inward man is renewed day by day 2 Cor. 4.16 the faith hope obedience charity humility and patience of many by this fiery trial hath been made more conspicuous SECT 1. The words of the Letter Of the vile and virulent head the Pope 1. FIrstly hath not the long provoked Lord begun in this Island and in Ireland to pull down lowest that loose that lofty and lawlesse Church which the corrupt Clergie had lifted up highest namely the Oecumenical or Romane Catholick Church whereof the sinne-pardoning or rather soul-poysoning Pope was the Vile and Virulent head who was therefore and upon that account publickly declared and generally though not universally beleev'd to be a horrible Monster as well as a very abominable beast because of his ten hornes Witnesse what is written Revel 17.3.5 The Reply To what you say of the vile virulent head the Pope I assent and so did and do all Orthodox Divines of our English Church holding his claim to be Universal Bishop to be Anti-Christian profane proud foolish blasphemous by vertue whereof he doth ingrosse to himself full power and authority over all Christians in the world both Ecclesiastical and saecular the principal actions whereof are 1. To frame and set out for all Christians the rule of faith and good manners to point out the books of Canonical Scriptures and the traditionary word and to deliver the sense and interpretation thereof and to determine all controversies in religion with an unerring sentence 2. To prescribe and enact laws for the whole Church equally obliging the conscience to obedience with the divine Law 3. To exercise external power of directing and commanding and also of censure and correction of all Christians 4. To grant dispensations indulgences absolution from oaths and vows 5. To canonize Saints institute religious orders to deliver from Purgatory 6. To call and confirm general Councels 7. To dethrone and conculcate Kings c. All this we disclaim as well as you and you needed not have said that it begun in this Island and Ireland as if it begun with you for it begun more then one hundred years since assume not therefore that to your selves which was done to your hands to take down this head was the work of the National Church you so slight and had it not been done to your hands I doubt whether all the power you could make had ever been able to have done it And for this that head being of a revengeful nature hath ever since been plotting which way it might unroot us that unrooted it For the proof of this I shall acquaint you with what a friend acquainted me and others about five years since A good Protestant he is now but about 30. years before was as he confess'd reconciled to Rome by one Meredith an ancient and learned Jesuite for he was one of those that Dr. Featly had to deal with in France This man told him that in England they had been long and industrious about their work of conversion but it went on slowly and so would till they took a wiser course Two things there were that must be done before they should bring their businesse to a full effect They must first find a way to remove the Bishops and Ministers in whose room they must bring it so about that all should have liberty to preach Then secondly they must get down the Common Prayer book and suffer every man to use what prayer he list Thus much the man offer'd to make good upon his Oath before any Magistrate he should be call'd And now I pray tell me out of what shop do you think your work comes That generation are a sly subtle people as the devil they can transform themselves into an Angel of light If many printed books lye not there have been many among you and they know to insinuate their poyson under guilded pills Positions they have many like your's and beware least when you think you suck in the Truth you drink not poyson Verbum sat Sapienti They owe us a splene for casting off their head and they will never give over to seek a revenge We were the men that cut it off and take heed least unwittingly you set it not on again 'T is too true I speak it with grief they have won to their side in the time of our dissentions more proselites then they did in divers years before The Laws are now silent and any man may be now any thing so he be not an old Protestant of the Church of England that if he professe then there will be a quick eye upon him An Ordinance shall be sure to reach him which for ought I heard is but brutum fulmen to a Papist Boast not then of your taking down that same vile and virulent head the Pope when it is permitted to stand in more favour then a Protestant whose work hath been to take down that abominable beast with his ten horns as you call him SECT 2. The British King the Violent Head Mr. Matthews 2. SEcondly hath not Christ hid his face from and bent his brow against the National Church as being that very next naughtinesse Whereof the British King was although not an invincible yet a violent Head which was therefore lesse victorious and more vincible partly because the head not only of a very uncanonical but also of a very unspiritual corporation and partly because of the said national-corporations inconsistency with the Scripture precepts Matth. 18.17 1 Cor. 14.23 which doth require its ordinary congregating in one place seconded and aggravated by its notorious inconformity to the Scripture patterns Eph. 2.19.22 Philip. 