to us we presently give thanks to God for this Now what superstition or prophane abuse there is in this standing and respond as they call it before at and after the Gospel let any indifferent man judge Now upon these their grievous complaints they flee to the Parliament as supream Judges to vindicate this dishonor done to God Which how it can stand with the loyalty mentioned in their Preface or with the subscription which they have or should all have subscribed if they be rightly Ministers and Orthodox as they pretend to be let them say who acknowledge the King supream Judge in all Causes and over all Persons Lastly Whereas they say in the end of this Section That the discovery of some evil in the Apocrypha condemns our Common Prayer-Book for appointing it to be read I answer It follows not except it did appoint those Books to be read as parts of Canonical Scripture which we know it does not This for the grand abuses in general in Epistles and Gospels Now we must with them to particular untruths by them charged upon us bidding us to Look upon that egregiously abused place or Christ abused by our dealing with that place namely Revel 12. 1. Michael and his Angels fought c. Which words the Book appoints for the Collect they mean the Epistle for Michaels day where they make Christ by misapplying the place a created Angel Here they make much ado to prove Michael to be Christ which being granted them with such ado their accusation is never the truer nor our Cause or Book the worse The reading the Epistle on Michaelmas day in no sort makes Christ a created Angel but the keeping of Michaelmas day as we keep it is onely in memory of Michael or Christ if they please who is called an Angel Mal. 3. 1. Who with all his created holy Angels fought against the Devil and his Angels We call Christ an Angel so does the Scripture but it calls not a created Angel no more does our Book nor we but in memory of that victory of that Michael and his Angel we keep that day praising God for it and so read that part of Scripture which relates it Secondly They tax the words in the latter end of the Benedicite but to no purpose if that were the Song of the Three Children we do not know we do not now exhort them three to praise the Lord but sing their song in memory of them and their miraculous deliverance When we read Davids Psalms we do not in many of them pray for the things that he in those Psalms prayed for The third particular here is a clause or sentence in our Burial of the dead for which very particular I refer the Reader to Dr. Sparge in Chap. 12. pag. 62. where that mattâ—r is expresly handled and where I know another man hath answered any thing to avoid prolixity I say nothing Next then comes their Syllogism That which is mans device and hath been an Idol in Gods worship must of necessity be so still But the Ceremonies mentioned in the Service-Book have been Idols in Gods worship as Cross Surplice c. Ergo They must be Idols still in the worship of God To this I answer First The Proposition is false their proof is from some few particulars to a general which whosoever hath the least smatch of Logick in him knows to be nothing worth We may by this rule as well demolish our Churches and Châ—ppels nay somewhat more may be said against them then our Surplices for the very particular individual Churches which we now have have been abused to Idolatry which our particular Surplices have not And so the Minor also is faulty namely our Crosses Surplices and particular Ceremonies which we now use have never been Idols at all And so we deny and have proved their later Proposition also false which they tell us none can deny For the other supposed abuses in the Sacraments in the Churching the Confirmation c. I refer the Reader again to Dr. Sparge to satisfie all Next they tell us We would not have the Lent Fast forgotten which the Patrons of our Liturgy make a Religious Fast abusing places of Scripture by mis-application of Scriptures as Joel 2. 12. Matth. 6. 16. 4. 10. 2 Cor. 6. 2. This Lent Fast which they would not have forgotten no more would I. For the abusing the places of Scripture mentioned by them if they did particularly shew wherein the supposed abuses consist I would answer them more particularly but howsoever supposing they count the Scriptures which speak of Fasting to be abused by being read in Lent which is not a Religious but a Politick Fast as they seem to say I answer that the Lent is indeed by our Laws and the Kings late Proclamation a Politick Fast nevertheless if any man observing our Lent according to Law by abstinence from flesh totally do also by temperance and an abstemious and spare diet all that time and by absolute Fasting sometime in the Lent keep a Religious Fast by subduing the flesh by Mortification and Repentance more then ordinary humbling himself before God This man as he shews himself in that respect a Loyal Subject by the former so he does the duty of a good Christian by the later pleasing God by both for his better help and assistance then in the later the places of Scripture which he shall hear read in the time of Lent are useful and beneficial to him Neither do we incline to Popery in this Religious Fasting nor approve of their superstitious Fast nor Fast in imitation of them for they that do celebrate such a Religious Fast in the time of Lent take not the example of the Papists to follow therein but of the antient Christian Church which did so fast many years before Popery was hatched This Religious Fast therefore though we press not as by Law required yet may we safely and profitably perswade to and preach and read concerning it from the example of the Church in former times Lastly In this Chapter they come to that which they call Fopperies and fooleries in our Book Touching also again upon false Translations that they may be still like themselves observing no method or order in any thing But to the point having answered already I come with them to their fooleries What can be said for those Tautologies and Battologies used in the Service-Book as Lord have mercy upon us Christ have mercy c. condemned Matth. 6. 7. And by and by One foppery more that mutual salutation between Priest and People in these words The Lord be with you And with thy spirit Last of all they conclude thus Tritenhemius wrote a Book upon Dominus Vobiscum in which are many fruitless questions and so we are sure the thing it self is fruitless If it be a vain Tautology to repeat those words a few times in praying to God what will they say to the Prophet David for repeating the same words
