of Preachers But one place is alleadged out of the Epistle for 16. Sundry after Trinity which hath no ground in the Word of God in as much as it implies that the Father must be Father of himself Answ. That it does not necessarily follow For in that he is said to be the Father of all that is called Father in heaven and earth among this all he is to be excepted who is this Father As when it is said All things are put under him it is manifest that he is excepted that hath put all things under him 1 Cor. 15. Further Observations 1. In the Kalender THe first Exception besides what hath beene answered before is that 188. Chapters of the Old Testament are left out and of the Apocrypha which contains 173. there are read 121. Chapters by the Kalender of 5. 6. of Edward 6. as well as by that of later date The answer hereunto is set down in the Order how the rest of the holy Scripture besides the Psalter is appointed to be read which begins thus The Old Testament is appointed for the first Lesson at Morning and Evening prayer and shall be read through every year once except certain Books and Chapters which be least edifying and might be spared and therefore are left unread 2. That of St. Hierome Caveat omnia Apocrypha relates to matters of Faith not of manners besides that the ordering of the Apocryphall Chapters to be read is intended chiefly for the benefit of the Clergy as appears by the Preface who having not alwayes a competent number to joyn with them at Church are enjoyned neverthelesse to read them at home Besides this generall Exception there 's one or two more against particular Apocryphall places as 1. Against that Tobit 3. of Asmodeus his killing of seven Husbands of Sarah the daughter of Raguel before they had layen with her Answ. I have heard of as unlikely a matter as that but however it 's not impossible 2. It 's excepted against Tob. 3. 8. where it 's said that Almes-deeds deliver from death and purge away all sin Answ. That they do so and that one way is in that they declare at the last day the Saints to be justified in the sight of God Mat. 25. Nay they confesse themselves Title 1. of Doctrine that a charitable construction may be Wyre-drawn out of the words And is not there as much wyre-drawing to be used in making a good construction upon these words Make ye friends of the unrighteous Mammon that when ye faile they may receive you into everlasting habitations another way of expounding the words is in the Homily it selfe namely that God for the doing of Almes-deeds does repute us as clean and pure not that they have any such strength or merit in themselves To the other Exceptions against Raphael vers. 15. and elsewhere and also against Judith I answer that though it were granted that the story were untrue yet the ill quality or carriage of the persons in it are not fit Mediums to discredit the truth of it for then many books of the holy Scripture must be false 2. Of the Rubricks 1. EXception is that the Minister is called Priest I answer That the word Priest is the best and properest word that can be used even in the sense of the Authors of this Exception themselves in as much as it is nothing else but an abbreviation of the French word Prestre which is Presbyter in all words that are French and that end in E feminine as Prestre does the English cannot pronounce the E feminine but by a kinde of stifling of it which in time degenerateth into an E quiescent which at last gives occasion to the leaving of it quite out of the Orthography of the word as unnecessary As in Alarme Baptisme Catechisme Prestre with a number of other words which are now written Alarm Baptism Catechism Prest and to lengthen the word to the French manner of pronunciation the letter I is put in as a Metheg to bridle the over-hasty prolation of the same And as for the word Minister it is taken either generally so it comprehends the Apostles and Bishops themselves for they and we are all Ministers of the Gospel or else specifically wch is the thing here intended and so 't is Diaconus a Deacon and contradistinguished from a Presbyter So that upon the whole the Authors would have us say Deacon instead of Priest Now as for the Scotish Liturgy if it hath hit upon a more unknown name then Priest is we do well to retein this which is better known 2. Except is a meer mistake For the Rubrick prefixed to the Epistles and Gospels runs thus The Collects Epistles Gospels to be used at the celebration of the Lords Supper and holy Communion throughout the year Whence they falsely infer that they were never intended to be read but when there is the celebration of the Lords Supper Whereas the Rubrick at the end of the Communion sayes that when there is no Communion shall be said all that is appointed at the Communion untill the end of the Homily concluding with the prayer for the whole estate of Christs Church militant here on earth with some other Collect But that the Communion is not celebrated throughout the whole yeare is occasioned