2.15 Revel 5.9 where the Scripture Combinational Church is call'd not a whole nation but a holy City a growing Temple a Spiritual house or a sin-enlightning and a soul-enlivening Church gathered built framed cull'd and call'd out of and from a carnal and crooked nation which was both dark and darknesse it self witnesse what is written Ephes 5.8 The Reply That Christ hath hid his face from and bent his face against this National Church you have reason to lament and grieve and not to stand by and clap your hands at it Rather take up the Lamentation of David for Saul and Jonathan The beauty of Israel is slain upon the high places how are the mighty fallen 2 Sam. 1.19.20 Tell it not in Gath publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon least the daughters of the Philistims rejoyce least the daughters of the uncircumcised Triumph c. Posterity will have cause to mourn when you and they shall be invaded and set upon by those uncircumcised Philistims of Rome who will smile at the armour wherein you trust and the speares you brandish against them as a dart of a bulrush 'T is not your Sophisms that will prevail with them nor your popular arguments that they will regard and they as smoke being vanished set upon you they will with armour of proof and so inviron you that
and from hence it was borrowed and brought into the Church that the chief of the Capitulum should be called Decan which I think is Arch-Presbyter 3. I come now to your other two dislik'd Appellations Chancellours and Surrogates That the Bishop was at first the chief Judge in his Church I have before proved and then no dought he might appoint his subordinate Officials This being a confessed rule in the Law that when any cause is committed to any man he is also conceived to receive full authority in all matters belonging to that cause When the Emperours became Christian they judged it equal and pious to reserve some causes to be tried in the Christian Court in which they constituted the Bishop to be the Judge These causes were properly called Ecclesiastical such as were Blasphemy Apostacy Heresies Schismes Orders Admissions institution of Clerks Cooks Reports fol. 8. Rites of Matrimony Probates of Wills Divorces and such like To give audience to these the Bishop otherwise imployed could not alway be present and yet there was no reason that for his absence justice should not take its course And in some of these had he been present great skill in Civil Lawes is requisite that they be ended aright This gave occasion to the Bishop to appoint his Chancellour and Surrogate A Chancellour who had his name à Cancellis within which he was to sit a man brought up in the Civil Lawes and therefore fit to decide such causes that did depend upon those Lawes who being at first a meere Lay-man and therefore having no power of Exommunication therefore the Bishop thought fit to adjoyne a Surrogate to him that in case that high censure were to be passed this man being in Orders and therefore invested with power actu primo and by Commission with the Bishops power actu secundo sub Episcopo rogatus being demanded and an Officer under the Bishop Actu primo might pronounce the Sentence This was the original of their names and power Now prudential necessity first instituted them and prudence where Episcopal power is of force continues them If a Superiour shall be pleased to revoke some of these causes which were by him made of Ecclesiastical cognizance and cause the litigants to take their trial at Common or Civil Law Vide the book of Order of Excommunication in Scotl. Hist of Scot Amon 2. pag. 46. then in the Church I confesse there will be no use of the Chancellour And if the rest shall be tried by the Bishop and his Presbytery as they were at first neither will there need much a Surrogate But now if that rule of the Presbytery should prove to be true who do challenge cognisance of all causes whatsoever which are sins directly or by reduction then they have power if not to nullifie yet to give liberty to play all Courts and Judicatories besides their own and must bring in thither Sollicitours Atturneys Counsellours Procters c. which will be as un-Scripture-like names as Chancellours and Surrogates Cinod de off Eccl. Joannes Epis Citri in respon ad cabasil Naz. Testam 4. The fourth Appellation that offends you is the Arch-Deacon who was a very ancient officer in the Church and of great esteeme in the Greek Church Neither was he chosen to that place by the Patriarch but came to it by seniority the name then gave him no power but onely this prerogative to be chief of the Deacons of the Church as if you would say of the eldest standing In the Church of England he was more than a Deacon for he was a Presbyter and his office was to be present at all ordinations to enquire into the life the manners the abilities and sufficiency of him who was to be ordained and either to reject him if he saw occasion or to present him to the Bishop to be ordained to induct into any Benefice that man who was instituted by the Bishop to have the care of the houses of God were kept decent and in good repair lastly to take account of all who had to do with the poors money And this last was it which gave him the name of the chief Deacon Ambr. lib. 1. de off c. 41. Prudentius for when the charity of the Church was great and ample gifts were bestowed to the relief of the poorer Christians the Church stock was ample as appears by Lawrence the Martyr who was Deacon to Sixtus Bishop of Rome martyred under Valerian