if it be uttered with the lips without the intention of the heart it is a bare similitude and if the other be read or uttered after an holy manner with that affection which God requireth in prayer it is true and acceptable prayer Words without the heart are but empty sounds whether read or pronounced out of the memory or ex tempore and if the voice be joyned with the heart it is pleasant melody though our petitions be read out of a book But the book then saith he supplieth the room of the word and spirit Nothing lesse For the word of God directeth us what to ask even when we reade our prayers upon a book so long as we crave with understanding things agreeable to the will of God And the spirit doth enable and stirre us up to desire that which is according to Gods will and our necessity We may utter requests with our lips in conceived prayer without the aid and assistance of the holy Ghost and so we may in a penned prayer but offer up the sighs and grones of the heart we cannot without his grace It is no more lawfull to use any strange manner of prayer then it was to use strange fire or strange incense in time of the law Psal 141. 2. Apoc. 8. 3 4. But a stinted form of prayer is a strange manner of prayer The proposition we grant if rightly understood otherwise symbolicall and analogicall arguments if the proposition be not rightly taken are very dangerous But a stinted form of prayer is no strange manner of worship because in it all things required to the nature of true prayer may be observed In the word of God we have direction given to whom for what with what heart and affection to what end a man ought to pray but in what method or frame of speech he is to be a petitioner we find nothing prescribed in particular neither do we judge any thing necessary more then this That order decency and edification be observed That which hath the common nature definition use and end of worship but wanteth Divine authority and institution to make it approved and true worship that is strange in the worship of God But the method and phrase of speech hath not the common nature definition use or end of worship or prayer belonging unto it As conceived prayer so a set form of prayer is for substance and nature agreeable to the rules of direction delivered in the word of truth though for method and words both the humane Let our brethren set down out of the word of God what is necessarily and essentially required to the nature and being of true prayer shew if they be able that some one or other condition or requisite cannot be observed in a prescript or stinted form If this cannot be done as I think it never hath nor can be how dare they esteem or style it a strange worship They tell us God hath not ordained that manner of worship But this phrase the manner of worship is used two wayes first as it noteth the substantiall means of worship ordained of God by speciall institution secondly as it is put for the outward order or form how this worship or means of worship is performed A third signification might be added as when we say the third commandment teacheth in what manner the name and ordinances of God are to be used Now if it be taken in the first or third signification the outward frame of words order and method is neither means nor manner of worship either in preaching prayer or administration of the sacraments If in the second the word of God doth not prescribe any particular form stinted or not stinted as necessary but doth warrant both as allowable For where nothing is in particular commanded touching the externall form of words and order in which our petitions should be presented to the Lord there we are left at liberty And to put religion in reading or uttering words in a stinted or conceived form where God hath laid no bond upon the conscience what is it lesse then superstition If the phrase of speech be modus or medium cultûs as it is referred to the second commandment then it is instituted commanded and determined of God in particular then that and none other is lawfull and necessary for so it is in all parts of his positive worship Those sacramentall signes which God hath designed in the covenant are necessary and those onely lawfull and if method and phrase of speech be medium cultûs in the same sense the like must be said of that also In substance a prayer read and conceived is all one and the one is no more a strange manner of worship then the other And here let it be observed that all these objections are made against all use of stinted or read prayers publick or private voluntary or imposed sound and pertinent as well as corrupt and cannot be restrained to a form imposed upon the minister of the congregation to be used continually and that corrupt and faulty The matter if supposed to be alike from God as being truth and according to sound doctrine the manner in that we call conceived prayer is the same which nature teacheth and scripture approveth and is the onely way in which the prayers of all holy men recorded in scripture since Christ have been carried as the Papists themselves grant But for the manner or way of book-prayer we have not so much as example in scripture for it The strength of this reason let us view in the like M r Smith would prove the originals not to be given as helps before the eye in worship Because upon the day of Pentecost and many yeares after the churches of the new Testament did use no books in time of spirituall worship but prayed prophesied and sung psalmes merely out of their hearts Acts 2. 4 42. 10. 44 48. 19. 6. 1. Cor. 14. 15 17 26 37. Because no example can be shewed of any man ordinary or extraordinary that at or after the day of Pentecost used a book in praying prophesying and singing of Psalmes if yea let it be done and we yield And against the use of translations for the hearers thus he argueth The Prophets and Apostles wrote books but did never divide their books into chapters and verses Seeing therefore that chapters and verses were of mans invention hence it followeth before chapter and verse came in the hearers could not turn to search their books in time of hearing The Apostles in quoting testimonies of the prophets do not quote chapter and verse but onely say It is written The scripture saith The holy Ghost saith thereby teaching us that there is no use of chapter and verse for searching in time of hearing Never was there mention made of any hearer that ever had his book to search in time of hearing The reasons be the same and yet I perswade my self they
the Old Testament from the apostles at their first conversion but suddenly they could not be translated into every language and till they were translated they could not be read in the congregation unto edifying The books of the New Testament could not be delivered untill they were written but they were not written all at once and when they were all written being sent to severall churches it must be some time before they could be gathered together and translated And if nothing be allowable in the church but what was found in the primitive churches planted by the apostles by record of scripture I fear the reading of the scriptures in a known tongue must be cast out of the congregations I go not about to equalize stinted Liturgies with set translations of the holy scriptures but I would intreat such as oppose a stinted Liturgie by these reasons to consider whether they do not put weapons into the adversaries hands to fight against the scriptures Again set forms of catechismes publick or private composed by the minister or devised by others used with liberty to adde or alter as occasion requireth are no more commanded of God then set forms of prayer nor no more in use in the apostolick churches Christ our Saviour the Prophets or Apostles have no more appointed the one then the other if all parts of holy and spirituall worship may be performed without a stinted Liturgie they may be performed also without a stinted or set catechisme and if a set form of prayer must be disallowed a set form of catechisme publick or private composed by the minister or devised by others must be condemned also But the antiquity excellency and necessity of catechizing is known to them who are exercised in the building and governing of the house of God the use and profit of a set form therein is both manifest by reason and confirmed by experience at home and abroad in publick and private to them who have laboured to lay the foundation of Christian religion and train up the people committed to their charge in sound wisdome and understanding And in these things we swerve not from our pattern because we teach and professe the same doctrine and worship God with the same worship and substantiall means of worship that the primitive churches and Christians did There is the same reason of reading the Apocrypha books of Maccabees and those that follow them in the congregation and of reading a stinted form of Liturgie and the same reasons that silence the Apocrypha will silence stinted prayers as well and as much When we prove the lawfulnesse of a stinted form of prayer by the stinted forms of psalmes and blessing mentioned in scripture it is thought answer sufficient to say There is great difference betwixt blessings or psalmes and prayer and yet here it is enough to match things unlike together and to say of them without all proof There is the same reason of both But if it have any sinews it will silence the singing of psalmes sermons professions of faith and conceived prayer no lesse then stinted especially the use of notes to help memory and forms of catechisme by whomsoever and howsoever used For there is the same reason of reading and uttering by heart in the congregation And if nothing but the canonicall scriptures must be read in the congregation nothing must be uttered by heart or strength of memory but the scriptures alone But sermons professions of faith conceived prayer are not canonicall scripture The reason is one and whatsoever can be answered truly in the one will put the other to flight If it be said That it is the prerogative of the scripture to be the rule of faith and manners and therefore nothing is to be read in the congregation as the ground undoubted and immediate of faith and manners but the scripture alone this openeth way for stinted prayer as well as for sermons or conceived prayer The substantiall means of worship both publick and private are determined of God It is unlawfull to set up an image for worship either publick or private The scripture must be acknowledged the sole rule of faith and manners both in publick and private It is unlawfull to devise sacramentall signes in private as well as in the congregation And if it be unlawfull to reade any other book in the congregation because the reading of the scripture is the onely approved medium cultûs by the same reason all forms of catechismes and singing of psalmes and reading or use of stinted praiers in the family are unlawfull And if the one be an image in the congregation the others are so in the family When the Lord had devised and appointed a perfume saith the authour of the Letter all men are forbidden to make a composition like that perfume Exod. 30. 35 37. So if it could be proved that Christ had made a form for the churches and believers alwayes when they pray then the offering up of any other prayers made by others or of our own devising would seem to be as unlawfull as the offering of strange incense Exod. 30. 9. Where it is implyed that seeing God hath determined no certain form therefore forms devised by men are not necessary but lawfull In the same manner they may be answered from their own grounds That seeing God hath sanctified and set apart the canonicall scriptures given by immediate Divine inspiration to be the sole and perfect rule of faith and manners therefore the scripture alone must be read and acknowledged as the sole ground of heavenly instruction But seeing he hath determined no certain form of prayer or sermons professions of faith or thanksgiving therefore either none at all must be made or forms devised by men are lawfull to be heard in the congregation yet not as immediate and undoubted grounds of faith for that is proper to the scripture but as instructions and exhortations builded upon or petitions framed according to the scripture as present occasion doth require In sermons who doth not put a difference betwixt the text whereupon the discourse instructions exhortations rebukes comforts be grounded deduced the exhortations rebukes comforts which are propounded in method phrase of speech devised by men The first is ought to be canonicall scripture the other not so But it would argue great ignorance if not perversenesse if a man should cavill in this manner against the preaching of the word That the scriptures alone are to be read in the congregation therefore the minister of the Gospel must simply reade the scripture but never give the meaning nor make application In the Primitive church sundry councels have forbidden the reading of any books as parts of Divine worship but canonicall scripture onely of the Old and New Testament but no councel ever condemned the use of a stinted Liturgie Those churches which forbad the reading of any books which be without the canon did