for want of a competent number of Communicants 3. Exception is That the Rubrick before the generall Confession at the Communion runs thus Then shall this general Confession be made in the name of all those that are to receive the holy Communion either by one of them or else by one of the Ministers What is this say they but to admit a private person to assist and bear a share in the administring of the Lords Supper against the 17. Article of Religion I answ. That the confession to be made by one of them or by one of the Ministers presupposeth the Priests speaking first the which confession made by one of them is as much as if it were made by the Clerk who does not alwayes communicate and consequently in that case is to absent himself Or were it made without the Priests leading them yet it concludes not a liberty to Lay-men to administer the Sacrament in as much as to confesse and to consecrate are two distinct things 4th Exception is That before the proper Prefaces at the Communion it is said that upon Christmas and seven dayes after upon Easter day and seven dayes after c. the same shall be read As if every one of the seven were the same with the first and what was done the first day were done every day following I answer That the first of those dayes is the Originall the rest are all Copies thereof the Feast continuing the rest are the same in Ecclesiasticall account though the first be the principall 5th Exception is That every Parishioner shall communicate three times in a year of which Easter shall be one yet the Minister is required every Assembly day to
REASONS SHEWING That there is no need of such a Reformation of the publique 1. Doctrine 2. Worship 3. Rites Ceremonies 4. Church-government 5. Discipline As is pretended by Reasons offered to the serious consideration of this present PARLIAMENT by divers Ministers of sundry Counties in ENGLAND By H. S. D. D. Chaplain to his Majestie in Ordinary PHIL. 4. 5. Let your moderation be known unto all men The LORD is at hand LONDON Printed for Humphrey Robinson at the three Pigeons in St. Pauls Church-yard 1660. C. L. ARca Palaestinis latuit velut exul in oris Davidis ad reditum Quam rediisse juvat Hac bene consultâ sub quovis arma movere Relligio obtentu Relligionis erit Hinc etenim infandae caedes facta Tyranni Effera Praeconum scandala magna fluunt Undique Doctrinam hanc tonuerunt Rostra rebellem Clavum Schismatici dum tenuere Ratis Remigat hà c Bradshaw referens sua tincta cruore Brachia Divorum vix Februanda Proin Alter ut infaelix pariter censendus uterque Quòd sua maturo tempore fata tulit Ergo paeniteat facti Quicunque superstes Jam sis ac Hujus criminis actor eras Sic Parcas venerere tuas monuere quòd etsi Damnatum Gyaris Te monuere tamen IN THEIR EPISTLE TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE THE LORDS and COMMONS Assembled in PARLIAMENT THEY say that its farre from their thoughts to oppose or disparage Orthodox Doctrine a well composed Liturgy Rites for Decency and Order Ordination of Ministers Apostolical Episcopacy or due rules of Discipline All this I like well and that they are for all these I like much better especially being accompanied with truth without violation of liberty allowed by Christ But this mistaken Liberty hath served as an Engine to pull downe Doctrine Liturgy Rites Orders Episcopacy Discipline and all Nothing being set up in the room thereof unlesse an Empusa that must have but one leg to stand upon to wâ—t mens owne imaginations and single apprehensions of things The thing mainly toucht in the said Epistle is Episcopacy whereof they make representation not of the pretended illegality onely but of the ill effects too as namely how the Bishops in all ages since the Conquest have sharply persecuted all that threw off Popery where Kings have not curbed the violence of them An argument of that nature as strong for Episcopacy as could have been produced if we consider what good those men would have done in the Church had they lived under the Reformation by reflexion had upon St. Paul himselfe who having been before his Conversion a grievous Persecutor became after it a zealous Promoter of the Gospel And indeed 't is to bâ— confessed that the confusions that have ensued upon that Episcopall rigour have rendred the objects thereof but to the great scandall of themselves and the Gospel guilty of Rebellion against Kings a thing often practiced but never professed by any but the Disciples of Junius Brutus And of this spirit were the furious Zealots in the time of Edw. 6. mentioned in the Epistle which they pretend to have been fomented and not moderated but countenanced by that pious King who was so far from it that he not onely caused one book of Common-Prayer to be composed and enjoyned instead of the severall formes secundum usum Sarum c. in practice before whence men took occasion to use what formes they pleased but also prohibited by Proclamation all preaching whatsoever till he and his Parliament had taken