Protestant say Amen to it Arguments for Concessions and Alterations in the Common-Prayer and in the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England in order to the desired Vnion in Worship CErtainly that man is no friend to Church and State who is an enemy to their Peace and Union in matters of Religion For as the Eminent Mr. Le Moyn of Holland saith in his Letter to his Lordship the present Bishop of London at the end of Vnreasonableness of Separation In England the good of Church and State depends absolutely upon Vnion of the People in point of Religion and one cannot there press an Vnion too much For there is never like to be an effectual Reformation of Peoples unreformed Lives without an Union when Conforming and Nonconforming Ministers may joyn together encourage and assist each other in that blessed work And as to an Union Mr. Baxter in his Life and Death of Sir Matthew Hale saith 2 p. 19 20. that the said Judge told him the only means to heal us was a new Act of Uniformity Therefore I shall apply my self to the Governours of the Church that are Lawfully called and have Authority to appoint and alter matters of this nature respecting the Service and Worship of God. I shall in all Humility recommend to the Governours Consideration some Arguments for Concessions and Alterations in the Common Prayer and then in the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England And to show that I am not alone and that it is not a project of my own which hath no countenance or encouragement from others I shall mention greater Names in favour of the same Argument and urge their concurrence and that shall be my first Plea. First Plea For some Concessions and Alterations in this Worship because there are some things which in the judgment of several eminent Conformists may be altered without any detriment or dishonour to the Church Divers Reverend Bishops and Doctors in a Paper in Print before the unhappy Wars in King Charles I. Reign yielded to the laying aside of the Cross and the making many material Alterations as the Archbishop of Armagh the Bishop of Lincoln Dr. Prideaux Dr. Ward Dr. Brownrigg Dr. Featly met together by Order of the Lords at the Bishop of Lincolns in Westminster besides some Innovations in Discipline given in hinted their desire of the Alteration of many things in the Book of Common-Prayer as the Reading of the Psalms according to the New Translations Lessons of Canonical Scripture instead of the Apocrypha leaving out the Hymn of Benedicite and the saying Gloria Patri after every Psalm changing with my Body I thee Worship into these I give thee Power over my Body I Absolve thee in the Visitation of the Sick into these I pronounce thee Absolved c. Grand Debate p. 31. Again the Bishop of Armagh p. 130 131. from Dr. Barnard to this effect That for the healing of those distractions and divisions among Ministers and others and the moderating of each extream in relation to the use of the Liturgy whereby there might be a return of that wished for Peace and Unity which of late years we have been strangers to he conceived some prudent and moderate accommodation might be thought of by wife men in order to the continuance of the substantial part each side yielding somewhat after the example of St. Paul Rom. 14. Idem Directions about the Liturgy After his Vindication of the Liturgy yet it cannot be denied but that there are naevi in pulchro corpore and as it were to be wished that these were altered so it were to be done without much noise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon the Ordinance against the Common Prayer Sect. 4. Our publick Liturgy or Forms of constant Prayers must be abolished and not amended in what upon free and publick advice might seem to sober men inconvenient for matter or manner to which I should easily consent Idem To the Prince of Wales In this Church I charge you to persevere as coming nearest to Gods Word with some little amendment c. King Charles the Seconds Declaration from Breda 1660. Since we find some exceptions made against several things in the Liturgy we will appoint an equal number of Divines of both perswasions to review the same and to make such alterations as shall be thought most necessary and some additional Forms and it shall be left to the Minister to chuse one or other In the mean time we desire that Ministers would read those parts against which there lie no exceptions yet in compassion to those that scruple it our will and pleasure is that none be punished or troubled for not using it until it be effectually Reformed as aforesaid The Bishop of Corks Protestant Peacemaker p. 29. What most of the Dissenters would be at no Liturgy no Episcopacy may not be cannot be without Schism we are ready to sacrifice all we can otherwise to the publick peace and safety Idem p. 33. But