derogatorie to the honour fruit and benefit of Christs ascension Christ ascending up on high hath given gifts unto men for the work of the ministery as well for prayer as for doctrine and preaching added also for baptizing administration of the Lords supper catechizing blessing confession and profession of faith and singing of psalmes And if a stinted form of prayer be derogatory to the honour of Christs ascension for the same reason a stinted form in all or any of these is derogatory likewise Christ hath given gifts unto men for doctrine or preaching is it therefore unlawfull for the minister of the Gospel to make use of translations commentaries linguists controversie-writers c. to help and furnish him the better in this work is this to derogate from the fruit and benefit of Christs ascension Ability to preach is a gift which Christ bestoweth upon his servants but I hope they will not say he is unmeet to be a minister of Christ that doth penne his sermons and ordinarily deliver them in that method and stinted phrase which he hath premeditated or that his so doing is dishonourable to the fruit and benefit of Christs ascension And it will be a difficult thing to give a substantiall reason why a stinted prayer and not a penned sermon should be so challenged Christ hath given to his ministers ability to pray in their measure but not in such measure as they should need no help nor such abilities of speech or utterance as that every minister should be so enabled to pray in fitting words according to present occasions as not to need some help studie and meditation yea to digest his meditations into a stinted form of words And this stinted form delivered upon premeditation out of memory is a prescript form in the judgement of our brethren But let us grant what can never be proved that every minister hath the gift of speech and utterance that he needeth no help or furtherance upon any suddain occasion what will follow If they be so endued it will be said there is no warrant for others to prescribe nor for themselves to reade over such stinted prayers What not An able minister hath discretion and wisdome to know what portion of scripture is meet to be read and how much hath the church no warrant then to appoint what books chapters or sections shall ordinarily be read nor the minister warrant to observe that appointment A learned Grecian or Hebrician is able to translate a book or chapter in the Old or New Testament as well peradventure better then it is in our ordinary translations may not the church then ordain one translation usually to be read Let me intreat our brethren to view the strength of this reason in another of the same form which I certainly perswade my self they will not allow and it is this Reading of translations in the worship of God is unlawfull because it doth contradict the gifts bestowed by Christ upon the church for the work of the ministery and derogateth from the vertue of Christs ascension and dignity of his kingdome and blemisheth Christs bounty to and care of his church and may be performed by a child perfectly well For it may be said If Christ hath given gifts unto men for the work of the ministery he hath given ability also to translate the scriptures or else translations are not necessary And if Christ hath given gifts to his servants to translate the scriptures or translations be not necessary then they have no warrant to reade nor others authority to prescribe any set translation It may also be added That God will be worshipped with our own not with another mans with that which cost us something not with that which cost us nothing with our own gifts not with other mens But for one ignorant of the originals to reade the translations is to offer unto God that which cost him nothing to serve God with other mens not with his own gifts The conclusion our brethren will not acknowledge but whatsoever they can soundly answer to the premisses will with the same labour untie the knot of their own argument God is to be served with the best But a minister is enabled to pray better according to the occasion then possibly he can be in a stinted form Cursed be the deceiver which hath a male in his flock and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing If these ministers then and others have a better sacrifice of prayer and thanksgiving then their service-book as their own practice both publick and private when they have liberty sheweth they have and that so themselves judge let them learn to fear him that is a great King and whose name is terrible even the Lord of hosts The Lord will be worshipped with the best we have and he is accursed that having a male for sacrifice doth offer a corrupt thing to the Lord Mal. 1 14. If this be granted that every minister is enabled to pray better according to the present occasion then possibly he can be directed in a stinted form which can never be proved by text of scripture or sound reason drawn from thence in like manner a man may and some have argued against the reading of translations God will be served with the best we have but there is no one translation the best we have for a minister may be able to render a chapter sentence or verse more significantly then the translation hath it And yet I suppose no minister will refuse to use a sound and good translation though it be here and there lesse significant nor take liberty in reading to alter it at pleasure lest liberty herein should teach gracelesse and ungodly people to wrangle against the scriptures themselves In preaching and disputing men may and do note the significancy of the phrase which cannot so fully be expressed in a translation and more fully interpret what is not so plain and full as might be desired but in reading the scriptures in the congregation great warinesse is to be used lest boldnesse to correct occasion doubts in the weak and embolden the ungodly to carp against religion And if a minister may be tyed to the use of a sound good translation though not in every jot or tittle the best that may be this reason hath lost its sinews Universall propositions duly limited may be of great use whereas if extended too farre they are dangerous in application It is true if we speak of Gods incomprehensible goodnesse excellency glory and dominion that more love and service is due to God then he requireth in his word or possibly can be given by men or Angels It is true we are bound to whatsoever duty the Lord requireth in his law for matter manner and measure to whatsoever he obligeth us unto upon speciall occasion or inciteth us unto by the heroicall motions of his Spirit which must not be resisted It is also most true that the creature cannot
ordinary reading of the Law in the assemblies upon the Sabbath is not commanded by Moses either to the priests or Levites no mention is found of any such practice for a long time together We find not for a long time that the Jews had any synagogues for the ordinary assembling of the people and the Law could not be read in their synagogues untill they were built Will our brethren hence conclude either that the scriptures were not read in the assemblies or that it was a devise of man to reade them in their synagogues It is not good to lay grounds for such conclusions If M r Ainsworths testimony be of any value then mark what he testifieth from the famous Jew Maimonie in Misneh treatise of prayer That the church of the Jews had no stinted Liturgie Annot. on Deut. 6. 13. Our wise men have said saith Maim What service is this with the heart It is prayer And there is no number of prayers by the Law neither is there any set form of this by the Law c. If M r Ainsworth be not crosse to himself he cannot deny the use of a stinted form amongst the Jews in the celebration of the passeover of a stinted form free and voluntary not necessary as prescribed of God And that which is here cited out of Maimonie is no way repugnant thereunto For he speaketh not of the passeover or any observations in the celebration thereof but of prayer and that private by one alone and not publick in the assembly or congregation Now the Jews might well use a stinted form in the celebration of the passeover when yet by the law there was no number set nor form prescribed for private prayer These two may well agree After long search no copy can be found of any stinted Liturgie in use among the Jews till they ceased to be the church of God which is a poore and weak proof of the lawfulnesse of a stinted Liturgie amongst Christians It followeth not that they never had or used a set form because it is not to be found at this day For many monuments of antiquity are perished Again though forms which now are extant were not entire as now they be untill they ceased to be a church yet many things conteined in them might be in use before So it is in the counterfeit Liturgies which goe under the name of James Mark Basil and Chrysostom they contein many things which shew the whole composure to be late in comparison whereas divers things in them mentioned were of more ancient use in the church of God And if this do not please though there never was any stinted Liturgie or form of prayer to be used in all their synagogues and assemblies yet that is no reason to question the truth of that which the learned have observed touching the stinted form used in the celebration of the passeover and the probabilities at least they bring to shew that our Saviour Christ approved the same which is all that is affirmed in the argument and maketh more for the lawfulnesse of a stinted form of Liturgie then any thing that hath been objected against it As for the reformed churches we are not to consider what they do but what they ought to do It is most true but we must consider wisely and not censure unadvisedly The churches of God are companies of men called out of this world in part onely inlightned subject to errour they have erred they may erre their sole testimony cannot be the ground of divine faith and assurance Neverthelesse the constant judgement of the churches of God for many ages in a matter of this nature in the times of reformation when clouds and darknesse are expelled when the sunne is risen and great light given to the scriptures by the benefit of languages translations and commentaries I say the judgement of the churches at these times and in a matter of this nature is not lightly to be regarded A man should try and examine his grounds and reasons and mistrust himself rather then so many wise learned and godly sweetly consenting in a matter of this nature unlesse his evidence be very good He had need be well advised before he charge them to maintein a worship not allowed an idole-prayer for the spirituall worship of God a strange form of prayer which was never approved whereat a Christian may not safely be present against which he is bound to witnesse Be it that the churches do erre herein yet I hope they be not obstinate and such as will not give consent to the truth when it is shewed and manifested How cometh it then to passe that none of them hitherto have subscribed to their opinion and practice Either their arguments are not sufficient to convince and then their Separation is unjust or they generally want eyes to see the light for they will not say they want conscience to acknowledge what they cannot but see and then in meeknesse they are to be born withall if upon well tried grounds a man be assured that they all and not he himself is in the errour The testimony of the church then is not infallible because it may erre and hath erred and some members of it at this day do erre in the particular differences that be amongst them but yet the constant testimony of the whole church in the times of light and reformation is of great weight otherwise the Apostles would never alledge the practice and consent of churches to confirm the faithfull and stop the mouthes of the contentious We must look to the primitive churches planted by the apostles who are patterns to them and us But the apostolick churches for many yeares had no such Liturgie devised or imposed And therefore it is no ordinance of Christ because the churches may perfectly and entirely worship God without it with all the parts of holy and spirituall worship We freely confesse it to be no ordinance of Christ by speciall institution nor part of his worship It sufficeth that it is allowable in the worship and consonant to the generall rules given in scripture but not of absolute necessitie Whether any stinted forms of prayer were in use in the apostolick churches is more then can be affirmed certainly or denyed That the apostles prescribed none as necessary that is easily beleeved because no mention of it That none was in use our Divines will neither peremptorily affirm nor deny But if that be granted it is no prejudice to a stinted Liturgy nor to the churches apostolick who are to be our patterns For it is more then probable that many assemblies had not the scriptures read in a known tongue at their first planting it is more then can be shewed by precedent or example that they were read in any Christian congregation Some churches converted by the preaching of the Gospel had neither books nor letters It may be others received the book of
first receive a stinted form of prayer and the councels themselves take order touching the reading of the scripture and the singing of psalmes and other things which pertein to a stinted Liturgie So that those Fathers churches had not learned that the same reasons which silence the Apocrypha in the congregation will silence all stinted forms of Liturgie as well and as much As it were a ridiculous thing for a child when he would ask of his father bread c. to reade it to him out of a paper so it is for the children of God especially for the ministers of the Gospel in their publick ministrations to reade unto God their requests for their own and the churches wants out of a service-service-book wherein they are stinted to words and syllables It is a common saying Similitudes agree not in all things and a rule as generall That to argue from a bare similitude is the loosest kind of reasoning which may be applyed to cover or countenance any errour or abuse whatsoever Therefore this objection might well have been passed over as it is omitted by the most that have written of this subject that I have seen but that colours and shadows do often take more with some then that which is substantiall If a man would set himself to plead for superstitious abuses and idolatrous practices errours and unwritten traditions is it not an easie matter by some similitude to cast a fair glosse upon them And it is a strange thing that such as with so much earnestnesse set themselves against all humane inventions and devises in Gods worship should by their form of reasoning open the floud-gates wide for all superstitious idolatrous antichristian devises and impieties as this reason doth I need not instance every man that knoweth what is principally alledged in defense of any popish vain unprofitable superstitious or idolatrous practice or custome or will take pains to look must needs see this to be so But to look upon the objection it self If a child being to ask many particulars of his father for himself and others should write them in a paper for the help of memory or some other reason and having committed them to memory as they are registred in his paper should in that form of words digested and written down present his requests before his father without addition or alteration what morall evil or incivility should be committed in this case why should this be esteemed a thing ridiculous And if similitudes do please so well may we not say with more reason and upon better ground That as a learned oratour being to make an oration in an honourable presence about divers matters of weight and importance will not onely study and digest but penne his speech and deliver it word for word as it is contrived and penned so the minister of the Lord of hosts in his publick ministration is not onely to consider what requests he is to make to God in his own and the peoples behalf but to digest them into fit method and to penne or write them down and to utter them in the congregation as he hath contrived them Let the indifferent judge whether of these two be the most reasonable Book-prayer is generally laid aside in the families of best Christians And in all reformed churches generally the use of a book by every able and godly minister is left off and at home it is accounted and complained of as a burden by the better sort of them that use it Many things are disused and that by the best Christians which are not unlawfull Where there be