nothing the world is gone after him Joh 12. 19. It is so in this case of the worship of Christ c. We shall prevail nothing c. To this we need not answer any thing to them the times we humbly praise God for it have answered for us this book which was so long cast off being now generally taken up again and used with reverence devotion and thankfulness to the Lord for it in the most principal places and most Cuurches of this Kingdom so that the saying they cite there of the Pharisees and Scribes may better be applyed to these people that cite in it then to those to 〈…〉 CHAP. IV. Of the Matter HEre they inveigh against the Common Prayer Book in respect of the matter of it telling us that The matter is partly false partly ridiculously frivolous yea and some part of it is not without a tincture of blasphemy The first of these charges they go about to prove three ways saying For the general we lay down these three instances In false or corrupt translations of the word additiâ—ns to the word and substractions all which the Service Book not onely allows but injoyns subscription to them To these things we answer first in general that it is no sufficient plea against the book to cry it down wholly for some particular defects in it but to desire rather to have those things amended then the whole book so excellent in several respects totally to be abolished for some imperfections in it Secondly to come to them more particularly to the first of false translations we answer 1. That if that be sufficient for a particular place to reject a whole book or volum what shâ—ll become of our English Bible in the last and best translation that we have for in that we shall find such a translation as no English man can make sense of namely Phil. 1. 21. which words there agree with the Latine which these men are so much against for it is there Vivere est mihi Christus to me to dye is Christ but neither that Latine nor the English can express either the Apostles meaning or can indeed be understood what they mean themselves They put the Greek verbatim into English which the idiome of our tongue cannot bear and herein they reject Calvin and Beza's and Junius and Tremilius translations and agree with the Vulgar Latine yet no man wholly rejects this our new translation as containing false matter but it is not unworthily esteemed as one of the best translations extant in any language Again that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 11. 29 is in both our translations rendred Damnation which is neither according to the signification of the word in it self nor according to the Apostles meaning in that place for he proves that which he saith there in the words following directly mentioning temporal judgement as vers 30. But I will not strive to defame our translations as they do our Common Prayer Book by searching how many places are not so translated as they should be but were there more defects then there are who could hereupon reject totally our English Bibles as these do our Service Book upon that score of falsity in matter through some imperfections in the translation Secondly then I pass to the next particular which they call additions To add to the word of God in general as to propound any thing for Gods word which is not so indeed I grant to be abominable but to add to any particular part of Scripture some words taken out of some other part of Scripture is no addition to the word of God for it does not affirm any thing to be Gods word which is not indeed Now of this kind are the additions they speak In Psalm 14. the words in the end added are not onely taken out of Gods word in several places but also all collected together by Saint Paul and added to the precedent words in this Psalm as we see Rom. 3. 13 14 15 16 17 18. neither are thrust into the Psalm by the composers of the Common Prayer book but are in the old Latine Bibles whence those Psalms were translated and how reasonably and fitly they are there our Bibles do note after the end of Psal 14. where they shew why they are not put into our Bibles For the next addition mentioned in Psal 13. what is that but a concluding of that Psalm with the very words of Scripture also for the same expression we find in two other Psalms near adjoyning viz. Psal 7. 17. Psal 9. 3. For the third addition it is an addition of their own making not found in the book in that 24. Psalm Whereas therefore they say lastly That they will not reckon diverse additions more they do well in that point but they had done better if they had not reckoned this neither unless there had been more truth in it I also will add no more of this matter but come to their next accusation which is concerning substractions or omissions And therein first they accuse us for omitting the titles of diverse Psalms Secondly for omitting the words Praise ye the Lord Thirdly for omitting the conclusion in the Lords Prayer For which last First if we took the Lords Prayer out of Luke 11. we omit none of it and why may we not use it sometime as it is in one place sometime as it is in another so that the cavil is onely for want of a better for the two former omissions the book makes no omission but renders the Psalms as it found them in the translations whence they were taken Their last omission is Leaving out many Chapters and some whole books unread for the Lesson in the Kalender appointed But this is not taking away any thing from the word of God except the book did profess that it hath appointed the whole word of God to be read for the Lessons but this the book does not only it appoints such parts of the word of God to be read at such times and leaves the rest to be read of the people privately The next thing is the reading of the Apochrypha very immethodically brought in here for that should rather have come in among the additions then the omissions yet it is not any addition to the word of God for we read it not as a part of Scripture to build our faith upon or to establish any doctrine of divinity thereby but for moral instruction then if they ask What need of that the Scripture being sufficient for that also We answer that we do it not as supposing defect therein but because they are books written by holy men and have been continually read publikely by the Church of God in reverence thereto we thought not fit wholly to reject them or cast them out of our Church but whereas they tell us here That some things are appointed to be out of them which are utterly false We tell them that is more then they can prove to
