Book or to read or learn it or to beware that he add or diminish not whereas the holy Scriptures that were then given to the Church men are exhorted to read and study and mediate in and discourse of and make it their continual delight and it s a wonder that David that mentions it so oft in Psal. 119. doth never mention the Lyturgy or Common Prayer Book if they had any And that Solomon when he dedicated the house of Prayer without a Prayer Book would onely beg of God to hear what Prayers or what Supplication soever shall be made of any man or of all the People of Israel when every one shall know his own sore and his own grief and shall spread forth his hands in that house 2 Chro. 6. 29. and that he giveth no hint of any Lyturgy or Form so much as in those common Calamities and talks of no other Book then the knowledge of their own sores and their own griefs And in the Case of Psalms or singing unto God where it is certain that they had a Lyturgy or Form as we have they are carefully collected preserved and delivered to us as a choice part of the holy Scripture And would it not have been so with the Prayers or would they have been altogether numentioned if they also had been there prescribed to and used by the Church as the Psalms were would Christ and his Apostles even where they were purposely giving Rules for Prayer and correcting its abuse as Mat. 6. 1 Cor. 14 c. have never-mentioned any Forms but the Lords Prayer if they had appointed such or desired such to be imposed and observed These things are incredible to us when we most impartially consider them for our own parts as we think it uncharitable to forbid the use of Spectacles to them that have weak eyes or of Crutches to them that have weak Limbs and as uncharitable to undo all that will not use them whether they need them or not so we can think no better of them that will suffer none to use such Forms that need them or that will suffer none to pray but in the words of other mens prescribing though they are at least as able as the prescribers And to conclude we humbly crave that ancient customs may not be used against themselves and us and that you will not innovate under the shelter of the name of Antiquity Let those things be freely used among us that were so used in the purest Primitive times Let Unity and Peace be laid on nothing on which they laid them not let diversity of Lyturgy and Ceremonies be allowed where they allowed it May we but have Love and Peace on the Terms as the Ancient Church enjoyed them we shall then hope we may yet escape the hands of uncharitable destroying zeal we therefore humbly recommend to your observation the Concurrent testimony of the best Histories of the Church concerning the diversity of Lyturgy Ceremonies and modal observances in the several Churches under one and the same civil Government and how they then took it to be their duty to forbear each other in these matters and how they made them not the test of their Communion or Center of their peace concerning the Observation of Easter it self when other Holy-days and Ceremonies were urged were less stood upon you have the judgement of Irenaeus and the French Bishops in whose name he wrote in Eusob. Hist. Eccl. l. 5. 6. 23. Where they reprehend Victor for breaking peace with the Churches that differed about the day and the antecedent time of Fasting and tell him that the variety began before their times when yet they nevertheless retained Peace and yet retain it and the discord in their Fasting declared or commended the concord of their Faith that no man was rejected from Communion by Victors Predecessors on that account but they gave them the Sacrament and maintained Peace with them and particularly Policarp and Anicetus held Communion in the Eucharist notwithstanding this difference Basil Epist. 63. doth plead his cause with the Presbyters and whole Clergy of Neocesarea that were offended at his new Psalmodiâ— and his new order of Monasticks but he onely defendeth himself and urgeth none of them to imitate him but telleth him also of the novelty of their own Lyturgy that it was not known in the time of their own late renowned Bishop Greg. Thaumaturgus telling them that they had kept nothing unchanged to that day of all that he was used to so great alteâ—ations in 40. years were made in the same Congregation and he professeth to pardon all such things so be it the principal things be kept safe Socr. Hist. Ec. l. 51. c. 21. about the Easter difference saith that neither the Apostles nor the Gospel do impose a yoke of bondage on those that betake themselves to the Doctrine of Christ but left the Feast of Easter and other Festivals to the observation of the free and equal Judgement of them that had received the benefits And therefore because men use