other prayers than these which are in the forme appointed by the Church which must be inviolably kept without any change also in that his pensum which for the Church he sayes to God the whole Church with whom he is one in faith is supposed to bee present and to reape the benefit of his prayer so speakes he in his treatise of Dominus vobiscum c. 7. Ecclesiasticae traditionis regulam sive soli sive cum pluribus uniformiter observate si enim Doctores Ecclesiae id expedire decernerent in Ecclesiasticis officijs alium multis ordinem tradidissent sed unum contenti remotâ diversitate composuere unum nos docuerunt ordinem inviolabili semper observatione tenere providerunt enim quia quicquid in divinis obsequijs à quolibet Ecclesiae membro reverenter offertur id etiam fide devotione cunctorum universaliter exhibetur Which most idle superstition our Booke seemes to approve for the first Rubricke obliges every Presbyter to say the morning prayers whereof Dominus vobiscum is a part and gives liberty to say it in private in their secret chamber as well as in publike in their families or Church In the peoples answer and with thy Spirit their meaning is that God may direct the Priests minde that hee may have an intention to pray and to consecrate the sacrifice else their prayers would not bee accepted nor the hoste be trasubstantiated for this see Durand Lib. 4. fol. Hac responsione populus se refert solûm ad actionem immolationis ad quam sacerdos accedit in qua per Spiritum totaliter elevatus ab omni terrenitate prorsus abstractus esse debet For this salutation no author in the time of purer antiquity can be alleaged Bellarmines eldest citations are but trash in the late and corrupter times 12. The Oremus 12. The last part of the preparation is the Oremus the posterior Collects that stand before the Epistle of this more or fewer may be used at the Priests discretion one three five seven keeping alwaies an unequall number Sacerdotes in Missa septenarium numerum non excedant nā Christus septem petitionibus omnia corporis animae necessaria comprehendit quia verò Deus numero impari gaudet sum moperè quidam observant ut impares dicant oratiōes in Missa vel unam vel tres vel quinque vel septem unam vel tres propter unitatis Sacramentum vel Trinitatis mysterium This we observe for at the beginning wee use after the Pater Noster but one and that word by word from the Masse here before the Epistle we use three The first is that of the day which for common is word by word from Sarum as we shall see in due time for the present take but one exāple In the day of Epiphany see if our Collect before the Epistle be not the English of this Oremus Deus qui hodierno die unigenitum tuum gentibus stellâ revelâsti concede propitius ut qui jam te ex fide cognovimus usque ad contemplandam speciem tuae celsitudinis perducamur per eundem Dominum c. The other two are for the King according to the patterne of Sarum also there is nought in them which a Papist will not subscribe to see their Oremus in Sarum conclusiones Missarum Da quaesumus omnipotens Deus famulo tuo Regi nostro salutem mentis corporis ut bonis operibus inhaerendo tuae semper virtutis mereatur protectione defendi per eundem Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum Amen CHAP. III. Proving the Instruction or second part of the Masse with all the particular portions thereof to wit the Epistle Gospel Homilie Credo tractus Gradual sequentia to be in our Booke either actually or virtually The Eight parts of the Instruction are to be found in our Booke THe second part of the Masse which Aquinas and others after him call the Instruction is subdivided into eight portions the first foure onely principall are the Epistle Gospel Creede and Homilie thes wee have all from the Masse the next foure are lesse principall and of small consideration to wit the Graduall Halelujah tractus and sequentia these the Papists will dispense with though they bee left out and our Book-men may not oppose though they be put in but let us goe through all the eight in order 1. The Epistle The first is the Epistle the putting of this peece in the Masse is ascribed to Pope Alexander and Damasus so Gemma Animae cap. 88. Epistolam Evangelium Alexander Papa ad Missam legi instituit Hieronymus autem Presbyter Lectionarium Evangeliarium ut hodiè habet Ecclesia collegit sed Damasus Papa ut nunc moris est legi censuit but who ever have put the Epistle in the Masse it seemes incredible that the abuses of the Epistle which this day are in the Masse and in our Booke from it can have any very ancient or yet very judicious authour Why against the order of the New Testament are the Epistles set before the Gospel the reason which the Rationalists give is that the Epistles are baser then the Gospel Alcuin indeed denies this but Walafridus and the rest after him avow it also because that the Epistle hath the office of Iohn the Baptist making way for the Gospel of Christ they containe morall instructions and are but like to the Law and so their doctrine is of lesse worth then the doctrine of the Gospel the Epistle is read by a Subdeacon in a lower place the people sitting but the Gospel must bee read at least by a Deacon in a high place all reverently standing see Innoc. Lib. 3. c. 29. Durand Lib. 4. fol. 53. I cite but one passage of Rupertus de divinis officijs Lib. 1. c. 32. Epistola vox legis est suam in Joanne imperfectionem profitentis ad perfectionem Evangelicam suos auditores transmittentis Quam vis autem saepè de Apostolicis sumatur literis tamen in eo gradu est ac si semper de lege sit ac Prophetis semper
portion of the Offertory is the placing of the bread and wine upon the Altar the offering of them up to God even before the consecration with certaine prayers to be a peace offering that so they may be fitted for the matter of the Propitiatory sacrifice following of this oblation thus speaks Heigam p. 175. The Priest having placed the bread and wine in a readinesse to be consecrate he requireth the holy Trinitie to accept his oblation and Bellarmine de Missa l. 2. c. 17. Illa prior oblatio praeparatio fuit ad posteriorem oblationem in qua proprie sacrificium consistit quapropter rectè dicitur praeparatum sacrificium quando materia sacranda Deo per quandam oblationem est dedicata To this offering of the bread and wine on the Altar the Romish Church in the late and worst times detorted all what was said in a good sense of the peoples offerings in this they put the maine part of their Offertory almost neglecting all other things to which the terme of offering was wont to be applyed and by this offering made way for that more wicked oblation which follows in the Canon the Church of England detesting this abuse plucked it up by the root and put it far away from their Booke but our men have put it onus in expresse termes and in such a place that the subsequent prayer for the Church must mainly be applyed to it and the Presbyter shall then offer up and place the bread and wine upon the Lords Table that it may be ready for this service or on the Altar that it may be ready for that sacrifice this is now the more ordinary stile of our Booke-makers and then he shall say let us pray The fourth part of the offectory The fourth part of the offertory is a number of prayers said upon the bread and wine not for consecration nor oblation but for acceptation of God to bee the matter of that following sacrifice of these prayers there are five publike 1. suscipe sancte Pater c. pronounced on the bread that God would take it for a sacrifice which the Priest offereth for himselfe for all Christians dead and living that it may profit them The next is offerimus tibi Domine an offering of the Cup with a desire that it may goe up in a sweet smelling sacrifice for the sinnes of the world The third is suscipe sancta Trinitas a request for both the bread and wine conjunctly that they may be a sacrifice for the memory of Christs resurrection and for the honour of the blessed Virgin and all the Saints that have pleased God from the beginning of the World The fourth veni sanctificator a request to the holy Spirit to come and fill with his fire the hearts of the faithfull The fift in spiritu humilitatis a desire in the spirit of humility and contrition to bee accepted with the sacrifice they are preparing for God The secret prayers are diverse at the Priests discretion the most common is this short shred for the Church Ecclesiae tuae quaesumus Domine unitatis pacis dona concede quae sub oblatis muneribus mysticè designantur I find also in Sarum joyned to these prayers this short preface fol. 144. Hostias preces tibi Domine offerimus These secrets or this Secretella as Durand styles it are the principall and chiefe prayers of the offertory and the onely prayers which were in use of old in the Masse these we see put in the bosome of our offertory prayers word by word with the forenamed preface whereof Sarums Rubricke sayes Notandum quod in omnibus Missis pro corpore praesenti in anniversarijs cujuscunque fuerint in trigintalibus dicitur hostias preces fol. 144. So wee begin our prayer we humbly beseech thee to accept our almes called immediately before oblations and to receive these our Prayers which we offer unto thy divine Majestie beseeching thee to inspire the universall Church with the Spirit of truth unity and concord c. As for the first five publike prayers they may bee well left out of our Booke for they are not in the old Missalls Bellarmine grants they were all invented of late and are not to be found in any of the old expositers of the Masse quinque autem illae orationes suscipe sancte Pater c. neque antiqua admodum sunt neque in Romana Ecclesia ante quingentos annos legebantur unde etiam Walafridus Rupertus Amalarius Alcuinus imo etiam Innocetius tertius alij veteres non meminerunt illarum orationum sed transeunt ab offertorio ad secretas yea they are of so little consequence that the present Missals take one or two of them as they please at the Printers discretion Sarum printed in a faire edition at Paris 1555. hath only two of them suscipe sancta Trinitas