order for the settlement of Religion and setting of bounds to all but especially to the Anabaptistical Spirits out of which Divine Circle they were not to pass in their praedications And what I have spoken in defence of former Popish Bishops the same may be said of those in Queen Maries dayes Lastly it 's pretended that the noble King James was perswaded by the Bishops by whom he was continually plyed to leave the Liturgy unreformed to compell all to subscribe to the same and to enforce the observation of Canons that were illegall whereby some were suspended others under Canonical admonition the next door to deprivation and all this clean contrary to that influence which the Conference at Hampton-Court would have had upon him But whosoever looks upon the Proclamation prefixed to the Book of Common Prayer shall finde it de facto to be nothing so and whosoever considers the deep Learning and profound judgement of that Renowned Prince will never believe it to be so He being able to cope with any Prince or Prelate in the world in matters of that nature And here one thing is not to be omitted before I put a period to my observations upon the Epistle That they alleadge the Liturgy to have remained uureformed in greatest part or most materiall points notwithstanding much complained of in the Conference at Hampton Court Whence I observe that somethings even at their owne instance were added or amended in the Liturgy and with those additions or emendations was it warranted by the Proclamation of King JAMES If so why do they of all men except against it as a thing not established by LAW I intend not to contend with the punctilles of LAW wherein the more a man flutters the worse he may be entangled Onely thus much I say that Conscience will not absolve any man who hath subscribed to the observation of the same and of the other things in Question so long as they are either necessary or adiaphora which we are in our ensuing work to defend REASONS SHEWING That there is no necessity of such a Reformation of the Publique I. DOCTRINE COncerning this the main thing insisted upon is the Articles with the Kings Declaration praefixed to them wherein it is commanded not to affix any other sense to the Articles besides the literal this say they tyes us up from all liberty of interpreting any Article whereof they give us several instances and that all this was done by the procurement of the then Bishops But surely if this be any matter of Record the K. had some body else to pen it and if it be reasonable the Bishops need not be ashamed of being the Authors of it But so reasonable it is that there 's nothing in it that may enforce those consequences that they would infer upon it inasmuch as the affixing of no other sense besides the literall does not I hope take away the liberty of explaining the Articles or shewing what is and what is not their literall sense The next exception is at the Homilies wherein it is falsely said say they that plurality of Wives was permitted to the Fathers because they every one hoped and begged that Christ might come of their stock and kindred as if say they all did not know out of what Tribe Christ was to issue the Homily is mistaken though the Page be right Whereunto I answer that plurality of Wives began before that prophecy that Christ should come of the
Tribe of Judah and therefore before this time all did not know so much nor could every man fish so much afterwards out of so mysterious a prophecy The third is That the Homilies call the Apocrypha the teaching of the Holy Ghost Answ. 1. That the book of Homilies speaks according to the common Language of those times which so spake of them because they were reckoned in the Canon not of Faith but of Manners 2. They themselves confesse the things there quoted to be true in a charitable construction omnis veritas à spiritu sancto est The 4th Exception is That the Articles contain no discovery of Popish doctrines being the first tenets of Arminius c. Answ. That the Doctrine of Arminius is not the Doctrine of Popery the Articles condemn both and therefore are no breasts at which Popery and Arminianisme may be suckt in as is pretended The 5th Exception is That all things necessary to salvation are not comprised in the Articles Whereunto I answer that the same Exception may lye against the confessions of any Reformed Church but these that are suffice to shew their Harmony with those of other Churches and what is wanting in the Articles is made out in the rest of the Catechisme Hereunto may be added their exception of not enumerating the Books of the New Testament as well as those of the old Answ. That the Canonicall books of the Old Testament are enumerated to distinguish them from the Apocryphal but in the N. T. there being no Apocryphals there needed no enumeration And if Popery may be grounded upon the Articles as is pretended they need not fear any tacite rejection of St. James his Epistle or calling of it stamineam Epistolam as Luther does nor yet of the 2d of Peter in as much as the compilers of the Articles are adversaries to those that are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 2 Ep. 2. 