This being committed to the Deacons care that no fraud might be committed as it hapned too oft in money-matters the Church thought fit to set one of the Deacons over the rest who might call them to account as ours were to do the Church-wardens and Overseers of the poor to whom they gave the name of the Arch-Deacon Now speak impartially what harme was in all this What that may offend you Deacon cannot and Arch should not since you know it signifies no more but chief or prime as in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Patriarch And that you may carry some affection or at least not a loathing to it I pray call to memory that a worthy Martyr of our Church John Philpot adjudged to the fire and burnt in Queen Maryes dayes Fox Martyrol An. 1553. primo Mariae resigned up his soul in the flames being then Arch-Deacon of Winchester And that with him Master Cheiny and Master Elmour that refused to subscribe to the doctrine of Transubstantiation in the Convocation-house were both Arch-Deacons 5. But now I return back again to that Appellation Lord-Bishop at which so many have stumbled and been scandalized that others before you have done it I have reason to attribute to envie an evil eye but in you I shal onely impute it to inconsideration Gen. 24. 1 Kings 18. 2 Kings 2. 2 Kings 4. 2 Kings 8. For you are mighty in the Scriptures and therefore might have known that the Hebrew Adoni or the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Latine Dominus which in the Spanish is Don in the French Sciur in English Sir is onely a name of civility courtesie respect reverence By this Rebecca calls Abrahams servant Drink my Lord. By this Obadiah the Prophet Art thou my Lord Elijah By this the children of the Prophets the inhabitants of Hiericho the Sunamite and Hazael the Prophet Elisha By this Mary the Gardner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord or Sir if thou have taken him hence with this civil respect the Greeks accost Philip John 20.15 John 12.21 1 Pet. 3.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sir we would see Jesus In all which places the word imports onely a courteous and respectful compellation And St. Peter commends the woman that shall with this name endear her husband proposing the example of Sarah that obeyed Abraham and call'd him Lord. To a Bishop double honour respect reverence is due for he is comprised under the name of father in the Commandment and whom we
then a Gentleman The like argument to this is used by those of the Combination At Rome they finde a houseful of Christians at Corinth another handful met together in the house of Cloe. Rom. 16.5 1 Cor. 16.29 1 Cor. 1.11 In Asia there is mention made of single Churches but by the way that these were bourd together by a Church Covenant and a separate and Independent Congregation that had no relation to the Presbytery in those Cities that is not mentioned not a word of that Then there were no National Churches this was afterwards brought in by lordly Prelates Oh if we might but see the Church restored again and all things done according to the pattern in the Mount then it would be a glorious Church Gods people precious people all Kings Priests and Prophets within their own doors You then of the people even the poorest Plow-man and ignorantest Mechanick should recover his right primo questu and be subject to no other Pastours and Elders then were of your own choosing nor to them no longer then pleased you Now is not this kind of arguing very plausible in the peoples ears Oh how they will hugge themselves when they shall finde themselves to become some body Let us say they but joyne our selves in this Combination and then God knows what goodly great things we may come to be we may come to be Pastours to feed we may come to be Elders to rule the flock we may come to be Deacons and carry the bag and if we sail of these our hopes yet however we have voices in the Election of Church Officers and the highest of them all must depend upon us This is that which tickleth the multitude to reduce the Church to the house of Cloe as those Sophists would do the world to the Ark of Noah Now one of these is as absurd as the other as contrary to reason to bring back the Church to particular houses and Combinations as it is all the societies of men to domestical government Shall an example or two which yet comes not home neither be pleaded against a cloud of witnesses to the contrary when we can instance in Presbyteries constituted by the Apostles in chief Cities which were heads of whole Provinces shall we plead that two or three houses were patterns in the Mount This is so childish a fancy so weak and unreasonable an imagination as if they would reduce themselves to their infants Coats now they are grown men or think they are bound to wear a leathern girdle because Saint John Baptist did so To conclude this point we dare appeal to the consciences of any of these bodying Christians whom charity may presume to be godly and judicious Dr. Gauden whether they finde in Scripture or have just cause to think that the blessed Apostles ever constituted such small bodies of Covenanting Churches when there were great numbers and many Congregations of Christians in any City Province or Country so as each one should be thought absolute independent and no way subordinate to another Whether ever the Apostles required of those lesser handfuls those peti-toes and fingers of the