inspiritu humilitatis so though wee should have omitted them in our Booke it would have beene no sacriledge against the Masse albeit no necessity obliges our Booke men to omit any of them three of them for their matter containe no scruple for them to sticke on what inconvenience ariseth from the matter of the other two concerning the honour of the Saints and Prayers for the dead we will see hereafter when we come to the Canon that they make no bones of such things but swallowe them all downe being a little sweetned and mollified with their commodious interpretations We make a sacrifice in honour of the Saints and for benefit of the dead Yea in the same verie place they seeme to make direct way for the worst absurditie in the Masse prayers to wit the offering of the sacrifice of Bread and Wine in honour of the Saints and for benefit of the dead for in that our Offertory prayer longer alone than all the sixe prayers in the Roman Offertory after the hostias and preces which Sarum commands never to be heere omitted and the secretall Ecclesiae tuae quaesumus the onely offertory prayer in the Elder Missals and after the petitions for the King his officers the Clergy and their flockes for those in affliction taken all for their matter out of the Letany as ye may reade it in the Sarum office of the Virgin Mary fol. 124. after all this our Booke subjoynes these new additions to the English Liturgy showing that in this same offertory they will have the Saints highly honored the wonderfull grace and vertue which hath appeared and been declared in these Saints who in their severall generations have beene the lights of the world proclaimed heere to Gods praise What say the Papists more for the honour of the Saints in their offertory the specifying of this generall with the particular names of the Virgin Mary of the Prophets or Patriarches Apostles or Fathers or any men or women who were knowne to have beene the lights of the world in their severall generations will bee nought against the
habitation having once gotten possession in the heart of the great Arch Prelate there from him as the head without much adoe he diffused his venome into the most of the inferior members numbers of the Clergie were incontinent in all the Dominions so farre intoxicated with this pâ—stilentious vapour that how much true protestant life remained in their breast it is hard to say By all appearance too great a number needed no more for their posting to Rome but a Warrant from the King and Parliament yea so great a minde had they to the voyage that many of them notwithstanding of the King and States expresse discharge are found as fugitives much beyond the mid-way if not within the walls themselves of that Babel who pleaseth to perusâ— with attention that late Treatise of the Canterburian self-conviction will find it more easie to recite the Catalogue of Romish errours which were avowed by a great number of Divines with the heartie approbation or at least open countenance of all the Bishops than to finde any abomination of Popery whereof they were free The Canterburians by the meanes of the Liturgie did most promote their wicked designe Amongst the manifold policies employed by these new ingeniers to steale away the hearts of people from their zeale to the Protestant Religion to diminish their hatred of Popish corruptions peece and peece to bring them insensibly within the doores of the Harlots house their master-peece for these ends was the crying up with all their strength of the Liturgie and Popish ritualls they knew that amongst people the capacities of few did reach to the comprehension of doctrinall controversies they perceived that the division of Protestants from Rome was most if not alone sensible in the use of their Liturgie and rituals a civill societie with Papists we did never refuse diverse also make no scruple to come to their Sermons but to countenance their worship to partake of their Sacraments to joyne with them in their Missall Breviatie Pontificall or any other of their Ceremoniall books all true Protestants have ever abhorred as superstitious and idolatrous pollutions To remove this great if not sole wall of separation See Halls defence of his Remonstrance p. 10. our Masters of the new art did make it their chiefe task to frame all the rituals of our Church in such a mode that they should in nothing at all crosse with the least offence the mind of the Pope himselfe and as if it had not been favour enough to Papists to have removed out of our Books of devotion every thing any wayes displeasing to them they will yet more shew their care of complying with the desires of these their friends when the reframing of the Liturgie commeth into their hands by cunning conveyance they will slide in so many more new clauses from the Romish Missall as may serve at their first explanation to be a faire bridge to all our people to walk straight over the ancient ditches of division to the midst of the Citie of Rome They saw by sensible reasons that when we did embrace such a Liturgie as did justifie the Masse Book of the Papists their Breviarie and all other their publick devotions in all the most materiall exceptions we were wont to take at them that then we were brought to an inevitable necessitie to conjoyne at the first occasion with the Papists in these things wherein our separation almost alone was apparent The Liturgie of old was a pregnant mean to subdue England to the Pope Beside reason and sense they were taught by ancient experience that the easiest way whereby the Pope of old subdued the most of the Western Nations to his obedience was by the snare of his Liturgie they were not unacquainted with the history of forraigne Churches at least of their owne It was not onely in Italy France and Spaine where the Pope after his long warres and contests both with the Preachers and people for the receiving of his Ordo Romanus at last sore against the heart both of the Churches and States by the violent oppression of misled Princes did bind the yoke of his service-Service-book so fast on the necks of these realms that to this day the knot of that slavery could never be gotten either loosed by art or cut by force but in England above all Nations the first introduction of the Romish Liturgie was tragicall and tyrannick for notwithstanding of all that the crafty and in famous Apostle Austin could do the Church-men of England were never induced to receive that Roman order till that cruell maledictine Monk by the sword of the mis-informed King had massacred 1200 of the most zealous and innocent of his opposers to the end that the seed of Romish rituals being watered with the blood of so many Martyrs might take the deepâ—r root in English ground surely when once that cruell Monk then Archbishop of Canterbury and the Popes Apostle to England had brought that Romish service into the Church over the carkases of so many martyred Divines the slavery of the whole Nation become so pitifull that for many ages without any possible remedy both their soules bodies and estates were trod upon by the foule feet of the Romane Antichrist These tryed experiences did encourage much of late our Leaders to assay the reducing of our Church in that old beaten path to the obedience of the Apostolick Sea The English Liturgie which contained the mâ—st tolerable fooleries of the old order of Satum was winked at in the beginning of King Edward and Q. Elizabeths Reigne by many gracious men overswayed by the prepotent Popish faction hoping withall in due time by the power of preaching to get all that trash cast out and all the mist of these shadowes dispelled but in this hope they were much deceived for that book which at the beginning might have albeit with some difficultie been gotten quite removed in processe of time was so rooted became so lovely to many of the Clergy that when this new faction of Reconcilers was lifted up on the stage of this Isle they found it the best instrument they could have wished for the promoving of all their designes the greatest follies and most inexcusable faults thereof which in the dayes of former Governours were either altogether neglected or but softly pressed by our new Masters wisdomes were all punctually and most straitly urged these men gave unto many passages of that Book which by a benigne interpretation were wont to be drawne unto a protestant sense their first and native exposition according to the minde of these Popes who had at the beginning composed them and finding it most easie by a little variation to get in much more of the Romish stuffe they procured from the King as if it had beene for the use of the Church of Scotland alone the reframing of the whole Book in this their work they inserted so much farther of the Romish ritualls that if God had not crossed their designe it