10. nor of the Revelation neither in as much as the seven Angels of the 7. Churches are taken to be a cleer proof of Episcopacy The 6th Exception is That the Articles are not proved by places of Scripture Answ. They are known to be sufficiently proved by others and therefore they might have done so too bnt had they done it cavils would not have been wanting against the proofs themselves where none could be found against the things II. For WORSHIP THe maine exception is That it doth not appear by any enrollment or otherwise that this is the book of Common Prayer Answ. That if this be not the book I pray produce another If you do it will be one which in your own judgement will be lesse Orthodox But it seems by what follows that you are displeased with any alterations though for the better Your designe appears to be not a reducing so much as a new moulding of the whole a thing which I must confess I like not of lest we should seem thereby rather to set up a new Religion then reform the old between Reformation and Innovation there 's a great deal of odds Of Alterations c. in the present Book of Common-prayer from that established in 5. 6. Edw. 6. 1 Eliz. 1. Exception is against Saints dayes put into the Kalender which though in Black letters there yet in Dr. Cosens Kalender and the Scotish Liturgie some of them are in red Answ. For our Kalender or the Scotish what ever characters the dayes are put in they are not enacted to be kept holy And as for Dr. Cosens his Kalender that 's intended for private offices not for publique devotion What ever he hath done concerning the name of Jesus I cannot think that so great an assertor of the Protestant Religion as he hath proved himself to be should intend Popery or Superstition The thing it selfe infers it not there being no name JESVS in writing tendered to be adored which was the onely thing that Calvin complains the Sorbonick Sophisters to have been guilty of 2. Exception is That upon certain Holidayes some Chapters of Apocryphal Scripture are appointed to be read the Canonical being left out there Answ. Whether it was done to please those that hold the dayes to be Apocryphal I cannot tell If so they need not be displeased at it However those Canonicall Lessons are not left out of the Rubrick for daily reading 3d Exception is That the book established 5. 6. Ed. 6. nameth onely the Surplice to be worn but the book of Canons enjoyneth other ornaments Answ. That nothing but the Surplice could be universally enjoyned inasmuch as all Priests were capable of that but want of degrees made many incapable of others 4th Exception is against even usefull prayers put into the Liturgy which happily might be done upon the Conference at Hampton-Court though the inquiry to me is needless as long as I see the Kings Proclamation to it 5th Exception is That in the prayer for the Queen c. the word Elect is left out perhaps because it distasted the favourers of the Popish Arminianisme Answ. That neither the Arminians nor Papists are against the word Elect and that in a more comprehensive sense then ours 'T is not they therefore that would exclude the Royall stem out of the number of Gods Elect but such as fought for the setting up of Christs Kingdome and of his Elect against such Reprobates as they esteemed the KING and all his family to be 6. Exception is against the continuance of the Old Translation of the Psalms which is not so correct as the new Answ. That it proves the antiquity of the Translation no wilfull corruption of the same neither doth it contain any thing contrary to the analogy of Faith 7. Exception is That notwithstanding the corruption of Translations the Preface of the book runs thus That nothing is enjoyned to be read but that which is the pure word of God or that which is evidently grounded thereupon which is false and a meer cheat put upon the people of God Answ. That the Preface of the Book runs that nothing be enjoyned to be read but that which is the pure Word of God or that which is evidently grounded thereupon in opposition to uncertain stories legends and such like vain and superstitious things neither in Canone fidei nor morum which have no ground in the word of God yet had been before that time commonly read And albeit some things now to be read are not evidently to all grounded upon the word of God it follows not that the people of God are cheated thereby for then St. Paul had cheated the Thessalonians Acts 17. 11. To whom before search made his Doctrine did not appear to be the Word of God Nay then most Sermons are cheats in as much as there be very few wherein every thing delivered is clearly made out to be grounded upon the Word of God The same may be said of prayers before and after them wherein horrible absurdities and heterodoxies have fallen from the mouths