to keep some Festivals for the relaxing themselves from labours several Persons in several places do celebrate of custom the memorial of Christs Passion Arbitrarily or at their own choice For neither our Saviour nor the Apostles commanded the keeping of them by any Law nor threaten any mulct or penalty c. It was the purpose of the Apostles not to make Laws for the keeping of Festivals but to be Authors to us of the reason of right living and of Piety And having shewed that it came up by private custom and not by Law and having cited Irenaeus as before he addeth that those that agree in the same Faith do differ in point of Rites and Ceremonies and instancing in divers he concludeth that because no man can shew in the monuments of writings any command concerning this it is plain that the Apostles herein permitted free Power to every ones mind and will that every man might do that which was good without being induced by fear or by necessity And having spoken of the diversity of customs about the Assemblies Marriage Baptism c. He tells us that even among the Novatians themselves there is a diversity in their manner of their praying and that among all the Forms of Religions and parties you can no where find two that consent among themselves in the manner of their praying And repeating the decree of the Holy Ghost Act. 15. To impose no other burden but things necessary he reprehendeth them that neglecting this will take fornication as a thing indifferent but strive about Festivals as it were a matter of life overturning Gods Laws and making Laws to themselves And Sozomen Hist. Eccl. l. c. 18. and 19. speaketh to the same purpose and tells us that the Novatians themselves determined in a Synod at Sangar in Bythinia that the differenoe about Easter being not a sufficient cause for breach of Communion all should abide in the same concord and in the same
An Accompt of all the PROCEEDINGS Of the COMMISSIONERS of both PERSVVASIONS Appointed by his Sacred MAJESTY ACCORDING To Letters Patents for the Review of The BOOK of COMMON-PRAYER c. London Printed in the year 1661. Majesties feet beseeching you to prosper such a blessed Resolution till it attain success We must needs beleeve that when your Majesty took our Consent to a Lyturgy to be a foundation that would infer our Concord you meant not that we should have no Concord but by consenting to this Lyturgy without any considerable Alterations And when you comforted us with your Resolutions to draw us together by yeelding on both sides in what we could you meant not that we should be the boat to lay the banks that should not stir and when your Majesty commanded us by Letters Patents to meet about such Alterations as are needful or expedient for giving satisfaction to tender Consciences and the restoring and continuing of Peace and Unity we rest assured that it was not your sense that those tender consciences were to be forced to practice all which they judged unlawful and not so much as a Ceremony abated them or that our Treaty was only to convert either party to the Opinion of another and that all our hopes of Concord and Liberty consisted only in disputing the Bishops into Non-conformity or coming in every Ceremony to their minds Finally for your Majesty under God is the protection whereto your people flye and as the same necessity still remains which drew forth your Gracious Declaration we most Humbly and Earnestly beseech your Majesty that the benefit of the said Declaration may be continued to your people and in particular that none be punished or troubled for not using the Common-Prayer till it be effectually reformed and the Addition made as there exprest We crave your Majesties Pardon for the tediousness of this Address and shall wait in hope that so great a Calamity of your people as will follow the loss of so many able faithful Ministers as the rigorous Imposition would cast out shall never be recorded in the History of your Reign but that these impediments of Concord being forborn your Kingdom may flourish in Piety and Peace that this may be the signal honour of your happyâ—Reign and your joy in the day of your account which is the Prayer of Your Majesties Faithful and Obedient Subjects A Copy of his Majesties Commission CHARLES the second by the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To our Trusty and well beloved the most Reverend Father in God Accepted Arch-Bishop of York The right reverend Fathers in God Gilbert Bishop of London John Bishop of Durham John Bishop of Rochester Humphrey Bishop of Sarum George Bishop of Worcester Robert Bishop of Lincolne Benjamin Bishop of Peterborough Brian Bishop of Chester Richard Bishop of Carlile John Bishop of Exeter Edward Bishop of Norwich and to our Trusty and well beloved The Reverend