body which might and did Convene in Cloes house any such explicite forms and Covenants besides those holy bonds which by beleeving and professing of the faith by Baptisme and Eucharistical communion were upon them Or whether the blessed Apostles would have questioned or denyed them to be true Christians and in a true Church or have separated from them or cast them off as not engrafted in Christ or growing up in him who without any such bodying in small parcels had professed the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in the due use of the Word Sacraments Ministry who endeavoured to lead a holy life themselves and sought by all means which charity order or authority allowed them to represse the contrary in others The wisdome of these first planters of Religion was so great their charity so warme their perswasions to unity so earnest the Character they set upon those who separate so black that it cannot be beleeved that ever they would admit of a rent in that body which was instructed by one head enlived by one spirit formed by one faith and quickned by one and the same hope And if these excellent Christian vertues had continued we had not seen the seam-lesse Coat of our Saviour rent into such small shreds as we behold and lament at this day And so much of this 2. The next thing that in general you charge the National Church withal is that they took up the customes you name by a Jewish imitation COncerning which I have divers things to reply First if we must be accused for this apish imitation of the Jews yet we are not the only Apes since you for this are no lesse guilty than our selves and then you know qui alterum incusat probri ipsum se tueri oportet For do you not imitate the Jewish Sanedrim in your Elderships why is it else that from it most of your party fetch their defence why from it do they borrow their light to expound dic Ecclesiae Again that the Scripture is not to be read except expounded is your common tenet we presse you for a precept for this and none you do nor none you can bring only you produce the example of Ezra the Scribe Nehem. 8.8 that he read the book and gave the sense and upon this example you do it and tell us it is to be done now what is imitation but the following of an example Besides you your self would have all your Elders stand and sit together in the face and full view of the whole Assembly now what command can you finde for this all you can say for it Verse 4. is the pattern in the former place of Ezra and then I hope you will not deny but you in this are to answer for a Jewish imitation also Your letter bears date the 22 day of the eighth moneth which is you know to speak the language of the old Jew Secondly I ask how ever you can make good that in most of the instances which you alledge that the Christians took their pattern from the Jewes after they were formed into a National Church and were put under the Ceremonial Law If in these they imitated any I may as easily say that they took their pattern from the Patriarchs for these before the Ceremonies of the Law were imposed as you can reflect upon the Nation of the Jews For the Patriarchs had their feasts their places whether to bring their offerings Gen. 8.20 13.18 28.22 33.20 Gen. 2.2 Exod. 5.1 They acknowledge a high Priest Gen. 14.18 They paid tyths Gen. 14.20 28.22 Four then of these five frivolous traditions as you call them were in use before the Jews were a setled Nation and to those old and first people of God the Primitive Church might have an eye when they admitted these usages as well as to
the same song In these passage Revel 15.3 Bright in lec of holy Scripture we have set formes of prayer somewhere commended somewhere commanded somewhere used somewhere reiterated and all inspired by the holy Ghost and therefore certainly the use of them can be no quenching of the holy Spirit whom we finde to enflame our hearts in rehearsal of these sacred formes 3. And in the last place if we look upon the custome of Gods people find we shall that in all places and in all ages they have made use of publique set and sanctified forms of prayer Hâ—gesippus an ancient writer one that was near the Apostles times writes that St. James chosen Bishop of Jerusalem by the Apostles themselves for a forme of service or common prayer compos'd by him for that Church yet extant was call'd Jacobus Liturgus To omit Justin Martyr in whom I find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Common prayers and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prescribed prayers in Origen Just Mart. Apol 2. Orig. lib. 6. contr Cels Cypr. in Orat. dominicae Perk. resut of the real presence Fox Mart. fol. 1275. In Cyprian we find the Priest before prayer using this Preface Sâ—rsum corda and the people answering habemus ad Dominum which forme as Perkins confesses was used in all Liturges of the ancient Church This then was no rag of Rome but as Mr. Fox truly saith was borrowed from the Greek not the Latin Church Which is so true that the Centurists confesse that in the blessed Martyr Cyprians dayes without all doubt formulas quasdum precum habuerunt Be pleased to look in the latter end of my Catechisme where you shall finde the old Lyturgies cited to that purpose And as Christianity begun more and more to flourish so were the Fathers of the Church careful that the people should not be destitute of these excellent means to serve God the Bishops for their several