be true but if any of them be to read any such Chapter at any time which he counteth not to be profitable to be read to the people he may read one out of the New Testament instead of it as Dr. Sparke shews concerning this matter in his brotherly perswasion to unity and uniformity Chap. 10. whether for brevity sake in this treatise I refer any reasonable man adding onely thus much that if those and such other objections seem to any man not to be sufficiently answered yet they cannot make the book wholly to be rejected but needfull in some particulars to be corrected and amended The next thing they come is the grand accusation against Epistles and Gospels which I presume belongs to their second head of frivolous things for though they began orderly with the first particular of false matters yet they proceed not so but I must be forced to follow them as they go up and down from one thing to another Concerning Epistles and Gospels then they have three weighty charges with which they begin thus We may subjoyn that profaning gross abuse of Epistles and Gospels in which there are three strange and remarkable occurrences for which there is no ground or reason but from the Mass-book First These three remarkable things are 1. That the Acts of the Apostles and some books of the old Testament are read for and called Epistles 2. That we read not whole Chapters but scraps and shreds as they disgracefully call them 3. That at the Epistles there is silence sitting c. at the Gospels standing scraping bowing and responds before and after To the first of these concerning the name of Epistles given to books not so called in Scripture What great matter is this to be set out under those words of profane and gross abuse For first we know the old Testament is in the new sometime called the Law and the Prophets sometimes the Law Prophets and Psalms These several expressions shew that the word Prophets is sometimes largely taken for all the old Testament except the five books of Moses sometime more strictly for the other books onely but excluding the Psalms why then also may not the word Epistles be sometime taken generally for all the Scripture except the four Gospels and sometimes more strictly except the Acts Gospel and Revelation and sometime most strictly for those books which we commonly call the Canonical Epistles taking the word in the two former acceptions what hurt in calling all that we read for Epistles by the name of Epistles especially considering secondly that the whole Scripture is a letter or Epistle indited by the Holy Ghost and so sent from God by the holy writers thereof into the world or more especially to his Church and the fitness of this appellation they themselves confess and tell us The holy fathers spake so onely they tell us They spake so in a different sense from us which difference if they had shewed we had either answered them or yelded to them To their second accusation That our Epistle and Gospels are but scraps of Scripture and never a full passage in them If by full passage they mean a whole Chapter we desire to know why a whole Chapter must always be at once and neither more nor less but if by never a full passage they mean that we break off abruptly in respect of the matter read then any one may see they do us notorious wrong and the Book answers for it self without my help To avoid therefore the guilt of so foul a slander I am willing to take them in the former sense but must withal tell them that so they may as well accuse all our Preaching of this gross abuse and say we preach not upon the Word of God but upon scraps and shreds of it and that less shreds too then the other few Texts being half the length of the very shortest Epistles we have But why either our Texts or Epistles and Gospels should be thus taxed I see not the division of Chapters not being Canonical but made according to humane wisdom and discretion Of this therefore no more I come to the third charge which is concerning Silence Sitting Bowing c. To which I must first tell them That this comes in very unseasonably in this place this belongs rather to the ridiculous manner of our Service then to the matter of it but their want of method I must needs pass over many times lest my Book should grow too big Secondly I must tell them again that the Book appoints none of these things they here inveigh against therefore if those things were as bad indeed as they would make them all this were nothing to purpose against the Book which they pretend onely to write against Nevertheless being in many passages they labor to disgrace our Church what they can as well as the Book they write against I would if they would come to particulars assay to answer all and as far as I can by these general words guess at their meaning I will briefly answer them It hath been the custom long ago in many Churches to stand up at the Gospel and it was also usual at the naming of the Gospel to say Glory be to thee O Lord and after the end of the Gospel to say Thanks be unto God These I presume are the things they aim at for the bowing at the name of Jesus was and is as much used in all parts of Service and Sermon as of the Gospel To the other three therefore as proper to the Gospel I will onely speak And first to the standing up We know many men at the naming of the Text and many times in the Sermon will stand up not onely for their ease but to hearken the more attentively Why then is it not as lawful so to do at the Gospel We know standing up when we hear one beginning to speak to us does both shew respect to what is spoken and a readiness to receive what is spoken willingly and chearfully By standing up then at the reading of the Gospel we shew our gladness and readiness to receive it and what prophaneness or grand abuse can be in this Then for saying Glory be to thee O Lord. We know when the Angel first brought word of our Saviours birth the Author of the Gospel there were presently with him a multitude of Heavenly Angels saying Glory be to God on high If the Church then in memory Luke 2. 13 14. hereof do at the naming of the Gospel use part of that Angelical Hymn what grand abuse is this when our Saviour first came into the world this was the Angels praising God and when we hear mention made of the Gospel which declares and preacheth these glad tidings to us with the benefits coming to us thereby we do with like words give glory to God the Son and we are counted prophane for it Lastly when we have heard some of the Gospel read which publisheth these things