Anthony Tuckney D D. John Conant D. D. William Spurstow D. D. John Walis D. D. Tho Manton D. D. Edmund Calamy D. D. Richard Baxter Clerk Arthur Jackson Tho. Case Samuel Clarke Mathew Newcomen Clerkes and to our trusty and well beloved Dr. Earles Dean of Westminster Peter Heylin D. D. John Hacket D. D. John Berwick D. D. Peter Gunning D. D. John Pearson D. D. Tho. Pierce D. D. Anthony Sparrow Herbert Thorndike D. D. Thomas Horton D. D. Thomas Jacomb D. D. William Bate John Rawlinson Clerks William Cooper Clerk D. John Lightfoot D. John Collings D. Benjamin Woodbridg and William Drake Clerk Greeting Whereas by our Declaration of the 25 of October last concerning Ecclesiastical affairs we did amongst other things express our esteem of the Liturgy of the Church of England contained in the Book of Common-prayer and yet since we find exceptions made against several things therein we did by our said Declaration declare we would appoint an equal number of Learned Divines of both perswasions to review the same we therefore in accomplishment of our said will and intent and of our continued and constant care and study for the peace and unity of the Churches within our Dominions and for the removal of all exceptions difference and the occasions of such differences and exceptions from among our good subjects for or concerning the said Book of Common-prayer or any thing therein contained do by these our letters patents require authorize constitute and appoint you the said c. to advise upon and review the said Book of Common-prayer comparing the same with the most ancient Liturgies which have been used in the Church in the primitive and purest times And to that end to assemble and meet together from time to time and at such time within the space of four Kalendar-months now next ensuing in the Masters lodging in the Savoy in the Strand in the County of Middlesex or in such other place or places as to you shall be thought fit and convenient to take into your serious and grave consideration the several directions and rules forms of prayer and things in the said Book of common-Common-prayer contained and to advise consult upon and about the same and the several objections and exceptions which shall now be raised against the same and if occasion be to make such reasonable and necessary alterations corrections and amendments therein as by and between you the said Arch-Bishop Bishops Doctors and Persons hereby required and authorized to meet and advise as aforesaid shall be agreed upon to be needful and expedient for the giving satisfaction to tender consciences and the restoring and continuance of peace and unity in the Churches under our protection and Government but avoyding asmuch as may be all unnecessary abbreviations of the forms Liturgy wherewith the people are altogether acquainted and have so long received in the Church of England And our will and pleasure is that when you the said Arch-Bishop Bishops Doctors and Persons authorized and appointed by these our letters patents to meet advise and consult upon and about the premises as aforesaid shall have drawn your consultations to any resolution and determination which you shall agree upon as needful or expedient to be done for the altering diminishing or enlarging the said Book of Common-prayer or any part thereof That then forthwith you certifie and present to us in writing under your several hands the matters and things whereupon you shall so determine for our approbation and to the end the same or so much thereof as shall be approved by us may be established and forasmuch as the said Arch-Bishop and Bishops have several great charges to attend which we would not dispense with or that the same should be neglected upon any great occasion whatsoever and some of them being of great Age and infirmities may not be able constantly to attend the execution of the service and authority hereby given and required by us in the meeting and consultation
of our dear Brother here departed We therefore commit his body to the ground in sure and certain hope of resurrection to eternal life These words cannot in truth be said of persons living and dying in open and notorious sins The first Prayer We give thee hearty thanks for that it hath pleased â—â—ee to deliver this our Brother out of the miseries of this 〈◊〉 world c. That we with this our Brother and all other departed in the true Faith of the holy Name may have our perfect Confirmation and Eliss These words may harden the wicked and are inconsistent with the largest rational charity The last Prayer That when we depart this life we may rest in him as our hope is this our Brother deth These words cannot be used with respect to those persons who have not by their actual repentance given any ground for the hope of their