Diocesses composing their Liturgies Basil for Cappodocia and those parts Chrysostome for Constantinople and the Greek Church under his jurisdiction Ambrose for Milan Gregory and Isidore for the Westerne Churches all which are extant to this day and out of these and some more ancient attributed to the Apostles themselves all the famous and known Churches of the world have composed their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we among the rest so that it was no vaine brag which Arch-bishop Cranmer made that if he might be admitted to call Peter Martyr and four or five more unto him he would make it appear that the same forme of worship which was set forth in the Book of Common Prayer had continued for substance even then one thousand five hundred years and give me leave to adde this to the honourable burial of it since it must be buried that before it was authorized and published in that beauty we lately saw it it went under the file fifteen times And by what men even by those who many of them sealed the truth of it with their blood in the fire It should seeme about those former times when those Liturgies were first published there were some so wedded to their own fancies that they preferred their own conceptions before the Churches Ordinances and yet they came not to that brain-sick-fancie as to bring into the Church extempore prayers Angry they were not with set formes but displeased because they might not make them And against these two famous Councels have provided Concil Laod. Ca. 18. Can. 159. Concil Mil. c. 12. Caranza legit comprobatae first that of Laodicea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad horam nonam vesperum celebretur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in Africa the Milevitan Councel more expressely Placuit ut preces orationes quae probatae fuerunt in Concilio ab omnibus celebrentur nec aliae omnino dicantur in Ecclesia nisi quae à prudentioribus tractatae vel compositae in Synodo fuerunt sufficiently divised considered or approved by the wiser men and allowed in a Synod and the reason which the Councel addes is most essectual ne forte aliquid contra fidem vel per ignorantiam vel per minus studium sit compositum Which is the very reason that Master Selden one of the last Assembly gives for the Jewish Liturgy from Ezra's time Seldens notes in Eutychium The Jews saith he about the end of the Babylonish Captivity had their ancient manners as well as language so depraved that without a Master they either were not able to pray as they ought or had not confidence to do it And therefore that for the future they might not recede either in the matter of their prayers through corruption or expression through ignorance from that forme of piety commanded by God this remedy was applyed by the men of the great Synagogue Ezra and his one hundred and twenty Colleagues out of which words Doctor Hammond makes this collection Ham. viero of the Direct Sect 15. That one special use and benefit of a set forme is not onely to provide for the ignorance but to be a hedge to the true Religion to keep out all mixtures and corruptions out of a Church To this purpose 't is no newes to tell you that all reformed Churches abroad have some forme of worship or other that Master Knox in Scotland composed a Liturgy for that Church That those zealous brethren who were so earnest for Reformation in Queen Elizabeths dayes Anno 1585. though they complained to the Lord Burleigh against the Church Common prayer-Prayer-book yet professed they were not against Liturgy and 't is evident they were not by the composing of two formes one year after another And here I cannot choose but put you in minde of a passage of Master Cartwright which I have seen in a little Manual of his in answer to one that charg'd him as an enemy to set formes To which his reply was that he was so farre from this conceit that if any were pleased to come to Coventry where he then did preach and hear his Lectures they should before and after his Sermons hear the same prayers used by him except that portion of Scripture upon which he insisted gave him occasion to adde some few words I shall shut up this point with the judgement and practice of Master Calvin Calvin epist ad Protect his judgement he hath fully declared in his Epistle to the Protectour then Quod ad formulam precum c. As for formes of Prayers and Ecclesiastical rites I very much approve that it be set or certain From which it may not be lawful for the Pastours in their function to depart that so there may be provision made for the simplicity and unskilfulnesse of some and that the consent of all the Churches among themselves may more certainly appear and lastly also that the extravagant levity of some who affect novelties may be prevented Thus he And his practice is evident The Liturgy by him composed for Geneva being yet extant I