Ministers which are good workmen and bad workmen and no workmen are all hurt by the Common Prayer Book And first they instance in the last of these thus Where Ministers should be apt to teach c. this Book settles such blind fellows over people who can neither feed nor lead To this the answer is plain the Book appoints not at all what Ministers we shall have setled in Churches but what they shall do that are setled in them And if we have any such as they here speak of and call them dumb dogs saying Sir Johns c. These are not hurt nor the Churches that have them hurt but benefited by the Common Prayer-Book for hereby they that can do no other good yet are forced to do some by reading that Book duly to and among the people for by that reading the ignorant people are instructed by the Word of God read to them according to the Book They have also a Confession of Faith the Ten Commandments the Lords Prayer by frequent reading taught them with many other excellent and godly Prayers whereby they call upon God agreeably to his Word wherewith they praise God with Songs and Hymns in this Book which without it they could not tell how to do So then all the bad Ministers whether no Preachers or bad Preachers are all helped by this Book those that cannot preach at all if any such be now do good by reading these which are evil Preachers and could do nothing but hurt if any such there be by idle and senseless Prayers and erroneous Doctrine which they preach and make themselves which they would do onely shall by reading the Book do some good both to themselves and others Then for the good Ministers which they divide into two sorts some Conformists to whom the Book they say is a burthen some Non-Conformists which for this Book are sufferers I answer the first are not hurt by the Book but by their own erroneous Conscience which makes that a burthen to them which of it self is no such thing For the other which are sufferers for their disobedience it is either their weakness or their obstinacy which causes them to suffer and not the Common Prayer-Book which is at the most but a remote Causa sine qua non of their sufferings if they suffer onely for refusing that else it is not so much And I believe there are few sufferers if any at all which have had no fault but non-conformity to the Book laid to their charge this for the Ministers then is nothing Secondly they tell us the Ordinances suffer by this Book namely Preaching is hindred by it but this experience shews to be otherwise no Toleration being given to neglect preaching for reading the Book but where it is most punctually observed Sermons are as good though perhaps not so long as in those places where it is neglected and we know it is not the length of the Sermon that makes the people edifie but many times the untolerable tediousness thereof makes many even shun them rather then frequent them Neither do any of us esteem more of the Service-Book as they accuse us then of preaching in general but to esteem more of the set Prayers made by the most Judicious Fathers and by Law established and of the Word of God truly and plainly read then of such ex tempore Prayers and Sermons as many of the enemies of the Common Prayer-Book make sometimes no man that understands himself and the Word of God can possibly forbid without manifest impiety And that such Prayers and Sermons are not more properly Fardels of mens devices then the Liturgy which hath so much of the sincere Word of God in it no reasonable man can say Then for those words in the Canon which they alledge of Divine Service and Sermon they do not in the least sort make preaching no part of or a lesser part of Gods service then reading and praying but speaking in that Canon for the ordering of the people they speak in the peoples language wherein it is usual to say Service and Sermon So that had they said onely Divine Service and not added Sermon some would have excluded the Sermon from being understood in the Canon but the Canon to shew that we esteem of Sermons as well as of Service appoints the same reverence to be used in the one that is in the other This cavil therefore is most idle Thirdly They speak of evil effects of our Liturgy upon the people And herein first they tell us of an evil effect the Book hath upon the Law because some have been punished for not reading the Book contrary to Law Which I answer to thus If this were true it is meerly accidental to the Book and partly the fâ—ult of disobedient men and partly of unjust Judges But if the Act for the observing that Book be well looked into they shall quickly see that the offences in this kinde have not been punished beyond the rigor of the Law but have rather had more favor then the Law allows For the Statute is plain That whosoever shall preach or speak any thing in the derogation or depraving of the said Book or any thing therein contained or any part thereof and shall be convict thereof c. shall forfeit all his Spiritual Promotions coming or arising in one whole year How would these fellows storm if this Act were put in execution against them But to proceed they tell us next That this Book affronts Religion and herein they spend many words in nothing but unchristian and unhumane railing telling us That many good people have suffered c. Which discourse how horribly fâ—lse soever it be yet is to no purpose if supposed true for whatsoever men have suffered for seditious and rebellious words and actions they would here make the ignorant people believe hath been wholly for not conforming to the Book just like the Papists who when a Jesuite or Priest is put to death for Treason say He is martyred here for his Religion They tell us next That many people have been destroyed by being brought in ignorance hereby Which is so false and impossible as nothing more the Common Prayer-Book if well observed and used hath enough in it to shew any man the way to everlasting life by the Scriptures read and such Confessions of Faith as are necessary to salvation and such Prayers aâ— if faithfully prayed and mercifully granted we shall be happy enough in this world for a time and perfectly happy in the world to come for ever and ever Whereas on the other side many of their magnified Sermons fill poor souls with Errors Heresies and Doctrines of Devils inciting and moving men to Rebellions Murders Treasons and the most damnable villainies that ever hath been committed in our Land as the murdering our late King and many other horrid acts in the late times committed Lastly For those three things which they propound to be considered from Queen Maries days Pag. 41.
