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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	people_n	read_v	scripture_n	3,073	5	5.7739	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75462	An Anti-Brekekekex-Coax-Coax, or, A throat-hapse for the frogges and toades that lately crept abroad, croaking against the Common-prayer book and Episcopacy and the copie of a letter from a very reverend church-man, in answer to a young man, who desired his judgement upon this case, viz. whether every minister of the Church of England be bound in conscience to reade the Common-prayer : with another letter from a convinced associatour, that a while boggled at the Common-prayer, to a brother of the same association, not yet convinced, together with the above-said reverend person's brief and candid censure thereupon, with some uses of application by the publisher.		1660 (1660)	Wing A3483A; ESTC R43600	20,576	45

and for God's glory But this is incomparably best for both these ends except they will magnifie their own prayers before and after Sermon to be better a phansie easily to be refelled Ergò c. 4. Every Minister is bound in conscience and by all lawfull means to root out the memory of the late rebellion in the State and confusion in the Church But the using of the Common prayer doth both these 1. Against the Presbyterians who in Scotland began the War because the Common-prayer was there used 2. Against the Brownist Anabaptist Quaker c. at home whose greatest hope was by destroying both the doctrine and discipline of our Church to bring in their own distractions c. Ergò c. 5. Every Minister is bound in conscience to declare his innocency i.e. That he is not involved in the guilt of our former sin against God the King the Church the people of this Land committed in the late troubles But there is scarce any better way for him thus to clear himself then by the using the Common-prayer c. Ergò c. 6. Every Minister is bound in conscience to that which may best conduce to the Re-settlement of the Kingdom in peace But the use of the Common-prayer supposing it lawfull and good in it self is such a way of settlement c. Ergò c. 7. Every man is bound in Practicall duties which are good and lawfull services of God to conform himself to the judgement and practice of the supream Magistrate of the best learned in the Laws of the best-able and most Divines of the greater and more intelligent part of the Nobility Gentry and people of the Nation where he lives else he cannot avoid the note either of peevish singularity or pride and schism But the Common-prayer is the practice of the King in his Court of the Inns of Court the Univerfities the best and ablest Divines in the Countrey c Ergo c. 8. Every Minister is bound in conscience to free himself from all just suspition of Hypocrisie and dissimulation when he declares his judgement to be Episcopall But the best or onely way to prove his sincerity in this is to use Common-prayer for he that declares for the one i.e. Episcopacy and will not declare for i.e. use the other declares in a manner contradictions He cannot be English-Episcopall that is not English-Liturgicall 9. Every Minister is bound in conscience to give his people all those Holy things which God and the Laws of the land Civill and Ecclesiastical make their due and in such manner as is by both or either prescribed especially when either the Whole or the Majour or any considerable part of them shall require them at his hand else he is a defrauder nay sacrilegious But the Common-prayer is an Holy thing of God by Law both divine and humane made the peoples due therefore supposing they require it he is bound in conscience to give it them 10. The Minister is bound in conscience to go before the people in his congregation in publick worship But without the Common-prayer there is no publick worship in the congregation For reading of Scripture which is very little in use amongst them they will not allow for worship The singing of a Psalm out of the Book is accepted little better the Sermon is not worship the Minister's prayer is his own not the People's and many times such as few or none can say Amen to But in the Common Prayer all sorts of worship are given to the God-head and to every person singly and distinct and such as the people know and wherein they can joyn and whereunto they can without scruple say Amen c. Ergò c. For the better understanding of the Truth in this case we must distinguish what we mean by Ministers For though the word be plaine of it self yet these times have made it equivocall 1 Some are so only in Title among the people where they live but were never ordained these be Theeves that came not in by the Door meer Intruders worse then the Mendicant Fryers amongst the Papists for these though they are not ordained have licence from the Pope who confirmed their orders 2 Some were ordained by Presbyterie these also are no Ministers by the Accompt of the Church of England and must take their Ordination again from the Bishops if they meane to be accepted Ministers in this Church Not that we deny Ordination in Forreign parts especially in France where no Bishops are nor can be with the allowance of the Supreame Magistrate but because our Lawes require and have established that Ordination only Therefore neither of these two sorts of Ministers are concerned in the Case but it is only of Ministers legally Ordained 2 We must remember how the conscience is bound and what is here meant thereby The conscience is bound two manner of wayes 1 Primarily Immediately Directly from God himself and that either by some Naturall Law written in the heart or some Positive Law written in the Scripture We understand it not in this sense the Minister is not so bound 2. The Conscience is bound but Mediately and Indirectly when the Magistrate commands any thing which is lawfull For the Subject's Conscience is bound to the Law though that Law