elevet eam supra fronteÌ„ ut possit à populo videri simili modo postquam coenatum est accipiens hunc praeclarum calicem in sanctas venerabiles manus suas itidem tibi gratias agens benedixit deditque discipulis suis dicens accipite bibite ex eo omnes the rubrick hic elevet sacerdos calicem as before hic inclinet se hic est enim calix sanguinis mâ—i novi Testamenti mysterium fidei qui pro vobis multis effundetur in remissionem peccatorum haec quotiescunque feceritis in mei memoriam facietis This Romish prayer the latter parts of it are said by them to have been composed by Pope Alexander so Durand L. 4. fol. 74. Haec verba qui pridie usque ad hoc est corpus meum Alexander Papa primus canoni addidisse dicitur as for the former part which is the prayer formally said by them on their hostie wee heard before how Innocent ascribes its composition to Gregories Scholasticus albeit no wayes as it stands in the Missall and our Book for in that Scholasticus time the words did run clearly against transsubstantiation see how they are set downe in the fourth Book de Sacramentis c. 5. among Ambrose works but posterior to his dayes Accipe quae sunt verba dicit sacerdos fac nobis hanc oblationem ascriptam rationabilem acceptabilemque quod est figura corporis sanguinis Domini nostri I. Christi qui pridie quam pateretur in sanctis manibus suis accepit panem respexit ad coelum ad te sancte pater omnipotens aeterne Deus gratias agens benedixit fregit fractumque Apostolis suis discipulis tradidit dicens accipite edite ex hoc omnes hoc enim est corpus meum quod pro vobis confringetur similiter etiam calicem c. This prayer composed by whomsoever yet as it stands this day in the Missall and in our Book from it is the maine ground they have in the Masse for their consecration transubstantiation and adoration of the Hoste they do controvert among themselves about the words of consecration the Arch-bishop of Caesarea de capite fontium a French Preacher of late hath made much adoe to have the consecration made by the words of the prayers as the Greeke Church ever did think but the current of their Doctors strives to have the power of consecration placed alone in the five words for this is my body c. This question is taken up and agreed by the Missall and our Book ascribing the consecration to the prayer and words of the Institution conjunctly without any prerogative to the prayer facere digneris ut nobis fiat above the narration qui pridie or to this narration above the prayer As for transubstantiation there is no Papist this day but will avow that from the clause ut fiat nobis corpus sanguis being expurged of the glosse which it bare of old figura corporis sanguis from this clause I say all Papists think their Transubstantiation clearly to flow if not as from the words which makes the conversion yet as from the words which evidently presupposes the conversion presently to be made by the words which in the Missall and our book immediately followes I grant that some of the old Schoolemen put such Commentaries upon this passage that we may deny to the Papists the flowing of their trasubstantiation therfrom for Aquinas p. 3. qu. 83. art 4. ad septimuÌ„ Non tamen videtur ibi sacerdos orare ut consecratio impleritur sed ut nobis fiat fructuosa unde signanter dicit ut nobis corpus sanguis fiat hoc significant verba quae praemittit dicens hanc oblationem facere digneris benedictam id est per quam benedicamur scilicet per gratiam ascriptam id est per quam in caelo ascribamur ratam id est per quam de visceribus Christi esse censeamur rationabilem id est per quam a bestiali sensu exuamur acceptabilem ut qui nobis ipsis displicemus per hanc acceptabiles ejus unico filio simus but what ever one or two of old may be found to speak yet the current of their writers even of old all of them I know this day doe avow that their monstruous transubstantiation by cleare inference is deduced from this passage Innocent the third the most nocent father of this monster so doth expound it Lib. 3. cap. 12. petimus ut hanc oblationem Deus faciat benedictam ut eam consecret in rationabilem hostiam acceptabile sacrificium ut ita nobis id est ad nostram salutem panis fiat corpus vinum sanguis dilectissimi filij Dei so Bellarmine de Missa lib. 2. c. 23. Non oramus pro Eucharistia consecrata sed pro pane vino consecrando neque petimus ut Deus benedicat sanctificet corpus sanguinem Christi sed ut benedicat sanctificet panem vinum ut per eam benedictioneÌ„ sanctificationem fiat corpus sanguis Domini Heigam whom the Doctors of Doway of late have given to the English nation for an approven expositor of the Masse c. 48. p. 242. on our words Heere beginnes the principall part of all the holy Canon which is the consecration where the Priest beseecheth almighty God that the creatures of bread wine may be sanctified and blessed yea changed and converted into the precious body and blood of our Saviour worthilie is this word fiat added in this place because there is required the same Almighty power in this conversion which was in the creation of all the world and in the incarnation of the Almighty for God said when he was to create the world fiat lux and our Lady said to the Angell when Christ our Lord was to bee incarnate fiat mihi so the Priest in this place fiat corpus I know no Popish writer who this day takes this passage in any other sense Great appeareance that our men intend to have their words expounded popishly That our Bookemen desire us to take it in any other meaning there is no appearance they have let no clause fall from their pen which rejects transubstantiation or at lest a corporall presence these which in the English book did crosse it are now put out at the delivery of the elements the English hath two sentences which are against the coporall presence in the elements This our booke hath scored out as impertinent their Rubrieke gave leave for the Minister to carry home the relikes of the elements to be imployed as he thought meet in common uses this our Book doth strictly discharge no consecrate bread may be carried out of the holy place but as the Papists injoyne all the relickes of the Hâ—stie and wine even these that stucke on the Priests fingers to be gathered together and consumed in the holy place by the Priest or Deacon or
had been in all appearance most easie for them so to have dressed that new service in a second Edition which by a fresh Proclamation for a full uniformitie in the worship of God amongst all the Kings Subjects might have been imposed on all the three Dominions that Protestants should have no longer made any scruple to have gone to the Popish Masse and Matins nor Papists to have come to the English Liturgy when both of them with their eyes did see these books at last to have become really the same It is marvellous that any good man should now be zealous for the Liturgie It is strange that men who professe more than ordinary zeale to the peace of the Church of England should at this time be so earnest soliciters for the preserving of this Liturgie when the far most part if not simply all the godly of the Isle are longing with great expectation and greater desires to see that instrument after all the evill they have suffered by it to be broken in pieces these bygone yeares the truths of God of the highest qualitie in a very great number by their Brethren the Canterburians were shamefully trod underfoot the world truly wonders how then these mens pens and tongues were employed where their remonstrances their defences their apologies lay then buried when the whole Protestant religion before their eyes was violate when a deluge of Arminianisme and Popery was overflowing the Land were they not then dumb as fishes did either the King or the Parliament or the Countrey heare one syllable of the smallest complaint from them but now when the holy Miters of Prelates begin to be touched when the book of sacred Ceremonies commeth in hazard of a removall heaven and earth is filled with their clamours no end there is now of their pamphleting as wave presseth wave so their irrefragable propositions must be seconded with their divine Episcopacy and that backed with a remonstrance and this with a defence and however all these should swell never so big with disdainfull pride and most bitter injuries yet the world must forsake their sences and take all for the most sweet milde and humble moderation I will passe no censure on that Spirit which leads men of eminent parts and dignitie to a dumbe silence when both Church and State are set on fire about their eares by Incendiaries of their speciall acquaintance and intime familiaritie but wakens them to high and outragious passions when Bishops and Ceremonies come to be cald in question onely they would beware least this their second practice be a just punishment on them from God for their first fault least for their former betraying at least through their connivance the truth of God and liberties of their Countrey they be now scorched with the flames of intemperate zeale for keeping in the Church that trash which they may know hath ever been and now is like to be an occasion of most pitifull division both in Church and State which the world knowes hath ever been a rod of Scorpions in the hands of the sons of Belial to scourge alongst all the Kingdome many amongst the best both pastors and professors of the whole Land which themselves have seene with their eyes to have been the prime instrument whereby the Canterburians were like in a short time to have redelivered all these Dominions into the hands of the Pope and which if they please they may know to be of that nature that to the worlds end will make it very apt to doe the like service to any who shall have the like boldnesse and occasion to reattempt the like designes The scope of the subsequent Treatise But with the Liturgie of the Church of England I will not meddle those whom more properly it concernes will doubtlesse now shortly in all seriousnesse recognise upon it whether or no at this divine occasion when without the least hurt to any soule it may most easily be gotten quite removed it ought not once for all to be cast away for the remedying of many great evils wherwith in all bygone times it hath afflicted both Church and State as also for the procuring of many great blessings which through the want of its incumbrance all other reformed Churches this day enjoy It is my onely intention to consider the Scottish Liturgie which the Bishops perswade the King to be all one with the English and is indeed by the English Authours so cunningly contrived that no sensible difference to a common and running eye will appeare according as the generall Assemblies and Parliament of Scotland give expresse warrant and as now thanks be to God both his Majestie and this gracious Parliament of England doth freely consent I will shew that this our Service-Book is not onely taken well neare word by word out of the Sincks of Rome but also that all the filth which runs in any laines of the Masse is either clearly to be seene in the gutters of it or at least secret conduits are laid under its streets for to receive all the myre of the Romish rituals whenever it shall be the pleasure of a misleading Prelate to open the Sluses for deriving to us more of the Romish puddle It is my labour in this subsequent Treatise to shew not so much that the Liturgie is in the Masse