How did the whole Nation flourish in piety peace and prosperity under her Government ever since her Raign began during the time of it and since the end of it no Nation in the Christian world hath received more and more miraculous mercies and favors from Gods hand then our Nation We have abounded in honor glory and estimation abroad encreased abundanâ—ly in wealth learning and knowledge at home We have hâ—d as excellent and powerful preaching and as frequent as learned and pious books written as any place in the world We have had such uniformity and decency in the worship and service of God as no Church in Christendom more till of late dâ—yes wherein this book and our Bishops and Church Government by them have been cryed down and thrust by force and violence against all reason conscience and Laws of God and man out of their places and our Church during which time of their exiâ—e what treasons rebellions murder and all horrible acts of prophanness and abominable impiety have abounded in the Land no tongue can express What strange Sects have risen how hath Popery increased how insolency and ignorance under pretence of new light hath overspread a great part of the Land woful experience hath shewed more then I am able to express These effects may justly be imputed to the want of Bishops and a Set form of divine worship amongst us for immediately upon the abolition of them they began to grow and encreased all the time of their much lamented absence and now through the great mercy of God since the restoring of them they are much abated and decayed daily and by the continuance of them now again amongst us in some reasonable time if without interruption or disturbance it please the Lord of his infinit goodness to continue this blessing to us we doubt not by the grâ—ce of God the falling down or vanishing away of all these Sects again The book being an especial help to the simple and ignorant in the worship and service of God and the authority of the Bishops an approved and effectual means to keep under the insolency and perversness of willful disturbers of the Churches peace which happiness that we may enjoyn again as we have formerly had it as we are daily to beg and crave at the hands of Almighty God with earnest and uncessant prayers so do we humbly for the conclusion of this Treatise desire of his sacred Majesty and the most reverend Fathers in God the Lords Arch-Bishops the right reverend Fathers in God the Lords Bishops of our Church by his Majesty chiefly intrusted in this business and by the Law of God and of this chiefly with the instructing and teaching of his people and governing his Church that amending whatsoever in their wisdom they see fit for the glory of God the good of this Church of England in general and the satisfactions of the minds desires and consciences of the peaceable and weak but faithful members thereof they would still continue our Liturgy which we have had so long among us and so happily flourished under and with which God of his mercy grant that this Church and State may still flourish and prosper to the end of the world Amen May 2. 1661. A Collection of some choice Expressions of the Equity Charity Sobriety and Loyalty the four Virgin Daughters of the unspotted Piety of these unknown Unmaskers of our Common Prayer Book 1. THe Service Book is evinced to be a rank Impostor in Gods worship and a violent intruder into the house of God To the Reader Pag. 1. 2. The said Book is called The overwhelming storm of the purity of worship Chap. 1. p. 1. 3. It is called A Superstitious and Popish Liturgy ibid. 4. If our Liturgy be not a Mass of Superstition and Superstitious Ceremonies we know not what Superstition is p. 3. 5. Kneeling at the Communion is said to be the staff and strength of that abominable Idol the Breaden God ibid. 6. Our Service-Book is called The Mother of that Hydra of the Scotish Liturgy and the yong Dragon in that Nation and the Mass-Book the Mother of our and theirs too ibid. 7. Except our Liturgy had been full of Serpents it could not have hatched the Dragon that was sent into Scotland ibid. 8. The Superstitions of this Book are such and so many that we may apply that saying That it is not onely hurtful and dangerous but cursed and execrable P. 4. 9. Their Liturgy that is the Papists is the very Lethargy of worship and what difference between ours and theirs Truly nothing but a pair sheers betwixt them and putting ours in a coat of another tongue Chap. 2. p. 5. 10. What reason is there that we should groan under the burden of a Liturgy borne in upon us under the name and nature of a Mass which is nothing but a mass of Idolatry and an Idol of abomination ibid. 11. The Service-Book is the main engine it is the saddle and we the asses c. Page 6. from the middle to the end 12. Though Ave Maria be not actually in it namely in our Liturgy yet if purpose had holden it was more then in a fair possibility to have been the head-corner stone of the Liturgy Chap. 3. p. 8. 13. This Symbolization of Papists and Prelate-men in the name and nature of Mass and Liturgy discovers how they conspire against the truth and those who desire to worship God in spirit and truth P. 10. 14. If this our Liturgy were the true worship of God the Papists and the Prelatical crue would never endure it but would stone tear in pieces imprison burn banish and kill with all manner of cruelty as they do and have done those that worship God according to his will ibid. 15. They must bear false witness in proclaiming under their hands by subscription that this stinking puddle is the River of God when indeed it is the Euphrates of Babylon Ibidem to the end and almost to the middle of P. 11. 16. If the Altars now er â—cted were of God they would be an abemination to the Prelates and their faction ibid. 17. It was great incogitancy to speak the least in our Reformers in King Edward's days to take a Monk from among the Canaanites and putting a coat of English cloth upon it to represent it being an unclean beast as a service to the Lord. It is no better truly then the excommunicate thing P. 16. 18. To cause Ministers to subscribe to it is no less then treason against the high and mighty God Châ—p 4. p. 22 23. 19. That Jewish Popish Institution of Churching-women called Purification and that bastâ—rdly piece of Confirmation P. 25. 20. The Letany is not a stump or limb of Dagon but the head of the Mass-Book Chap 5. p 26. 21. Of this it may be truly said as one said of the Pharisees sin thaâ— it was either the sin against the Holy Ghost or else very nigh to it so the Letany