do not binde it being meerly Humane It will not be amisse to adde a third Obligation which may lye upon the Conscience by way of consequence As when great Benefits have been received we are by them bound in Conscience i.e. Equity and Reason to returne thanks obedience requitalls and so some Expound Rom. 13. Not only for fear but Conscience sake It is taken in these two last senses in the Present case The third thing to be observed is what is meant by reading the Common-Prayer whether it be meant in whole or in part alwaies never missing or sometimes according to discretion and occurring circumstances And it is in this last construction that here we take it For it was in my memory once moved in convocation and answer was given That the Church intended not to make it a Drudgerie If he that hath no Assistant should first read the first service wholely and afterwards Preach and then again read the second Service it were an heavy burthen for the strongest Lungs The conclusion therefore is that every Minister legally Ordained is bound in conscience both mediately and by way also of consequence to read the Common-Prayer at Discretion if there be a Sermon at other times wholly as it is prescribed And the arguments to the contrary do not conclude To the first Neither Proposition is true Not the first For the Minister and every good man is bound to do vvhat is his duty vvhatsoever the event may be to others I must preach the Word though it prove to some the savour of death I must Administer the Sacrament though some Receiver may eat his own Damnation I must vvorship God in Publick as the Magistrate commands me

having acted a part in a Comedy in derision of an old puritan whereas the said Comedy was onely to represent the extravagancies of love and was performed chiefly to gratifie the honourable and hopefull Baronet Sir VViliam Portman vvho vvith all that were present God be thanked are yet in perfect health save onely Mr. Ball vvho in a journey aftervvard in the exceeding hot vveather took a surfet by eating Pork and Caule and thereof dyed and to give him his due now he is gone 't is fit to be known that he was the Son of a very great Presbyterian and Non-conformist and so are most of his relations and in that way and those schismaticall principles he was bred yet being a very good schollar and after his coming to Oxford reading indifferently the books of both sides and seriously weighing their scriptures Antiquities and reasons forsook the Presbyterians and freely and chearfully came over to the Episcopall judgement even in those times when there was not the least glimps of hope of his advantaging but rather blasting his preferments by so doing And of sundry the like notorious afflictions upon diverse Ministers and other Non-conformists in sundry Counties It would make up a far larger book then that wherein the Army of the Toads is so ridiculously set forth and that not so much to shevv the judgements of God against the revivers of Common prayer as of Quakers and other such Phanaticks and sectaries as any but mere dolts may observe in diverse particulars of that book however the title page layes all on the Common prayers score According to the old ones Maxime calumniare fortiter aliquid haerebit cast dirt enough and some of it will stick on the smoothest and purest wall or garment Perhaps some will say Doctor Brownrig who was for Episcopacy and Common prayer died of a sudden extream fit of the stone the scholars or hard students disease but Hugh Peters who is against both is hang'd drawn and quarterd according to Law pray which is the greater judgement the Duke of Glocester who was for both died of the small pox for which some vile wretches have kept a thanksgiving day with words to this purpose Lord as thou hast cut off one of the limbs of that wicked family to go on to destroy it root and branch till there be not one of that wicked race left but Henry Martine who was against both either is already dead or like to die of the great otherwise called the French or Gallick Pox to save the hangman a labour I pray which is the greater judgement Thus you see how easie it is to accumulate undeniable Paradigmes more then a good many of such as are or have been Adversaries of the good old government of the Church of England and the Liturgy thereof and have felt god's scourge heavie upon them and thereby to stifle the noise of the Croaking Toads that of late have been creeping abroad to the disparagement of the good old way of God's worship But the truth is by all these things 't is hard to judge of god or evill 't is Turkish or Cromwellian divinity to judge of the right of a Religion by the lives or events of those that profess it let Holy writ as it is interpreted by the ancient Church and Fathers who were nearest the Fountain be our guide and never go to the Episkies of Enthusiasmes and mis-applyed providences vvhich must needs mis-lead us The true Copy of a Letter from a very Reverend Church-man in ansvver to a young man who desired his judgement without delay upon this Case viz. Whether every Minister of the Church of England be bound in conscience to read the Common-prayer SIR I Receiv'd your Letter in folio with others inclosed which I have returned The Books you write of I have not received yet I thank you for your good intentions I am sorry the paper is printed by it self it will be the less publick sooner die and vvill make the Authour the more enquired after vvhich may prove prejudicial Your Case you sent me must be put thus vvhether a Minister that is every Minister of the Church of England All indefinites in materiaâ necessariâ are equivalent to universals be bound in conscience to use the Common prayer The Case thus put there seem many things to be said to the contrary E. G. 1. No Minister is bound in conscience to do any thing which will be more hurtfull then profitable to God's Church but vve think this vvill be so Ergò c. 