many wayes to the wood ordinarily men may make choice of one or two not disallowing the other It is lawfull for Christians when they pray in their families dayly to reade the ten commandments the profession of faith c. which is generally laid aside without sinne Many things also may be decent in the congregation which are not so expedient and requisite in the family And in one congregation a thing may be lawfull and of use which is disused in another without sin where yet it would not be unprofitable The deacons in Chrysostomes and Basils time used to call upon the people with these words Oremus Attendamus Let us pray Let us give eare The deacon at the holy mysteries stood up and thus spake unto the people Oremus pariter omnes The manner was that before every lesson or chapter the minister should say unto the people Let us attend If this custome be disused either in the congregation or Christian families at this day it doth not argue the thing it self to be indecent or unprofitable And if by Book-prayers all stinted forms whether read or repeated by help of memory be understood they are not so generally rejected in the families of the best Christians nor in the ministery of the most able and godly ministers as the objection importeth Let us heare the testimony of a godly learned and well experienced minister now at rest with the Lord When as saith he the question is made by many of the lawfulnesse or at least of the expediency of praying by the help of a book or of using a prescript and set form of prayer it is to be considered that there be divers degrees and measures of gifts both naturall as wit memory utterance as also of grace as knowledge faith zeal given to divers men besides that some have been more trained and exercised in this holy duty then others Now they that are better gifted either by nature or else by grace and custome may use the more liberty Which difference I have observed not onely in divers private Christians but also in some most reverend faithfull and worthy ministers some using both in their publick ministery and in their private families a stinted prayer and set form of words with little alteration at all except some extraordinary occasion have happend and yet both sorts so furnished with pietie and learning as I could hardly preferre one before the other And a little after For the publick congregation for the most part it is expedient to keep a constant form both of matter and also of words and yet without servile tying of our selves to words and syllables If the judgement of reformed churches abroad or of the godly faithfull learned and reverend at home be of any weight they are so farre from complaining of a stinted form as burdensome that in many cases they judge it expedient A set form of prayer and administration of the sacraments not onely devised by the minister himself but agreed upon by the churches is approved by generall consent Is there any reformed church established which hath not their book of common prayer The ministers at home to whom the use of common prayer hath been thought most burdensome have from time to time professed their liking and approbation of a stinted Liturgy That they like well enough of
A FRIENDLY TRIALL OF THE GROUNDS TENDING TO SEPARATION In a plain and modest Dispute touching the Lawfulnesse of a stinted Liturgie and set form of Prayer Communion in mixed assemblies and the Primitive subject and first receptacle of the power of the Keyes Tending to satisfie the doubtfull recall the wandring and to strengthen the weak By JOHN BALL ISAIAH 8. 20. To the law and to the testimonie if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them PSAL. 119. 105. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path ¶ Printed by Roger Daniel printer to the Universitie of Cambridge For Edward Brewster and are to be sold at his shop at the Bible on Fleet-bridge 1640. To the Christian Reader sound judgement the spirit of wisdome uprightnesse of heart and sweet communion with GOD. Christian READER IT is commonly professed though not so well known and observed as it ought that Satan is alwayes busie to solicite and our own deceitfull hearts ready to turn aside from the wayes of peace and comfort either to the right hand or to the left To say nothing of the lamentable state of heathen Infidels Turks and Jews who know not God nor believe the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST Amongst them that professe Christianity some are so deeply plunged into superstition that the truth of God and the ordinances of grace are not prized in comparison of their own vain and fruitlesse traditions And others on the contrary do so farre distast all inventions whatsoever as they speak in Gods worship as they reject that which beareth the stamp and image of God and might be greatly profitable to their souls Many come profanely to the Lords table and pollute the holy things of God to their own destruction Others through groundlesse fears of defilement do withdraw themselves from ordinances Divine and the society of the godly because some unworthy are not debarred To satisfie this latter sort who offend out of weaknesse misguided judgement not of stubbornesse and contempt and to settle them that are staggering I have penned this poore rude treatise nothing doubting but the truth will be able to maintein it self and that the beauty thereof will procure favour and acceptance though it come arayed in a very homely garment A stinted form of prayer hath been challenged as an image forbidden in the second commandment a forged and devised worship unlawfull both in them that use it and those that joyn therein To remove this scruple I have shewed the use of a stinted Liturgie lawfull and allowable by the word of God of ancient use in the churches of Christ approved by all reformed churches at this day Upon which occasion many things are disputed touching the meaning of the second commandment the nature of true and false worship and what it is to pray by the Spirit Many are the objections which are made against set forms of prayer and particularly against our book of common prayer all which I have endeavoured to answer severally and not because they are of so great weight but because I desired fully to satisfie every doubt and roll away every stone I met withall If one and the same thing be oft repeated I desire it may be considered that one and the same objection for substance is often brought forth though perhaps in new aray and every plain-hearted Reader for whose use I principally intend this labour is not able to apply an answer once given to sundry objections in colour diverse though for substance the same And I suppose the prudent will think it more reasonable that the wise in heart be burdened with over-much then that the weak should remain unsatisfied through some defect Some stagger at this that ignorant profane notorious offenders are admitted to the Lords table and conceive that communicating with such in the ordinances of religion they are partakers of their sinne And sure it is a thing to be lamented with tears of bloud that the body and bloud of our Saviour CHRIST should be profaned the house and church of God defiled the name of the Lord dishonoured religion blasphemed and the blind notorious profane permitted to rush upon their own perdition But it is not for private persons to take that upon them which belongeth not unto their place nor being invited by CHRIST to excommunicate themselves because such as are notoriously wicked be not admonished kept back or censured The main ground of the former doubt and all others tending to Separation seemeth to be this That the power of the keyes is primitively given to the community of the faithfull as the first receptacle For then they conceive that it perteineth to them to censure offenders or else to separate from them Then likewise it will more probably be concluded as they think That that society which hath not the power of CHRISTS keyes is not the true church of CHRIST Therefore to raze the foundation of Separation and at once to overthrow their main objections this question is more largely disputed wherein is shewed by evidence of Scripture That the power of the keyes is given by Jesus Christ the Lord and King of his church and great Shepherd of his sheep to the church-governours whom he hath appointed to rule and feed his flock in his name and to whom they must give account If any man shall think these things are small and not to be insisted upon he may please to consider How small soever the things in themselves seem to be the evil consequences that follow thereupon be both many and great It is no small matter to bury that under the condemnation of false worship which the Lord the authour of all truth the determiner of his true pleasing and acceptable worship doth allow in his service It is no small offense to forsake the prayers of the congregation to depart from the table of the Lord when he calleth to feast with himself and to break off society and communion with the churches of Christ where he doth cause his flock to rest at noon to fill the hearts of weak Christians with doubts and distractions as not knowing what to do or which way to take to spend time in reasonings and disputations of this kind which might much more profitably be employed in the practice of repentance and holy obedience to expose religion to contempt and the truth of God to reproch amongst them that delight to speak evil These are sad effects of this Separation which is here opposed Is it not lamentable to see poore Christians who sincerely thirst after the waters of life and long to meet the Lord in his holy ordinances cast into doubts and fears about the things which so nearly concern their comfortable walking with God and salvation of their souls May not this tend to the discouragement of divers that are coming on and turn them who are halting clean out of the way The rents and divisions which have been in the
worshipping God which he hath appointed Again That these stinted and devised forms do quench the spirit of prayer which God would have them use stinting the minister yea all the ministers of the kingdome to the same measure of the spirit not onely one with another but all of them with him that is dead and rotten and so stinting the spirit which the Lord giveth to his ministers for his church and that so strictly as till the stint be out it may not suggest one thought or word otherwise or when it is out one more then is prescribed Neverthelesse his drift is plainly to disprove all stinted forms as it is evident by that he writeth in answer to some objections For Grant saith he that these words of Christ PRAY AFTER THIS MANNER AND VVHEN YE PRAY SAY are to be interprâ—ted as these men would have it yet do I except against their service-book in a double respect The first is That the reading of prayers upon a book hath no justification from them If it be said that to commit a certain form of words to memory and from it to utter them and to reade them upon a book be all one I deny the consequence and though I approve not the former yet is the latter farre worse And in another place You speak not properly no nor truly in saying you Pray stinted prayers for you Read them and who will say Reading is Praying or if you so say or do is it agreeable either to his ordinance or common reason And in the page cited last before He that readeth hath another speaking to him as it were even him whose writing he readeth and himself speaketh not to God but to the people Thus also he speaketh concerning the Lords prayer We may use a petition two or more or all in or of it even word for word if so the holy Ghost by whose immediate teachings and suggestions all our requests must be put up do direct us and that we apply the same words to our needs And in the same section So neither is the reading of this prescript or repeating it by memory praying Now let the indifferent consider and give sentence whether this be not to condemn all set forms of prayer to be used as prayer And if more then down-weight be required his fourth reason against the stinted form of service in use in our church will put this beyond all exception For thus he disputeth As it were a ridiculous thing for a child when he would ask of his father bread fish or any other thing he wanted to reade it to him out of a paper so it is for the children of God especially for the ministers of the Gospell in their publick ministrations to reade unto God their requests for their own and the churches wants out of a service-service-book wherein they are also stinted to words and syllables So that all other respects and considerations laid aside for what advantage soever alleadged the simple use of a stinted Liturgie or form of prayer to be used as a prayer is disallowed of them And if this be once accorded the other respects will easily be wiped away at least in regard of the users and them that joyn in prayer and participation of the sacraments In the copie of a letter lately published against stinted Liturgies the Authour willeth us to consider That the Liturgie he excepteth against was devised by men viz. other men whom God hath not called to such a work as to invent forms of prayers which should be used by all the churches in the land for their prayers and That it is imposed upon the minister and the people of necessity That it is stinted both in matter and words to be used without variation and That the service is read out of a book many wayes faulty and corrupt But look to most of the reasons brought to shew the justnesse of this exception and they make against all sorts of stinted forms used as prayers and not against a form corrupt and faulty imposed in such or such a manner as namely these God did never command to use nor promise to accept such a worship in which respect it is the manifest breach of the second commandment God hath appointed other helps for prayer which are sufficient without this Publick prayers offered up by the minister in church-assemblies must be framed according to the present and severall occasions of the church and people of God as also mens private prayers ought to be ordered which cannot be done when men are stinted to forms If you draw any conclusion from these premises it must be That all stinted forms are unlawfull not That a form corrupt and faulty is to be disallowed But if the foresaid cautions be added by way of distinction or limitation as if all stinted Liturgies were not disliked but such onely as be imposed as necessary to be used without variation and for matter or form corrupt and faulty then the reasons fight directly with the conclusion and hang no otherwise together then if a man should thus dispute All stinted forms of prayer are not to be disliked but corrupt onely imposed as necessary because God did never command nor promise to accept any stinted service or devised worship For what purpose therefore these cautions were added let others judge whether by way of aggravation onely or to set the greater lustre upon the position or for some other advantage Some others professe That they oppose not all nor any set form simply as such but are perswaded in many cases there is a lawfull use to be made of them but such a set form as is prescribed amongst us for matter and manner they affirm to be against the second commandment and a sin in the maker and deviser of it to such an use and a sin in the user of it according to that devise or making But the lawfull use of such forms publick or private they allow onely in some case of necessity which cannot fall out in a minister of the Gospel or any man else who deserveth the name of a strong Christian For they suppose abilities in all ministers and in every man else who hath his wits exercised to discern good and evil and deserveth to be esteemed a strong man in Jesus Christ Their words be these Set forms have their proper place and lawfull use onely where abilities are not as a naturall means and help to further some branch or other of that we call Prayer or conceived prayer as to supply defect of invention memory utterance or the like So the lawfulnesse of it lieth onely in a case of some necessity The difference then betwixt them so farre as I can gather standeth in this one thing That these latter allow some lawfull use of a stinted private form of prayer in some cases of necessity which the others altogether condemned But whether they dissent in any other particulars or no it is needlesse to enquire