A View of the Face Vnmasked OR AN ANSVVER TO A Scandalous Pamphlet published by divers Ministers and Entituled The Common Prayer-Book Vnmasked Wherein the lawfulness of using that Book is maintained by Answering their Five as they boast undeniable Arguments brought against it Whereunto are added also some Arguments for the retaining of that Book in our Church from the same heads whereby they plead against it namely From The Name of it The Original of it The Matter contained in it The Manner of using it The Effects of it upon the whole Land By Sam. Wotton D. D. sometime Fellow of Kings Colledge in Cambridge LONDON Printed by Tho. Newcomb 166â— TO THE Impartial Reader Christian Reader THough I have all my life time hitherto declined to shew my self any ways in this kind yet now in my last dayes I can no longer keep my self out of the over-burdened Press For having seen this Book not only publickly sold in Westminster-Hall but also reprinted without controll and no answer that I can hear of yet made to it I thought it better to make this brief Answer thereto then to let it seduce and abuse so many people as might be hurt by it if it should pass for such an unanswerable peice as it is pretended to be I have therefore set down all their arguments and given plain and direct answers to them their vain extravagancy and most uncivil railings I have either wholly passed over or very lightly sometime touched upon them that I might neither too much enlarge my Book nor write in a stile so contrary to my natural disposition and so unfitting my quality and profession First then in answer to their Epistle to the Reader they tell us there that Out of a respect to the glory of God which is a God that will be worshipped in spirit and truth as also with a desire of the Readers eternal good they present this Treatise To which I say also that out of a respect to the glory of God which is not a God of confusion but of peace and so 1 Cor. 14. 33. of order without which there is nothing but confusion and no true peace as also out of a tender care of the honour and glory of the Church of England and lastly out of a desire of thy good that thou mayest not be misled by faction ignorance and blind zeal I present unto thee this Answer to their book set forth in â—â—ew against the Common-Prayer-Book but in deed and truth against the Church of England as by this answer will appear Secondly they tell us That this Treatise was formerly penned by some eminent Orthodox Divines late Non-conformists wherein are solid arguments Concerning which vain glorious boast for eminency how much soever I fall short of them they being many and I but one yet for Orthodoxness let any man judge of their writing and my answer to whom that title doth best belong and for their last title of late Non-conformists I am more troubled to understand what they aim at by it then to answer it for if they be still Non-conformists why do they prefix that word late as implying that now they are not so and if they be no longer such why or how then do they own such a book now To that therefore I say no more but hope that my title of present conformity shall be as well accepted by the indifferent Reader as theirs of late or present difformity Thirdly they say That three sorts of Readers shall be helped by this Book the doubtful shall be fully resolved the users of the Common Prayer Book shall be brought off and the refusers of it encouraged not onely because Gods people but God himself mislikes it To this I rejoyn that those three sorts of people shall by my answer be more profited then by their accusation for the first sort the doubtful may be hereby resolved to use it the second sort which use it shall be confirmed in their conformity and obedience the third may be either changed or ashamed not onely because humane authority does directly but Divine authority also consequently command it by enjoyning us to obey the powers set over us Fourthly they press the Covenant as an unaswerable argument against the book To which I answer that the Covenant is nothing at all against our Common Prayer Book for we shall plainly shew when we come to the motive that neither they which for fear of present ruine did in some sort seem to joyn in that Covenant by Tyranuy imposed on them nor they which through ignorance or weakness of judgement did easily and willingly yeild to it are in any sort now bound thereby to reject the Common Prayer Book Lastly they tell us That their book will inform us of the truth and if the truth as the Scripture saith make us free we shall be free indeed To this I say that my answer truely performing that which they onely promise shall bring us out of the darkeness of error in this point into the light of truth that being in the light we mâ—y as the Scripture speaks walk as children of the light that is in obedience to God by obeying our Governors which are the Ministers of God for our wealth And this freedom of ours does in no sort come behind Rom. 13. 4. that of theirs for hereby we are the servants of God whose service as with our book in our daily Collect we confess is perfect freedom This freedom we shall ever pray for but freedom from government discipline order decency or whatsoever other freedom in that kind they mean we neither desire our selves nor as we hope shall they ever attain to that most of all desire it So desiring thee equal Reader to weigh their bare arguments with my plain answers and to let their railings revilings trouble thy head no more then they have done my pen I commit thee to Gods blessing in this and all thy Christian endeavors and rest Thine in the Lord S. Wotton A View of the Face Unmasked CHAP. I. To the Preface HEre they begin with a mentioning of Loyalty telling us That As Loyalty is the very Fortress of Policy so pure Religion is the Fountain and Root of Loyalty yea Equity Charity Sobriety and Loyalty are the Virgin-Daughters of unspotted Piety Had they as much Loyalty in their hearts as in their mouths never would they have presumed now especially in these days to reprint this Pamphlet so bitterly and sordidly inveighing against a Book by Law and Authority set forth so long ago and now allowed by His Royal Majesty and constantly read before Him in His Sacred Chappel But as the Lord said of the Jews so may the King of these They have Loyalty and Obedience in their Isai 29. 23. mouths but in their actions they are far from it And if as they tell us Pure and undefiled Religion be the Fountain of Loyalty and Equity Charity Sobriety and Loyalty be the Virgin-Daughters of unspotted
