not for fear his Neighbours Beast should fall into it and be drowned bound by the Law to forbear the making of it but only to provide a sufficient Cover for it when he had made it The thing then in this Case is not to be left undone when it so much behoveth us to do it but the action to be carried on for the manner of doing and in all respects and circumstances threunto belonging with so much clearness tenderness moderation and wisdom to our best understanding that the necessity of so doing with the true cause thereof may appear to the world to the satisfaction of those who are willing to take notice of it and that such persons as would be willing to make use of our Example to do the same thing where there is not the like cause of necessity may do it upon their own score and not be able to vouch our practice for their excuse which how it may best be done for particular directions every Charitable and Conscientious man must ask his own discretion some general hints tending thereunto I shall lay down in answering the next Objection where they will fall in again not improperly and so stop two gaps with one Bush. Schism Object III. The last Objection is that of Schism The Objectors hold all such persons as have opposed either against Liturgy or Church Government as they were by Law established within the Realm for no better than Schismaticks and truely I shall not much gainsay it But then they argue that for them to do the same thing in the public worship of God that Schismaticks do and for the doing whereof especially it is that they justly account them Schismaticks would as they conceive involve them in the Schism also as partakers thereof in some degree with the other And their Consciences also would from Rom. 14. 22. condemn them either of Hypocrisie in allowing that in themselves and in their own practice which they condemn in others or of uncharitableness in judging others for Schismaticks for doing but the same thing which they can allow themselves to practise for all that such persons as they call Schismaticks do in this matter of the Church Service is but to leave out the Churches prayers and to put in their own Or say this should not make them really guilty of the Schism they detest yet would such their symbolizing with them seem at least a kind of an unworthy compliance with them more than could well become the simplicity of a Christian much less of a Minister of the Gospel whose duty it is to shun even the least appearance of evil I Thes. 5. Besides that by so doing they should but confirm these men in their Schismatical principles and practice This Objection hath three branches To the first whereof I oppose the old saying Duo cùm faciunt idem non est idem which although spoken quite to another purpose yet is capable of such a sense as will very well fit our present purpose also I answer therefore in short That to do the same thing that Schismaticks do especially in times of confusion and until things can be reduced into better Order and when we are necessitated thereunto to prevent greater mischiefs doth not necessarily infer a partaking with them in Schism no nor so much as probably unless it may appear upon probable presumptions otherwise that it is done out of the same schismatical spirit and upon such schismatical principles as theirs are The other two branches viz. that of seeming compliance with Schismaticks and that of the ill use they make of it to confirm them in their Schism do upon the matter fall in upon the aforesaid point of Scandal and are in effect but the same objection only put into a new dress and so have received their answer already And the only remedy against these fears as well that of Scandal as this of Schism is the same which is there prescribed even to give assurance to all men by our carriage and behaviour therein that we do not lay aside Common-Prayer of our own accord or out of any dislike thereof neither in contempt of lawful Governors or of the Laws nor out of any base compliance with the times or other unworthy secular self ends nor out of any schismatical principle seditious design or innovating humour but meerly inforced thereunto by such necessity as we cannot otherwise avoid in order to the glory of God and the public good for the preservation of our Families our Flocks and our Functions and that with the good leave and allowance as we have great reason to believe of such as have power to dispense with us and the Laws in that behalf This if we shall do bona fide and with our utmost indeavours in singleness of heart and with godly intention perhaps it will not be enough to prevent either the censures of inconsiderate and inconsiderable persons or the ill use may be made of our example through ignorance of some Scandalum pusill rum or through the perversness and malice of other some Scandalum Pharisaeorum as the Schools term them But assuredly it will be sufficient in the sight of God and in the witness of our own hearts and to the Consciences of considering and Charitable men to acquit us clearly of all guilt either of Scandal or Schism in the least degree Which we may probably do by observing these ensuing and such other like general directions the liberty of using such meet accommodations as the circumstances and in particular Cases shall require evermore allowed and reserved viz. 1. If we shall decline the Company and society of known Schismaticks not conversing frequently and familiarly with them or more than the necessary Affairs of life and the rules of Neighbourhood and common Civility will require especially not to give countenance to the Church-assemblies by our presence among them if we can avoid it 2. If we shall retain as well in our common discourse as in our Sermons and the holy Offices of the Church the old Theological