whereof none doe doubt as that the Masse is in the Liturgie that the matter and the forme that the substance and the accidents of the Masse are here that of the integrall parts those which are incomparably the worst doe actually and expresly appeare in our Service that all the portions of the Masse better and worse are in our Booke if not expresly as very many be yet virtually such a seed of them being sowne that for their bud blossome and fruit they needed no more but a command from a Bishops mouth to a Printer upon a privie Warrant from Court purchased by false information if this I make good to the sense of every imprejudicate Reader I hope all reasonable men will absolve of rigour not of unjustice onely the decrees of the Scottish Church against this unhappie Booke and all those within her jurisdiction who have contributed their indeavours for the contriving imposing or defending thereof and who yet refuse to give any true securitie of their purpose to oppose if that same Booke or a worse by a misled Church or mis-informed Prince should to morrow againe be recommended though not peremptorily commanded to be imbraced by our Nation With what safetie a flock of Christian people may be committed to the charge of men of that temper it is easie to judge CHAP. I. Of the Masse and the parts of it in Generall The Papists call the Masse their Liturgy or their Service-Booke THat yee may behold the generall accord if not identitie of our Liturgie and Service Booke with the Masse consider first the words and then the matter for the words the Papists most gladly will call their Masse
enim moralitatem vitámque activam magis quà m contemplativae sublimitatem quae in Evangelio radiat instruit Igitur morale Legis officium agit Epistola tantum distans ab eo quod in officio Missae praecedit sancto Evangelio quantum servus à Domino praeco à judice legatus ab eo qui misit illum quapropter cum legitur non injuriâ sedemus cum tamen sanctum Evangelium audimus demissis reverenter aspectihus sicunt Domino nostro assistimus Another evident abuse there is that in the Masse and our Booke the Acts of the Apostles the Revelation the Prophets any booke of the old Testament should bee called the Epistle except onely the five bookes of Moses Walafridus points at the noveltie of this corruption in these words cap. 22. Videtur autem non alias lectiones ante Evangelium fuisse tunc positas nisi tantùm Apostoli Pauli quod S. Damasus Papa ad Hieronymum scribens ostendit fortasse inprimis solius Pauli lectiones eo loco legebantur posteà autem omnibus latius augmentatis aliae lectiones non tantùm de Novo verùm etiam de veteri intermixtae sunt Testamento To this Durandus addes Epistola tamen non legitur de quinque libris Mosis quia in illis temporalia promittebantur fol. 53. A third abuse in the Epistle is that never a full passage is read but a shread beginning after the beginning of a Chapter and cutting before the end chusing out parts most impertinent for the purpose and very oft directed to colour some idle or superstitious conceit To these and other such faults the Epistles of our booke are subject as well as these of the Masse for commonly in both bookes the same passages of Scripture are set downe for Epistles as on S. Stephens day the seventh of the Acts upon Innocents day the 14. of the Revelations 1. of Lent 2. of Ioel the Tuesday before Easters the 50. of Isaiah The second is the Gospel The next portion of the instruction is the Gospel here we follow the paterne of Sarum as much as in the Epistles as the Missals reade the Gospels without any order but that which the sole pleasure of some Popes in the latter times hath given to them beginning at the end of a booke at the midst of a Chapter ending with the beginning of a booke looping every day heere and there without any reason or example of antiquity which can be showne so does our Booke follow preciselie looke for example the first foure Sundayes in Advent wherein the first Sunday our Gospel is Mat. 21. v. 1. in the second chap. 21. vers 25. in the 3. Matth. 11. vers 2. in the 4. Iohn 1. vers 19. of such coursing what reason can be given but a conformity with Sarum in times of Popery As in the matter of our Gospel we follow rhe Missall so in our formes The Epistle was contumeliously debased but the Gospel is superstitiously exalted Rupertus Lib. 1. c. 37. and from him Durand Evangelium principale est omnium quae dicuntur ad Missae officium sicut enim caput praeeminet corpori illi caetera membra subserviunt sic Evangelium toti officio praeeminet For this cause Pope Anastasius ordained that when the Gospel was in reading all should stand on their feet and that with their head and eyes bowed to the ground for reverence Anastasius Papa decrevit ut dum Evangelium legitur nullus sedeat Also the people must say before the Gospel Gloria tibi Domine and after it is ended they must say Deo gratias The reasons see in Durand Lib. 4. fol. 59. This we are injoyned twise least we should forget it both at the Communion and in the Collects Epistles and Gospels for the whole yeere we get leave to sit at the Epistle to be silent when it beginnes and silent when it ends but all the time of the Gospel we must stand and use our exclamations both at the beginning and end of it The Booke of the Gospel must stand upon the Altar to signifie that with the preaching of the Gospel ever must be conjoyned the sacrifice of the Altar and when it is to be read the Deacon must come and lift the booke from the Altar to signifie that the sense of holy Scriptures must be taken alone from the warrant of the holy Church see Heigam pag. 122. In the ceremonies and significations it seemes we must agree with Rome for wee see that among the decent furniture wherewith our Altar is adorned the text of the Gospel is a chiefe part also the necessity of the Altars and sacrifices where ever the Gospel is preached and the taking of the sense of Scripture from the hand of the Church yee may see expresse passages from Heylen Montagu and White in Canterbury-selfe-conviction Farther when the Deacon hath lifted the text of the Gospel from the Altar hee gives it to the Subdeacon to carry at his backe two waxe candles are lifted from the Altar by two Acolytes to bee carried burning before him so long as the Gospel is in reading the crosse or crucifix is also on Festivall dayes carried before the Gospel also a Censer with fire and Incense the booke is crossed and perfumed and when the lesson is ended the Booke by the Deacon is kissed the reason of all these ceremonies see in the forenamed places of Durand and Jnnocent from none of these superstitions we can be long secured Our Deacons are begun already to bee consecrate the chiefe part of their office is their Service at the Sacrament and their reading of Scripture the orders of Subdeacon and Acolytes are proclaimed to be convenient if the Church had maintenance for them by Andrewes the wax Candles are standing on the Altars already the silver Crucifix is avowed by Pocklington to have a meet standing upon the same Altar the crossings and perfumings and lights are maintained by Andrewes as Canterbury sets him forth the kissing of the Booke is now daily practised 3. The Creed of Constantinople The third portion of the instruction is the Creede of Constantinople Credo in unum c. This is put in the Masse by Pope Mark according to Durand or by Pope Damasus according to Innocentius Damasus Papa constituit utsymbolum cantaretur ad Missam Lib. 2. c. 49. or rather it was put in the Masse long thereafter for Walafridus tells that the Latines learned this part of the Masse from the Grecians and that after the Councell of Constantinople cap. 22. This Bellarmine approves de Missa Lib. 2. c. 17. as also Walafridus addition that the French and Dutch Church received not this part of the Masse till the dayes of Charlemaine and that through the occasion of the heresies of Felix This part of the Masse wee have word by word from the Missall of Sarum fol. 143. yea the Romish ceremonies about it put out of the English Liturgie wee seeme to resume the English sayes no
more but that the Creede shall follow the Gospel the reason of which order the Rationalists give at length but our Rubricke before the Creede sayes farther to wit this Creede shall be said or sung all reverently standing up importing first that at the reciting of the Creede of Constantinople not that of Nice nor that of the Apostles we must use much more reverence then at the reciting of the Epistles of the Apostles or writings of the Prophets even the same reverence wee use at the reading of the Gospell of this Durand gives a good reason Quia symbolum verbum est Evangelicum ideò stando illud audire sicut Evangelium debemus Lib. 4. fol. 60. col 3. Next our Booke imports the singing of the Creede and that according to the reasons of the Masse which at this place takes rather in that of Constantinople then the Creede of the Apostles or of Nice because it agrees better to the song by musicall voices or instruments then these so speakes Walafridus c. 22. Et notandum Graecos illud symbolum quod nos ad imitationē eorum intra Missas adfumimus potiùs quà m alia in cantilenae dulcedinē ideò transtulisse quia Constantinopolitani Concilij proprium est fortasse aptius videbatur modulis sonorum quam Nicenum quod tempore prius est Thirdly the saying or singing of the Creede is given in our Booke neither to the Priest nor to the people as the Gospel immediately before was injoyned to bee read only by the Priest and the acclamations to be said onely by the people but the Creede is to bee said neither by the Priest nor by the people but it is to bee begun by the Priest and to be sung through by the Quiristers for the mysterious reasons ye may see in Durandus after the Creede is sung the Priest bowing downe kisses the Altar as we have in Heigam pag. 162. This ceremonie Heylen in his Epistle to the King before his antidotum commends in the person of these who did fall downe and reverence with affectionate kissing of the Altar 4. The Predication The fourth part of the instruction is the