interruption reading forward again like the interposition of a Selah or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} things wherof we have examples in the Psalms but no where else 4th Exception is against Te Deum and Benedicite because they are both Apocrypha and taken out of the Masse-book from whence they would argue the unfitness of Bishops to govern who not able to express their thanksgiving to God for extraordinary mercies do it in this superstitions formall dress usually sung in Popish Churches I answ. That the best service that any man performs besides the saying of the Lords Prayer and the reading of the holy Scripture is Apocryphall nor is there a better piece of service in the Church of God except before excepted then that piece of Apocrypha viz. Te Deum is Then which had the Masse-book no worse it would need no Reformation And many of those that have gone about to make expressions of thanksgiving for Gods extraordinary mercies in termes and methods of their own have performed it so ill that they had better have contented themselves with a bare Te Deum If they say It 's but a generall and ordinary forme of praising not applicable to the occasion I answer That at such times we in like manner use to sing Psalmes in meter which quatenus such are Apocryphal and generall formes or at most not in all things applicable to the present occasion As for the Benedicite they except not so much against the matter of as the title given to it in the Bible not here as also against some alterations made in it none whereof are against the Analogy of Faith I therefore passe it over for it answers it self 5th Exception is That the many Antiphonies and Responds except the peoples saying Amen have no pattern nor warrant in the Word Answ. That they have a pattern 1 Sam. 18. 7. where it is said that the women answered c. that is sayes Junius Hunc amaebaeum versum alternis canebant they sang interchangeably Saul hath slain his thousand and David hs ten thonsand as it is also Exod. 15. 2. Besides divers patterns that there are in the Psalmes of such interchangeable singing 6th Exception is that from the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities is left out in the Letany inasmuch as he had never more instruments at work then now Answ. That the Act for Uniformity gives notice of an alteration in the Letany but whether herein or no is uncertain Mean time we may very well pray so since the Pope had never more instruments who thinking to do their own work have done his 8. Exception for I omit the seventh here as answered before is that it 's said in the Collect for Christmas that Christ was this day viz. Decemb. 25. borne c. which is evidently grounded on no place of Scripture Answ. On what place of Scripture is it evidently grounded that this day viz. August 19. is the Lords day have you any more then Ecclesiastical tradition for it as for saying the same seven dayes after this hath been spoken to before 9. Exception is against our saying at the Communion Therefore with Angels and Archangels c. the Scripture never speaking of more Archangels then one which is mentioned 1 Thes. 4. 16. This one was Michael Jude 9. to wit Christ the Prince of his people Dan. 10. 21. Which most if not all expound of Christ For answer whereunto I say That that place of 1 Thess. 4. 16. does neither imply that there is but that one Archangel nor yet that that one Archangel is Christ For 1. It is said that the Lord shal descend from heaven {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the voice ef an Arch-angel not {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} In the voyce of the Arch-angell as if there were no more but that 2. If the Lord shall descend in the voice of an Arch-angel and this Arch-angel were Christ then Christ who is meant by Lord there must descend in his own voice and he must be Gods Trumpeter to give summons to his own Tribunal which cannnt be imagined Indeed Jude 9. there is mention made of Michael {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the Arch-angel disputing with the Devill but how by that Christ should be understood is not at all clear as I suppose they themselves will confesse if they consider the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the Text he durst not Sure if it had been Christ St. Jude would have said he would not not he durst not for what durst not Christ say or do Dares not he rebuke his creatures though Devils who hath rebuked so many unclean spirits in his time who trembled at his presence in humane flesh the meaning is then that Michael that good Arch-angel and he of a great sphere too would not rail at the Devill though he knew him to be a damned spirit because he was in great dignity amongst them yet those men spake evill of dignities they understood not And for that Dan. 10. they say most if not all expound it of Christ That if not all was well put in for they know I believe that many learned men understand it not of Christ Now as for