notwithstanding what I have said of the excellency both of the Common-Prayers and of Cathedral Performances I do not conceive the alteration of an Expression or here and there of a whole Prayer or two by Law or dispensing with some Ceremonies I do not conceive such relaxation as this would break the Harmony and Beauty of our Worship or disturb the Union and Peace of our Church There are some Collects and perhaps Rubricks too which with all duty and submission I humbly conceive might be altered for the better Page 118 119. Mr. Hales in his Tract of Schism p. 215. Propounds it as remedy to prevent Schism to have all Liturgies and publick Forms of Service so framed as that they admit not of particular and private fancies but contain only such things in which all Christians do agree Prayer Confession Thanksgiving Reading of Scriptures in the most plain and simple manner were matter enough to furnish out a sufficient Liturgy though nothing either of private Opinion or of Church Pomp of Garments or prescribed Gestures of Imagery or Musick of matter concerning the Dead of many superfluities which creep into the Church under the names of Order and Decency did interpose it self The great Dean of St. Pauls in the Vnreasonableness of Separation Pref. About the Book of common-Common-Prayer it ought to be considered whether for satisfaction of the scrupulous some more doubtful and obscure passages may not yet be explained or amended Whether the new Translation of the Psalms were not fitter to be used especially in Parochial Churches Whether portions of Canonical Scripture were not better put instead of Apocrypha Lessons Whether the Rubrick about the Salvation of Infants might not be restored to its former place in the Office of Confirmation and so the present exceptions against it be removed Whether those Expressions which suppose the strict exercise of Discipline in Burying the Dead were not better left at Liberty in our present case Such a review made by Wise and Peaceable Men
not given to wrath and disputing may be so far from being a dishonour to this Church that it may add to the glory of it And whether using the Liturgy and Approbation and Promise of the use of it may not be sufficient instead of the late Form of declaring their Assent and Consent which hath been so much scrupled by our Brethren True state of the Primitive Church p. 23. Now in Christ I humbly beseech the Governours of the Church calmly to consider were it not better to have such a Form of Service as would satisfie most The Fathers of our Church when they Reformed this Nation from Popery were desirous to fetch off as many as they could retaining for this cause all the Ceremonies and Forms of Prayer they could with a good rectified Conference Some other things I could mention in the Book of common-Common-Prayer though not ill in themselves yet fit to be altered and would obviously appear to every wise man once resolved to compose such a Form as to take in most of this Nation which I humbly conceive Governours should in Conscience endeavour becoming all things to all men to gain some though not all yet happily gain all in process of time Principles and Practises of Moderate Divines c. They would be very glad if some things that most offend were taken out of the way particularly that there might be no expressions in our Forms of Prayer that contain disputable and uncertain Doctrine p. 335. Vid. Mr. Wakes Sermon on Rom. 15.5 6 7. p. 23. And that no such weight be laid on lesser things as that they should be insisted on to the endangering those of an higher nature and hazarding the Churches Prosperity and Peace Serious and Compassionate Enquiry into the causes c. That it will be no Hypocritical tergiversation no wrong either to our Religion or our Consciences if when the case so requires it we change any phrase of Speech how fit soever in our apprehension for one less fit but more acceptable and currant or any Rite or Ceremony that we have great kindness for for one that is more grateful unto others and that according to the saying of the Lord Bacon we learn of the elder times what is lawful and of the present what is fittest Mr. De L' Angels Letter to his Lordship the present B. of London I am sure that if there were nothing wanting to cure your Divisions but the abstaining from some Expressions the quitting some Ceremonies and the changing of the colour of some Habits you would resolve to do that and something more difficult than that with great pleasure Conformists Plea for the Nonconformists Part 3. Pref. It is clear there must be a Liturgy and very many even to Dr. Sherlock mention some Alterations in the several parts of it as desirable and advisable Without any positive arrogance in a matter of this nature I do offer my observation Some that expect much profit by Preaching do thing first and