predication this was a principall part of the Sacrament which was much regarded not onely by the auncients as wee may see in the order of celebration set downe by Iustine Martyr and Dionysius Areopagita as also in manifold Sermons yet extant of Cyprian Basile Ambrose Augustine and others which they delivered at such occasions but even in the later times in the second Councell of Toledo c. 2. and the first of Lateran c. 10. where strict order is taken for Preaching of the word that is as the place makes cleare for the exposition and application of the Scriptures before read to the reproofe instruction comfort admonition of the people as their present state did require This part of the Masse is acknowledged by Durand Lib. 4. fol. 224. col 2. yea in the Roman pontifical there are sundry rubricks spent upon it among the rest we have these words fol. 224. col 4. Si autem post Evangelium ut plerumque fit in curia sit praedicandum Pontifex sedet accipit mitram à Diacono tum ille qui est praedicaturus accedit ad eum pontifex benedicens ei dicit Dominus sit incorde tuo in labijs tuis ut dignè fructuose annuncies verba sancta sua tum surgit praedicator accedit ad pulpitum exequitur officiū finitâ praedicatione expectat in pulpito praedicator c. It is most cleare that in all antiquity to the very latest and most corrupt times the care not of reading only but preaching was seriously recommended to all Bishops and Presbyters as we may see in their orders of consecration yet standing in the Pontificall yet at last the ignorance and carelesnesse of the Clergy grew so great that this duty was all utterly neglected for sundry ages as we may see acknowledged by the Councell of Trent the history of it printed at London in Italian fo 165. so in the Missals of Sarum this part of the Masse is omitted and how ever the English Rubrick have an expresse command for a Sermon Evangelio lecto sequitur concio and the very Councell of Trent have strict acts for reforming the old neglect of Sermons injoyning to the B. himselfe let be to other Presbyters the dutie of preaching at least every Sunday and all holy dayes as the chiefe part of the Episcopall office to feed the Soules of their flock with the bread of the Word preached yet our Booke seems to like better of the old order of Sarum which according to the custome of these dark times did neglect Sermons so our Rubrick is conceived After the Creed if there be no Sermon directly absteining to give any injunction for Sermon at the Communion How great enemies our Bookmen are to Sermons it is shewen at large in the Canterb. self-conviction The Papists even at Trent makes it needfull to preach every Sabbath yea the Popish Princes this day who have any taste of devotion be their affaires never so weightie will have two Sermons every Sabbath so we see in the life of the late Emperour Ferdinand but our men at most will admit but of one yea they thinke that one in a moneth is enough and all that their Canons doe require and that one must be very short without any prayer either before or after What spite they carry at the preaching which this day is used in England may be seene in the words which Canterbury makes Andrewes use after his death and which himselfe useth before the Starre Chamber in his late Speech yea these men are now brought to avow in Print the great expediency to put downe preaching by bringing us back to that order which was used in England in the time of Popery where the want of our present kinde of preaching did keepe the people in their ancient simplicitie and so in that old laudable integritie and devotion see passages for all this in the Self-conviction As for the Homilies which are ordained to be read in place of Sermons their forme is taken from the Roman Breviarie which after the reading of the Lessons from Scripture ordaines the reading of many Homilies the English Liturgie also permits the reading of Homilies printed by the Reformers of Religion in these places of the Land where maintenance cannot be had for a preaching Minister but here our Booke seemes to be worse than either the Roman Breviary or the English Liturgie for the Homilies which are in the Breviary were composed of old by the ancient Fathers and these Homilies of England are most orthodox and composed by the most sound Fathers of that Church since the Reformation but our Homilies which we are obliged to receive are not yet extant and the composition of them as of all our Books is committed to the hands of that faction who of late in their printed Sermons have vented all the
grounds of our Booke-men who now are heard oft in their publike prayers and thankesgiving to particularize these names with great disdaine and contempt of the scandall which they know the simple takes at this their practise As for the other point the offering of these oblations and prayers for the benefit not onely of the quicke but of the dead wee see that after they have commended their oblations to bee mercifully received of God and put to their back prayers for the good of the living in all degrees and callings they immediately subjoyne not onely their thankesgiving but their prayers and supplications for the dead even for the salvation of their Soule that we and all they may be set at the right hand of thy Sonne and the dead for which among the rest of the mysticall body of Christ this salvation is sought are distinguished expresselie in two rankes one are stiled Saints who had wonderfull grace and were the lights of the world in their severall generations others of farre inferior qualitie onely Gods servants who are dead in faith and now rest from their labour the meetest description that can bee of the faithfull in Purgatory as they are distinguished from the canonized Saints in heaven if we will beleeve Bellarmine As then the Masse referred their oblation of bread and wine and their offertory prayers upon it to the honour of the Saints in heaven to the benefit of the living and good of the faithfull who are dead in what ever place they be whether in heaven or else where so does our Book but no wayes the English for in this place they passe the honour of the Saints they speake not of the benefit of the dead and the blessings they crave to the living have no reference at all to the oblation of bread and wine for they have plucked up by the root that pestiferous weede which yet our men have planted againe in the old place and put to the back of it our offertory prayer after the manner of the Masse so that these benefits craved in that prayer either for quick or dead ought not to be excluded from a relation yea dependance from the preceding offering of bread and wine to which they are annexed See B. Forbes in the selfe conviction taxing the Church of England who by Bucers advice did put out the words which import prayer for the dead which he most earnestly labours to have againe restored as they were in the old Missall We make any offertory without a Communion There is a Marginall Rubricke added also to our offertory prayer which is most strange when there is no communion these words say they shall bee left out I remember not that such grossenesse in the Missall is expressed it is I grant their doctrine and daily practise to offer the sacrifice of their Masse for the present and absent for the quicke and the dead without any Communion for the presence of a congregation to celebrate the Sacrament or to offer the sacrifice of Christs body and blood they doe noe waies require and farre lesse any communion the presence of the congregation they thinke merely accidentall and needlesse to the perfecting of the Masse and their communicating much more for the Priests consumption to them is all yet they say not so much in their booke but contrarie waies in all their Masses there are expressely Rubrickes for a Communion and post communion as wee shall heare so it is very strange that our men heere were not content to have made so many additions except this caipstone had been put on that all the former service that the oblation of the bread and wine by the Presbyter on the Altar may well be done without a communion yea without any congregation assembled for such an end charity it selfe cannot bee offended by imputing to these mens sences which their words doe so clearely beare that hardly can any other exposition be put on them Our exhortations are needlesse After the offertory are subjoyned in our booke 3. large exhortations which are not in the Masse but in the Masse there are sundry exhortations praiers which wil be found meeter for this place then any of these three the first seemes to be altogether needlesse and scornefull it is spent in a multitude of words obtesting all to communicate at that time there is none present who ministers any such attestations non-communicants are put to the doore at least in the end of Missa Catechumenorum before the offertory the Curate in the morning or night before tooke up the names of all Cōmunicants as it is in the first Rubrick of the Communion before this exhortation he did see in the offertory the faces of all Communicants these who gave up their names in the morning and presently did contribute their offering as Communicants neede not be earnestly obtested to come to the Table and others they are none present or if they were any according to the custome of the Church and command of the former Rubricke they might not be admitted The next exhortation is as unreasonable to wit to bee reconciled with their neighbours to make satisfaction for wrongs to come to a Minister to disburden their conscience or as they doe now directly expound that passage to make their auricular confession in the eare of the Priest these things at that time and place are not possible to bee done without marring the whole action and so ought not then to be exhorted unto As for the third how good and pertinent so ever yet may it not well be omitted that in it alone wee should not breake our uniformity with the Roman Catholike Church which in all the rest of our booke wee have so carefully kept and if we will in this be stubborne the Papists will easily dispense with it for in it nought is contrary to the tenets of their Church After the exhortations followes the invitation to repentance the generall confession and absolution with the grounds of comfort this is nought but that second confession of the people and their absolution which the Masse puts at the backe of the Priests confession in the introitus as we before noted CHAP. V. Concerning the Canon of the Masse Consecration transubstantiation and adoration c. The ordinary Prefaces VVEE are now come to the Canon a part of the Masse whereupon the Papists fond love and the Protestants just hatred is chiefely spent take Bellarmine for a witnesse of these contrary affections de Missa Lib. 2. c. 17. Sacrum canonem ut summa reverentiâ semper Catholici retinuerunt ita incredibili furore haeretici hujus temporis lacerant This member of the Masse consists of Prayers and prefaces The Prefaces are either extraordinary for high times or ordinary for common Masses the ordinary prefaces we have word by word for so reades the Missall Hic dicit sacerdos sursumcorda respondet chorus habemus ad Domi num sacerdos gratias agamus Domino nostro