2. No Minister is bound in conscience to that vvhich will offend any godly men but this vvill do so Ergò c. 3. No man is bound in conscience to any thing forbidden by lavvfull Authority But the Common-prayer was forbidden by Lords and Commons Ergò c. 4. That which hath been disused and so is antiquated doth not binde without an Act of Reviver The Common-prayer hath been thus disused and there is no such Act c. Ergo c. 5. Nothing can thus binde which is not of faith for what is not of faith is sin But thus to do is not of faith to some Ergò c. 6. The Minister is not bound in conscience to any thing which will cause him to be suspected of lightness and so bring him and his Ministry into contempt with the people But this will do so Ergò c. 7. He is not bound in his conscience to do that against which he hath shevved his dislike either by preaching or conference with his people But some Ministers have done so Therefore not lawful for them or at least they are not bound in conscience c. Ergò c 8. No man is bound in conscience to any Act of imprudence which may make him ridiculous to others But this may be such if there should come from supream authority either a prohibition or alteration of that service But c. Ergò c. 9. No man is bound in conscience to that from which he hath a dispensation from his lawfull Superiour But some have been so dispensed with c. Ergò c. 10. None are bound to this who was ordeined without Oathes and Subscriptions But some Ministers have been so ordeined c. Ergò c. This is all you have in your paper and all I think can be said by others which question not the thing in it self as did the old Puritans as unlawfull for the Negative For the Affirmative it is said 1. Every man is bound to that which the Law of the land still in force require of him But the Law of the land still in force requires the reading of the Common-prayer Ergò c. 2. Every Minister is bound to what the Law of the Church by her Canons and Constitutions requires of him But c. Ergò c. 3. Every Minister is bound in conscience to use that kind of publick worship supposing neither restraint nor danger which is best for the peoples edification

The very Poets and Oratours among the antient Ethnicks took this care before they did dare to commit any thing to publick view or audience not only for the propriety and puritie of the words and phrase but also for the soliditie and pertinencie's sake of what they penned as the Illustrious Lipsius and since him the learned Vossius shew in their treatises de Recitatione veterum And shall Heathens be more tender of their credits then we Christians of the peace of the Church and of Charity I know nothing has conduced so much to the bringing us into those late horrid confusions and so likely to hurry us back again into them as that overweening Enthusiasticall opinion which the common people have got among them viz. That when a man is got up into the Pulpit especially if he make use of no Notes he has a speciall extraordinary inspiration not much short of if not the very same with that of the old Prophets Evangelists and Apostles and that God puts even the words and phrases into his minde and mouth and that what he there prayes and preaches as they call it is the very word of God farre transcending that which is read in the Pew below The occasion or cause rather of this opinion among people is that this and the like prefaces are ordinarily recited in the Pulpit never in the Pew viz. Hearken to the word of God as you shall finde it written c. Or hearken to the good word of God as it shall be delivered to you upon these words c. Or give good heed or attention to the whole minde of God as it shall be exhibited from these words c. Whereas alas too too often to the great grief of sober minded Christians some are so far from giving the minde of God that they do not understand the minde of learned men upon those places they undertake to handle What if a man should say that since the death of the Prophets Evangelists and Apostles there is no preaching at all properly and strictly so called For they were the only proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. Heralds Proclaimers Predicatours or Embassadours that brought the sacred Messages to us immediately from God and the Ministers of the Gospell now are bound up to their Canon may not adde or diminish one Iota and therefore are rather Expositours then Preachers unless it be in a very large and improper sense What if a man should say that the expounding of any place of Scripture must be done in the same way and by the same helps that a Master or Usher in a School uses in the exposition of Isocrates his Paraenesis or Tullie's Offices or any other Classicall Author What if a man should say that publick praying or preaching in a large sense ex tempore if any be so prophanely rash and sinfull as so to do for some that are thought by the Deluded people so to do do nothing less but do make as many wry mouths close-stool faces in private to prepare those crudities as they do in squeezing them out in publick is no more then for a school-boy to make a rude Theam Oration or Verse ex tempore 'T is true indeed that praying and preaching still I mean in the larger sense are Acts conversant about sacred things and yet are no more properly gifts then any of the liberall sciences God's good blessing no doubt does go along with them where they are soberly and Regularly used in their kinde and so it doth with a christian scholar or student in his other learning in it's kinde And any one in the Pulpit if he hath not read much and studied hard before hand may as soon mistake the true sense of a place of Scripture or faulter in his prayer as a school-master or scholar at the Desk or Table if they be not circumspect in expounding construing or parsing an Authour or composing and pronouncing Theam Verse or Oration And this I take to be correspondent to the mind of that Illustrious