For the present we can as truly deny them as they falsly affirm them and if they would instance of them more pâ—rticularly they should receive answer accordingly The fourth kinde of evil effects follows namely against God himself which they tell us of are these two Feastival days to Saints and kneeling at the Communion These I confess are rightly laid to the charge of the Common Prayer-Book which nothing else in all this Chapter is but both these things we defend as good and lawful For that the Church of God hath not power to appoint and set apart some days to be kept holy to God upon particular occasions is a fancy against the generality of their own parties opinion and practice as well as against the truth it self For did not they continually in all these late years in which they had all the sway in their own hands and all others but meer slaves to them did not they I say set apart more days to keep holy in their raign for Thanksgiving Humiliation c. then ever were appointed before except in some time of Plague in five times so many years And as their practise was then so their judgment was before none of them ever questioning the lawfulness of keeping the Fifth of November for a day of Thanksgiving or the days of Fasting for Prayer and Humiliation in the times of Pestilence or any other grievous calamity Neither do the two places quoted by them Gal. 4. 10. Col. 2. 16. any thing touch our holy days for they forbid not the Christian Churches to appoint any particular holy days as they should see cause but forbid Christians to be in bondage to the Jewish Feastivals being but shadows of things to come at first and so ending with the Sacrifice of Christ the Substance For the second thing Kneeling at the Communion they would prove it to be Idolatry thus To adore in by or before a Creature respectively with relation to the Creature is Idolatry But to kneel at the Sacrament is so to adore Therefore it is Idolatry In this Syllogism we deny the Minor as having no truth in it we do no otherwise adore then we do always at Prayer and in the act of delivering and receiving the Sacrament we are in prayer joyning in our hearts with the words of the Minister praying to God That the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ may preserve our bodies and souls unto Everlasting Life And being thus in Prayer unto God no action is so fitting as kneeling The last Argument in this Chapter against us is this God will not hear the prayer of the service-Service-Book Therefore they are not to be offered Then that God will not hear the Prayers in our Liturgy they would prove by this That they are not according to Gods will Which they suppose they have proved by all that they hâ—ve said in this Book This if they have not proved but all their Arguments to that purpose have been by me sufficiently answered and confuted then is this last Argument nothing worth Whether therefore of the two is true let the Reader judge and I will say no more of this matter Now for the Cross in Baptism which they onely do but mention and refer us to Zions plea. I may as well I make no doubt refer you to the answer thereto though I must confess I have never seen the one or the other So having done with the matter and arguments in this Chapter for their most unchristian railings in it and all the rest of that stuff which their Book is stuffed withal if St. Peters words and St. Judes can neither stop their mouths nor make others stop their ears against such speeches by those two places 2 Pet. 2. 10 11 12. and Jude v. 9 10. they may proceed without control onely being their Virgin-Daughter Sobriety does behave her self so loosely and uncivilly in this Chapter that neither she nor any of her sisters can be found in this Book untainted according to their own confession in the beginning of their Preface we have little reason to suppose unspotted Piety to have been the Author of their Treatise So I proceed CHAP. VIII Intituled three Motives IN this Chapter they beg for the taking away of the Common-Prayer in this sort Let us humbly crave you would be pleased for the love that you bear and owe to the Lord Jesus to the purity of his worship to the thrivings of our bodies souls and estates to the turning away of Gods judgements c by all these and many more we again and again intreat you to pluck up the plant of the service-Service-Book which God never set What is all this but according to their censure of our Letany upon those words By thine agony c. but a meer conjuring for here they pray as we there by several motives By the love you bear to the Lord Jesus by the love you bear to the purity of his worship c. Yet these things here they count no conjuring no more do I but let me ask them what equity there can be in condemning that in us which they allow in themselves here 's a poor Virgin shrewdly vitiated by them Alas poor mother Piety that hast all thy daughters so often abused by thy pretended friends The next of note in this Chapter is an idle extravagant discourse which they make of Mr Womacke which how easily soever it might perhaps be answered yet I will wholly pass by for brevities sâ—ke and keep me to the work in hand namely to the defence of the Common Prayer Book for they confess themselves at the end of this excursion That all this is nothing to the purpose which might be as truely said of a great deal more in their book though they do not confess it Against their next stroke against the Bishops desiring to have them and the book destroyed together as being the upholders of one another we shewed the vanity of that argument when they first mentioned it of that therefore no more for though I am forced by their want of method to follow them sometimes forward and bâ—ckward yet do â— live to say the same thing over and again in several words as they do Lastly then for their vain and needless discourse of Christs governing his Church which no man ever made question of it to their argument gathered thence against us because Christ hath appointed what we must have in Liturgy and Government I answer to all in a word Christ hath appointed in general that which all must and we do follow but he hath left the particulars of order and decency to his Church else what ground could they have for any other Prayer then the Lords Prayer or for any prayer at all before their Sermons finding no precept or example of Christ or his Apostles in that kind in all the Scripture This may suffice for the matter of all this Chapter the title whereof is of three motives but we have hitherto met