After the Prefaces follow the Prayers these altogether goe under the name of the Canon the action the secret our adversaries brag much of the antiquity and holinesse of these prayers but the more advised of them as yee may see in Field Append. ad lib. 3. c. 1. doe astrict the spiration of antiquitie and holinesse but to a small part of these for how ever the Jesuits please to magnifie to the skies this Canon yet they which understand it much better then the best of them confesse that it is but patched like a beggars pall of a number of clouts by diverse hands oft without discretion Pope Innocent l. 3. c. 9. and Durand from him Secreta quae secundum diversos canon actio nominatur non tota simul ab uno sed paulatim à pluribus ex eo quoque perpenditur fuisse composita quod ter in ea sanctorum commemoratio repetitur in secunda quippe commemoratione supplentur qui de primitivis Sanctis deesse videbantur in prima And in the next Chapter Traditur quod Gelasius Papa quinquagesimus primus à B. Petro qui fuit post Sylvestrum per 160. annos Canonem principaliter ordinavit herewith does Honorius in gemma Animae c. 90. agree Canonem Gelasius Papa composuit c. subjoyning the names of a number of Popes who put to their proper additions to this cento this same doth Walafrid cap. 22. and divers of the old Rationalists All the Canon as it lies in the Masse our Book does not borrow neither was it necessary for the kinde mother Church of Rome can well dispence with some difference yea with a greater varietie than is betwixt our Book and theirs in this part take Bellarmines caution for this benignitie de Missa l. 2. c. 18. Neque negamus verba Canonis diversa fuisse etiam hodie esse apud Graecos apud quasdam Latinorum Ecclesias neque cogit Romana Ecclesia ut Chemnitius mentitur ut omnes Canonem Missae Romanae tanquam necessarium omnino ad Eucharistiam consecrandam servent nam in ipsa urbe Roma alibi per Italiam videmus Romano Pontifice consentiente à Graecis retineri Liturgiam Basilij Chrysostomi Ambrosianam Mediolani quam dicunt Mosarabam Toleti in Hispania Our men take in expresly the principall members of this portion these things which the Papists doe most love and the Protestants most abhorre and what they omit they shew their good liking of it all without balking any one line For the demonstration whereof consider that the prayers of the Canon use to be divided in a number of parts in five six seven eleven twelve in moe or fewer as Authors are pleased diversly to conceive we shall take them up in six parts The worst parts of the Canon are in our Book The third and fourth onely are the principall even those pieces whereby alone the consecration and oblation of the great sacrifice is performed for here alone it is Vbi sacerdos accedit ad Dominici corporis consecrationem according to Durand l. 4. fol. 73. Of these parts it is that Innocent exclaimes l. 4. c. 1. Ecce nunc ad summum sacramenti verticem accedentes ad ipsum cor divini sacrificij penetramus These parts he calls the heart of that wicked body of the Masse this unhappy heart the English had pulled out that the Serpent might never againe revive among them but our men with an high hand and open face professe the restoring of the life and putting in again the heart in the body of that dead hydra They put up in capitall Letters their prayer of consecration and memoriall of oblation and set down at the back of the same Rubrick the same words which the Missall uses for their transubstantiation and to the other the same words which they use in offering up their unbloody propitiatory Sacrifice who ever can cleare our Booke of these abhominations must cleare the Missall of them for these places of the Missall whence alone or at least farre most directly and principally the Papists do inferre these their capitall errours the same places are expresly set downe in our Book without any circumlocution Wee have borrowed the Popish consecration A Rubrick for consecration alone without any further addition in these dayes had been obnoxious to suspicion of an evill intent our Book-men knew that however the tearme of consecration uses not so much to be stood upon yet that the Romish Church does use it in no other sense than to demurmurate a number of words on the elements for their transubstantiation into the body and blood of Christ and not as we doe for the sanctifying of the Elements or applying them to the holy and sacramentall use by reciting â—he words of Christs institution to the people not to the dead elements Durands doctrine is this day common among our Adversaries Dicimus illud non consecrari sed sanctificari differt autem inter haec nam consecrare est consecratione transubstantiare sanctificare est sanctum reverendum efficere ut patet in aqua benedicta Wee are injoyned in consecrating to turn our backs to the people and so by consequent to whisper in what language we will A Rubrick for consecration alone then had been suspicious especially here where the English yea no reformed Liturgie had any formes of consecration but now while to their consecration they will adde a clause of the Ministers posture in this act commanding him during the time of consecration to leave the former stance he was injoyned in the first Rubricks to keep at the North end of the Table to come to such a part of the Table where he may with more ease and decency use both his hands the world will not get them cleared of a vile and wicked purpose The Papists will have their consecration kept altogether close from the eares of the people for many reasons especially that by ignorance of their words reverence may be conciliate to them and the people may not be able to get them by heart and to profane them which some Shepheards once did to their great hurt for they pronounced the words of consecration on the bread of their dinner in the fields with intention to doe what they did see oft the Priest to doe in the Temple by this pronunciation their bread before their eyes was transubstantiate into flesh and fire from heaven came downe which destroyed that flesh and them at least stroke them dead for a time whereupon it was decreed that the whole Canon thereafter not onely should be in a tongue unknowne to the people but also should be whispered so secretly that no man but the Priest alone should heare one word of it This history is set downe in such a number of the Popish writers that I need make no citations onely the reformed Church counts the secret murmuration of their Canon and words of consecration a very vile and wicked
practice against nature reason and all antiquitie so that we must take it in a very evill part to be brought towards it by our Book for when our Table is brought to the East end of the Quire so neer the wall as it can stand and the Minister brought from the end of it to the bread-side with his face to the East and his back to the people what he speaks may be Hebrew for them he may speake so low as he will or what he will for were his face to the people his voice never so extended yet in so great a distance he could not be heard but now being set in the furthest distance that is possible and being commanded not onely to turne his shoulder as he was by his North stance in all the former action but his very back by his new change of place and not being injoined to extend his voice as some where he is what can we conceive but it is their plain mind to have the consecration made in that silence which the Romish Rubrick in this place injoines Whereupon Durand from Innocent and others thus comments Canon secretâ voce celebratur ne sacro sancta verba vilescant fertur enim quod cum antiquitus publicè et alta voce Canon diceretur omnes penè per usum illum sciebant in plateis in vicis decantabant unde cum quidam pastores illum in agro cantarent panem super lapidem posuissent ad verborum ipsorum prolationem panis in carnem conversus est illi ipsi divinô judicio igne coelitus misso percussi sunt propter quod sancti Patres statuerunt verba illa sub silentio dici inhibentes sub anathemate ne proferantur nisi à sacerdotibus super altare in missa cum vestibus sacris This injunction wee are directed to keepe while we are not only injoyned to goe so far from the people as the remotest wall and Table will permit but to use such a posture that our back must be turned to them that so our speech may be directed to the elements alone that in what language you please and no wayes to the people from whom we have gone away and on whom we have turned our back This is Bellarmines maine prop of celebrating the Sacrament in an unknowne tongue de Missa L. 2. c. 11. Verba consecrationis non dicuntur ad instruendos auditores sed ad elementum consecrandum elementum autem nullam linguam intelligit quare impertinens est ad oblationem utrum Missa dicatur lingua vulgari aut non vulgari For this wicked practice of silence and going from the people Bellarmines great argument is the practice of the Jewish Priests in these words c. 12. Habemus exempla sacrificiorum veteris Legis nam Levit. 