and Ecclesiastical terms and forms of Speech which have been generally received and used in the Churches of Christ which our people are well acquainted with and are wholsom and significant And not follow our new Masters in that uncouth affected garb of Speech or canting Language rather if I may so call it which they have of late time taken up as the signal distinctive and characteristical note of that which in their own language they call the Godly Party or Communion of Saints 3. If in officiating we repeat not only the Lords Prayer the Creed the Ten Commandments and such other passages in the common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book as being the very words of Scripture no man can except against but so much also of the old Liturgy besides in the very words and syllables in the Book as we think the Ministers of State in those parts where we live will suffer and the Auditory before whom we officiate will bear sith the Officers in all parts of the Land are not alike strict nor the people in all Parishes not alike disaffected in this respect 4. If where we must of necessity vary from the words we yet follow the Order of the Book in the main parts of the holy Offices retaining the substance of the Prayers and imbellishing those of our own making which we substitute into the place of those we leave out with Phrases and Passages taken out of the Book in other places 5. If where we cannot safely mention the particulars expressed in the Book as namely in Praying for the King the Queen the Royal Progeny and the Bishops we shall yet use in our Prayers some such general terms and other intimations devised for the purpose as may sufficiently convey to the understandings of the people what our intentions are therein and yet not be sufficient to fetch us within the compass of the Ordinance 6. If we shall in our Sermons take occasion now and then where it may be pertinent either to discover the weakness of the Puritan principles and tenents to the People or to shew out of some passages and expressions in the Common-Prayer-Book the consonancy of those Observations we have raised from the Text with the judgment of the Church of England or to justifie such particular passages in the Letany Collects and other parts of our Liturgy as have been unjustly quarrelled at by Presbyterians Independents Anabaptists or other by what name or title soever they be called Puritan Sectaries Thus have I freely acquainted you both with my practice and judgment in the point proposed in your Friends Letter How I shall be able to satisfie his or your judgment in what I have written I know not However I have satisfied both your desire and his in writing and shall rest Your Brother and Servant in the Lord Novemb. 2. 1652. FINIS a Votum soli Deo fit sed Promissio potest fieri etiam Homini Aquit 2. 2. q. 88. 5. ad 3. b Promissio Deo facta est essentia voti Ibid. c Psal. 76. 11. d Num. 21. 2. Judg. 11. 30. 1 Sam. 11. 25. e Judg. 11. 36. Psal. 56. 11. f Sponsio quâ obligamur Deo Cic. 2. Leg. a Jurare nihll est aliud quà m Deum Testem invocare Aq. 2. 2. qu. 89. 1. ex Aug. de ver Apost Serm. R. 28. quod affirmas si Deo Teste promiseris id tenendum est Cic. 3. de offic b Gen. 31. 50. Judges 11. 10. Mal. 2. 14. c Rom. 1. 9. 1 Thes. 1. 5. d 1 Cor. 1. 23. Phil. 1. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Rom. 7. 2. b Rom. 7. 2. c 1 Cor. 7. 4. d Num. 30. 3. b Quod initio vitiosum est non potest tractu temporis convalescere L. 29. F. de Reg. ju Div. c In stipulationibus id tempus spectatur quo contrahiâ—us I. 18. F. eodem a Rom. 7. 23. b Vota uxorum vel servorum exequenda illo tempore quo fuerint sui juris mariti vel domini non possunt irritare Nav. Man Num. 65. alios a Mat. 5. 28. b Prov. 5. 18. Eccles. 9. 9. c Prov. 5. 19. b Josh 9. 14 c. c Ibid. ver 19. 2 Sam. 21. 1 â— Senec. 1. Dâ— Clem. 24.
to bethink my self of such a course to be thenceforward held in the public worship in my own Parish as might be likeliest neither to bring danger to my self by the use nor to bring scandal to my Brethren by the disuse of the established Liturgy And the course was this to which I have held me ever since I begin the Service with a Preface of Scripture and an exhortation inferred thence to make Confession of sins which Exhortation I have framed out of the Exhortation and Absolution in the Book contracted and put together and expressed for the most part in the very same words and phrases but purposely here and there transplaced that it might appear not to be and yet be the same Then followeth the Confession it self in the same Order it was inlarged only with the addition of some words whereby it is rather explained than altered the whole Form whereof both for your fuller satisfaction in that particular and that you may partly conjecture what manner of addition or change I have made proportionably hereunto yet none so large in other parts of the holy Office I have here under-written O Almighty God and merciful Father we thy unworthy servants do with shame and sorrow confess that we have all our life long gone astray out of thy ways like lost Sheep and that by following too much the devices and desires of our own hearts We have grievously offended against thy holy Laws both in thought word and deed We have many times left undone those good things which we might and ought to have done and we have many times done those evils when we might have avoided them which we ought not to have done we confess O Lord that there is no health at all in us nor help in any Creature to relieve us But all our hope is in thy mercy whose justice we have by our sins so far provoked Have mercy upon us therefore O Lord have mercy upon us miserable offenders Spare us Good Lord which confess our faults that we perish not But according