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book_n	form_n	prayer_n	use_v	4,815	5	5.9954	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66898	The late proposal of union among Protestants, review'd and rectifi'd being a vindication of the most reverend father in God, Edwin, Lord Arch-Bishop of York, and the reverend Dr. Tillotson, Dean of Canterbury, from the misprisions of an apocryphal proposer : with a full answer to his proposal, presented to the Parliament.	Womock, Laurence, 1612-1685.	1679 (1679)	Wing W3345; ESTC R20318	24,189	16

by this Concession Besides what is little in its own nature may be great in its consequence The Pin of a Watch is a small matter if we look upon the bulk of it yet the loss of such a Pin disorderss the whole Movement or makes the Wheels to stand still and so you lose your aim and the time or the day by it The taking away of a little Turf is but a small matter in appearance but such as are well acquainted with the Po-Dyke Law will tell you it may occasion a breach in the whole bank and let in such an Inundation as may drown a fruitful Level for which reason such a wilful Breach is made Felony by Statute But grant the things to be so little as is ordinarily imagined Deios ubi supra p. 172. for that Learned Man said very right in the days of Queen Elizabeth The Controversies wherein we differ have small weight in the matters and less in the proofs But it seems these Dissenters have no great value for Authority when it was not vested themselves that such little matters can give them occasion to quarrel with it If the matters be smell the performance is the more easie and consequently the disobedience the more intolerable And this is acknowledged by no less Authority than an Act of Parliament for in the Preface to the Book of Common Prayer under the Title of Ceremonies it is declared that Although the keeping or omitting of a Ceremony in it self considered is but a small thing yet the wilful and contemptuous transgression and breaking of a Common Order and Discipline is no small offence before God We find therefore that Instances of contempt in the smallest matters have been punished with the greater rigour To pick up a few sticks one would think no great violation of the Sabbath yet 't was so high an affront to Government the Lawgiver would not dispense with it Num. 15 32. 'T is true such Affronts may be prevented if the Law be changed by the same Authority that made it but this course in preventing one would draw on another and a much greater mischief For as that Reverend Dean observes There is no greater disparagement to a man's understanding Dr Tilloison's Sermon on 1 Cor. 3.15 no greater argument of a light and ungenerous mind than rashly to charge ones Religion Eft enim proprium viri nobilie constantem esse in re laudabili honoréque digna nec sinere se ab honesto proposito vel secundis vel adversis rebus abduci saith the Learned Zanchy This chopping and changing leaves a legible brand of unsteddiness and levity and argues want of good advisement when the Law was first established and this is the readiest way to make the gravest Councils ridiculous and their Laws contemptible This that wise and learned Prince very well understood K. JAMES and therefore in his Proclamation for the Uniformity of Common Prayer he concludes thus And last of all we do admonish all men that hereafter they shall not expect nor attempt any further Alteration in the Common and Publick Form of God's Service from this which is now established This Proclamation was printed before the old Book of Common Prayer for that neither will we give way for any to presume that our own Judgment having determined in a matter of this weight shall be swayd to alteration by the frivolous suggestion of any light spirit Neither are we ignorant of the Inconveniences that do arise in Government by admitting Innovation in things once settled by mature deliberation and how necessary it is to use Constancy in the upholding of the publick Determinations of States for that such is the unquietness and unstedfastness of some Dispositions affecting every year new Forms of things as if they should be followed in their Unconstancy would make all Actions of State ridiculous and contemptible whereas the stedfast maintaining of things by good advice established is the Weal of all Commonwealths And now Sir I shall take leave to do right to that Reverend and Worthy Dean whose Words are alleaged by this Apocryphal Writer to his own ends but with a Construction far distant from the Dean's intended sence and meaning For 1. The Dean does avouch himself to be of our Governours side but these Dissenters are professedly against them 2. The Dean tells you It is not for private persons to undertake in matters of publick concernment but whatever they have done since I am sure the Dissenters in the time of Queen Elizabeth thought it lawful to attempt any thing which they were pleased to call a Reformation by Clamour Tumult and Violence and sometimes they did act accordingly without and against Authority In evidence whereof we need produce no other than the words of that Author so often