second Service too long and tiresome Others that care less for Preaching are very busie in the Interlocutory parts of the Service grow careless and too often prate and stare about and whisper in the Lessons and sleep under our Sermons both are too long for them also All that I will suggest in the last case is First That the second Service or Communion-Service may be then only read when there is a Communion or when there is no Sermon upon Holy-days Secondly That only one of the three Creeds be used at one time in the same Service Thirdly That the so often Repetitions of the Lords Prayer in the same Service may be limited All cannot most do not keep Curats The work of Reading the ordinary first and second Service besides incidental Offices as Baptism Churchings c. make it very expensive to most mens Strength and Spirits and wearisome to the People and the constantinecessary work of Preaching and Catechising is hardly endured by the young and healthful but impossible to be performed by the infirm and aged And therefore in King Edward VI. day some Ministers were dispensed with in not Reading the whole as Grand Debate mentions p. 5. It is true indeed if a mans Conscience will bear it a Minister may be both short and seldom in the Pulpit but the it is with two great hazards First Of losing his Auditory or of his Auditories great loss to their Souls This humble Proposal for omitting the second Service hath a fair Countenance from the Rubricks Rubrick the last immediately before the Lords Prayer hath a supposition that the Communion is Celebrated every Lords day c. I mean to conclude with an excellent Citation from Bishop Taylor Duct Dubit p. 375. In Rituals and Ceremonies and little circumstances of Ecclesiastical Offices and Forms of Worship in the punctualities of Rubricks in the order of Collects in the number of Prayers and fulness of the Office upon a reasonable cause or inducement to the omission or alteration these things are so little and fit to be entrusted to the conduct of those sober obedient and grave persons who are thought fit to be entrusted with the Cure of Souls And things of such little concernment are so apt to yield to any wise mans reasons and sudden occasions and accidents and little and great Causes that these were the fittest instances of this Rule i. e. of Latitude if Superiours would not make too much of little things All just Governments give the largest interpretation to Churches Orders in these things to persons of a peaceable Mind and obedient Spirit that such circumstances may not pass into a solemn Religion and the Zeal of good Men their Caution and Curiosity may not be spent in that which doth not profit In many cases a Latitude according to Equity may be presumed but if it be expresly denied it may not be used Which is the case of our Conformists as to those things wherein a Latitude might be taken according to the Law of Equity when they carry some considerable inconvenience along with them and reason for the contrary yet we being strictly bound up by the Church it must bring a guilt upon the persons disturb their peace of Conscience and prove vexatious and troublesome to them that way if they often offend in these matters And this I presume to be the case of those who in their common practice do not come up to the strictness of their bounden and promised Conformity though in some cases when extra casum scandali contemptus they may do otherwise than the express Letter of the Law requires and be guiltless as our Casuists affirm I beg the favour with all Humility and with Submission to the Will and Wisdom of our Governours to offer to their Consideration whether it were not desirable to have a Prayer for particular Graces in the Evening Service the Petitioning part being less perfect then and at such times when the Letany is not used We have such a
De L' Angle and Mr. Claud worthy Persons made some Essay towards an Union in their Letters to his Lordship the Bishop of London This would add a greater Authority unto what should be so established And the more Protestant Churches that assisted therein the better and more forcible bond of Union But it will be objected or hath been nothing will satisfie The Dissenters will never come in I Answer At King Charles the Seconds Return though they did desire many Alterations in the Worship as to Words and Sentences Ceremonies c. Yet they drew up the principal matters in a short Letter to the most Reverend Arch-Bishop and Bishops c. mention'd p. 30 31 32. of the Grand Debate 2. It may justly be supposed that among those Objections and Exceptions against several things therein when his Majesties Commission gave them that liberty to make such Reasonable and necessary Alterations Corrections and Amendments as should be agreed upon at that Conference to be needful and expedient there were some