further or whether the latter take away again what they seem to grant In these things they consent First that all publick Liturgies and stinted forms of prayer be unlawfull a breach of the second commandment both in the deviser and user Secondly that private forms of prayer if lawfull for weak Christians and babes in Christ are unlawfull for strong men in Christ or Christians that have received some growth in godlinesse Thirdly that a Christian weak or strong may not lawfully be present at the prayers of the congregation read or rehearsed out of a stinted Liturgie nor at the sacraments administred in a stinted form of Liturgie as it is with us The Question then hath three branches First whether a set form of prayer sound and pertinent for substance of matter grave and simple for the order and manner not prejudicing abbridging or hindring by the length thereof the preaching of the word and prayer fitted to the speciall occasions may in any sort be tolerated in the church or read by the minister of the word in the publick assembly and congregation of Saints Secondly whether it be lawfull specially for a strong Christian to use a set form of prayer as prayer or upon any occasion to reade as prayer a prayer upon a book Thirdly in case it should be unlawfull for the minister or master of the family to reade or use a prescript form of prayer whether it should be unlawfull also for the people children or servants to be present at such assemblies where the said prayer is read or used To these a fourth may be added to prevent all exceptions whether it be lawfull for a Christian to be present at that service which is read out of a book in somethings faulty either for matter or form In the affirmative the assertion is That a stinted Liturgie or form of prayer both publick and private is lawfull and in some respects necessary both in the congregation family and closet That a minister godly learned and faithfull may sometimes stand in need of the help of a publick Liturgie or stinted form of prayer in publick and may make use of a stinted form at other times when it is not necessarie in respect of inabilitie or indisposition That though it should be unlawfull for the minister or governour of the family to use such stinted forms yet may the people in the congregation and inferiours in the family be present at such prayers without sinne or scruple of conscience yea though the prayers be read out of a book in somethings questionable for matter or form So that voluntarie and willing Separation from the prayers of the congregation and ordinances of worship for that cause onely is sinfull in many respects Thus I have laboured plainly to state the question that I might neither be misled my self nor lead others into any by-path whiles they take their aim amisse And these particulars I purpose to discusse in the fear of God with the spirit of meeknesse according to the scriptures and trust by plain sincere and upright dealing to make it evident that I seek nothing but the maintenance of the truth the puritie of Gods worship the increase and exercise of all holy gifts and grace in his servants and the peace and comfort of his people CHAP. II. All things essentiall to prayer may be observed in a prescript form THe two former points may be confirmed joyntly and severally by these reasons following 1. That is a lawfull prayer wherein the desires of our hearts are lifted up or poured out unto God for Divine blessing according to his will in the name of Jesus Christ by the help of the Spirit of grace But in a set or stinted form of prayer the desires of the heart may be lifted up or poured out unto God according to his will c. Or That form of prayer is just and lawfull wherein all things essentiall to prayer or necessarily required in the word of God may be observed But all things essentiall to prayer or necessarily required in the word of God may be observed in a prescript form or read prayer What is required in holy prayer more then this That the matter be allowable and fit the manner holy reverent fervent and faithfull our wants laid open and petitions forced with as strong or stronger reasons and arguments then we are able of our selves to presse them with And may not a prayer holy and meet for the matter thereof be read or uttered with humility feeling of our wants earnestnesse of desire holinesse of affection and faith in Gods promises In reading the scripture the eye doth lead the heart and yet it may be read with judgement reverence meeknesse and joy why may not the same affections be moved in a prescript form and read prayer What necessitie is there that the heart and eye should be at variance in this duty when they may be conjoyned in the other Asaph and his brethren could praise God in a form of words set down by the prophet David And if a prescript form of words may be allowed in Thanksgiving which is one part of prayer it cannot be condemned in Petition The matter of our requests must fit the occasion so must the matter of our thanks and praise The Spirit of grace teacheth us to pray and the same Spirit moveth us to return praise for benefits received We must pray with the spirit and we must praise with the heart In the dedication of the temple Solomon used the very words of the psalme which David vowed to use at the bringing in of the Ark into his house Jehoshaphat in that excellent thanksgiving which he made appointed the priests and Levites to use a prescript form of words So did Hezekiah Zerubbabel and Jehushua And if we may sing psalmes with the spirit and with understanding with feeling and joy of heart as it is commanded in a form of words stinted and prescribed it cannot be thought a thing impossible to pray with affection in a stinted and prescribed form The differences which some put between Praysing God with a psalme and Calling upon Gods name are little to the purpose do not at all touch the force of the argument For thus the reason standeth In singing psalmes penned by the prophet David or other holy men of God the eye doth lead the heart no lesse then it doth in a stinted form of prayer and yet they may be sung after an holy manner with grace in the heart therefore a stinted form of prayer may be read or said without book with that affection of heart which God requireth in prayer And let the differences be as broad as they will in other things in this they do agree This reason may be drawn into another form thus Whatsoever hath the true matter and form of prayer that is truly and properly a prayer For where the true matter and form of a
at this day wherein we may observe those that follow to have done more then track the steps of them that have gone before them and this without rebuke In prayer a minister may use the gifts of others to furnish himself with method words matter and arguments and utter his meditations as upon meditation he hath digested them by such helps yea he may use those very expressions and forms which others have used before him when they be more fit and moving then of himself he could reach unto In singing psalmes though the minister be able to turn them into more grave solid exact metre then usuall and nearer to the originall yet it is not denied but he may make use of other mens gifts inferiour to his own In reading the scripture in a prescribed translation which is a part of Gods publick worship whose gifts doth the minister make use of what ministeriall gift is exercised or manifested therein Every child of twelve or thirteen yeares old in respect of the outward act is as well able to reade a chapter as the stinted Liturgie They answer that Between publick reading of scriptures and publick reading of prayers there be two differences First the publick reading of the scripture is Gods ordinance but stinted prayers have not warrant from the word Secondly reading of the scriptures in the publick assembly simply considered in it self is not the proper work of the minister But this later is not to the purpose For we speak of reading the scriptures as it is done by a minister in the publick assembly and in the solemn worship of God be it when he readeth his text being a shorter or larger portion of holy writ The first is a flat contradiction to the reason it self and a plain confession that it is of no worth For when they say Reading the scripture is Gods ordinance wherein the minister useth anothers gifts and not his own but the introducing of new forms by mens devise and appointment is not warranted do they not confesse that this is no just exception against stinted prayer because it should condemn the ordinance of God no lesse then it and that stinted prayer is not unlawfull because a minister in reading it doth make use of another mans gifts but because it is unwarrantable which is the matter to be proved and importeth a confession that it is not proved by this reason but rather overthrown For if they restrain the proposition thus That stinted form of prayer is unlawfull wherein the minister maketh use of another mans gifts not of his own the reason consisteth all of particulars beggeth onely but concludeth nothing If the proposition be generall That is not an ordinance of God in the use whereof a minister exerciseth other mens gifts and not his own the exception here annexed is directly crosse thereunto for the publick reading of the scriptures is Gods ordinance But seeing this is a matter so much insisted upon That a stinted form of Liturgie is not warranted and so unlawfull let us consider a little how many wayes a thing may be warranted and in what sense the proposition holdeth true What is not warranted that is unlawfull A thing is warranted in the worship of God three wayes First by the light of nature and reason according to the generall rules of scripture and so time place method phrase of speech and such like are warranted though nothing be determined particularly thereof in scripture For the scripture commandeth that all things be done in order but it determineth not this or that to be matter of order Thus a stinted Liturgie is warranted Secondly a thing is warranted by necessary consequence when to some particular dutie required this or that particular is necessary or expedient though it be not named and so the translation of the scripture is warranted because is must be read to edification and edifie it cannot unlesse it be understood Thirdly that is warranted which is by speciall institution commanded as a part or substantiall means of worship which should be unlawfull if it was not particularly instituted as being contrary to the second commandment And seeing the word is thus diversly used in different matters unlesse it be wisely distinguished a man shall build false conclusions upon true principles if truly applied and sooner entangle himself then confute his adversary as it fareth with our brethren in this case For taking the word warranted in the strictest sense when they dispute against a set form or Liturgie as an addition to the word and means of worshipping God by the devises and appointment of men they conclude erroneously For a stinted Liturgie is no substantiall means of worshipping or positive worship for these two are one but onely a matter of order or form of words and method wherein we present our requests to God c. And from the same mistake they ensnare themselves while they teach others to argue upon the same grounds and with like force against singing of psalmes and reading of set translations to wit That they are not warranted of God and that we must be carefull as not to take away from the word any ordinance of God so not to adde to the word as means of worshipping God the devises and appointment of men Out of which snare they can never rid themselves unlesse they take the word warranted in a larger sense and distinguish betwixt the substantiall and necessary means of worship and that which is allowed by consequence onely or doth pertein to the worship of God â—s a matter of order For though singing of psalmes be commanded of God though God allow nay command that the scriptures should be translated as that without which they cannot be read to edification yet the frame of words in singing and the translation it self is the work of men and the words and phrases the devises of men not an ordinance of worship This knot cannot be untyed but it will cut the sinews of the former objection Who seeth not that the imposing of prayers devised by other men upn the churches to be used of all ministers ordinarily for theirs and the churches prayers doth much derogate from the honour fruit and benefit of Christs ascension into heaven and from the love care and bounty that he hath and sheweth continually to his church upon earth giving gifts to men for the work of the ministery and the profit of the churches Eph. 4. 8 13. 1. Cor. 12. 4 5 6. with Matth. 28. 20. Whatsoever derogateth from the honour fruit and benefit of the ascension of Christ that is wicked and unlawfull But to reade prayers out of a book derogateth from the honour fruit and benefit of Christs ascension What is here said of imposing prayers devised by others is alledged against the use of stinted prayers and Liturgie and so must be understood and till the use of a prescript form of prayer or Liturgie be proved unlawfull it will never be found