now upon you to shew where the errour lies and that the prescriber had not an eye to those general limitations in Scripture before you cast out these humane constitutions and explode them as inventions of men But now let us go on and examine Qui viri what kind of men these were who brought these Rites into the Church they were no men of yesterday they were not any way infected with the Romane leaven They were the Primitive fathers and some of them Apostolical men men who hazarded their lives for Christ These were the Inventers of those Rites you speak of as I shall now shew you by induction of particulars being guided by your own thread 1. Matrimonial Bands 'T is a Rule of Zanchy that since there is nothing clearly prescribed about Matrimonial Rites in the Word of God Zanch. de sponsalibus Thes 4. â—itus hi petendi sunt ex consuetudinibus Ecclesiasticis constitutionibus quae nihil cum verbo Dei pugnans contineant You must shew then that in the publication of these Bands there is somewhat repugnant to the Word of God or else this custome may be well retained And you have no reason at all at this time to except against them since you know that there is an Act of Parliament extant at this time made by your own party that before the solemnization of marriage the parties names who are to be joyned in wed-lock shall be openly proclaimed either in the Market or in the Church three several times It seems by this Act the self-same reason which prevailed with our fore-fathers prevailed with them viz. that thereby all clandestine marriages should be prevented divorces upon pretences of former Espousals by contract voided and the surreptitious stealing away of Orphans and children without the consent of their Parents hindred When therefore you finde fault with this custome and constitution you finde fault with you know not what and reprehend you know not whom 2. Marriage Rings If you think this to be a Popish Rite you are very much deceived For it was used before the Romanes were Christians and yet is nere the worse for that neither For the Jews though prohibited some yet were not forbidden to be like in nothing to the Nations for that was impossible Among the Romans the Ring of marriage was used Pliny Hist lib. 33. cap. 1. Tertull. Apol. cap. 6. and it was first of Iron and afterwards of gold Whence Tertullian commending the temperance and modesty of the old Romane Matrons saith Aurum nulla norat praeterquam unico digito quem sponsus oppignorasset pronubo annulo Among the Romans jus annuli right to wear a Ring belonged not to every man at first it was conferred upon men of honour this then might be one cause of continuing this custome that whereas marriage is honourable the husband by giving the Ring shewed that he had bestowed honour upon the woman she every whit as honourable as he was ubi ille Cajus ibi illa Caja But then the bed must be undefiled and that it be so kept so often as she looks upon her Ring she may well be admonished for by this pawn given and received she pledged her faith and fidelity to keep her self onely to one This will be never done except their love be endlesse and continue of which the Ring is an apt symbol for a circle knows no end Whether then we consider the honour done to the woman by her husband or that mutual love and fidelity in heart and minde agreed on betwixt the married couple this harmlesse Ceremony needs not be cast aside with a scoft 3. The signe of the Crosse This is a Ceremony at which you are wont to be affrighted as the Devils of old But you must know that this was a Rite used in the Church many ages before Popery was heard of There was a two-fold kinde of Crosse used by them either transient or permanent the transient was made with the motion of the hand but left no signe behind This was of common practice in the Primitive Church as appears to any man who hath ever read Justin Martyr against Tryphon the Jew and his second Apology and used after Baptisme is evident in Tertullians Apology in his book de Corona Mil de resur carnis in Cyprian de lapsis and other fathers But till Constantine the great carried it with enriched gold and pearls for his Standard I read not of a permanent Crosse erected after his time the erecting of these was frequent in all Christian Kingdomes so that the Papists were not the Authours of either but abused both And that the abuse of any thing should take away the use of it seems to me unreasonable We have it in no other esteem than the Ancient Christians we carry it in our flags and on our coyne we glory in it as a Badge of Christianity we signe our children with it after Baptisme But to give the same honour to it as unto Christ to pray to it to burn incense before it we utterly reject as superstitious errours and ungodly vanities Let the Papists answer for this their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Thomas calls it we have it in no other use honour than what we may justifie and if you are desirous to see upon what grounds I refer you to Mr. Hookers Eccl. Pol. lib. 5. Sect. 65. a Tract that was never yet answered And to Dr. Mortons defence of the Ceremonies of the Church of England because it were over-long and needlesse to transcribe them The summe of which yet I shall be ready to give you if you shall require it at my hands 4. White-Surplice To this Ceremony I answer I see not why that vesture should be more excepted against than I should that a Minister should preach or officiate with a black cap on his head a Cloke or a Gown for I know there is Scripture equally to be alledged for both But for fuller satisfaction for this I refer you to Master Hooker Eccl. Pol. lib. 5. Sect. 29. 5. Quiristers singing To this I have answered before 6. Funeral Sermons This is the first time I ever heard any exception against them that the dead were decently composed I know and that the Church carried them to their graves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saint Chrysostome hath taught me Chrys Hom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that Constantius was brought from Nicomedia where he died to Constantinople where he was buried in that solemn manner But I never heard before that it was not lawful to have a Funeral Sermon in which the vertues of the man might be proposed as an example to the living by which also we might shew our love to the party deceased which nature requires of us then to do him that honour that is fit for his person and lastly to comfort the living with the hope of the resurrection to which end that office appointed for the burial of