to thy gracious promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord Restore us upon our true Repentance to thy grace and favour And grant O most merciful Father for his sake that we may henceforth study to serve and please thee by leading a godly righteous and sober life to the glory of thy holy Name and the eternal comfort of our own souls through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen After this Confession the Lords Prayer with the Versicles and Gloria Patri and then the Psalms for the day and the first Lesson after which in the Afternoon sometimes Te Deum but then only when I think the Auditory will bear it and sometimes an Hymn of my own composing gathered out of the Psalms and the Church Collects as a general Form of thanks-giving which I did the rather because some have noted the want of such a Form as the only thing wherein our Liturgy seemed to be defective and in the Afternoon after the first Lesson the 98 or the 67 Psalm Then the second Lesson with Benedictus or Jubilate after it in the Forenoon and in the Afternoon a singing Psalm then followeth the Creed with Dominus Vobiscum and sometimes the Versicles in the end of the Litany From our Enemies defend us c. If I like my Auditory otherwise I omit these Versicles After the Creed c. instead of the Letany and the other Prayers appointed in the Book I have taken the substance of the Prayer I was wont to use before Sermon and disposed it into several Collects or Prayers some longer and some shorter but new modelled into the Language of the common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book much more than it was before And in the Pulpit before Sermon I use only a short Prayer in reference to the hearing of the Word and no more so that upon the matter in these Prayers I do but the same thing I did before save that what before I spake without Book and in a continued Form and in the Pulpit I now read out of a written Book broken into parcels and in the reading Desk or Pew Between which Prayers and the singing Psalm before the Sermon I do also daily use one other Collect of which sort I have for the purpose composed sundry made up as the former for the most part out of the Church Collects with some little inlargement or variation as namely Collects Adventual Quadragesimal Paschal and Pentecostal for their proper seasons and at other times Collects of a more general nature as for Pardon Repentance Grace c. And after one or more of them in the forenoon I usually repeat the ten Commandments with a short Collect after for Grace to enable us to keep them This hath been my practice and is like still to be unless some happy change of affairs restore us the liberty of using the old way again or it be made appear to my understanding by some able charitable Friend that I have therein done otherwise than I ought to have done for I may say truly I have not yet met with any thing in discourse either with my own reason or with others of sufficient strength to convince me that I have herein done any thing but what may stand with the Principles as well of Christian Simplicity as Prudence There are but three things that I know of that are of consideration opposed viz. 1. The Obligation of the Laws 2. The Scandal of the Example 3. An unseemly symbolizing at least with Schismaticks if not partaking with them in the Schism 1. Law Object I. The first and strongest Objection which I shall therefore propose to the most advantage of the Objector is that which is grounded upon the Laws and the obligation for it may be objected That every humane Law rightly established so long as it continueth a Law obligeth the Subject and that for Conscience sake to the observation thereof in such manner and form as in the said Law is prescribed and according to the true intention and meaning of the Law-giver therein That a Law is then understood to be rightly established when it containeth nothing but what is honest and lawful and is enacted by such person or persons as have full and sufficient authority to make Laws That a Law so established continueth a Law and is in force till it be either repealed by as good and full authority as that by which it was made or else antiquated by a long continued uninforced disuse with the tacite or presumed consent of the Law-giver That the Act printed before the Common Prayer-Book and entituled An Act for the Uniformity c. was such a Law being it was established in a full and free Parliament and in peaceable times and ratified by the Royal Assent That it still continueth in force being not yet repealed but by such persons as at least in the Opinion of those who maintain the Dispute for want of the Royal Assent have not a sufficient right
or authority to do such an Act nor disused but of late times and that by inforcement and as is presumed much against the mind and will of the Law-giver That therefore it still retaineth the power of obliging in point of Conscience that power being so essential and intrinsecal to every Law quatenus a Law that it can in no wise be severed from it And that no Minister publicly officiating in the Church can with a good Conscience either omit any part of that which is commanded by the aforesaid Law or use any other Form than what is contained in the aforesaid Book but must either use the Form prescribed in the Book or else to forbear to officiate The Answer to this Objection granting all the premises besides dependeth upon the right understanding of that which is affirmed concerning the obligation of Laws according to the intention of the Law-giver which if it should be understood precisely of that particular actual and immediate intention of the Law-giver had in the making of any particular Law and it is sufficiently declared by the words of the Law in which