that councel that forbad vulgar psalmes in the service of God and those forms of service which are not antea probata in concilio vcl cum prudentioribus collata lest haply some things against faith either through ignorance or want of consideration should be composed That they never sought a razing of the communion-book but a filing of it after the pattern of that care which former examples set them wherein they thought some things reteined which might well have been spared They have evermore condemned voluntary Separation from the congregations and assemblies or negligent frequenting of those publick prayers They have ordinarily and constantly used the communion-book in their publick administrations and still mainteined unitie peace and love with them who in some particulars have been of another judgement All this is so notoriously known that it is wast labour to produce testimonies herein As for the reading of a stinted form it may be it is not constant in all reformed churches exacted of every minister at all times but that it is not used at all is more then I can credit and if they exact not the use of the same form continually the thing it self they greatly approve If any man desire an instance of their doings let him compare the prayer which Beza constantly used before and after sermon with the Geneva-book of common prayer And if they impose not their forms upon all congregations to be used of necessitie but leave it free to use them or some other in substance one and the same yet this is certain they disallow their opinion who condemn all stinted forms and Liturgies as vain superfluous humane inventions a strange worship and breach of the second commandment CHAP. VIII The people may lawfully be present at those prayers which are put up unto God in a stinted form of words and partake in divine ordinances administred in a stinted Liturgie THe authour of the Letter formerly cited telleth us That against our prayer-book divers men have pleaded after a different manner First some arguments saith he are proper to the Separatists quà tales viz. 1. That it is offered up in a false church 2. With a false ministery 3. In the behalf of the subjects of the kingdome of Antichrist These are properly theirs being the grounds whereupon they make a totall Separation from all the churches in this land as no churches of Christ These I approve not yet note them that you may see upon how different grounds the same position is mainteined by severall persons and that you may be delivered from the prejudice which hindreth many from receiving those truthes because they fear the reproch of Brownisme Secondly there are other grounds which are common to all that plead for the puritie of Christs ordinance and which do not necessarily inferre such Separation but onely serve to shew the unlawfulnesse of that practice and of communicating therein Thus farre the Letter Wherein to let passe other things we may take notice of a twofold Separation from the worship of God amongst us acknowledged the one totall as from a false church false ministery and subjects of the kingdome of Antichrist the other partiall from the stinted Liturgie and ordinances of worship dispensed in a stinted form And this latter onely is approved by this authour but not the former of which we make no question But whereas he saith his grounds upon which he buildeth his last Separation are common to all that plead for the puritie of Christs ordinances therein he is much mistaken For his grounds are one and the very same with the Brownists whereby they condemn all stinted Liturgies acknowledged by no reformed church in the world nor by particular pastours in any church but themselves And if they take not themselves to be the onely pleaders for the purity of Christs ordinances they cannot shew that these reasons have been approved or positions allowed by any pleaders for reformation in any time or age of the church The reasons brought to confirm the unlawfulnesse of communicating in the ordinances of worship amongst us administred in a stinted Liturgie are of two sorts Some condemne all stinted forms and Liturgies devised by men others concern our book of common prayer more particularly as it is charged with sundry faults and corruptions The first as they concern the ministers who make use of a stinted Liturgy have been examined already Now I come to examine them both as they concern the people and therefore lay down this proposition That in case it should be unlawfull in some respects for the minister of the Gospel or governour of the family to reade or pronounce without book a prescript form of prayer devised by another yet no reason can be shewed why it should be unwarrantable for the people child servant wife to be present at such prayers in the congregation or family I speak not of prayer for the matter erroneous and naught but stinted and read For if the matter be faultie the prayer is not good because conceived and if good and pure it is not made evil and hurtfull to the hearers because it is read First what letteth why the hearers heart may not follow a prescript form of words holy and good either in confession of sinnes request or thanksgiving What letteth I say that the hearers hearts may not profitably go with the same both to humble quicken and comfort The people child servant are commanded to examine and prepare themselves before they draw nigh into the presence of the Lord But where are they commanded to look whether the minister or governour do pray by the Spirit immediately or out of his memory in a set form of words conceived beforehand or suggested without premeditation in the same form of words ordinarily with little or no variation unlesse it be upon speciall occasion or in different order method and phrase euery day whether he reade his prayer or pronounce it onely And if God have laid no charge upon their conscience to inquire into these and such like particulars before they joyn in prayer voluntarily to withdraw our selves from the ordinances of worship in these respects what is it but to adde unto his word When things agreeable to the will of God are begged of God every day in the same form of words as the things begged are the same it is not either the stinted form of words or the presenting of requests by reading them upon a book that can make the prayer unprofitable much lesse abomination in respect of him that joyneth If the minister in that case pray coldly or without affection his sinne cannot hinder the blessing of God from the people If the governour be weak in naturall gifts as memory or utterance or spirituall as knowledge c the lawfull use of a stinted form in that case is not denyed by some as a needfull help to supply defect And if the governour to help his weaknesse make use of a stinted form whether
because it was culled and picked out of the popish dunghill the popish and vile masse-masse-book full of all abominations Who knoweth not that many pretious truths may be culled and picked out of the masse-book Good gold may have some drosse and amongst an heap of drosse it is possible to find some good gold A true mans goods may be found in a thieves den or cave and the goods of the church in the possession of Antichrist Antichrist hath either by violence broken in upon or by secret insinuation before his cunning was spied gotten the rich treasures of the church into his hand which the right heirs may lawfully require and take back again not as borrowed from him but as due to them I scarce know how a man should more honour Antichrist or wrong the true church of God then to grant that all the good things that Antichrist doth usurp do of right belong unto him and are borrowed from him For they are the rich legacies which Christ hath bequeathed unto his church to whom properly they pertein The matter then of our stinted form may be from God and proper to the church though picked and culled out of the masse-Masse-book If therefore our stinted Liturgie be Antichristian it is so either in respect of the matter or of the form Not of the matter for that which properly belonged to Antichrist the soul and grosse errours are purged out Not of the form for order and phrase of speech is not properly Antichristian of which more hereafter The Papists cannot sincerely approve our publick service but they must condemn and detest their own their prayers in an unknown tongue their praying to saints departed much more to feigned saints their receiving in one kind their unbloudy sacrifice their reall presence their satisfaction for veniall sinnes and temporall punishment of mortall sinnes their blotting out of the second commandment or at least confounding it with the first with others the like And if for the first eleven yeares of Qu. Elisabeth the Papists came to our churches and service what can we think but that the hand of the Lord was with us at that time for good when without division we sought him and he was pleased so to honour us that our adversaries should at least feignedly submit themselves The Lord grant all estates and conditions wisely to consider the true cause why they are fallen from our assemblies since that time and hardned in their perversenesse every day more and more But to come to the thing it self objected to wit That our book of common prayer is wholly taken out of the Masse-book we are here to note that the Masse in former times did signifie the worship of God which consisted in publick prayers thanksgivings confession of faith singing of psalmes reading and interpretation of the holy scriptures and receiving the sacrament of the Lords supper and so the ancient Masse and Liturgie were the same But now the Romane Masse is put for the unbloudy sacrifice of the body of Christ which the priest doth offer up for the quick and dead And in this sense the word is to be taken when they say our service-book is taken out of the Masse-book But it should rather be said that the Masse was in time added to our communion-book and by the purging out of the Masse it is restored to its former puritie Popery is as a scab or leprosie that cleaveth to the church and the Masse an abomination annexed to the Liturgie Before ever the Masse was heard of in the world or began to be hatched there were stinted Liturgies in the church for substance much-what the same with ours and these at first more pure after stained with more corruption as the times grew worse and worse The Eastern churches as it should seem had their stinted Liturgies first and the Western borrowed many things from them but as the times declined they brought in more and more drosse into the church untill the canon of the Masse was completely framed The ancient Liturgies attributed to James Basil Chrysostom c. are counterfeit as our Divines have largely proved and the Papists cannot deny But divers things conteined in those Liturgies were in use in the primitive church without question In the primitive times they had their appointed lessons out of the Law and the Prophets and the Psalmes and the Evangelists their stinted prayers and forms of celebration with some variety but in substance all one in a manner This is evident if we compare the genuine writings of the Fathers with those counterfeit Liturgies before mentioned whereof some particular instances are given in the chapter following The stinted forms at first were more brief afterwards they were enlarged and as often it falleth out by enlargement corrupted and defiled Corruption by this means as a disease cleaving to the Liturgie it is necessary it should be corrected and thereby recovered to its first integrity or foundnesse Thus Cardinal Quignonius by the commandment of Clement the seventh so changed the Romane Breviarie that for a great part it was more like the English book of prayers than the Romane Breviarie And the English Liturgie gathered according to the module of the Ancients the purest of them is not a collection out of the Masse-book but a refining of that Liturgie which heretofore had been stained with the Masse And if those things were unjustly added to the Liturgie they might be and were justly cast out If it was wholly taken out of the Masse-book I should desire further to know how the Masse-book came to have those things in which are found in the book of Common prayers sound and holy for matter and directly contrary to Antichristianisme If these things were in the book before then all things therein were not of Antichrist but he had usurped them and it is lawfull for the true man to lay claim to his goods whereever he find them If they were not in the Masse-book then all things are not taken out of it but somethings restored out of purer Antiquity which the man of sinne had wickedly expunged The ministers of Lincoln never judged the use of the Book unlawfull never thought it lawfull to separate from the prayers of the congregation never refused to use the book though in some things they desired to be excused The churches of God have been evermore taught to prize and esteem these main and fundamentall truths and ordinances of worship at an higher rate then that some petty dislike of this or that in the externall form when the matter is sound and good should cause Separation The conclusion in brief is That our Service-book is not a translation of the Masse but a restitution of the ancient Liturgie wherein sundry prayers are inserted used by the Fathers agreeable to the scriptures Causelesse separation from the externall communion with any true church of Christ is the sinne of schisme But to separate from the prayers of the