great weight and there say they will use but few words And I believe indeed that such Objections or Arguments as they will bring forth for themselves to answer shall have no great weight in them lest they should take upon them such a burden as they are neither able to bear nor to cast down agâ—in handsomely after they have once taken it up Briefly therefore running over the Arguments here brought and their answers to them I shall at last use some Arguments my self for the continuance of our Liturgy among us as well as they have done for the abolishing of it but first to their Objections The first they bring from the antiquity of it to which they tell us Smectymnuus hath answered whom I never saw and so know not what his answer is and so can say nothing to him But whereas they answer here That antiquity without truth is nothing I grant that but tell them withal this is nothing to their purpose because what is most ancient must be supposed most true till the contrary be proved Therefore their answer to the antiquity of this Book is nothing against it till they have proved the unlawfulness of it a little better then yet they have done Secondly They sâ—y Many good men have liked it To which they answer That their approbation is not sufficient To this I rejoyn nor is their misliking and railing at it enough to condemn it For though they brag of more light then our forefathers this new light is the common argument in these days for all things done against the old light of Gods Word yet all their lâ—ght hath not shewed them how to frame such a Liturgy as we have received from our forefathers and till they have made a better they might be content with this Thirdly They say Our Book hath many good things in it but answer So hath the Alcoran and the Talmud But we reply that those Books if they have some good things in them which they are pleased to call many yet they are not many in respect of the evil with which they abound but our Book abunds with good if not free from some defaults The denomination then being to be taken from the greater part our Book and so the Apochrypha which here they also gird at are to be called good and the other two evil Fourthly It is better to amend then to cashiere To this first They suppose an impossibility of amending Secondly They say It is contrary to Gods course who commands the Altars to be thrown down c To this we say It is a vain and groundless supposition that every thing amiss in our Liturgy might not easily be amended Neither is it to be doubted but that they whom it concerns would sooner amend what is distastful to any quiet and moderate men if the violent opposition of troublesome and factious spirits not hinder it by the unreasonableness of their demands whom when nothing in that kinde done can satisfie it is to no purpose in respect of them to do any thing To the second we answer concerning Gods command to cut down the Altars burn the Groves c. the case is very far different from ours here Those Groves and Altars were directly against the express command of God for worshipping onely in the place by himself chosen namely the Temple at Jerusalem And again there is great difference between that Idolatrous worship and some defects and imperfections in the right worship of the true God Lastly It is not Gods course always in correcting abuses rather to abolish the thing then to take away the abuse for we know our Saviour speaking against the abuses in Fasting Prayer and Alms does not take them away or forbid any of them but shews how to amend the abuses And to make their answer good here they must plead against our Churches as well as our Liturgy To the fifth This Book they say hath Acts of Parliament to confirm it To which they answer first That this Book is not established by Act of Parliament Secondly That the thing it self being simply evil no Act can make it good To these we say again The Act before the Book is plain but they tell us The Books we now use have been altered since the Act and so the Act is not for them To this we answer If there be any such alterations in the Books that by the strictness of Law or tricks of Lawyers the Act cannot take such hold of Non-conformists as to make them liable to the penalties there appointed yet in conscience whatsoever is not altered in the Book is by vertue of that Act obediently to be observed and yielded to the intention of the Law-giver being as much or more to be regarded then the Letter of the Law And again those alterations being made according to Law that is by a Commission given forth by His Majesty then being King James of Blessed memory under the Broad Seal of England to the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and others according to the form which the Laws of this Realm prescribe to be used as we see in His Majesties Proclamation before the Book of Common Prayer all are as much bound to observe the Book so altered as if no alteration at all had been made in it To the second answer we say That the supposition there made of the evilness of the Book hath been by my answer so taken away that the ground of this answer fails And so I have at last done with their Five undeniable Arguments as they call them and their three Motives for the taking off our Common Book and the Answers to the Objections which they were pleased to bring against themselves There remains now onely to take a view of their opinion concerning any Liturgy at all or any set form of Prayer for if these two be unlawful it is a sufficient Argument against the Common Prayer Book In delivering their opinion herein they say They will answer these two questions First Whether they do allow of any set Prayers in a more private way Secondly Whether of any set Liturgy To which two questions they might very well have spared their pains in answering we not much caring for their opinions herein yet seeing they would thus express themselves we will see what they say and deliver our mindes thereto First They say They allow the ignorant onely set forms of Prayer in private To which if by these set forms they mean set prayers made by others we are willing with them to allow them onely to such as cannot make better themselves but in general to use set forms for the very best of men is not onely lawful but very good and most carefully to be done that we may observe that of the wisest of men Eccles 5. 1. For the second A set Liturgy they say they allow in general but come to the particular use of any particular Liturgy they flee off again and will have their set Liturgy onely a pattern for a