the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy of Dyonisius the Areopagite though the book may be supposititious yet the thing it self Gregory the great testifies to be received for Dyonisius his own Hom. 34. in Evangelia 10. Exception is that in the second prayer at publique baptisme we pray that Iufants coming to baptisme may receive remission of sins by spirituall regèneration how can this say they be when remission of sins is received not by or from spirituall regeneration but by and from the blood of Christ I answer That the end of Baptisme is that thereby as an outward means we may receive remission of sins this baptisme whereby we are baptized into the remission of sins is likewise rightly called an outward and Elementary regeneration Now therefore we pray to God that Infants coming to baptisme may receive remission of sinnes not in an Elementary way and signo tenus onely but also truly and effectually by spirituall regeneration or spirituall baptisme these being the Conduit-pipes whereby and through which Christs blood is conveyed unto Infants 11. Exception is That children being not able to perform the things promised for them are said to perform them by their sureties and therefore they repent and believe say they by their Sureties which is a meer tale Answ. That here is no such thing implyed as repenting and believing one for another but a promise of a holding of the Infants baptized to that profession by instruction of and vigilance over them and that they shall perform all outward acts of Christianity when they come of age and this was a very great charge in the primitive times when either for fear or favour or profit Apostacy was so frequent 12. Exception is against the
Commination to be used divers times in the year taken out of Deut. 27. I answer That that place is a type of the day of Judgement that as all the People were to say Amen at their entrance into the earthly Canaan to the curses denounced against the wicked So all the Saints at their entrance into the heavenly Canaan are to say Amen that is to aprove of the condemnation of them for the Saints shall thus judge the earth To avoid which condemnation hereafter it imports us to condemn our selves here Now men are apt to justifie rather then to judge themselves and so escape the condemnation of the world For such therefore is this Commination necessary that hereby they may be brought to acknowledge their sins to repent of them and require Absolution from them That Discipline in stead whereof this Commination is used is noted in the beginning hereof If therefore they like not this they may do well to endeavour the restoring of that But they except further against the denunciation made by Ministers as unlawfull Whereunto I answer That the Ministers of the Gospel may and must sometimes presse the curses of the Law and the judgements of God denounced against sinners to the end that thereby they may be moved to flye to Christ as their onely Sanctuary and so escape the judgement to come And hereof we have an Example given in that very place For though they are pleased to say that Levi was none of them that were appointed to curse yet vers 14. we find the Levites to be the onely men that were appointed to curse 'T is true that at that particular time Levi was one of those that were set upon Mount Gerezim to blesse yet Levites and none else were charged with the ordinary denunciation of curses for the future as a service specially incumbent on them which is point blanck against the Authors and proves for us the quite contrary to what they endeavour to infer Of Rites and Ceremonies THey begin here with Ceremonies taken away 5 6 Edw. 6. complaining of the restoring them again partly by the Canons of 1603. partly by corrupt practice The thing they chiefly aym at as they professe is to shew the necessity of reforming those Rites and Ceremonies conteyned in the book of Common Prayer or enjoyned by the Canons of 1603. the consideration of the Canons for the present they defer The Book of Common Prayer they deny to be established by Law because no Record can be produced by which that Book now in use or priuted 1 Eliz. is by Act of Parliament ratified and confirmed Answ. That all I can say to this is that this is the book that hath been so long received and used and this is the book that is warranted by the Kings Proclamation printed before it And I doubt not but the Testimony of the King will in Law being for the affirmative too preponderate the testimonies of many other But since they undertake to shew the necessity of reforming the Book they must shew some reason in the things themselves therein conteyned which require it And this they endeavour to make good from the nature of them taking it for granted that they are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or things indifferent saying that those ought not to be imposed on such as cannot be perswaded in their owne minds that they are lawfull because to them it will be sin according