light of our Church Doctor Hammond in his preface to his precious Annotations upon the New Testament and of all the most pious and learned Church-men of our Nation who are content with that Honour which God hath given them by an ordinary call and his ordinary Assistance without desiring to boy upthemselves in the esteem of the Vulgar by a Pretence to such Mountebank Enthusiasmes as others boast of And for the Specialties or particular Bills that are put up in some of our Churches it were well if they were a little better considered of and whither they tend As for example if a Lace-maker or Button-seller hath occasion to go to a Faire or Market at thirty o fourty miles distance or to place a Boy to School or an Apprentice the Prayers of the greatest Congregations are olemnly desired for a blessing upon the Journey and Under taking 'T is true God's Providence is over the meanest thing and the lowest Actions of men as over the very Sparrows and the very hairs of our heads and yet if a Sparrow that one loves should be sick or ones haire begin to fal off were it fit to put up a particular publike solemn prayer in a Church for them What will wise men say to this Bill viz. A Servant that is fallen into a prophane Familie desires the Prayers of this Congregation that God would be peased in mercy by his Providence to finde out a way to remove him out of that Familie Whither I pray tends this but to faction and sedition in Families as well as in the Church and State One would have thought if it had been fit at all that such a thing should be put up in a Bill for publick Prayer it should rather have been thus viz. A Servant that is fallen into a prophane Familie desires the prayers of this Congregation that God would give him patience to continue there and be a blessing to that Familie as Joseph was to Potiphar's and Instrumental for God's glory by his good example But should we tell of all the strange Extravagancies of some men in their praying preaching thanksgivings and fastings as how one desires God to make the King truly a Defender of the Faith as if it were not his legal Title and an Injunction of both Houses that he should be prayed for as Defender of the Faith truly Ancient Catholick and Apostolick and in all Causes and over all Persons as well Ecclesiastical as Temporal in his Majesties Realmes and Dominions Supreme Head and Governour But some men fondly think if his Majestie be not for Presbyterie or Independencie against Bishops and Common-prayer he cannot be truly a Defender of the Faith Another appoints a publick Fast of his private phancie and prayes that God would humble the Nation for not sticking close to the Covenant for starting aside from the Covenant for not Adhering to the Covenant in it's principal and main ends and intentions Another begs God to undermine and pull down the great ones in the Nation that are combining against God and Jesus Christ and the Power of Godlinesse in the Nation and that he would set up his Zerubbabels again in the Nation Another preaches that a true Minister of the Gospel must use Distraction in his preaching and not such a kind of general preaching as was now coming up in the Nation which would break no bones and convert no soules Hath his Majestie been so gracious as to forgive so much and to declare for a warning his Resolvednesse to use all rigour and severity for the future against all such as by word or deed shall do any thing contrary to the Government which comprehends as well that in the Church as that in the State and yet dare these Audacious Incendiaries still go on under a pretence of zeal for God's glory to blow the Trumpet of Sedition and another Rebellion Let them take heed that the hand of God and Justice do not overtake them e're they be aware as it hath some of their wicked crew The Reader is desired to take notice that whereas there is a scandalous story grassant in dishonour to the Reverend Bishops and Doctours of our Church viz. That when the first newes of the Parliament's due submission to and close with his Majestie 's Gracious declaration was brought to the Hague His Majesty should call upon a Bishop or Doctour then present in these or such like words Come Doctour since it hath pleased God to be so Gracious to me and my people let Us immediately give God solemn thanks here while the Commissioners be present At which the Bishop or Doctour was much abashed as the story runs and making shift for a common-prayer-Common-prayer-book did tumble it and fumble it a long time for some forme or formes to serve the particular occasion but after long ado his Majesty with some passion said Why cannot you give God thanks upon such an eminent occasion without your Book To which the Bishop or Doctour replied may it please your Majesty I desire not to be wiser then the Church At which His Majesty hastily snatcht the Book from him laid it under his own Armes and gave God thanks ex tempore in an admirable manner This is the story but upon good enquirie and discourse with sundry Persons then present it appears to be indeed but a story and if it be otherwise let any of that gang disprove it if he can in the next Pamphlet or Journall Doctour Earle and Doctour George Hall are Persons fide digni and were present all the while the Commissioners were delivering their Message to the King and they have been talked with and averr the contrary And no question His Majesty if he be humbly asked will make good what they averr VVell fare Mr. Faireclough of Wells in Somersett who hath the Knack of praying Ex tempore as well as the best of them and hath gone for a Presbyterian that at a friendly Conference with some Divines in Dorsetshire ingenuously confessed That he never prayed so heartily in his life as at Cambridge by the Common-prayer And that rather then there should be another such a Confusion in Church or State he could wish all the Presbyterians and Independents in England banisht FINIS