16. describitur solenne sacrificium incensi ac jubetur solus sacerdos intra velum ingredi sacrificare orare pro se populo omnibus alijs foris exspectantibus non modo non audientibus sed nec videntibus sacerdotem quo etiam ritu sacrificasse Zachariam patrem praecursoris Luc. 1. Yea as the Jewish Priest to be more hid from the people in some solemne sacrifices went within the vaile so the Popish Priest will have the vailes and curtaines of their Altars drawne about him while he is uttering his Canon and secret consecration this wee have from Durand Lib. 4. fol. 72. Ad quod repraesentandum in quibusdam Ecclesiis sacerdos secretam intrans quibusdam cortinis quae sunt in utroque latere altaris quae tunc extenduntur quasi tegitur velatur Is it not to this that here our Book-men lead us my L. of Canterbury is not content in his Sermon before K. James 1621. to avow it is expedient that the substantiall Church now should goe beyond the typick Church of old in the sumptuous magnificence of many ceremonies but approves of late his man Dr. Poklington in his Altare Christianum a little after the beginning to praise their zeale who made their altars of gold or silver and consecrated them laying on them carpets and corporalls and inclosing them not onely with railes of timber but vailes and curtaines of cloth yea to use expresly the present argument of Bellarmine for closing up the Priest in his sacrificing or making his consecration so that not onely his words may be removed from the eares but his person from the eyes of the people for so speaks the Doctor there with Canterburies good leave after the midst of his Book As the people were excluded from the altar of incense they stood without all the time that he was praying or burning incense within Luk. 1. So in like manner the altar built by Paulinus was in medio constituta set in the midst of the holy place which practice he is urging to be restored in the Church of England and defending where it is already set up which did represent the Sanctuary from which the people were all utterly excluded the people might see the Priest going into the Sanctuary might heare his bels but himselfe within his gestures his actions they saw not When our Book hath professed a consecration and at such a place of the Church and with such a posture of the Priest that it must of necessitie be so secret from the people as the Priest may say it in what language he will and in so quiet silence as he pleases for who can challenge him when he is in his Sanctuary divided by his vailes and railes from the people when the prayer which stood here in the English Liturgie is some impediment in their way opposing their Popish consecration they have removed it to another place fitter for their designes when our Booke and these men whom we have reason to take for good Commentators to it avow so much who can blame us to be grieved but when they goe yet further to bring back the very words of the Masse for their consecration and oblation the worst words I say that the Masse hath for that end how shall we not be desperate of any good from their hands The very words whereupon the Papists build transubstantiation our Book takes from the Missall The Popish prayer in Consecration stands thus in the Masse Quam oblationem tu Deus omnipotens in omnibus quaesumus benedictam ascriptam ratam rationabilem acceptabilemque facere digneris ut nobis corpus sanguis fiat dilectissimi filij tui Domini nostri I. Christi qui pridie quam pateretur accepit panem in sanctas venerabiles manus suas elevatis oculis in coelum ad te Deum suum patrem omnipotentem tibi gratias agens benedixit fregit a rubrick interlaced hic frangit hostiam deditque discipulis suis dicens accipite manducate ex hoc omnes hoc est enim corpus meum a rubrick here also post haec verba inclinet se sacerdos ad hostiam postea
onely in one thing we follow the English order in singing their Gloria in excelsis which the Masse had long before as we shew in the proper place After all while the Priest puts off his cloths there are read sundry Psalmes and Scriptures and prayers none whereof our men will get refused and all is closed with the Bishops or Priests blessing the same which we use as for the first part of it it was in the Masse before the giving the pax or peace to the people but the last part the Masse so expresseth it Benedictio Dei patris omnipotentis descendat super nos maneat semper in nomine Patris Filij Spiritus Sancti Amen which we turne The blessing of God Almightie the Father Sonne and holy Ghost be amongst you and remaine with you alwayes Amen Nothing in the Masse at all which our men will not imbrace if it were pressed on them by authoritie It remaines that wee should paralell with our Booke the accidentall parts of the Masse so to call them the most of these we have actually their vestments hoods surplices rotchets miters copes of all colours filled with numbers of images palls corporalls challices patins offertory basins wax candles vailes railes stalls lavatories repositories reclinatories bowings duckings crossings kissings coursings perfumings These wee have already and what of the ceremonies we want it were easie to fetch testimonies from our parties writs for their lawfulnesse or at least to shew the necessitie of taking them when ever they shall be imposed by our Bishops upon as good grounds as we have taken the rest As for the parts subjective the diverse kinds of Masses our Book hath enough of them it spends 78 leaves on them alone it hath of them above an hundreth and seven all borrowed from the Missall almost word by word some from the Sanctorall but most from the temporall the changes that are be not considerable What in the particular Masses the order of Sarum joynes to the Collects Epistles and Gospels to wit the Office Oration Tractus Sequentia Communio post Communio there is no syllable in them to my memory which crosseth the wrins of our partie but my present wearinesse and necessary a vocation to other studies also the hopes now we heare by the great mercy of God and goodnesse of our Prince to be quite of this unhappy Book suffer me not to proceed any farther I must also upon the same reasons leave at this time my iâ—â—ended Paralell of the Breviarie with our Mattins and Even-song also the Ceremoniall with our Order of Baptisme Putrification Buriall c. in all these will be found betwixt the Romish Orders and our Book too great an identitie A COMPEND OF THE PRECEDING TREATISE in a Speech at the Generall Assembly of Glasgow 1638. THe imposing of the Books on the Bishops part is an act of greater tyranny than ever was used in this Nation for some few men by a Letter purchased from a Prince to presse on a Nation against the hearts of all ranks and estates contrary to many Lawes of this Church and Kingdome standing both in force and practice three or foure Books full of novations all to be beleeved in every poynt by every person under paine of the great Excommunication doth cast our soules bodies and estates under a slavery intolerable In England yea in Ireland to this day as our adversaries confesse the smallest rite was never enjoyned without the consent of a Convocation or generall Assembly By this preparative the Masse yea the Alcoran or Talmud will not be gotten refused let all the Kingdome cry they are against Scripture and the Lawes of Church and State they shall not be heard if so some two or three prime and leading Bishops will oppose no barre had been left us against the Alcoran let be the masse-Masse-book but the sole will of our gracious Prince if so this practice of our Bishops had gone on Secondly The service Book is all for common word by word drawne out of Popish Ritualls which this day are used at Rome The first part of it is a compend of the Mattins and Vespers in the Breviarie The second is the summe of the Missall the third of the Ceremoniall Thirdly The Masse Book which all Protestants of whatever name doe so farre abhorre that they rather would die than imbrace it this abhominable Masse hath three parts The Ordinary which is sung on any common day The Temporall which is additions or changes used in all Sundayes and high Festivals The Sanctorall which is the formes added to the ordinary Masse on the Saints dayes These three parts of the Masse are all set downe in our Booke Out of the temporall wee have above fourescore formes out of the Sanctorall about twentie what we leave out which the Masse hath may be taken in upon the same reasons whereupon wee take what wee have borrowed Fourthly The ordinary Masse is commonly divided in six parts The Preparation The Instruction The Offertory The Canon The Communion The Post Communion Our Booke hath all these six in order Fiftly The Preparation is subdivided in twelve portions whereof we have ten neere word by word the Pater noster the Collect the Gloria Patri the Cyrie Eleyson the Confession the Misereatur the Absolution the Angelike Hymne the Salutation the Oremus The two which remaines Ave Maria and the Introibo ad altare we may not refuse upon reason Stafford is allowed to print that it is puritanisme to refuse to the Virgin Marie these haile Maries which our forbeares of old wont to sing to her for the Introibo our prime Bishops avow that our Booke not onely hath an Introibo ad Altare but which is much worse Adoremus altare Sixtly The Instruction hath eight portions foure principall which we have all in the same order foure of little moment to wit the Graduall Halelujah Tractus and Sequentia These with the Popes good leave may all be omitted as Spalato shews at large and if the Pope will not dispence therewith we might not refuse them on any reason according to our Bookmens grounds The principall are the Epistles Gospells Creed Predication In the reading of the Epistles and Gospels we follow punctually the misorders the follies the superstitions of the Papists we cast the Epistles ever before and the Gospels behind contrary to the order of Scripture we begin at the end of one chapter and end at the beginning of another we course from place to place without any reason oft imaginable except the free-will of some foolish Pope who cut Scripture in patches and coucht it in the Missall as his fancy led him or some superstitious conceit of the day whereto he would apply such Scriptures but oft with an evident impertinency The Acts the Revelation the Bookes of the Prophets except the Pentateuch we call them all Epistles even as the Masse We are commanded to stand at the Gospells and say at their beginning and ending the