mentioned Laur. Deios in the said Discourse p. 163 164. This their Liberty saith he of those Dissenters is one of the chief Points wherein they stand Here neither Prince nor Counsellour nor Bishop nor Law must restrain them from refusing or casting off whatsoever they mislike or from taking upon them and putting in practice any thing they have determined or concluded to be done seeing according to their conceit they have sound out that Bishops and all other Officers in our Church are Popish and that the Ministery as they suppose beareth Popish Names and Marks and the Laws are Popish they will neither sue to Prince nor Council for the removing of any of these things but with all speed cast the Yoke from their own necks And seeing they have found in their fancies that an Eldership and no other Laws but the written Word is to be heard therefore they will erect these things amongst themselves And it were to be wished that the same humour did not reign incorrigibly among them at this day witness the late Practices in Scotland which agree exactly with their seditious Principles for which Ireser the Reader to a Book entituled Raviliac Redivivus and their late Declaration 3. The pious Inclination of that Reverend Dean was for a not-insisting upon a few little things These Dissenters are for a change of all viz. the Liturgy Discipline and Government of the Church 4. These Dissenters demand a change of things as sinful The Dean taken them onely for indifferent having all the advantages of Authority and Reason which he would never have alleaged if he had thought such things sinful 5. The Dean doubts not in the last of the Piety and Prudence of the Governours of the Church but he finds no such relenting melting temper in these Dissenters For after such a Condescention in our Governours as he supposes to be attainable he is still doubtful of those Dissenters Conformity and Obedience which makes him say If that would do it In short when his heart was warm with Meditation and a Discourse of Charity the Reverend Dean freely utters his pious Sentiments for peace-sake and in order to a firm union among

down speedily and Children are able to demonstrate this by their petty Experiments The first Reformers he confesses cast out abundance of filth and rubbish and what should be done more I hope there are none so ill advised as to overturn the Fabrick of the Church and grub up her foundation He says they could not finish the work nor add the top stone to the Reformation but I pray what hindered them did they want skill or wisdom zeal or courage authority or power I suppose there is no man so shameless as to affirm they wanted any thing needful to an advisable Reformation He faith indeed such was the iniquity of the Times the rage of their Enemies and the Opposition they met with they could not do it But reflecting upon the Proceedings of that Work we find that none gave them more trouble from time to time than these dissenting Brethren To take offence at every thing which is in use and practice in the Church of Rome and for that very reason onely Because it is so is very childish and ridiculous and for this I appeal to all the Lutherans with the most Learned and Judicious of the Reformed Churches The Learned Author in Queen Elizabeths Reign La Deios p. 113. so often mentioned told those Dissenters of that Age It is certain that a great part of the publick prayers in that Book which the Romans use was practised in the Church before the Beast came into that Chair and oftentimes God's people have either taken or resumed those things to God's Worship which have been abused by Idolatry The spoils of Egypt and Jericho the Vessels of the Temple abused by the Babylonians were again applied to God's Service If we used any thing wherein the Pope sheweth himself to be the Beast as his worshipping of dead Saints and Images and the Mass and such like then we might be said to bear his Image or his Mark but in the Prayers that we have there is no part no limb no claw of that Beast Some men I know to serve their own ends and some for want of better information are apt to take up that old thredbare method so fit to delude the hearts of the simple people They are ready to charge others with an inclination to Popery who stand at a further distance from it than themselves and upon much better grounds not as rash Zelots but as prudent Christians not out of design to secure their Estates but out of Conscience to save their Souls Yet we must not run so far from Rome as the manner of some is as to leave the Holy Scriptures the Apostolical Constitutions and the whole practice of the primitive Church with our common Faith the Creed and Sacraments behind us The Lines that are drawn to the greatest distance from this centre have the least strength in them L. Deios p. 114 'T is very well said of the Author even now commended The people of God must not fashion themselves like the Canaanites nor the Heathen about them in any thing wherein they are Idolatrous and Impious but in that they have as men God's people may be like them As they are Papists we will not be like the Romans but as they are Christians we may