blessed estate Of the thanksgiving of women after Child-birth commonly called Churching of Women The woman shall come unto the Church and there shall kneel down in some convenient place nigh unto the place where the Table stands and the Priest standing by her shalt say c. In regard that the womans knâ—eling near the Table is in many Churches inconvenient we desire that these words may be left out that the Minister may perform that service either in the Deâ—k or Pulpit Rubrick Then the Priest shall say this Psalm 121. O Lord save this woman thy servant Ans. which puttteth her trust in thee Exception This Psalm seems not to be so pertinent as some other viz as Psal. 113. and Psal. 128. It may fall out that a woman may come to give thanks for a child born in Adultery or Fornication and therefore we desire that something may be required of her by way of profession of her humiliation as well as of her Thanksgiving Last Rubr. The woman that comes to give Thanks must offer the accustomed offerings This may seem too like a Jewish purification rather then a Christian Thanksgiving The same Rubrick And if there be a Communion it is convenient that she receive the holy Communion We desire this may be interpreted of the duly qualified for a scandalous sinner may come to make this Thanksgiving Thus have we in all humble pursuance of his Majesties most gracious endeavours for the publike weal of this Church drawn up our Thoughts and Desires in this weighty Affair which we humbly offer to His Majesties Commissioners for their serious grave Consideration wherein we have not the least thought of depraving or reproaching the Book of Common-Prayer but a sincere desire to contribute our endeavours towards the healing the distempers and as soon as may be reconciling the minds of Brethren And inasmuch as his Majesty hath in his gracious Declaration and Commission mentioned new forms to be made and suted to the several parts of Worship We have made a considerable Progress therein and shâ—ll by Gods assistance offer them to the Reverend Commissioners with all convenient speed And if the Lord shall graciously please to give a blessing to these our endeavours We doubt not but the peace of the Church will be thereby setled the hearts of Ministers and people comforted and composed and the great Mercy of Unity and Stability to the immortal Honor of our most dear Soveraign bestowed upon us and our posterity after us To the most Reverend Archbishop Bishops And the Reverend their ASSISTANTS Commissioned by his Majesty to treat about the Alteration of the Book of COMMON-PRAYER Most Reverend Fathers and Reverend Brethren WHen we received your Papers and were told that they contained not onely an Answer to our Exceptions against the present Liturgie but also several Concessions wherein you seem willing to joyn with us in the Alteration and Reformation of it Our Expectations were so far raised as that we promised our selves to find your Concessions so considerable as would have greatly conduced to the â—ealing of our much-to-be-lamented Divisions the setling of the Nation in Peace and the satisfaction of tender Consciences according to his Majesties most gracious Declaration and his Royal Commission in pursuance thereof But having taken a survey of them we finde our selves exceedingly disappointed and that they will fall far short of attaining those happy Ends for which this Meeting was first designed as may appear both by the paâ—city of the Concessions and the inconsiderableness of them they being for the most part Verbal and Literal rather then Real and Substantial for in them you allow not the laying aside of the reading of the Apocrypha for Lessons though it shut out some hundreds of Chapters of Holy Scripture and sometimes the Scripture it self is made to give way to the Apocryphal Chapters You plead against the addition of the Doxologie unto the Lords Prayer You give no liberty to omit the too frequent repetition of Gloria Patri nor of the Lords Prayer in the same publick Service nor do you yeild that the Psalms be read in the new Translation nor the word Priest to be changed for Minister or Presbyter though both have been yeilded unto in the Scotish Liturgie You grant not the omission of the Responsals no not in the Letany it self though the Petitions be so framed as the People make the Prayer and not the Minister nor to read the Communion-Service in the Desk when there is no Communion but in the late Form instead thereof it is enjoyned to be done at the Table though there be no Rubrick in the common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book requiring it You plead for the Holiness of Lent contrary to the Statute You indulge not the omission of any one Ceremony You will force men to kneel at the Sacrament