things which were judged by them to be inconvenient other things to be unlawful If they had been put to it to declare what they held to be sinful and unlawful to be submitted to I doubt not but they would have cut off many things as only inconvenient and not necessarily or unavoidably evil and so have been satisfied as to the matter of Conformity with less Another Answer Judge Hales with the Lord Keeper Bridgeman and Bishop Wilkins drew up a Model of Abatements and Condescentions for a Comprehension of the more moderate Dissenters and a limited Indulgence towards such as could not be brought within the Comprehension and when after several Conferences with two of the Eminentest Presbyterian Divines heads were agreed on and some abatements to be made and some explanations were to be accepted of they put them into the form of a Bill to be Presented to the next Session of Parliament In the Life of Sir Matthew Hale by Dr. Burnet Bishop of Salisbury p. 41 42. He gives us the Reasons that prevailed at that time against it p. 70 71 72 73. The Councils and Reasons against it being more acceptable to some concealed Papists then in power as has since appeared too evidently the whole project for Comprehension was let fall and those who had set it a foot came to be looked on with an evil eye as secret favourers of Dissenters underminers of the Church and every thing else that jealousie and distaste could cast on them A fourth Answer shall be given you out of the Conformists Plea for the Nonconformists Part 4. p. 26 27. In Answer to that Objection should we yield to any one of these we are far from gaining the rest 1. Gain any of them and we shall be the more and stronger by that addition 2. Except the Presbyterians the most of the other Dissenters agree in their Modes of Government So that what you grant to one Party is granted to more 3. Is it Reason and Charity that those who would unite shall not because all will not upon some abatements 4. Gain some and they will help to draw in others 5. The more are United the fewer remain to be Tolerated by which Toleration I mean no more but a forbearing one another in Love with the use of Gospel means to convince and gain them if possible and by the Civil Sword to restrain and suppress them when it shall be necessary and dangerous to the State and not before Thus that Excellent Person has given a most solid Answer with a most Christian Spirit I shall add what I had from one of his Majesties Chaplains by way of Answer to the same Objection If there be but room or way made for them the fault will be their own if they will not come in If the Mother will receive her Children and entertertain them as her own in love they must bear the blame if they will not return home I might add that they will shew themselves unworthy of that favour given them in the Act of Toleration if they grow more obstinate and averse and utter enemies to an accommodation and may provoke Authority to take it away Another Objection Why should there be any Concessions or Alterations when the present terms of Conformity are Lawful I Answer They may be unlawful to them for to him that esteemeth any thing to be unlawful to him it is unlawful according to that Rom. 14.14 but not ex natura rerum per se and so they may be Lawful to us and our Consciences or may be Lawful to one and not another in point of Practice and Conformity so that yielding to their Consciences and their Scruples may consist with the uprightness and integrity of our own and a Conformity upon just grounds of conviction and satisfaction A second Answer The yielding to the Dissenters may be such as not utterly to take away any thing but to leave some things at liberty as the Ceremonies especially the Sign of the Cross And as the great Dean of St. Pauls motioned whether those expressions which suppose the strict exercise of Discipline in Burying the Dead were not better left at liberty in our present case there being a confessed want and neglect of Discipline And whether requiring only an use of the Liturgy and approbation of that use and subscription to it leaving the subscription according to the Canon and the Assent and Consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed according as persons Consciences are satisfied or unsatisfied therein It is certain that the Uniformity in Worship and the end of that Act for Vniformity is answered by an use of the Prayers as by Law Established No doubt but many would Conform upon such a Liberty granted who cannot satisfie their Consciences in the present terms of Conformity But the leaving things thus at Liberty were no Argument that they are Unlawful Further Such yielding as this would make no such Alteration but that our present Common-Prayer Books would serve which they might do if several Repetitions were left out as of the Lords Prayer which we