Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	common_a	prayer_n	rite_n	2,290	5	10.0209	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45736	Parish churches turn'd into conventicles by serving God therein, and worshiping him otherwise then according to the established liturgy and practice of the Church of England in particular, by reading the communion service or any part thereof in the desk, or plain reasons and undeniable authorities alledged for the reading of the second service, or the communion service when there is no communion at the altar or holy table ... / by Richard Hart, a friend to all the conformable clergy and laity of the true and apostolical Church of England by law established.	Hart, Richard, Friend to all the conformable clergy and laity of the true and apostolical Church of England.	1683 (1683)	Wing H962; ESTC R21744	13,899	26

you think that God will be mocked or permit his holy Spouse to be cheated How can you or any other be said to use the Form prescribed in publick Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and none other which you have promised to do by your Subscription which is a sacred Tie and yet immediately after willingly omit or alter any one Rite or Ceremony without a great perfidiousness As to the Point of reading the Communion Service when there is no Communion I do positively assert that it is appointed by our Church to be read at the North side of the Holy Table and that whosoever reads it at any other place breaks the Order of our Church and if he doth it through his private Judgment willingly and purposely as he cannot be presumed to do otherwise who is fully convinced that the Church hath so appointed it he doth not only offend against the common order of the Church but hurteth the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Consciences of the weak Brethren Herein I have two sorts of Persons to deal withal one plainly confessing that ' tis-commanded by the Church and thereby saving me the trouble of a Proof but saying withal that he is at liberty notwithstanding the Command and he offers some seeming Reasons for his altering the appointed Place and says they are sufficient to justify his Practice both before God and Man and whether they be so or no you will see by and by There is another sort of men who knowing not how to justify their present Practice contrary to a plain Injunction of Authority are forced to make use of an Index Expurgatorius and having thereby in their own Conceit quite expung'd the Rubrick as to this Purpose confidently tell me there is no such Command when there is no Communion therefore no disobedience to that Authority which they own and are both ready and willing to obey To every one of you dear Sirs who own the thing which others deny I must answer with an ex ore tuo te Judico for you ingeniously confess that 't is commanded by the Church and yet at the same time most disingeniously prefer a corrupt Practice of some ill principled men before your known Duty And for this you make several Pleas. First you say 't is the Custom of most Parish Churches to read the second Service in the Desk and Custom in the major part of any Society hath the force of a Law and a Law which is introduced by Custom is as much a Law as any Statute Law of the Land because a Law doth not recipere magis minus and if you do obey that Law which Custom hath made so you are as much obedient to the Law as he that obeys an Act of Parliament But how weak and insufficient this Plea is judg you your own selves when you have well considered the false Notions of such a Custom which you too fast do run away with not making any distinction between corruptela and consuetudo and little regarding the small force such a Custom setting aside the Corruption hath to sway any Mans Judgment who is rightly informed of the truth of this matter Now certainly most true it is that a constant universal Custom or Practice of a whole National Church hath the force of a Law and ought without all doubt to be observed but then you must take this along with you provided that no positive Law of the Kingdom intervene to annul that Custom Practice or what you will call it otherwise the Rule is false For to plead Custom against positive Law is to plead that which was the Law against that which is the Law the sole intent of all positive Laws being to take away the binding power of all customary Laws to the contrary otherwise there would be two Laws in being at one and the same time commanding the one contrary to the other which would certainly breed that confusion which all positive Laws are designed to prevent I Pray Gentlemen be pleased to consider what Mischief you do both to Church and State by preferring such a Custom as this before an established Law to the contrary Do not you by this means turn our golden Liturgy into a leaden Directory and the best of Churches into the worst of Conventicles You may laugh as much you please but this is a great Truth because it