and yet not put in that excellent Rubrick in the v. and vi of Edw. 6. which would much conduce to the satisfaction of many that scruple it And whereas divers Reverend Bishops and Doctors in a Paper in print before these unhappy Wars began yeilded to the laying aside of the Cross and the making many material alterations you after twenty years sad calamities and Divisions seem unwilling to grant what they of their own accord then offered You seem not to grant that the clause of the fourth Commandment in the Common-Prayer-Book The Lord blessed the seventh day should be altered according to the Hebr. Exod. 20. The Lord blessed the Sabbath day You will not change the word Sunday into the Lords Day nor adde any thing to make a difference between Holy-days that are of Humane Institution and the Lords Day that is questionless of Apostolical practice You will not alter Deadly Sin in the Letany into Heynous Sin though it hints to us that some sins are in their own nature Venial nor that Answer in the Catech. of Two Sacraments onely generally necessary to salvation although it intimates that there are other New Testaments Sacraments though Two onely necessary to Salvation You speak of singing Davids Psalms allowed by Authority by
such as we are any way bound by When you say the Church may vary in such indifferent things 1. If kneeling or standing at Prayer be an indifferent thing then so are they at this Sacrament 2. Then you follow the Changers and we the old Pattern 3. Then the Canons of general Councils and Customs pretended to be from Apostolical Tradition may be changed 4. What is it that you call the Church that changeth or may change these A Council or a popular Custom Bring us not under a forraign Power 5. The thing then being so indifferent and changeable you may change it if you please for ends that are not indifferent 6. And if now the Ministers may Pray standing why may not the People receive standing 7. When you say that to sit was never the use of the best times you deny the Apostles and primitive times to be the best as to the extent of the Church they were not the best but as to the purity of administrations they were Sect. 16. That there were ancient Lyturgies in the Church is evident St. Chrysostom's St. Basil's and others And the Greeks tell us of St. James much elder than they and though we find not in all Ages whole Lyturgies yet it is certain that there were such in the eldest times by those parts which are extant as Sursum Corda c. Gloria Patri Benedicite Hymnus Cherubinus c. Vere dignum justum c. Dominus vobiscum cum Spiritu tuo with divers others Though â—hose that are extant may be interpolated yet such things as are found in them all consentient to Catholick primitive Doctrine may well be presumed to have been from the first especially since we find no Original of these Lyturgies from General Councils Repl. We know there wanteth not a Lyndanus a Coccius to tell the world of St. Peters Lyturgy which yet prayeth that by the Intercession of Peter and Paul we may be defended c. and mentioneth Lynus Cletus Clemens Cornelius Cyprian Lucia Barbara and abundance such shall we therefore conclude that there were Lyturgies from the first and that what is here consentient to Antiquity waâ— in it There wants not a Marg. de la Bigne a Greg. de Valent. a Coccius to commend to us the Lyturgy of Mark that prayeâ—h protege Civitatem istam propter Martyrem tuum Evangelistam Marcum c. and tells us that the King where the Author lived was an Orthodox Christian and prayeth for the Pope Subdeacons Lectors Cantors Monks c. must we therefore believe that all that 's Orthodox in it is ancient So there wants not a Bigne Bellarm. c. to tell us of St. James his Lyturgy that mentions the Confessors the Deiparam the Ancherets c. which made Bellarm. himself say de Lyturgia Jacobi sic sentio eam non esse ejus aut multa a posterioribus eidem addita sunt and must we prove the Antiquity of Lyturgies by this or try ours by it There wants not a Sainctsius a Berllarm a Valentia a Paresius to predicate the Lyturgy of St. Basil as bearing witness to Transubstantiation for the Sacrifice of the Mass for Praying to Saints c. when yet the exceeding disagreement of Copies the difference of some Formes from Basil's ordinary Forms the Prayers for the most Pious and faithful Emperours shew it unlikely to have been Basils Many predicate Chrysostom's Mass or Lyturgy as making for praying to the dead and for them the propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass c. when in one Edition Crysost is prayed to in it saith Cook in another Nicolaus and Alexius that lived about 1080. is mentioned in another Doctrines are contained as de Contaminata Maria c. clean contrary to Chrysostom's Doctrine must we now conclude