action yea that the Church of Rome doth maintaine no kinde of Idolatry The Rubricks of this part of the Masse some we take as the laying our hands on the patin and challice The Rubrick of bowing before the patin and challice or hostie thereof we have not a word but punctually our men practice it giving foure inclinaboes to the elements before the act of receiving the other Rubrick for the peoples prostration at the elevation of the hosty they cannot be against sure their practice is to bow most lowly to the place where the hostie uses to lye Tenthly The prayer of Oblation stands at the back of the consecration in the Masse and so in our Book there is in the words some changes but what we adde or detract it is for our disadvantage the maine words whereon the unbloudy sacrifice is grounded we have and if what we want of it were added we must not refuse it for they defend all this part of the Masse making no bones to professe the offering up of Christs body and blood in a propitiatory sacrifice for the benefit both of quick and dead yea in this matter of a true externall unbloody sacrifice which the Priests in the new Testament ordained by Christ after the order of Melchisedec in these words hoc facite doe offer our men within these two yeares have gone very neere as far as any of the Romish Writers Eleventhly The other foure particles of the Canon we omit but needlesly for our men defend them all as good and lawfull for the matter the things most to be stood upon are that in them the Pope is prayed for as the chiefe Bishop this now these with whom we have to doe will easily digest to count him Antichrist is but the malicious ignorance of Puritanes yea it is but their mad frensie to deny him this day the style of holinesse in the very abstract he is Peters successour that order requires one to be chiefe and first among all Bishops this honour is due to him who sits in Peters chaire that injurie was done unto him in the reformation in taking from him not onely his usurped power but even his proper right In these prayers also the B. of the diocesse is put before the King this now is not strange to the faction they print that every B. is a true Prince yea a Monarch so much more excellent than a King as the soule is more excellent than the bodie that the Emperours in dutie ought to light downe from their horse and give reverence to the Bishops yea on their knees to receive their blessing Twelfthly The third scruple that might deterre us from these prayers is that the names of the Virgin Marie and of many Saints are reckoned up by whose intercessions and merits we pray to be defended this also they defend in their prefaces to their prayers they delight to reckon up the names of these Saints they maintaine the Saints to be our Mediatours of intercession as Christ is of redemption they avow they pray to their Angel keeper and would be glad to pray to all the Saints if they were perswaded of their audience and now many means have they found out of getting intelligence to the Saints of mens estate on earth especially that glasse of the Trinitie As for merit they goe as farre in it as Bellarmine their Epigrams are famous both to Papists and Protestants Virtutum sancta speciosa caterva salutem divine ex pacto quam meruere dabunt The last scruple which might appeare in these prayers is a supplication for case to all who have dyed in faith and sleep in peace from this all the Papists deduce Purgatorie yet this passage is defended by our men as for Purgatorie they are very neere it Limbus Patrum they teach openly yea Christs descent there and lower also for the bringing up of Aristotle Plato Socrates Theseus Penelope and many Pagans The grounds of Scripture whereby we refute Purgatorie they deny the passages of Scriptures and antiquitie whereby the Papists labour to prove Purgatorie they presse on us an expiative Purgatorie wherein by the prayers of the living the sinnes of the dead are put away they professe Thirteenthly After the Canon followes the Communion for better preparation thereto the Missall hath some more prayers and ceremonies the first prayer after the Canon is the Pater noster with the Preface audemus dicere the Priest having once gotten Christ the Son in his hands after the muttering of the prayers of consecration and oblation is bold with a loud voice to say Our Father It is so in our Books clearly After the Pater noster are sundry short prayers the summe whereof is in our prayer of humble accesse as for the ceremonies of breaking the host in three parts the giving the pax and so forth our men will never strain at such gnattes they maintaine the Churches power of instituting significant rites they take in worse ceremonies than those to wit surplices rotchets copes candles incense organs cornets chancells altars rails vails a reclinatorie for confession a lavatorie a repositorie also crossings coursings bowings duckings and which is worst of all crucifixes of massie silver images in carved stone and bowing of the knee before them Fourteenthly Before the communion we have a direction that the Preacher shall communicate first himselfe alone in both kinds this is the Roman order where the Priests communion in both kinds is onely required the peoples communion they count but accidentall this is the consumption wherein they put the chiefe part of the essence of the Masse we direct the people to communicate in their own order never a word of both kinds yea we seeme to make the giving of the cup to the people no wayes necessary for our men build the peoples right to the cup not on Gods word but onely on tradition they approve diverse cases of old where the people did participate the bread alone they have repositories neere the Altar for keeping of the consecrated bread to the use of the sick In the distribution the words whereby the Priest assures the receiver that he takes in his mouth the body of Christ are put directly in our Booke from the Roman order the body of Christ preserve thee to life eternall and to perswade the receiver the more he is to say Amen unto it At the receiving of the cup the same words are borrowed from the Missall the blood of the Lord Jesus preserve thy Soule and the person receiver must say his Amen The golden sentences of the English which here were put in as antidotes to the venome of transubstantiation are expurged and for them a Rubrick full of blacke venome is put in of covering the paâ—in and challice with a corporall Fifteenthly The post communion is prayers of thanksgivâ—ng which the Priest sings in the end of the Service the same in substance with our collect of thankesgiving nothing in any of these postcommunions which our men doe refuse hardly will you finde one sentence in the Masse from the beginning to the end which our Book-men will not defend as tolerable and so what we want of the full Masse it needs no more but halfe an houres writing to the Bishops Chaplaine that in the next Edition it may be put in for our full union in our service with the mother Church of Rome That the intention of our prime Bishops is Popery in grosse it may be shewen by reasons which they will not answer in haste For shortnesse I will point onely at foure other particulars to shew what seeds of Popish impietie idolatry errour heresie may be seene in our Booke for impietie they put the Sabbath day and other festivals of humane institution all in one order teaching that the fourth command of God is not the ground of the Sundayes observation that we may lawfully without offence of God doe all these things on the Sabbath which may be done on other holy dayes that is goe to publick pastimes reap corne fish take journey on horse or foot Secondly for idolatry the crosse in baptisme will lead to it for they avow from the use of the signe of the crosse in Baptisme doth follow clearly the lawfulnesse of materiall crosses crucifixes images of all kinds in the Churches for religious use yea that the religious use of images moves the heart with many pious affections especially with a deepe reverence towards the person who by the image is represented which reverence is lawfully declared by outward adoration before the Image Thirdly for grosse errour the Book tells that all baptized Infants have all things necessary to salvation and all of them who dye before the yeares of discretion are undoubtedly saved from hence our men conclude that all the Articles of Arminius doe clearly follow the totall and finall apostasie of millions from the state of regeneration and salvation the power of mans free-will to oppose resist overcome and reject efficacious regenerating and saving grace the perseverance in grace by our free-will antecedent in Gods mind to his decree of election the intention of Christ to sanctifie and save aswell the reprobate as the elect the conferring of sufficient grace to reprobates yea universally to all men c. These are the avowed doctrines from the same ground of our men without circumloquution yea from another place may be gathered the errour of justification by the works of the Law which all Protestants ever detested as a damnable heresie the Book requires the restitution of the ancient penance that by the afflictions of the body the soule may be saved then bodily penance satisfies Gods wrath for sinne See the Self-conviction so faith in the blood of Christ is not our sole justification the Papists goe no farther in this point in their injurious heresie of justification than our men these yeares past have gone and that without controlment except advancement to high honour and great benefices be counted a punishment FINIS