congregation simply because a stinted form is used is causelesse separation from the externall communion of the church Weigh all the reasons brought to prove it lawfull and they will be found too light If we look to our guide and captain Christ doth not goe before us therein Dare any man affirm that they be not met together in the name of Christ or that he is not present in the midst of them that joyn together in a stinted Liturgie Is there any duty publick or private which God requireth of people holding communion together in ordinances of worship which may not be performed of each to other when a stinted form of prayer is used without Separation But by that unwarrantable course of voluntary separation they make an unlawfull rent in the church deprive themselves of the comfort of Gods ordinances weaken the faith of many cause divisions among brethren and advantage the adversaries of true religion CHAP. IX It is lawfull for a Christian to be present at that service which is read out of a book in some things faultie both for form and matter ONe reason alledged to prove the lawfulnesse and necessity of Separation from our publick service in particular is this That the prayer-book in question is corrupt in many things which is thus amplified The matter of some petitions is such as we cannot say Amen to it in faith as in the collect on the XII sunday after Trinitie it is prayed that God would forgive us those things whereof our consciences are afraid and give unto us that our prayers dare not presume to ask c. To omit divers others the very â—itting of Collects to certain dayes for holy fasts and feasts not sanctified by God savour of superstition as speciall prayers for Lent serving to countenance the keeping of it as a religious fast c. the manner of praying vain repetitions as the often repeating of the Lords prayer and GLORY TO THE FATHER and LORD HAVE MERCY UPON US c. disorderly responsories the clerk taking part of the prayer out of the ministers mouth c. Moreover the book perverteth the right use of the scriptures dismembreth and misapplieth them for making of gospels epistles lessons and collects appointed for feasts of mens devising and derived from the Papists and it reteineth a corrupt translation of the psalmes and bringeth into the church Apocrypha writings and the errours conteined in them To them that look at all humane Liturgies as images forbidden by the second commandment this objection is of small force because the thing it self and not the corruption cleaving to the Liturgie is disallowed But lest this accusation should breed scruple in the minds of some not altogether disaffected to stinted forms of prayer or Liturgies I will examine not the qualitie of the exceptions whether justly or unjustly taken but the weight of the reason if the particulars should be granted For this objection it self doth free the Liturgie from grosse errours either fundamentall or such as border thereupon respecting faith or practice in the prayers themselves or that which concerneth the administration of the sacraments For the corruptions objected are Misapplication of some text si of scripture Frequent repetitions of the same things Disordered responsories and Breaking petitions asunder c. and these not dispersed throughout the whole book but in some passages onely which concern not the main grounds and chief heads of Christian religion but are such faults or slips as may peaceably be tolerated amongst brethren Therefore not to insist upon any particulars mentioned I lay down this proposition That a Christian may lawfully and with good conscience be present at such service and prayers which are read out of a book though somethings therein are or may be supposed to be faultie for form or matter in things not fundamentall nor bordering thereupon not pernicious or noxious but such as may be tolerated amongst brethren these not dispersed through the whole body of the book but in some passages onely It is one thing to allow corruption another to be present at the service of God where something is done corruptly For the Lord chargeth us to keep our selves free from all pollution but alloweth not to separate from abuses unlesse he be pleased to go before and as he goeth before us It is one thing to approve of abuses in a Liturgie another to tolerate what we cannot reform For a Liturgie should be framed so not that things may be construed well but that they cannot be construed amisse But many things may be suffered which are not so well ordained when it is not in our power to redresse them The Lord needeth not mans lie neither doth he allow us to do evil that good may come thereof and therefore I must not subscribe to an errour against conscience though never so innocent nor professe approbation of that which in conscience I cannot allow though never so small to the intent I might enjoy externall communion with the church of God in the ordinances of worship But I must tolerate many things for the maintenance of peace and unitie and the preservation of Gods worship For if there be not mutuall toleration and forbearance but each man will rigidly stand upon his own opinion and presse others to be of his mind and follow his practice in all things and every tittle of necessitie all things must fall into confusion and the church be rent almost into as many pieces as there be men The proposition is proved first Because they that alledge the foresaid faults or corruptions against communicating with us in our publick Liturgie or stinted prayers do themselves put small strength or none at all in this reason For suppose a chapter be somewhat unfitly divided and break off in the midst of the matter or now and then separate verses which should go together or a verse be ill distinguished or the preacher misalledge a text of scripture or something be found amisse in his prayer when he exerciseth his own gifts must I of necessitie separate from that ordinance of God or reject the good for that which is amisse Hereunto this answer is returned When the minister exerciseth his own gift Gods ordinance is observed wherewith I may communicate in praying as well as preaching notwithstanding his infirmities in either which are but personall and in such cases the rule warranteth men to trie all things and to hold that which is good 1. Thess 5. 21. But when the Liturgie is read an ordinance which is not of God but of man is introduced into Gods worship contrary to the second commandment and therefore I must reject it and have no communion with it Is not this in plain terms to grant that the corruptions alledged can be no cause of Separation but this onely Because it is the devise of man The corruptions alledged are not the cause because they may be found in translations the distinction of chapters and verses the preaching
maketh our joyning with the assembly sinfull to us whereas if the evils were unexpected the danger would not be alike And thus it was with them who congregated to heare the scribes and Pharisees It is not for them that earnestly oppose all humane inventions to ward off a blow by humane devises When God commandeth my presence at his ordinance why should the corruption foreknown in the manner of administration without my consent or approbation any more defile then that which falleth out unexpected Or if it should nothing can be alledged more impertinently For the corruptions of the Pharisees in perverting the law were ordinary and common well known to all men and so reproved by our Saviour as a thing notorious And the like may be said of the disorders in the churches of Corinth and Rome for if the knowledge thereof came to the Apostle absent and at that time in prison by the information of the brethren of necessitie it must be known to the members of the churches The faithfull therefore when they joyned in the ordinances of worship with these assemblies neither did nor could pretend ignorance of these things There is a broad difference to be put betwixt the sinne committed by persons with whom I communicate and the corruption put upon the ordinance in which I communicate If the sinne of him with whom I communicate be manifest and known the ordinance of God is corrupted by it one way or other And if I be defiled with all known corruption whatsoever it is not materiall to the point in hand how those corruptions differ in their specificall nature The question is Whether all presence at the ordinances of God in some respect corruptly or disorderly administred contract guilt in him that is onely present in obedience to Gods commandment and hath no calling from God to testifie peculiar or speciall dislike It may be of some use here to shew what corruptions be fundamentall and what not what pernicious to be tolerated and what not when a man hath a calling to testifie against abuses and when not But to speak of the specificall difference betwixt abuses of the same kind or degree is quite wide of the mark This will easily be yielded because communion in the ordinances of worship is as well denied when wicked men are admitted to the sacrament as when it is administred in a devised or stinted Liturgie as it is called It was never questioned by right-believing Christians but the faithfull by Gods approbation might hold communion with the churches in the ordinances of worship for some ages after the death of the apostles The church continued a virgin all the dayes of the apostles as Hegesippus noteth But immediately after their death innumerable evils crept in began to spring amain neverthelesse the faithfull might did and ought to hold communion together in the proper and substantiall means of worship That many things were amisse in the churches is not denied and that the faithfull through ignorance did offend in many things but in this that they held communion notwithstanding such abuses amongst them they are blamelesse For a time the faithfull did lie hid in Babylon by Gods approbation untill the exhortation was given from heaven to come out of her and touch no unclean thing Not that they might touch any unclean thing at any time that is either in practice or consent and liking stain themselves with the corruptions of the world But that they might lie hid in the midst of much confusion and neither like nor consent unto the evils which they did bewail but could not reform That exhortation from heaven Come out of her my people come out of her c. some interpret of a locall departing out of the citie of Rome as Lot went out of Sodom and that interpretation the text seemeth to favour because the very outward destruction of the place is in that chapter menaced and therefore the removing out of the very place in avoydance of the mischief coming upon it forewarned But most commonly it is applied to a spirituall coming out of Babylon in separating from the societie and communion of that church wherein they could lie hid no longer without defilement And hence some conclude that this departure was to be made at a certain definite time when God was pleased to go before the faithfull and furnish them for this end and purpose But untill the time of freedome was proclaimed the faithfull did and might so lie hid in Babylon as not to be partakers of her sinnes For there is a certain order of the Revelation fitted to the order of times And as there is a time to speak and a time to keep silence but no time to lie so there is a time for the church to figh and lie hid but no time to dissemble or defile her self And as the Israelites offended not when they removed not out of Egypt before Moses was sent thither of God so neither did the faithfull transgresse in that they departed not out of Babylonish captivitie before they were called of God the time of liberty was proclaimed and God shewed them whither to flie To live in captivitie untill freedome be published is a misery not a sinne In that condition care must be to keep pure and undefiled but not to run away without leave or licence from God Whatsoever is to be thought of this application of the text herein all orthodox interpreters consent and agree that after the church was stained with manifold abuses the faithfull did and ought to hold communion with her in the means of worship But if simple presence be approbation of every thing that is judged to be done amisse in the worship of God a Christian could at no time that can be named in no age since the death of the apostles hold communion with the church of God in the ordinances and means of grace For it is as lawfull to be present at the worship prayers or administration which is read out of a book in some things faulty as to be present at that service where the scriptures are read out of a translation in many things faulty and corrupt in which many things are added diminished altered and changed But in the primitive churches the faithfull must be present if at all at the worship of God when the scriptures were read out of a faulty translation For to say nothing of the corruptions of the Seventy Interpreters which as Bellarmine confesseth had gathered many stains and blots in three hundred yeares of necessity the translations which were derived from it of which sort were most in the primitive church can be no lesse corrupt For no man before Hierome ever translated the books of the Old Testament out of the originall into Latine but out of the Seventy And the same may well be thought of most vulgar translations where the Greek or Latine were not in
the due esteem of the great mercy the Lord hath shewed unto his church No particular member of a church may voluntarily break off externall communion with the church or refuse to communicate in the publick service and worship of God unlesse the Lord Jesus go before him therein and be his warrant that is unlesse Christ hath withdrawn the presence of his grace or the party cannot be present without the guilt of hypocrisie or approbation of somewhat that is evil For the members of the visible church must hold fellowship in faith and love not onely one with another but with all other visible churches and all others intirely professing the faith of Christ so farre as they hold communion with Jesus Christ And therefore no member can lawfully break off externall communion with the true church of Christ but in that onely wherein and so farre as it hath broken off fellowship with Christ For where Christ is there is his church and where two or three are met together in his name there is he in the midst among them He is that Prince that is in the midst of his people who goeth in when they go in And when Christ calleth his free voluntaries to assemble in prayer or to partake at his table and promiseth to be present with them to heare their prayers and refresh their souls with grace it is not lawfull for a Christian to withdraw himself But in a congregation where a stinted form is used and that in some respects faulty here or there Christ may be and is present in the midst among them Christians are called to come and may be present without guilt of hypocrisie or approbation of the least evil To leave communion when we be obliged by God to continue in it is no lesse then schisme according to the nature of it Obliged by God we are to hold communion with the true churches of Christ in his true worship and service so farre as it may be without sin and wickednesse on our parts So that though there be some errours or ignorances in the publick administration yet if our belief of some errour or approbation of disorder be not required to that communion it is not lawfull to depart from the society of that church which professeth the saving truth of Christ intirely for substance rightly mainteineth the dispensation of the sacraments soundly calleth upon God in the mediation of Jesus Christ and plentifully enjoyeth the means of grace When corruption and externall communion be so involved that it is simply impossible to leave the corruptions unlesse we leave the externall communion of the church a necessity of separation from that externall communion then lyeth upon us But though errours or corruptions of some kind be not onely tolerated but established mainteined and pressed yet if we can hold communion without approbation of the said errours or corruptions Separation in that case is unjust rash and unadvised because the Lord therein doth not go before us The sin of Separation if unjust is so great and heinous the ill consequences and mischiefs so many and fearfull that all Christians should be well advised neither to lay stumbling-blocks before the feet of others which might occasion their turning