to St. Pauls own Doctrine to his Corinthians Rom. 14. Answ. That if they be granted to be indifferent then they are made necessary by the intervention of humane authority As for those that cannot be fully perswaded in their own minds the Proclamation hath provided that they be born with for a time and no more is intended by St. Paul who never dreamt that that superstitious conceit of the uncleanness of some meats should remain to the end of the World Since the Conference at Hampton-Court there hath been time enough to cosinder of the indifferency of Ceremonies and the learned Authors of this Offer have had time enough to instruct and convince the weak amongst them in and of the indifferency which they grant to be in them Should Doctrine Liturgy Rites Ordination Episcopacy Discipline be laid aside till all men be agreed we must never expect any whilst the world stands 4. Of Church-government HEre they except against Episcopacy as not being Jure Divino because erected by the Kings of England Answ. That if Episcopacy be jure Divino in the Catholique Church it must be so in the Church of England which is a part of it The Kings of England are no Fathers of the Church so as to beget the Church but they are as well as other Kings the nursing Fathers to the Churches in their Dominions They allow them Nurseries to live in appennage to live upon and freedome of exercising their Government in which sense they are the Erectors of Episcopacy in England And if this erection be legall why need it a further confirmation by Law But they descend to the parts of Government and therein 1. Of the Consecration of Bishops and their power of Ordination thereupon 1. THey except against those that say that where there is no Dean and Chapter to choose and no Archbishop to Consecrate there can be legally and regularly no succession of Bishops Answ. The Archbishops Deans and Chapters c. being of Ecclesiasticall and Civill constitution it must follow of necessity that there can be no legall which respects the Civill power nor regular or Canonicall succession which regards the Ecclesiastical state and condition of them without Deans and Chapters and Archbishop 2. Exception is That Episcopacy hath been lately insisted upon not onely to be an office of Precedency and Presidency above other Presbyters and Ministers but also a distinct and specificall order by Divine right superiour to all other Presbyters to exercise such things as none else may meddle with Ans. That this hath been insisted upon and hath been made good by those that have been put upon it by the Presbyterians their adversaries herein decrying them as Popish and having no other bottom to stand upon besides Ecclesiastical constitution and civill Connivance till they enforced them to leave this hold and flye to one more impregnable that is to say the Scripture Impregnable I say for if our Saviour did appoint any Regimen Ecclesiae at all it may be undenyably proved out of the Scripture that it was to be seated in a single person The same Text or Texts that prove the one will make good the other a thing which hath been done within this nine or ten years at Oxford in the Vespers but was not then nor ever since hath been answered 3. Oh but say they Linwood himselfe our great English Canonist saith expresly that Episcopatus non est Ordo and our book of Ordination tacitely implyeth as much Answ. That this Tacitely is well put in yea but it doth more
that of every consultation conditionall the Ordinary may of himself take upon him the true understanding thereof and therein proceed accordingly The Kings answer was That the King cannot depart with his Right but to yeild to his Subjects according to Law Answ. All this might have been spared and it shall be granted upon their bare words without further enquiry it being great reason that nothing be done to the prejudice of the King or the Laws of the Land for which reason the French K. hath alwayes a Commissary in the Protestants Conventions as may appear by the Edicts themselves Onely thus much I must say by the way that in my cursory observation I find that for one Act made against there are 3. for the immunities of Bishops in the time of that renowned King That which is said concerning the Bishops making his Will though true is little to the question But besides this 3. Many things are alleaged to weaken the authority of Bishops but the last and heaviest thing of all is that by Act of Parl. all their power and jurisdiction is taken away 17 Car. 1. Answ. That by that Act of 17 Car. is intended the taking away of the High Commission only as I humbly conceive If as I have heard Lawyers say preambles to Acts are the best interpreters of the Acts themselves For the preamble to that Act witnesseth the abuses of the Authority given to the high Commissiners by that Act of 1 Eliz. to be the grouud of the Act it selfe of 17 Car. 1. Again if Episcopal Jurisdiction had been wholy taken away by the repealing of that clanse of 1 Eliz. they would never have added another clause after that to restrain the power of Bishops in case of penalties for this had been to fight with a shadow But though it were granted that the power of exercising Episcopal jurisdiction be taken away contrary to the intent of the Legislative power yet all the world cannot take away Episcopacy it self it being an Ordinance of God as is here confessed The Reasons given by them why they should not sit in Parliament are but the killing of a dead man and so I let them passe III. Of DISCIPLINE FIrst they shew how this Discipline is bounded 2. They will have no Canon Laws to be in force And why Because say they the old Canons were enacted 25 H. 8. 