is neither the Place nor the Number of Persons meeting together that makes a Conventicle for these may be Riots Routs or unlawful Assemblies but that which doth constitute it a Conventicle and from which it receives its true Denomination is the meeting in any Place above such a limited Number and Serving God otherwise than according to the established Liturgy and Practice of the Church of England which may be done in a Church as well as a Barn as sad Experience tells It is only the Observation or non-Observation of all the Orders Rites and Ceremonies and none other which are appointed in and by the Common Prayer and Book of Canons which gives it the Denomination of a Church or Conventicle If all the Orders be regularly observed without Addition or Diminution either in Matter or Form 't is a true Church and a right Church but if any thing be Said Sung or done in Church or in private Houses where there are above such a Number as the Law appoints as the publick Worship of God which is not warranted by the Book of Common Prayer or by some Law of the supreme Governour both in Church and State although hereby it ceases not to be a true Church yet it ceases to be a right Church and commences to be a true Conventicle for I know no Medium between a right Church and a true Conventicle every Meeting upon the pretence of the Exercise of Religion being the one or the other And so every Person in Holy Orders that officiates at Divine Service is either a thorough Conformist or a Non-conformist I know no medium in an Established Church as ours is but if there be I desire to be informed of these things to wit how many or how few of the established Prayers may be said How many of the Rites and Ceremonies may be used Which may be omitted which altered Which neither omitted nor altered And yet the same Person doing or omitting any of these things may be and remain a true Conformist for if they be not limited to a certain number then he that uses only the Lords Prayer uses part of the Book of Common Prayer and the most material part too and may as truly be esteemed as true a Conformist as he that uses a great deal more and yet falls short of the whole either as to Matter of Form for whosoever he be that alters or diminishes willingly in either he is so far a Nonconformist and how much farther he will proceed no body knows but himself but this we know by common Experience break Ice in one place it will crack

in a great many more He that wilfully breaks the smallest order of the Church is flesht for greater matters How true therefore is that saying MINIMUM NON EST NON NEGLIGERE MINIMA And what a great deal of Mischief in the Church would this small Sentence prevent if it were believed and put in Practice for then there would not be so many Secundum usum's as there are nowadayes Heretofore it was only Secundum usum Sarum secundum usum Herefordensem secundum usum Bangorensem secundum usum Eboracensem secundum usum Lincolniensem these were all prime Places Cathedralls all and yet at the beginning of the Reformation this was thought to be a great Grievance But now every Parish be it never so inconsiderable prescribes to a Secundum usum secundum Usum this Parish secundum usum that Parish and so you may go on and name all the Parishes of England as far as the Town of Berwick upon Tweed and so many several Churches so many secundum usum's there are and yet the Rule by which they be all to walk is all one and the same Now from henceforth say's the Church of England in her Preface concerning the Service of the Church all the whole Realm shall have but one Use and for this very purpose was a Liturgy composed to remedy the great Diversities in saying and singing in Churches a Remedy very sagely contrived but to no purpose because never put in Practice So much for that The next Plea I have heard some of you make use of is that the Bishop of your Diocess doth dispense with your Obedience as to several Rubricks and in particular to this which is a plain Confession that 't is enjoin'd by the supreme Authority otherwise what need is there of a Dispensation which being so what Authority hath the Bishop or all the Bishops together I say this with humble Submission to that Holy Order for which no Man hath a greater Veneration than my self what Authority I say have they to dispense with a Duty injoyned by Act of Parliament sure I am that they may as well Dispense with the woollen Act or the Act prohibiting Irish Cattel as with the Act of Uniformity Doth not the Book of Common Prayer itself which is established by the said Act restrain all Diocesans from making any order concerning any Doubt arising about the Use and Practice of any thing in the Book any order that is contrary to any thing contained in this Book Now from hence I argue If the Communion Service be not appointed by the Rubrick to be read at the North side of the Table when there is no Communion and so the reading it in the Desk be not contrary to any thing contained in the