aside nor to seek or catch occasions of departure but rather to wait and tarry till they be assured that the Lord goeth before them For the first when the Anabaptists in Helvetia opposed humane inventions as unlawfull they were by publick authority and with common consent abolished And that of Irenaeus is well known Variety of ceremonies commend the unitie of faith For the other part the faithfull have ever tolerated weaknesses and infirmities in each other and abuses in the church so long as the foundation was held and they agreed in the main In the primitive church not onely some persons but whole congregations have doubted of many books of scripture and yet lost not their dignity of true churches of Christ How long did the faithfull wait and bear before they departed or rather were driven by excommunication sword and sire out of Babylon This hath been the judgement of the godly learned in all ages of the church They that for trifling and small causes saith Irenaeus divide the body of Christ c. these can make no reformation of such importance as to countervail the danger of a division When good men tolerate bad men saith Augustine which can do them no spirituall hurt to the intent they may not be separated from those who are spiritually good then there is no necessity to divide unity And in another place These two things reteined will keep such men pure and uncorrupted that is neither doing ill nor approving it Although faith be one funiculus colligantiae yet variety of opinions without pertinacy standeth with unity but nothing is so contrary to the church as schisme and departure This matter I will shut up with the saying of Zaga Bishop of Aethiope and embassador of Prester John It is a miserable thing that Christian strangers should be so sharply reproved as enemies as I have been here and other things which concern not the faith But it should be farre more convenient to support all Christians be they Grcaeians be they Armenians be they Aethiopians be they of any one of the seven Christian churches with charity and love of Christ and to permit them to live and converse amongst other Christian brethren without any injurie because that we are all infants of one baptisme and do hold truly the true faith The conclusion is That the externall communion of the church in publick worship is not to be forsaken for some faults neither fundamentall nor noxious which may be espied in her Liturgie Though the bearing and forbearing not onely of small but even of great sinnes also must be for a time yet it must be but for a time and that is whilest reformation be orderly sought and procured Lev. 19. 17. But what time hath wrought in the church of England all men see growing dayly by the just judgement of God from evil to worse and being never aforetime so impatient either of reformation or other good as at this day Moreover a man must so bear an evil as he be no way accessory unto it by forbearing any means appointed by Christ for the amending of it Errours or faults be of two sorts Some grosse notorious manifest such as a man cannot but see to be amisse unlesse he will shut his eyes against the light and must amend or there can be no hope of salvation Others of quotidian incursion frailty and infirmity ignorance or mere weaknesse such as godly men are not convinced of or if they see them at some times to be amisse yet in ordinary course they be overtaken with them from which the most holy be not altogether free In these latter though Christians must labour the help cure and support of each
promise of blessing upon them both the persons and sacrifices are abominable This peremptory censure is as directly crosse to that which followeth immediately in the same authour as any thing that can be spoken For if the toleration or maintenance of one sinner against reproof and conviction do necessarily dischurch a society how then did the church of the Jews continue the true church of God wherein sinne was generally impudently impenitently committed and that by such as should have censured it in others where the offenders were countenanced and the reprovers persecuted imprisoned put to death If no church in the world now hath that absolute promise of the Lords visible presence which that church then had till the coming of Christ if the Messiah must be born in the true church and the Lord did ever afford the Jews some or other visible signes of his presence in the greatest apostasie this is nothing to the purpose For if the maintenance of one wicked ungodly wretch wipeth a church out of the Lords church-roll then the Jews who did both countenance offenders and commit wickednesse themselves and that with greedinesse had blotted themselves out of that book And if the Jews continued the church of God notwithstanding their great impiety and obduratenesse because the Lord continued the visible tokens of his presence among them then if a church or some in the church shall tolerate or countenance iniquity in others or practice it themselves so long as God shall be pleased to bear with their manners and vouchsafe unto them the signes of his gracious presence and holy ordinances it is to be reputed the true church of God wherewith the faithfull may hold communion in the branches of worship If therefore the authour had well pondered his own words or consulted the rule of our Saviour this labour might well have been spared But more fully to open the weaknesse of this objection Errours as in doctrine so in practice are of two sorts some fundamentall or bordering thereupon which concern the very heart and life of religion and cannot stand with faith and holinesse others not fundamentall which strike not directly at the soul of religion though they hinder the working somewhat or stain the work In matters fundamentall as the profession of faith must be intire in all points of simple belief so must the doctrine of the church in all things concerning practice but errours of inferiour alloy wherein godly men dissent pardonably one from another both concerning faith and practice may be found and mainteined in the true church Again sin and iniquity is mainteined either by teaching or by doing in our own persons and tolerating in others whom we should reform but do not If the church by doctrine maintein fundamentall evils as the worshipping of angels murder adultery c. she is to be esteemed hereticall But if the life be corrupt not from corrupt doctrine but contrary to the doctrine received the church is not to be accounted false because wicked ones which should be cast out are nourished in her bosome It is true the service which wicked men tender unto God is abomination as were the sacrifices which the Jews brought when their hands were full of bloud but the worship which the faithfull offer unto God in that corrupt society is pleasing and acceptable unto his majesty The prayer of the wicked is abomination to the Lord but the prayer of a wicked minister in respect of his office as the prayer of the congregation is effectuall and accepted for the faithfull who seek unto God with lips unfeigned The prophet commandeth us Plead or Contend with your mother contend with her because she is not my wife nor I her husband that she take away her whoredomes from before my face c. therefore if the church be remisse in her duty the children of the church must protest against her The meaning of the prophet is That the godly whether in Judah or Israel should contend with the ten tribes who by their idolatry had fallen from the conjugall covenant which God had contracted with them and had deserved to be put away with a bill of divorce because they had transgressed their matrimoniall troth and forsaking the true God had sought them other Gods whom they did love and worship And in like case no question but the faithfull may publickly and sharply rebuke the abominable idolatries of a false-claiming church such as Israel was at that time But if this be applyed to the true church in respect of every abuse or remissenesse we shall pervert the words of the prophet and run our selves upon the rocks True it is all abuses may and ought to be reproved in the time and place according to the nature and quality thereof but for every offense we cannot say truly in the name of God The church is not the spouse of Christ nor Christ her husband Every abuse in worship is not the adultery of the ten tribes If this had been the meaning of the prophet the prophets had gone most contrary to their own rules of all others for they sharply rebuked the personall sinnes of Judah as they received commission from the Lord other sinnes they touched but sparingly if at all but they never protested against her as no church of God they never charged the faithfull to depart from all communion with her lest they be partakers of her sinnes Here the Lord goeth before the faithfull in their contention with their supposed mother they must say what the Lord putteth into their mouthes and behave themselves toward her as the Lord is pleased to give them precedent by the tokens of his presence But they that take liberty to break off communion with their true mother and spouse of Christ because of some abuses sport and blemishes they speak of themselves when they charge her to be an adulteresse and not the spouse of Christ to maintein an idolatrous antichristian devised worship and they run of themselves without commission or authority when they voluntarily withdraw themselves from the ordinances of grace and communion with Christ in the same Therefore to conclude this point as corrupt and unworthy members can be no cause why those that are whole should forsake the body or neglect the offices perteining to the body though they be hindred in their working so no open grosse communicants can be any cause why the faithfull should forsake the church or communion with Christ or neglect the duties which in particular concern themselves though they cannot do all things that pertein to them with the whole body as being overborn or restrained by others without whom they cannot work CHAP. XII The community of the faithfull much lesse two or three separated from the world and gathered together into the name of Christ by a covenant are not the proper and immediate subject of power ecclesiasticall POwer might or efficacious force is not all one with authority or power Matter Sense
grievous persecutions the churches of God could not assemble in any great numbers in publick places but have been compelled to meet in dens and caves and woods one and the same society in divers places yet so as the society was not broken though their meeting together in one place was interrupted To meet together therefore in one place is not so essentiall to the church but it may continue one in laws ordinances government and communion though in respect of multitude distance of places and many other occurrences they be constrained to assemble and hold their meeting severally And that it was thus in the churches planted by the apostles it is most probable May we not well think that the Christian church at Jerusalem for whom Christ had prayed particularly to which some attribute the first miraculous conversion by Peters preaching and amongst whom being now ascended into glory he did more abundantly display his power and more conspicuously swallow up the scandal of his Crosse which had the labour of all or many of the apostles for a time in it whose care and industry we may guesse at by their ordination of Deacons that they might not be distracted whereunto much people did resort dayly who though explicitely they did not believe in Christ yet had they in them the faith of the Messias and so were nearer to the kingdome of God then the common heathen which was to send out light to all other churches and be a common nursery to the world May we not well think that this church did quickly rise to such bignesse that they could not well assemble in one congregation as we call them And the same may be said of other churches before mentioned For at that time the regions were white even unto the harvest the time was come when that heavenly kingdome was to be planted amongst all nations and at the beginning God did reveal his arm more extraordinarily and things which have their set period of growing do in their beginnings come on the fastest And seeing the apostles were extraordinarlly furnished for the work and had a great and wide doore set open unto them of God seeing they were diligent and industrious in their work and God was pleased mightily to accompany their endeavours is it not more then conjecturall that within short time the number of believers in those great and populous cities with their suburbs and circumjacent villages did exceed the capacity of one congregation The officers also which the Apostles ordained for the use of those churches were in number more then one ordinary congregation could bear or were necessary for the service thereof unlesse it were exceeding great and could not long continue together with edification but of necessity must assemble in severall places It was not the apostles practice to ordain pastours in those places where as yet no sheep were to be seen or very few and it had been inconvenient to tie the faithfull to one congregation when by reason of multitude they could not meet in one place to their edification What then remaineth but that they might assemble in divers places and yet hold communion in laws ordinances government and officers When presbyters were first assigned to their particular cures it is not certain Eusebius reporteth that many churches were gathered in Alexandria by Mark But what he alledgeth out of Philo as if it was to be understood of Christians is misapplied by him The first as it is commonly received that divided churches into parishes and assigned presbyters distinctly to take care of them was Euaristus Bishop of Rome But Platina reporteth this upon the credit of Damasus and that supposititious for the authour of the book carrying the title of Damasus was Anastasius Bibliothecarius an Abbot of Rome who lived about the yeare DCCCLVIII And what probability is there that under the reigne of Trajan who moved the third persecution from Nero against the church and that most violent there should be place to divide parishes and place singular presbyters over their peculiar charges Some think with more probability that Dionysius who was bishop of Rome in the yeare of Christ 267. did ordain parishes and commit them so ordained to Presbyters For in his dayes the church had peace Galienus by publick edict granting liberty But if it be yielded that there were some parochiall divisions about those times they were not many and within the city and were but as chapells of ease the church holding and continuing the same communion And whensoever Presbyters were assigned to their speciall cures we may conceive the multitude of believers though within the cities onely necessarily required their assembling in divers