that all is Ancient that is Orthodox when one Copy is scarce like another or can we try our Lyturgy by such as this The shreds cited by you prove a Lyturgy indeed such as we have used while the Common Prayer Book was not used where the Psalms the words of Baptism of Consecration Commemoration and delivery of the Lord's Supper and many other were used in a constant Form when other parts were used as the Minister found most meet so Sursum Corda was but a warning before or in the midst of Devotion such as our Let us Pray and will no more prove that the substance of Prayer was not left to the Ministers present or prepared Conception than Ite Missa est will prove it The Gloria Patri Bellarm. himself saith according to the common opinion was formed in the Conncil of Nice which was in the 4th Century And even then such a particular testimony against the Arrians might well stand with a body of unimposed Prayers and rather shews that in other things they were left at liberty If the Benedicite the Hymns or other passages here mentioned will prove such a Lyturgy as pleaseth you we pray you bear with our way of Worship which hath more of Hymns and other Forms than theâ—e come to That these Lyturgies had no Original from General Councils adds nothing with us to their Authority but sheweth that they had an arbitary Original and all set together shews that then they had many Lyturgies in one Princes Dominion and those alterable and not forced and that they took not one Liturgy to be any necessary means to the Churches Uniâ—â— or Peace but bore with those that used various at discretion We well remember that Tertul. tels the Heathens that Christians shewed by their conceived Hymns that they were sober at their Religious Feasts it being their Custom ut quisque de Scripturis sanctis vel de proprio ingenio potest provocetur in medium Deo canere Apol. cap. 39. Note here 1. That though there be more need of Forms for Singing than for Praying yet even in this the Christians in publick had then a liberty of doing it de proprio ingenio by their own wit or parts 2. That those that did not de proprio ingenio did it de Scripturis sanctis and that there is no mention of any other Lyturgy from which they fetcht so much as their Hymnes And the same Tertul. Apol. c. 30. describing the Christians publick Prayers saith sine monitore quia de pectore oramus we pray without a Monitor or promptor because we do it from the heart or from our own breast And before him Just. Mar. Ap. 2. p. 77. saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if all these words seem not plain enough to some it is no wonder when they rest not in the greater plainness of the holy Scriptures where Prayer is so frequently mentioned as much of the imployment of believers and so many directions encouragments and exhortations given about it and yet no Liturgy or stinted form except he Lords Prayer is prescribed to them or once made mention of no man directed here to use such no man exhorted to get him a Prayer
the Milâ—ennium or of Angels corporeity was generally received as an Opinion it will not warrant you to receive either of them as a certain necessary truth If you finde that the general Councils forbad Kneeling in any Adoration on the Lords days but without force against Dissenters you may not go deny the Sacrament to all that kneel nor yet forbid them to keel in praying So if you finde some little parcels of our Liturgie or some of our Ceremonies used as things indifferent left to choice forced upon none but one Church differing from another in such usages or observances this will not warrant you to use the same things as necessary to order unity or peace and to be forced upon all use them no otherwise then the Churches used them We heartily desire that according to this Proposal great care may be taken to suppress those private Conceptions of Prayers before and after Sermon lest private Opinions be made the matter of Prayer in Publick as hath and will be if private persons take liberty to make Publick Prayers The desire of your hearts is the grief of our hearts the Conceptions of Prayer by a publick person according to a publick rule for a publick use are not to be rejected as private Conceptions We had hoped you had designed no such innovation as this in the Church VVhen we have heard any say that it would come to this and that you designed the suppression of the free Prayers of Ministers in the Pulpit suited to the variety of the subjects and occasions we have rebuked them as uncharitable in passing so heavy a censure on you And what would have been said of us a year ago if we should have said that this was in your hearts Nothing will more alienate the hearts of many holy prudent persons from the Common-Prayer then to perceive that it is