be like them We must not use the Bible nor the Name of God or Christ nor Baptism if we will have nothing that they have This was sound Protestant Doctrine in the happy days of that Queen of ever blessed Memory Consonant hereunto the most eminent Protestant Divines both at home and in forein Churches do unanimously profess to detest and renounce nothing of the Church of Rome but her Errors her Corruptions her Contagions her Idolatry Superstition and Tyranny And albeit these her Pollutions would not permit them to communicate with her in the outward exercises of Religion so contaminated yet they profess they never altered their purpose of persevering in the faith and practice of those things which are good in her And for this I appeal to Bishop Jewel in his a Latin 12. pag. 88. c. Apology and to Dr. Andrew Rivet in his b In Quarto tom 1. tract 2. q. 2. p. 289. Cathol Orthodoxus and to the Learned H. Zanchy in his c Cap. 24. sect 19. in p. 157. Faith concerning matters of Religion written when he was 70 years of age Sir when all is done the onely Judges of publick Constitutions are our Governours invested with Authority to that effect And I must tell you freely never were matters more throughly sifted and examined for six score years together than these Church matters never more care and pains taken than to adapt and fit them to the S●lemnities of God's Worship See her Act for Uniformity at the end It was the care of Queen Elizabeth and her Commissioners to ordain and publish such Rites and Ceremonies as were most for the advancement of God's glory the edifying of his Church and the due reverence of Christ's holy Mysteries and Sacraments And truly I am of opinion that her Royal Highness and her Commissioners were as wise as pious and as learned as our Dissenters They cried out of things as Popish and Antichristian in those days Pag. 154. as these do in ours And that Author so often mentioned did rarely encouter them at that time and we need no other Confutation Now then saith he how shall we know whetehr a thing be Popish and Antichristian or no By the Names That cannot be Names of their own nature be indifferent the Things contained in the Names as they are used of us might be examined And how shall we find whether they be Popish and Antichristian If they serve to promote Popery then are they Popish then are they Antichristian But if none of these things which they except against help to maintain Idolatry or the Pope's Supremacy or mens Traditions against the written Word or Free Will against the Grace of Christ or mens Merits against Justification by Faith or the Idol and Sacrifice of the Mass or Pilgrimages or Purgatory or Prayer for the Dead or Auricular Confession whereby the Priest keeps the Lock and Key of the Penitent's Conscience and makes it his Spy to discover his secret Inclinations and the his Press-master to engage him to execute any design of mischief or Satisfactions for sins by Penance or Indulgences or the keeping of the Word of God from the people in any unknown Tongue or the like if they do not maintain vice or unjustice nor Heresie amongst us but are directed to root out Popery to keep us in the true faith to advance the Word of God to establish our Justification by Faith to further Repentance and good works to punish sin to define that which is equal and right to keep the common peace of the Church Then are they not Popish seeing they are bent and exercised to the ruin of Popery But they are Christian and holy and appertaining to the Church of Christ

if they be his own he saith thus I have ever been and presently am persuaded that some of them Rites and Ceremonies be not so expedient for this Church now but that in the Church Reformed and in all this time of the Gospel wherein the Seed of the Scripture hath so long been sown they may better be disused by little and little than more and more urged This is that which the Archbishop declares and it is observable that he does not name any one of those Rites and Ceremonies but refers the particularities to the discretion of the Godly-wise What have been disused and altered since that time I shall leave to the Observation of considering men What are retain'd amongst us have been severely and minutely examined and the Godly-wise find them so far from a disposition to choak the seed of the Gospel that they approve them as congenial to the general Dictates and Directions of it and very decent in the solemn Worship and Service of God under it That our Ecclesiastical Policy in some points may be better'd that Bishop does acknowledge and so do we In the Preface to the Commination we are told of a Godly Discipline in the Primitive Church which both they and we wish heartily might be restored but this is not to be hoped for till the generality of men become more governable that is more humble more obsequious to wholesom Discipline and carry a greater veneration for the Authority of the Church But that this Reverend Archbishop was not of the mind of these Dissenters his last Will and Testament which is here produced gives us sufficient Evidence For he saith 1. That the state of a small private Church