book why do you require a needless Dispensation and if it be contrary how can be Bishop grant it When publick Orders and Constitutions have been received and have taken place shall general Obedience thereunto cease to be exacted in case this or that private Person led with some probable Conceit should make open Declaration that A. B. Bishop of c. doth dispense with me concerning such a Rubrick And although 't is granted that the Bishop himself is a Person in a publick Charge and Authority and all Curates are bound to obey him in omnibus licitis honestis yet if the Diocesan should command all under his Jurisdiction to read the Communion Service in the Desk the Bishops Mandate without all doubt must give place to the King's Laws and in all such Cases the King must be obeyed and not the Bishop because it is neither licitum nor honestum to obey any subordinate Power when the Supreme commands otherwise Besides when publick consent of the whole hath established any thing every Man's Judgment being thereunto compared is private howsoever his Calling be to some kind of publick Charge otherwise there could be no means possible to attain to any Peace or Quietness either in Church or State unless the probable Voice of every intire Society or Body Politick over-rule all private of like Nature in the same And this is our Case exactly for 't is determined by the King with the Consent of the three Estates representing the whole Body of the Kingdom where the second Service shall be said and this is not alterable according to our Laws but by the same full Authority by which it was enacted not by any single Person if he be a Subject nor by any one of three Estates nor by all together without the King which is sufficient to over-rule the frivolous Plea of a Dispensation which can never be defended without overturning the Government by altering the Frame and Constitution thereof to such sad Exigents are they reduced who undertake to defend what they have not beforehand well considered of For who would have imagined that so small an Omission as this at first sight seems to be should swell to such a mountainous Crime as to equal the Popes Pride in contending with the King for the Supremacy and by little and little to subvert his Government which puts me in mind of a Passage I have met with in Plutarch which jumps even with the matter in hand Paulus Aemylius a noble Roman and one of the Consuls afterwards chosen to be one of the number of Priests whom the Romans called Augurs when he did any thing belonging to his Office of Priesthood he did it with great Experience Judgment and Diligence leaving all other Thoughts and without omitting any ancient Ceremony or adding to any new contending oftentimes with his Companions in things which seemed light and of small moment declaring unto them that though we do presume the Gods are easy to be pacified and that they readily pardon all Scapes and Faults committed by Negligence yet if it were no more but for respect of Common-Wealths sake they should not slightly nor carelesly dissemble nor pass over Faults committed in those matters For no Man saith he at the first that committeth any Fault doth alone trouble the State of the Commonwealth but withall we must think he leaveth the Grounds of civil Government that is not careful to keep the Institutions of small matters as well as great The Inference is obvious and I must leave it to you to make the Application And now I have done with the Plea of a Dispensation The next is that it is very inconvenient for the People who by reason of the distance of the Place cannot hear and so are never the better they neither knowing to what they should pronounce their Amen nor when to say it to which I answer experimentally that though sometimes it may possibly so fall out by reason of the low Voice of the Priest yet the same Mischief attends the Desk as well as the Table For if the Minister doth not audibly and distinctly read the Prayers as in too many places he doth not the People are as little edified by their being read in the Desk as at the

though it little deserves an Answer yet I shall briefly say something to it and so finish with you worthy Gentlemen who confess the Command and yet practise quite Opposite to it You say that the People are not pleased with it otherwise you would very willingly go up to the Altar or Holy Table but if you should the People would go out of the Church and perhaps come no more In good time Must the Orders of the Church hang upon so slender a Thred as the liking or disliking of an ignorant Multitude Must the Shepherd go whither the Sheep would have him and no further for fear of displeasing the Sheep Is the Government of our Church so precarious If this be the Case you may shut up the Church Doors and write over them DOLENS DICO GEMENS DENUNTIO SACERDOTIUM QOUD APUD NOS INTUS CECIDIT FORISDIU STARE NON POTER IT CITO ENIM ACTUM ERIT DE ECCLESIA ANGLICANA And now I have something to say to you Reverend Sirs who