used so often at first and continued since because received at first that the people might learn it in their English Tongue even those many that could not read and used before to say it in Latin Pater noster c. Other Repetitions as of the Gloria Patri after every Psalm yielded to be left out by those who met at the Bishop of Lincolns House in King Charles I. time and the one of the Creeds using the Nicene Creed upon some certain days only Which were the better way of lessening the length of the Prayers by taking away some Repetitions which our Dissenting Brethren do not pretend to be unlawful but only to be inconvenient as some Conformists acknowledge also Third Answer Further The Preface to the Common-Prayer acknowledged that the particular Forms of Worship and the Ceremonies appointed to be used being things in their own nature
which seems to them though through great weakness and a more unreasonable prejudice when the Rubrick is so expresly against the Idolatry and Adoration of the Sacramental Bread a symbolizing with Idolaters which things have bred no small perplexity of mind and outward trouble to some Godly Persons said Mr. Sprint in his days Cass Anglic. I shall conclude this with Dr. Preston on the Lords Prayer p. 89. Thy Kingdom come We intreat the Lord that he would curse and cross all Antichristian Plots and Practices and we are to Pray against all lets and stumbling blocks that would hinder the proceedings of the Gospel that he would abandon all things that do offend even all Remnants and Reliques of Superstition and such Ceremonies as do but ensnare the Consciences of men and draw a great many into Persecution and Trouble A Second Mischief to the Church hath been great in respect of Conformists blind submission to this Ceremony One not long before I entred into the Ministry and who lived in the same Parish where Providence placed me afterwards when Dying lay under great troubles of his Conscience for his Conformity being bred up a Nonconformist I have read in Mr. Sprints Cassander Anglicanus of one or two more not mentioned by name as Conforming against their Consciences without sufficient satisfaction have lamented it at last as also of others who have dyed very peaceably and comfortably satisfied in their Conformity Some Conformists have certainly run into a wrong defence of this Ceremony as Dedicating the Child unto the Service of him who dyed upon the Cross which is done in Baptism And others have thought it above the peoples capacity However they may understand somewhat of what was said before and that Signing with the Cross is none of their act and deed Not they but the Minister that is to wear the Surplice and to Baptize and Sign with the Cross The Minister is concerned to look to that the Lawfulness of these And Mr. Baxter as also Mr. Croftons Reformation no Separation p. 24. Mr. Nyes Case of great use p. 10. Mr. Balls Tryal of the grounds of Separation p. 308. And the Author of a Discourse of Scandal in his Christian Directory among his Cases of Conscience hath resolved it that Parents dissenting from it may suffer their children to be Signed with the Cross after Baptism declaring to the Minister in private or their Neighbours that it was Baptism only that they desired and that they disowned the Sign of the Cross which they held to be unlawful So that Parents are neither bound to the personal practice of it nor to the profession of its Lawfulness And this appears to have been the Judgment and concurrent Practice of the Nonconformists of former times who constantly joyned in the Prayers and other Acts of Worship although they scrupled some Particular Ceremonies All that we desire is to have the Liberty of our Consciences allowed us in that which is not theirs but ours to practise And if there be offence given it is not from us said Dr. Saunderson in his Treatise of Scandal or at least not so much in the present case of the Church there being a necessity laid upon us as to the use of it if our Consciences be satisfied therein So that whatever we would do if it were left to our Liberty to use or forbear it since we are not allowed to exercise our Ministry otherwise than upon Conformity to it it is Prudentially good and Spiritually necessary for us to Conform to it even in the Judgment of the Reformed Churches abroad Geneva as Beza Colladonus Goulartius Franciscus Port Henricus Stephanus declared in a Letter sent to the Brethren in England that were unsatisfied in their Conformity to this Ceremony and desired to know their Judgment And so have the late Ministers in France as Mr. Daille Mr. Claud Mr. De L' Angle tells us in his Letter My Opinion in this matter is the same that is held by our Churches Mr. Calvin seemed to look upon it as tolerable and to be born with Zancy and others though they did not fully approve of the Imposition