then that you here mention must be a greater abomination than any one or indeed all the particulars you before mentioned or else your Yet was not considerately placed What the justling out a Pulpit and placing a Pue instead of it a greater offence than admitting profane persons to the Lords Table what this a stronger plea of Apostacy than the Common service book what is it to tithe mint and annise and cummin and to let passe the great and weightier matters of the Law if this be not it doth God take care for Oxen is he pleased or displeased with Pues with Pulpits with Elders seats No question it is all one with him in what part of the Church or by whom they are set 'T is the inward man of the heart that he looks upon as for these outward accoutrements of his service he hath entrusted to the hands and heads of discreet men And methinks you of all others should least insist upon them who are so great enemies to all outward worship or what may be ordained by men for the decency and order of that worship 2. Farther I think you have misplaced your Epithites and bestowed them on wrong subjects for it were far truer to say the Monarchical Pulpit and the Ministerial Pue for whatsoever was done in the Pue was but meerly Ministerial but since you have invaded and ingrossed the Pulpit you thence dictate and dogmatize like the violent Monarch you before named Thence you damne whomsoever you please I have heard this black sentence thence pronounced that all the old Clergy are frying in an iron grate in hell that they that wil not come to hear you do tread under foot the blood of the Son of God and make a mock of him and thence again you save whom you please as if all the Legislative power were in your hands what you deliver from thence be it never so crude and indigested stuff you call the Gospel of the Kingdome the very Word of God News from Ipswich Apologista c. 3. A man would think you were inclining very far to that opinion of the Apologist for the Jesuites who saith jungantur in unum dies cum nocte tenebrae cum luce calidum cum frigido sanitas cum morbo vita cum morte erit tum spes aliqua posse in caput Jesuitae haeresin cadere I ever took Sermons and so do still to be most necessary expositions and applications of the holy Scripture and a great ordinary means of saving knowledge but I cannot think them or the Preachers of them out of a Pulpit divinely infallible And it may be observed too that no men are more apt to say then they that all the Fathers were but men and might erre and if then they be not transcended the condition of men when they are ascended the Pulpit possible it is that they may erre too But to proceed what an Idol pardon the word it is from your own shop when you call the Liturgy Idol-service and the sureties in Baptisme Idol Godfathers have they made of the Pulpit ever since from thence they dispense all their Administrations The child to be baptized by the Minister in the Pulpit the Sacrament to be sent by the hand of the Deacon to all the Congregation out of the Pulpit The Word and all the prayer then used out of the Pulpit and whether the censures be to be pronounced out of the Pulpit Bayly pag. 121.122 I yet know not So that if there were any sense at all to be collected out of this word Monarchical I should rather attribute it to the Pulpit than to the Pue which I am sure was never guilty of any Monarchy 3. And since we are entred into a comparison of the Pue and Pulpit I shall adde one consideration more which I professe to you I do very unwillingly it having been known to you and others that I have been as industrious in the Pulpit as any other in the Pue The Pue and Pulpit are in themselves inanimate things wood and stone no prerogative can accrue to either from them if there be any priority it must be from the actions that were performed from thence In the Pue we had the Liturgy of the Church celebrated in the other the Word of God explained and pressed on the conscience for practce by the tongues of men if then I would contend for any priviledge of either I should give it to the Pue because in that was celebrated cultus ipse which is the prayers in the other is held forth no more but doctrina cultus a doctrine which teacheth us to worship God in the one there is exercised only actus imperatus a command is only laid upon us do this but in the other there is actus elicitus for we choose to practice what we have been taught which how far it is more acceptable than bare preaching and teaching and hearing read our Saviours words Mat. 7.22 23. As for Sermons I hope men do not undertake to prove that they are as eminent a part of Gods worship as prayer If they do I must lesse blame the poor ignorant people that think when they have heard a Sermon or two that they have served God for that day or that week nor the generality of those seduced ones who place so great piety in