say that there is no Rubrick neither was it ever the Intention of the Church that there should be one for the reading the Communion Service at the North side of the Table when there is no Communion You cannot see such a Rubrick What are there no Rubricks at all to direct the orderly reading of those Prayers and other Religious Duties which are to be performed when there is no Communion Do you never Preach but when there is a Communion Yes yes there is a plain Rubrick for it Then shall follow the Sermon You can read that Sirs without a pair of Spectacles I perceive very well but kind Sirs according to your own Construction of the Rubricks this is only when there is a Communion for the next immediate Rubrick is Then shall the Priest return to the Lord's Table Can any one be properly said to return to the Place he was not at before And if he was at it before then there must be a Communion say you but if there be no Communion and the appointed Rubricks serve only for Communion-time then there is no Sermon appointed say I so that either you must acknowledg that all the same Rubricks belong to the Communion Service when there is no Communion as well as when there is one or else what will become of your great Diana the SERMON Methinks for the dear sake of that Unum Necessarium that Magnum Oportet you should be more kind to that part of the Liturgy which gives the sole Authority to your Sermon I beseech you gentle Sirs deal not so unworthily with your own Mother as to wink hard against the Light and wilfully not to see your way when She commands you to go up to the Altar and yet to be as quick-sighted as an Eagle when you ascend the Pulpit How comes it to pass that you should be blinder than the Presbyterians for if you do not see this Rubrick of Reading at the North side of the Table when there is no Communion 't is really so for they spied out this hidden Rubrick and sain would have been rid of it it being a great Eye-sore to them and they would fain have exchanged Conditions with you that they might have been so blind as not to have seen it but since they did too plainly Discern it no remedy now but to desire the Bishops at the grand Debate at the Savoy when our gracious King was first restored to his Crown that the Minister be not required to rehearse any part of the Liturgy at the Communion Table save only those parts which properly belong to the Lord's Supper and that at such time onely when the Holy Supper is Administred These are the very Words of their Request by which it appears so plain that a blind Man may see it that by the Rubrick before the Communion Office The Priest standing at the North-side of the Table shall say c. The Presbyterians themselves who are apt enough to pick holes in the Churches Orders if they be against their Humour yet could not do it here for they could make no other Construction of it agreeable either with Sense or Reason but this that at all times when any part of the Communion Service was to be read there lay an Obligation upon all Priests by Virtue only of that Rubrick And the Priest standing c. to read that Part at the Communion Table when there was no Communion or else to what purpose was this Request of theirs and why did the Reverend Bishops make such an Answer as they did The Answer is this That the Minister should not Read the Communion Service at the Communion Table is not reasonable to demand since all the Primitive Church used it and if we do not observe that golden Rule of the venerable Council of Nice let ancient Costoms prevail till Reason plainly requires the contrary we shall give Offence to sober Christians by causeless departure from Catholique Usage and a greater Advantage to the Enemies of our Church than our Berethren I hope would willingly grant The Priest standing at the Communion Table seemeth to give us an Invitation to the Holy Sacrament and minds us of our Duty viz. To Receive the Holy Communion some at least every Sunday and though we neglect our Duty 't is fit the Church should keep her standing Observe that and if you find no reason in what the Reverend Bishops say use your Liberty still for a Cloak of Nonconformity and remember 't is but a Cloak and such a one as you had better be stark naked than be covered with And now it remains that I should produce some unquestionable Authorities to back my Reasons that it may appear to all unbiassed Persons That the Judgment of all the great Worthies of our Church who have either occasionally or on set Purpose treated of this matter is unanimously this The Communion Service ought to be read according to the Rule Prescribed in our Book of Common Prayer at the North side of the Table as well when there is no Communion as well as when there is one I will begin with the most judicious Mr. Hooker who in his fifth Book Sect. 30. hath these Words Some meaning some parts of our Liturgy are such as albeit they serve to singular good Purpose even when there is no Communion Administred nevertheless being devised at the first for that Purpose are at the Table of the Lord for that Cause also commonly Read The next Authority is the great Arch Bishop Land second unto the Reverend Father Hooker only in time who in a Speech in the Star Chamber to which very few of you can pretend to be Strangers say's thus The Eleventh Innovation is the Reading of the second Service at the Communion Table or the Altar To this I can truly say that since my own Memory this was in use in very many Places as being most proper for those Prayers are then Read which both precede and follow the Communion and