III. Mischief In respect of the censoriousness of some Separatists inveighing against these Ceremonies as Limbs of Antichrist reliques of Popery Additions Superstitious will Worship c. as before in the Objections against them condemning as my Lord Hales in his Discourse of Religion calls them these blameless Ceremonies as confidently as if they were infallibly assured of their unlawfulness reviling and censuring the Men that use them as if he could not be a good Man that submitteth to the Ceremonies but must needs conform to them against his Conscience out of Complyance with the Government and for his Preferment sake It is hard for Ministers who submit to these things according to their Consciences though it be with great Charity and Moderation to those that differ from them to be termed Time-servers Formalists Luke-warm Men wanting the Power of Godliness as some conceited Persons who have more Heat than Light more Zeal than Knowledge do not stick to affirm Sure this becometh not Christian Charity in 1 Cor. 13.4 Charity vaunteth not it self is not puffed up with a conceit of its own Judgment as if it were infallible and they must needs be in the right Again Charity thinketh no Evil and doth not behave it self unseemly But surely if we judge of their thinking by their evil speaking and unseemly deportment towards their Governours and others there must be an abundance of censoriousness in the Heart For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh In 2 Pet. 2.12 You there read of those that speak evil of things they understand not applicable to these Men. Mr. Baxter saith thus in his Book of Church-Government Of all our Ceremonies there is none that I have suspected more to be simply unlawful than the Cross yet dare not I peremptorily say that it is unlawful nor will I condemn either Ancients or Moderns that use it nor will I make any disturbance in the Church about it any farther than my own forbearance of it And those Grave Men at the Grand Debate it being doubtful whether God hath given Men power to institute such Mystical Teaching Signs as being not necessary in general fall not under the particular Rules c. They are by some held sinful and unlawful in themselves by some not as of another Judgment it seems by others very inconvenient and unsuitable to the simplicity of the Gospel-Worship c. p. 9. Of the Grand Debate But the new Generation of Dissenters are grown wiser than the Grave Aged and Judicious that speak more modestly leaving the lawfulness of it as doubtful and sub Judice and seem to wonder at those before them that they should see no farther not to the utter unlawfulness of these Ceremonies and some of the Prayers too which they say they see as clear as the Light to be Popish and Antichristian and against Scripture I profess that the Objections are so many and the ill Circumstances that attend its use at present that after all I dare not be positive and peremptory that it is lawful nor will I be over-confident charitably allowing my Brethren their Liberty to dissent and desiring the like Charity from them as to my own Conformity upon prevailing probable Arguments leaving it to God who only is Infallible to decide the Case at the day of Judgment Where I trust his Mercy will pardon me if I have erred as having sought for the Spirit to guide me into Truth and as having also the Ancient Church and the Modern Reformed Forreign Divines approbation of Conformity thereunto It is from the strict and severe Imposition the blind submission of others not being able to give any tolerable account of it to their People nor Answer Objections against it And from the censoriousness and ill Names that have been given this Ceremony of the Cross that they have brought such an Odium upon it and wrought such an ill Opinion in our Conforming People against it Further they hate Popery and Papists use this so much and abuse it to Idolatry and Superstition that they hate and disgust the use of it upon that account I know our Governours never intended to make us Odious in the Eyes of the People but I am sure there could scarce be a more effectual way and means to do it than by enjoyning these things so strictly the which People are so much set against that they disaffect those that use them and the Governours that impose them even against the gust of the Congregation If there had not been a little of the old grudge in some at the Grand Debate sure they had been yielded up then and not have remained unto this day troubling the peace of the Church I shall conclude with the common Assertion of the Reformed Churches That all Churches should labour as much as possible may be after Apostolical simplicity and fewness of Ceremonies which they judge the safest the purest and the best as Peter Martyr Bucer Calvin Beza Zanchy and indeed almost all good Men affirm FINIS