hearing and think so much the more comfortably of themselves for the number of hours spent in that exercise which of late hath been made the main Church-businesse and yet is no more than may be done by a Heathen or profane person I shall think him to serve God best that devoutly prayes most and comes oftnest and falls down and kneels and worships before the Lord his Maker It cannot be thought equal that prayer and preaching should be so unwarily placed in competition as that prayer should lose by the comparison There may be alwayes need of preaching but then most of all when the Auditory is unchristian This reason prevailed very much in the Primitive times when it was but in vain and unprofitable to go about to convert the world no otherwise than by our prayers Yet even in those Primitive times which had most cause to call for preaching we shall finde that this duty was of rarer exercise and lesse solemnity than that of prayer as it may abundantly be discovered by the Liturgies of both Churches yet extant Maimonid More Neboch cap. 32. Antioch Hom. 106. Maimenides that profound Doctor of the Jews instituting a comparison betwixt their sacrifices and the more substantial services required instead of all other nameth prayer and Invocation these saith he are nearer to Gods first intention these necessary at all times and for every man With him agrees the Christian Antiochus who affirms of prayer that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a more sublime condition than any other vertue And how our Lord stood affected to this we may acknowledge by that where he calleth the Church his
part pag. 149. A Preamble AN ingenuous confession of our just provocation of Gods anger and a justification of his proceeding against us but that Papists and Sectaries alledge non causam pro causâ and the Authour hopes that upon our repentance and amendment God may return and have mercy on us 150. ad 153. Sect. 1. Of the vile and virulent head the Pope ibid. Sect. 2. Of the British King called in the Admonitory the violent head of this National Church 155 156. That this National Church was not next in naughtiness to the Romane ibid. That the British King was no violent head since in his Dominions he was the supreme Governour And every Superiour is in Church-matters Supreme by occasion of which the supremacy of all Superiours is vindicated 156. ad 161. The Reasons of the Admonitour to prove the British King a violent head proved to be very weak 161. ad 168. Sect. 3. Of the Provincial Church and its haughty horrible head as the Admonitour is pleased to call him the Arch-Bishop 170. Of the Cathedral Church and its head the Lordly Diocesan blamed by the Admonitour to be an idle and addle head 172. The vial of Gods wrath poured on the Cathedral justly but not quatenus Cathedral ibid. Of his Epithites idle and addle ibid. The title lordly Diocesan examined 173. The Prophesie of Isaiah 13.19 ill applyed 74. Of the Parochial Church and its head the oâ—de and eldest evil head as he is called in the Admonitory 175. ad 178. The Combinational Church a tradition of men ibid. What is to be thought of traditions 180. ad 182. Sect. 7. Of divers other things jeer'd at in the Admonitory as 183. 1. Communion book praying 185. 2. Homily book preaching 186. 3. Canon book swearing 187. 4. Covering or uncovering the head in time of divine service 187. 5. Of outward calling to be Over-seers in a cleansed Combinational Church 189. 6. Of reading the Scripture in Churches 190. 191 192. 7. Of Romish Rites imputed to us 194. 8. Of humane constitutions imputed to us such as are ibid. 1. Matrimonial Banes 195. 2. Marriage Rings ibid. 3. The signe of the Crosse 196. 4. White Surplice ibid. 5. Quiristers singing answered before part 2. 142. 6. Funeral Sermons 197. 7. Idol-sureties of God-fathers and God-mothers 198. The question discussed whether Baptisme may be applyed to the infants of profane Christian parents 202. ad 205. As also whether such whom our strait-laced men are pleased to call ignorant and scandalous livers may be admitted to the Lords Supper 205. ad 212. Of the Pue called in the Admonitory Monarchical and the Ministerial Pulpit 212. ad 215. A strange priviledge attributed to the Combinational Elders viz. That the Elders must stand and sit together in the face and full view of the whole Assembly 217. An answer to the recapitulation of the whole Letter 224. In the constitution of a Church how far all parties are agreed in what they disagree both in matter and form and integral parts 224. ad 225. That the texts alledged being well examined prove not the Covenant required by a Combinational Church 227. ad 236. A fault on all hands for misalledging the text We make no promise of eternal life to profane persons The conclusion wholly Apologetical 238 c. Place these Tables before fol. 1. Callis learned Readings on the Stat. 21. Hen. 8. Chapter 5. of Sewers The Rights of the People concerning Impositions stated in a learned Argument by a late eminent Judge of this Nation An exact Abridgment of the Records in the Tower of London from the Raign of K. Edward the second to K. Richard the third of all the Parliaments holden in each Kings Raign and the several Acts in every Parliament by Sir Rob. Cotton Kt. and Baronet PLAYES Philaster The Hollander The Merchant of Venice The strange discovery Maids Tragedy King and no King Othellâ— the Moor of Venice The grateful servant The Wedding FINIS