by little and little this ancient Custom was altered and in those places first where the Emissaries of this Faction came to Preach And now if any one in Authority offer to reduce this ancient Course of the Church 't is by and by called an Innovation Secondly with this the Rubricks of the Common prayer-Prayer-Book agree for the first Rubrick after the Communion tells us that upon Holydaies though there be no Communion yet all else that 's appointed at the Communion shall be read Shall be read that 's true but where Why the last Rubrick before the Communion tells us that the Priest standing at the North side of the Holy Table shall say the Lord's Prayer with that which follows So that not only the Communion but the Prayers which accompany the Communion which are commonly called the Second Service are to be read at the Communion Table Therefore if this be an Innovation 't is made by the Rubricks not by the Prelates Now let us see what the Right Reverend Bishop of Norwich Dr. Sparrow say's to this Matter In his Rational of the Common Prayer p. 239. thus he say's Private and solitary Communions of the Priest the Church allows not and therefore when other cannot be had she appoints only so much of the Service as relates not of necessity to a private Communion and that to be said at the Holy Table and upon good Reason The Church thereby keeping as it were her Ground visibly minding us of what She desires and labors towards our more frequent Access to that Holy Table Mark the several Reasons and weigh the great Authority of this famous Triumvirate of the Church of England and then Read the Second Service hereafter in the Desk if you can There be some others of no mean Credit in the Church of England who have positively asserted the same thing viz. Dr. Heylin in his Introduction to Arch Bishop Laud's Life p. 22. Mr. Elborow in his Exposition of the Book of Common Prayer p. 98. Hammond le Strang in his Alliance of Divine Offices p. 122 123. to which I may add a fourth which is Dr. Combers in his Companion to the Altar the Page I have forgot though the Matter I very well remember Now if after all these Reasons and Authorites there remains any Doubt as I believe there may do with those that are resolved to doubt that they may have some Colour for their restless Opposition to the Churches wholesom Institutions I have one thing more to say which because it hath wrought upon some and not only Convinced them but Converted as obstinate as they seemed to be I am in good Hopes it may have the same Operation upon some others Let me intreat all you that have any Kindness left for the distressed Church of England to cast an impartial Eye upon the Forms of Common Prayer upon several Occasions of Fasting and Thanksgiving set forth by Authority shall I say since the King 's happy Restoration or since the blessed Reformation Peruse them all if you please and you shall find that in none of them all is there a Communion appointed nor any appears to be intended but only so much of the Communion Service is therein prescribed to be Read as on other Holydays is by the Common Prayer Book appointed to be Read when there is no Communion and yet 't is said expresly The Priest standing at the North side of the Table shall say c. What more clear than this to tell us the meaning of the Rubrick in the Book of Common Prayer unless it be the Practice of the Prime Churches in England the King's Chappel the Cathedrals the two Universities and many Orthodox Parish Churches to wit that of Dr. Hicks that of Dr. Sherlock that of Dr. Dove and if I be not Misinformed that of Mr. Pelling all Famous Reverend and Worthy Divines within the City of London and I question not but the pious Example of such conscientious Men hath had an Influence upon some parts of the Country some I am sure I know and others I have heard of I pray God increase their Number not by confounding the Persons of any who do otherwise but by converting their Judgments and confounding those Devices they make use of to hinder all manner of Impression that can be made upon them either by Reason or Authority the chiefest of which I find to be a Ne videamur semel errâsse A Principle too bad to be own'd and yet too true to be denyed Recommending you to God's Grace I take my Leave of you all leaving this short saying with you Veritas est magna praevalebit Christianus mihi Nomen est Catholicus Cognomen R. H. FINIS