19. to be in force till such time as they be viewed searched or otherwise ordered and determined by 32 persons or the more part of them But Dr. Heylin confesseth that they were viewed searched and drawn into a body but never had the Kings Royal assent unto them therefore the said old Canons c. say they are abrogated Answ. By what authentick Record doth it or can it appear that those 32 persons did view search order or determine any thing therein Since well might they be written or printed in a book but the Kings Royal assent being never had they were never authentickly recorded consequently they have neither force in themselves nor do they abrogate or null any other Canons or Constitutions not contrariant to the Laws of the Land Inventa meliore Lege prior est abroganda and not before 2. Now passing by the Canons and Injunctions of Qu. Eliz. we come to those made in Convocation 1603. published by authority of King James under the great Seal and these onely can be pretended to be of any force say they Answ. That this is more then I can see if the other had the Queens Royal assent and were never expresly call'd in after especially if â—hey be not repugnant to after Canons c. But say they Even those Canons of 1603. are not binding in as much as they were never confirmed by Act of Parl. although the Kings Royal assent was to them For say they it seems to be contrary to the Petition of Right that they should Answ. That I cannot dive into the intrigues of Disputes touching these Canons the legality whereof hath been the business of Learned men who have so well justified it in the opinion of all impartial auditors of the long Parliam where the argument was made that they deserve an everlasting name for it 3 In the close of all they say that albeit it be pleaded by some that Liturgies and among them the substance of ours are ancienter then the Popish mass books by many hundred of years And for that they produce Fathers and the Liturgies of St. James Peter and others although by many learned men censured as suppositious Yet none of these Authors do mention any publique forme the same for substance with ours although they speak of publick prayers made in the Congregation which none ever denyed Publique prayer is one thing a publique form another I answ. That it follows not that those forms are supposititious because some of the matters therein contained are so A child is not therefore supposititious because it has the Rickets and is either swelled in one part or pined away in others beyond its just and naturall proportion But what do they think of the Liturgy of St. Chrysostome translated out of the Syriack by Masius and used generally throughout all the Greek Church as my Lord Primate of Armagh hath noted Is that no forme or is it onely a supposititious form Or what do they think of other Liturgies as well as this which have the Lords Prayer and giving of thanks in them together with snch improvements as are Explications of the Lords Prayer and the parts thereof are not these formes yea and the same in substance with ours but that these were the first Liturgies that ever were is testified by Cassander out of Dionysius in Liturgicis Who sayes that Eucharistea solâ Oratione Dominicâ cum gratiarum actione primis temporibus celebrabatur But now they speak out For whereas in the begiuning they said that they were not against nay they were for Liturgies c. Yet now they say that though the Ancients speak of publique prayers which none say they ever denyed yet they never spake of publique formes which is as much as to say that we have no antiquity to justifie publique formes and therefore it were better be without them But first they confesse that these Ancients mention publique prayers and that these publique prayers were publique forms is already proved Indeed there was a time when some used publique prayers in no publique formes but that they used such alone can never be proved and what inconveniences ensued upon it is too evident by the 12th Canon of the Milevitan Council made against them wherein it is provided that no Prayers be used but such as were approved by the wiser sort in the Synod least any thing should be vented against the Faith either through ignorance or want of meditation FINIS The faults being few may be amended in reading