framed and used as an Instrument to shut out all other Prayers as the Ministers private Conceptions Such an end and designe will make it under the notion of a means another thing then else it would be and afford men such an Argument against it as we desire them not to have but we hope you speak not the publick sense As the Apostles desired as aforesaid that all would speak the same things without giving them that ever was proved a Form of words to speak them in so might we propose to you that uncertain opinions be made no part of our Liturgie without putting all their words into their mouthes in which their desires must be altered Your hearty desire and the reason of it makes not onely against extemporary Prayer but all prepared or written Forms or Liturgies that were indited onely by one man and have not the consent antecedently of others And do you think this was the course of the Primitive times Basil thus used his private Conceptions at Câ—sarea and Greg. Thaumaturgus before him at Neocesarea and all Pastors in Justin Martyrs and Tertullians days And how injurious is it to the Publick Officers of Christ the Bishops and Pastors of the Churches to be called private men who are publick persons in the Church if they be not Every single person is not a private person else Kings and Judges would be so And have you not better means to shut out private opinions then the forbidding Ministers praying in the Pulpit according to the variety of subjects and occasions You have first the Examination of persons to be ordained and may see that they be able to speak sense and fit to manage their proper works with judgement and discretion before you ordain them And some confidence may be put in a man in his proper calling and work to which he is admitted with so great care as we hope or desire you will admit them If you are necessitated to admit some few that are injudicious or unmeet we beseech you not onely to restore the many hundred worthy men laid by to a capacity but that you will not so dishonour the whole Church as to suppose all such and to use all as such but restrain those that deserve restraint and not all others for their sakes And next you have a Publick Rule the holy Scripture for these men to pray by And if any of them be intolerably guilty of weaknesses or rashness or other miscarriages the words being spoken in publick you have witnesses enow and sure there is power enough in Magistrates and Bishops to punish them and if they prove incorrigible to cast them out In all other Professions these means are thought sufficient to regulate the Professors His Majesty thinks it enough to regulate his Judges that he may chuse able men and fit to be trusted in their proper work and that they are respoâ—sible for all their male-administrations without prescribing them Forms beyond which they may not speak any thing in their Charge Physitians being first tryed and responsible for their doings are constantly trusted with the lives of high and low without tying them to give no counsel or medicine but by the prescript of a Book or determination of a Colledge And it is so undeniable that your reason makes more against Preaching and for onely reading Homilies as that we must like it the worse if not fear what will become of Preaching also For 1. It is known that in Preaching a man hath far greater opportunity and liberty to vent a false or private opinion then in Prayer 2. It is known de eventu that it is much more ordinary And if you say That he speaks not the words of the Church but his own nor unto God but man and therefore it is less matter We answer It is as considerable if not much more from whom he speaks then to whom he speaks as the Mâ—nister of Christ in his stead and name 2 Cor. 3. 19 20. And it is as a higher so a more reverend thing to speak in Gods Name to the people then in the peoples name to God and to speak that which we call Gods Word or Truth or Message then that which we call but our own desire we make a God a lyar or corrupt in his words if we speak a falshood in his Name we make but our selves lyars if we speak a falshood to him in our names the former therefore is the more heynous and dreadful abuse and more to be avoided or if but equally it shews the tendeâ—cy of your reason for we will not say of your designe as hoping you intend not to make us Ruffâ—ans We do therefore for the sake of the poor threatned Church beseech you that you will be pleased to repent of these desires and not to prosecute them considering that to avoid a lesser evil avoidable by safer means you will bring a far greater evil on the Churches and such as is like to strip these Nations of the glory in which they have excelled the rest of the world even a learned able holy Ministry and a people sincere and serious