such as Geneva for example and the form of a large Christian Kingdom neither would long like nor at all brook one and the same Ecclesiastical Government 2. He saith Concerning Rites and Ceremonies by Political Constitutions authorized amongst us I am and have been persuaded that such as are set down by public Authority in this Church of England are no way either ungodly or unlawful but may with a good Conscience for order and obedience sake be used of a good Christian Are the Dissenters of this mind why then do they not conform to them and why does this their Advocate upbraid them as sinful and ungodly and charge them with an edge and sting that wounds the Conscience 3. That Reverend Archbishop tells us further I do utterly mislike even in my conscience all such rude and undigested Platforms as have been more lately and boldly than either learnedly or wisely preferr'd tending not to the Reformation but to the destruction of the Church of England What would this pious Soul have said if he had lived to see our tender consciences cloathing themselves in Arms of Steel marching with Pikes Swords and Pistols bartering down our establish'd Laws and Government with Guns and Cannons and setting up their own new models not with the noise of Axes and Hammers but with the more confused noise of Wars and Tumults and with garments rolled in bloud They have given this best of Churches the Stab made the gaping wounds yea and with their pretious balms have broken our much more precious head and now they call earnestly for a tender hand for a cementing healing spirit as if all the hurt had been done not by but upon themselves These Observations upon the Discourse of that Reverend Person being submitted to the Judgment of every Reader I shall proceed to the remarkable passage of that Reverend and Worthy Dean which he setteth down in these words It is not for private persons to undertake in matters of publick concernment but I think we have no cause to doubt but the Governours of our Church notwithstanding all the advantages of Authority and we think of Reason too on our side are Persons of that Piety and Prudence that fox peace-sake and in order to a firm Union among Protestants they would be content if that would do it not to insist upon little things but to yield them up whether to the infirmity or importunity or perhaps in some very few things to the plausible Exceptions of those who differ from us Before I return an account of the Sense of that Reverend and Learned Person I shall endeavour to undeceive the nameless Allegator He thinks that to some very few things these Dissenters have very plausible Exceptions Sir I am heartily glad to hear their Exceptions are but plausible and reduced to so small a number We have Exceptions against the Presbyterian Discipline and Government and against the Congregational Churches too and those not a few and much more than plausible But what Constitution what Court what Person what any thing in the world shall be allowed to stand if a few plausible Exceptions be sufficient to pull it down There have been plausible Exceptions against A House of Lords plausible Exceptions against the best of Princes and things that are most sacred When we hear of Exceptions and plausible we should well consider the Persons to whom they are so There are exceptions against the holy Scriptures but they are plausible onely to the prophane Atheist Exceptions against the eternal Son of God but they are plausible onely to Scribes Pharisees Hypocrites to Jews Infidels and Hereticks When Ignorance and Faction have made exceptions Pride and Interest will strive hard to make them plausible A thing may be very plausible which is no way just but highly inconvenient It is therefore an Argument of a light and ungenerous mind to argue in matters of so great importance from such popular and loose Topicks Prudent and Pious Persons were not wont of old to do so we may instance in Hooker Hammond Sanderson Nor must we look upon this as the Judgment of that Reverend Dean but as the fond Opinion which these Dissenters have of their own Conceptions Nor can this Allegator think that a few things will satisfie them To rectifie his Judgment herein let him peruse their Solemn League and Covenant as the Mother of all the rest their Directory their Form of Government for England and Ireland their Confession of Faith their lesser and larger Catechisms their Jus Divinum of the Presbyterian Government and since His Majesty's happy Restruration their Petition with the Review and Alteration of the Book of Common Prayer their Petition for Peace with their Reformation of the Liturgy Again this confident Allegator looks at the wrong end of the Telescope when he judges these matters to be so little For to yield up such things and upon such accounts as they demand them we must yield up a branch of truth and our own reason with some part of our Christian Liberty which is never a whit the less considerable to us because we desire not to make use of it for a cloke of Pride Malice or Disobedience Some Laws and Canons also are to be yielded up and some rays of Authority to be eclipsed if not extinguished