places before For though the number of Christians was sometimes greatly wasted with hot and fierie persecutions as Platina in vita Xisti 1. who followed Alexander the successour of Euaristus about the yeare of Christ 120. writeth by reason of the frequent slaughters there were few found at Rome which durst professe the name of Christ And Onuphrius Annot. in vit Hig. saith Although all Popes in those times suffered not martyrdome yet they endured many things for the confession of Christ of the raging common people and wicked magistrates who reteined perpetuall hatred against Christians neverthelesse at other times the number of Christians did greatly increase as the Ecclestasticall story noteth a most remarkable growth of the faith in the time of Fabian before Cornelius Neither must we think that an Emperour as Philippus favouring the faith did not bring on multitudes to the like profession Cornelius reporteth that in the church of Rome there were seaven Deacons seaven Subdeacons two and forty Acolyths two and fifty Lectours Porters Exorcists six and forty Presbyters a thousand and five hundred widows poore and sick And from hence he doth amplifie Novatus his pertinacy that none of the numerous clergy nor yet of the people very great and innumerable could turn him or recall him This was one visible ministeriall church wherein all the members had union and communion together for the mutuall edifying and restoring one of another but it was too great and abundant ordinarily to assemble in one place So that the church might remain one when the multitude was too great to meet in one place ordinarily and when particular Presbyters were assigned to particular cures For that was not a division of the society into societies distinct but an assignement of some particular officer to the oversight of one part or branch of the society for the more fit and commodious government of the whole as it was conceived and they so attended that branch of the society or church that their care and oversight reached to the whole And out of doubt this form or kind of a visible and ministeriall church is much nearer to the patterns and precedents set by the apostles in the first plantation of Christian churches then that two three or few believers
Johan Et Serm. 121. August Tract in epist Johan praefat Memuut sanctitas vestra Evangelium secundùm Johannem ex ordine lectionum nos solere tractare Sed quia nunc interposita est solennitas sanctorum dierum quibus certas ex Evangelio lectiones oportet recitari c. ordo ille quem susceperamus necessitate paolulùm est intermâ—ssus non omissus Chrysost in Concion 4. in Lizar Chrysolog Serm 122. Chrysost Hom. in Gen. â—3 Bucer ad Ephes Basil ad Caes Patric ep 289. Cypr. epist 56. Zepper De pol. eccl lib. 2. cap. 8. August Serm. 82. De Temp. Propter pauperes qui ad opera sua festinanâ— melius est hoc ut vobis in die crastina reservemus August Tract 46. in Johan Eadem lectio recitabitur Chrysost Hom. 5. ad popul Antioch Vestram herì charitatem consolata fuit Etsi enim heri nudius-tertius de hac vobis locutus sum materia c. Et Hom. 6. Facite igitur quod 〈◊〉 admonui hodie dicam Et Hom. 7 12. Et herì dixi BENEDICTUS DEUS hodie hoc ipsum rursus dicam August Tract 8. in Johan Sunt sortè 〈◊〉 multi qui propter solennitatem diei non propter audiendum sermonem venerunt Câ—â—stino qui venerint venient audituri c. Chrysost advers Judaeos Quamadmodum enim homines vino potionibus dediti singulo quoque die simul ac surrexerunt obambulant c. sic vos quotidie simul ac surrexeritis curiosè perquiritis ubinam futura sit exhortatio ubi salubris admonitio ubi doctrina ubi sermo c. Et Hom. 13. in Gen. Quotidie tamen inopem tenuem hanc mensam vobis proponere 〈◊〉 Et. Hom. 37. Hanc ob rem quotidie spiritualem hanc apponimus mensam ut admonitione continuâ multà Divinatum Scripturatum exercitatione c. See Hom. 41 54. But where the Gospel was preached more frequent there were some dayes in the week more specially appointed when the people were to heare See Chrysost ad cap. 3. Joh. Hom. 24. Non enim singulis diebus sed duobus tantùm brevâ— eorum parte ut vos labore levemus hortamur ut orationi nostrae aures adhibeatis Et Socrat. l. 5. cap. 21. Clemens Constit Apostol lib. 2. cap. 59. Die Domini â— qui dies est resurrectionis studiosiùs templum Domini adite ut Deum laudibus celebretis c. In quo etiam adhibeatur lectio prophetarum evangeli praedicatio c. Chrysostom Hom. 5. in Matth. Legem hanc nobis statuamus immobilem nec nobis tant ùm sed conjugibus etiam liberÃsque nostris ut unum hunc totius hebdomadis diem quo ad audiendum concurritur totum in eorum quae dicuntur meditatione poâ—â—mus And a little after Nimia enim omnino indevotio prorsus extrema est ut qumque sex dies quidem in rebus carnalibus consumentes unum spiritualibus diem unò exiguam diei partem nolitis impendere August Consess lib. 6. cap. 3. speaking of Ambrose saith eum quidem in populo verbum veritatis rectè tractantem omni die Dominico audiebam Et Serm. 28. De verbis Apost Nunc cùm die Dominico debito reddendi sermonis recitaretur eadem lectio Divinitus mihi inspiratum esse credidi ut indè tractarem Synod in Trull can 10. Oportet eos qui praesunt ecclesiis in omnibus quidem diebus sed praecipuè Dominicis omnem clerum populum docere Vpon which words Zonaras writeth thus Apostolici decreti autoritatem secuti Patres hoc edito canone cùm aliis quoque tum Dominicis diebus Episcopi oratione populum ad pia religionis studia informari ac institui jubent Cùm enim per cos dies vacationem à laboribus nacti homines in ecclesiam conveniant ibâ—que tempora Divinarum scripturarum auditione traducant erit à populo longè fructâ—ofior industria quam in eo erudiendo ac instituendo iis praecipuè diebus Episcopus adhibuerit And Balsamon Episcopi ecclesiarum Doctores constituuntur propterea dicit canon eis omnino necesse esse eum cui praesunt populum semper docere multò magìs in diebus Dominicis in quibus omnes ferè solent in ecclesiis interesse ut quià suis artificiis operibúsque cessent Cocil L emovicens act 2. Omnes sacerdotes quibus parochia commissa est omnibus Dominicis festis diebus admonere praedicando populum debeat secundùm illud ARGUE OBSECRA INCREPA quia sacerdos si sine praedicationis sonitâ— incedit interminatione Divinâ mortis reus est Episcopus autem quos doctos viderit ad hoc officium idoneos non tantùm jâ—ssu sed etiam 〈◊〉 ad tam sublime opus incitare debet See Concil Arclatense can 10. Vasense 2. can 4. others cited before Tert. De anima cap. 9. reckoneth up these things inter Dominica soleâ—nia sc Scripturae leguntur aut psalmi canuntur aut allocutiones proscruntur aut petitiones delegantur 〈◊〉 serm 43. Dom. in Eâ—â—ng 〈◊〉 vobis matutâ—â—â coepâ—mus hora pâ—andii non urget August in psal 88. Reâ—icimâ—â— infecti a câ—bis reditâ— Ad reliqua 〈…〉 in matutino loquuti sumus animum intendite Chrysostom Hom. 10. in Gen. Nuâ—quid tempus obfuit dic quaeso sobrius auditor etiam pransus spirituali comentu dignus est Chrysostom Hom. De Lazaro Novi fore multos qui damnent ea quae nunc dicuntur veluti qui novam quandam miram consuetudinem invehâ—â— concion â—ndi at ego magis damnabo pravam consuetudinem quae nunc obtinuit Etenim quòd post ciâ—um ac mensam non ad somnum oporteat ire nec ad cubile sed oporteat cibo prâ—ces ac Divinarum scripturarum lectionem succedere manifestiùs declaravit ipse Christus c. Idem Hom. 10. ad populum Antioch Arbitror enim multos jam pransos hodie adesse pulchram hanc nobis implere concionem Et Hom. 28. Quando quaeso vos dilecti meliùs fecistis c. an nunc cùm post mensam ad Divinas leges audiendas convenistis Beatus Gauden Tract 4. Bis in vigiliis allocuti suâ— us charitatem vestram Chrysost Hom. in dictum Apost OPORTET HAERESES ESSE Quod hodie diximus admodum simile cognatum est ei quod hodie adhuc dicere decrevimus Ut enim quae dicta sunt hodie ad reprimendam vitae desidiam c. ita quae nunc dicenda c. The common people of Armenian Christians in the forenoon stay about foure houres in the churchâ— and in the afternoon from two of the clock untill six Job Ave diowite Relat. of the religion and customes of the Armenian church Object 4. Copy of a Letter pag. 22 23. A treatise of the minist of Engl. p. 12. The book of common prayer taken out of the Popes Portuis c. H. Ainsworth
which assembled every day the word was preached every day And in the congregations which assembled every Lords day after the reading of the lessons psalmes and evangelists the word was preached constantly before they were dismissed The time specially appointed or taken for the sermon was the morning after the reading of the prophets and psalmes and evangelists In the afternoon as assemblies so sermons were frequent and two or more sermons were made in one and the same congregation sometimes by one sometimes by divers ministers After the sermon ended followed the prayers of the congregation as the testimonies before alledged plentifully confirm Clemen Constit lib. 2. cap. 57. After the exhortation of the Presbyter and the Bishop all pray unto God Justin Apol. 2. ad Anton. Then we rise all and pray together sc after the exhortation ended Origen Hom. 3. in Isa Idcirco surgentes oremus Deum Hom. 36. in Luc. Surgamus precemúrque Deum Chrysost Hom. 50. ad cap. 14. Matth. But now it is time to conclude our speech with prayer orate igitur universi nobiscum In all which we see the wisdome of the church so moderated the length of the Liturgie that each ordinance of God had its proper season that reading and prayer did not thrust out preaching nor preaching eat up prayer that the weak were not tired and burdened nor the sluggish fostered in their securitie And if a Liturgie be onely burdensome for length it is not altogether to be cast off For the thing it self is thereby justified as good and allowable that which burdeneth being taken away And it is much better to wrestle against bodily tirednesse with spirituall fervour then deprive themselves of the comfort and profit which is to be had in the ordinances of God The worship of God by that stinted form whereof our question is is the devise of Antichrist it being never prescribed or used in the primitive churches planted by the apostles and recorded in scripture But as the mystery wrought to a greater height in declining times of the church it was received by little and little till at last it came to be completely framed strictly enjoyned and every where used in the papacy as serving to maintein superstition and a dumbe idole-reading ministery and to nourish people in ignorance of the nature and right use of prayer The Masse-book is in Latine this Liturgie-book is in English the Masse-book hath all the prayers this Liturgie hath and some more other differences I know not between them Therefore king Edward the sixth in his letter to the Devonshire-men to convince them that their Liturgie was our service telleth them that it was no other but the old and the self-same words in English which were in Latine save a few things taken out which were so fond that it was a shame to heare them in English And king James in a speech of his in Scotland said that their English Liturgie was an ill-said Masse Pope Pius the fourth sending Vincentio Parpatia Abbat of S. Saviour to Qu. Elisabeth offered to confirm the English Liturgie by his authoritie if she would yield to him in some other things Indeed this Liturgie pleased them so well that for the first eleven years of Qu. Elizabeth Papists came to the English churches and service as the Lord Cook sheweth And when the Popes intelligencers had seen service solemnly sung and said in Canterbury and London with all their pomp and procession they wondred that their master would be so unadvised as to interdict a Prince or State whose service and ceremonies so symbolized with his own The whole form then of the church-service a few grosse things taken out is borrowed from the Papists culled and picked out of that popish dung-hill the Portuis and vile Masse-book But that form of prayer by which God is worshipped after the manner that idolaters worship their Gods swerveth from a rule of prayer prescribed in scripture Deut. 12. 3 4. 30. 31 32. And this is made the first of the exceptions against the common-prayer-book which were briefly added to in the Abbridgement That it appointed a Liturgie which in the whole matter and form thereof is too like unto the Masse-book The main challenge in this objection which I have set down more at large because it is much insisted upon against our communion-book is That it was taken out of the masse-book But in the manner of propounding there be divers great mistakes to say no more It is a great fault that they put no difference betwixt the substance of worship and the externall form or order of celebration The substance of worship in that stinted form of prayer is That we call upon God in the mediation of Jesus Christ according to his will Is this the devise of Antichrist because the form of words was taken out of the masse-book Suppose a minister of the Gospel should borrow some expressions or phrases of speech from heathen authours is his sermon forthwith the invention or devise of an heathen It is as far wide that they say Not onely the form of it taken from the church of Antichrist but surely the matter also For the matter of our Liturgie is the reading of the scriptures in a known tongue the calling upon God in the mediation of Jesus Christ and not upon angels or saints departed for the living and not for the dead the right administration of the sacraments for substance and singing of psalmes are these the devises of Antichrist Is the administration of the Lords supper in both kinds in remembrance of Christs death and passion who by one oblation of himself once offered hath made a full perfect and sufficient oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world is this taken from the church of Antichrist These imputations are not so grosse as their reasons weak upon which they are built If our stinted Liturgy be the devise of Antichrist because it is not prescribed by the apostles or recorded in scripture then every stinted Liturgie must fall under the same censure for none other is prescribed in scripture or recorded by the apostles And so either every stinted Liturgie is part of that mystery of iniquitie which began to work in the apostles dayes or our Liturgy is not Antichristian because it was not prescribed or used in the primitive churches planted by the apostles If it was received by little and little till at last it came to be completely framed then the first beginning of it was no more from Antichrist then was the beginning of other Liturgies Antichrist sitteth in the Temple of God and antichristianisme is a filthy and lothsome leprosie which by degrees did infect the pure worship of God If therefore our Liturgie was sowred in after-times with that old leaven it might be pure and free in its first originall Is it for matter taken from the church of Antichrist