sense only the Objection proceedeth will not hold true in all Cases But there is supposed besides that in the Law-giver a more general habituate and ultimate intention of a more excellent and transcendent nature than the former which is to have an influence into and an over-ruling power over all Laws viz. an intention by the Laws to procure and promote the public good The former intention bindeth where it is subservient to the latter or consistent with it and consequently bindeth in ordinary cases and in orderly times or else the Law is not an wholsom Law But where the observation of the Law by reason of the Conjuncture of circumstances or the iniquity of the times contingencies which no Law-giver could either certainly foresee or if foreseen could sufficiently provide against would rather be prejudicial than advantageous to the public or is manifestly attended with more inconveniences and sad consequents to the observers as all the imaginable good that can redound to the public thereby cannot in any reasonable measure countervail In such case the Law obligeth not but according to the latter and more general intention only Even as in the Operations of nature particular Agents do move ordinarily according to the proper and particular inclinations yet upon some occasions and to serve the ends and intentions of universal Nature for the avoiding of some thing which nature abhorreth they are sometimes carried with motions quite contrary to their particular natures as the Air to descend and the Water to ascend for the avoiding of Vacuity c. The Common received Maxim which hath been sufficiently misapplied and that sometimes to very evil purposes since the beginning of these unhappy Divisions in the true meaning of it looketh this way Salus populi suprema lex the equity of which Maxim as it leaveth in the Law-giver a power of dispensing the Law which is a suspending of the obligation thereof for a time in respect of the proper and particular intention as he shall see it expedient in order to the public good so it leaveth in the Subject a liberty upon just occasions as in Cases of great Exigencies and for the preventing of such hazards and inconveniencies as might prove of noisom consequence to the public to do otherwise than the Law requireth And neither is the exercise of that power in the Law-giver to be thought an unreasonable Prerogative nor the use of this liberty in the Subject an unreasonable presumption inasmuch as the power of dispensing with particular Laws is such a prerogative as without which no Common-wealth can be well governed but Justice would be turned into Gall and Wormwood Nor can the Supreme Governor with forfeiture of that faithfulness which he oweth to the public Weal divest himself thereof And he that presumeth of the Law-givers consent to dispense with him for the observing of the Law in such needful Cases where he hath not the opportunity to consult his pleasure therein presumeth no more than he hath reason to do for it may well be presumed that the Law-giver who is bound in all his Laws to intend the safety of the public and of every member thereof in his due proportion hath no intention by the observation of any particular Law to oblige any person who is a member of the public to his destruction or ruine when the common good is not answerably promoted thereby Upon which ground it is generally resolved by Casuists that no consultation meerly humane can lay such Obligation upon the Conscience of the Subject but that he may according to exigency of circumstances do otherwise than the constitution requireth Provided it be done Extra casum scandali contemptus that is to say without either bewraying in himself any contempt of the authority of the Law-giver by his carriage or giving any just occasion of scandal to others by his example in so doing I have been somewhat the larger in explaining this point not only for the better clearing of the said doubt but also in respect of the usefulness of this consideration for the preventing and removing of many scruples that may happen to conscientious men in such times as these wherein so many things are and are like to be commanded and forbidden contrary to the established Laws and those as they are persuaded yet standing in force The best rule that I know to guide men in their deliberations and actions in such emergent Cases is advisedly and unpartially to weigh the benefits and inconveniencies as well on the one side as the other and then compare them one with the other as they stand in relation to the public good And if after such examination and comparison made it shall then evidently or but in the judgment of probability appear that the observation of the Law according to the proper intention of the Law-giver therein though with hazard of Estate Liberty or even Life it self with a great tendency to the public good and in the preservation of Church or Common-weath in safety peace and order then the preventing of the aforesaid hazards or other evil consequents by doing otherwise then the Law requireth can have or which cometh to one if the violating of the Law shall then appear to be more prejudicial to the public good then preservation of the Subjects estates liberty or life can be beneficial thereunto in such Case the Subject is bound to hazard all he hath and to undergo whatsoever inconveniencies or calamities can ensue thereupon rather than violate the Law with contempt of that authority to which he oweth subjection But if it shall after such comparison be made evidently or but more probably then the contrary appear that the preservation of such a persons life liberty or estate would more benefit the Church or Common-wealth than the punctual observation of the Law at that time and with those circumstances would do it