another in his Epistle to the Protector I shall not give my selfe license to transcribe these or multiply more such Testimonies only for the honour not only of Liturgy in generall but particularly of our Liturgy 't will be worth remembring that Gilbertus a German many years since in a book of his propounds our Book of Prayer for a sample of the Formes of the ancient Church And for the purity of it and thorough Reformation that Cranmer procured the King Edwards Common-Prayer-Book to be translated into Latine and sent it to Bucer and required his judgment of it who answer'd that there was nothing in it but what was taken out of the Word of God or which was not against it commodè acceptum being taken in a good sense some things indeed saith he quae nisi quis c. unlesse they be interpreted with Candor may seem not so agreeable to the Word of God and which unquiet men may wrest unto matter of contention As may be seen at large in Bucers Scripta Anglicana Upon this occasion that Book of King Edwards was again survey'd and in those particulars that were subject to such Cavils corrected After which time the quarrells about that Book were generally with the Papists not so much with the opposite extreame and therefore John Ould in Queen Maries daies wrote against them in defence of it and of the King Edwards Reformation And Cranmer made a challenge that if he might be permitted by the Queen to take to him P. Martyr and foure or five more they would enter the lists with any Papists living and defend the common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book to be perfectly agreeable to the Word of God and the same in effect which had been for 1500. years in the Church of Christ This for the reputation of the Book Then for the fruit and benefit that by the use of it redounded to Christians take an essay by M. John Hullier Fellow of Kings Colledge in Cambridge who was Martyr'd in Queen Maries daies Anno 1557. and being at the stake among many other Books that were thrown into the fire to him it happened that a Common-Prayer-Book fell between his hands which he joyfully receiving opened and read till the flame and smoke suffered him not to see any more and then he fell to prayer holding his hands up to Heaven and the Book betwixt his armes next his heart thanking God for that mercy in sending him it the relation is M. Foxes and from thence the plea authentick that the tree that bare wholsome fruit should not be cut down by the Law Deut. 10. 20. even when Warre was to be made on a City and as Maimon addes l. de Idol though it were worshipt for an Idol and if that which was then of so dear esteem be now so necessary to be cast out it is an ill indication of the times into which we are fallen Sect 20 7. The reasons on which the very Heathens themselves took up the same practice which was uniuersall it seems through all the World more Catholick then the Church it selfe To this purpose beside those Authors which M. Selden referres to I shall only adde these three testimonies first of Plato l. 7. de leg where he commands That whatever Prayer or Hymnes the Poets composed to the Gods they should first shew them to the Priests as if they were in a manner leprous till then before they publisht them lest they should aske evill things instead of good an infirmity thâ—t these daies are very subject unto The second in Thucyd. l. 6. p. 434. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Set formes for severall occasions and a common joynt sending them up to heaven The third in Alexander ab Alex. l. 4. c. 17. That the Gentiles read their Prayers out of a Book before their Sacrifices Nè quià praeposterè dicatur aliquis ex scripto praeire adverbum referre solitus est That the work might not be done preposterously Which two reasons of theirs the one lest they should stray in the matter of their Prayers the other lest offend in the manner may passe for Christian reasons as seasonable with us as they were among them And no necessity that those reasons should be despised by us neither Sect 21 8. The irrationall concludings or shortnesse of discourse of those which are against set formes especially in two things the first observed by D. Preston whose memory is I hope not lost among these Assemblers and made use of in a printed worke of his to the confuting of them That while they in opposition to set Formes require the Minister to conceive a Prayer for the Congregation they observe not that the whole Congregation is by that means as much stinted and bound to a set Forme to wit of those words which the Minister conceives as if he read them out of a Book 2. That the persons with whom we have now to deale though they will not prescribe any Forme of Prayer yet venture to prescribe the matter of it in these words pag. 14. the Minister is to call upon the Lord to this effect Now why the prescription of the matter is not the stinting of the Spirit as well as the forme of words unlesse the Spirit like the Heathen Mercury be the God of eloquence and be thought to deale in the words only or why the promise of dabitur in illâ horâ it shall be given you in that houre should not be as full a promise for matter as for expressions especially when that Text forbids care or provision 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only how but what they should speake and the promise is peculiarly for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it shall be given you what you shall speak and this is it that is attributed to the Spirit v. 20. from whence if I should conclude that the Holy Ghost taught the Disciples onely the matter of their answer and they themselves were left to put it in Forme of words there is nothing in that Text against that assertion and that it was so in their penning of the New Testament many probable Arguments might be produced if it were now seasonable and consequently why the prescribing of one should not be unreasonable in them that condemne all prescribing of the other I confesse is one of those things which my charity hath made me willing to impute to the shortnesse of discourse because I am unwilling to lay any heavier charge upon it Sect 22 From all which considered and a great deale more which might be added from the usefulnesse of known Formes to those whose understandings are not quick enough to go along with unknown and if they have no other are fain oft times to return without performing any part of so necessary duty of prayer in the Church from the experience of the effects of the contrary doctrine the many scandalous passages which have fallen from Ministers in their extemporary Prayers of which meer pity and humanity civility and mercy to Enemies
A VIEW OF THE NEW DIRECTORIE AND A VINDICATION OF THE ANCIENT LITURGIE OF THE Church of England In Answer to the Reasons pretended in the Ordinance and Preface for the abolishing the one and establishing the other The Third Edition OXFORD Printed by HENRY HALL Printer to the UNIVERSITY 1646. BY THE KING A Proclamation Commanding the use of the Booke of Common-Prayer according to Law notwithstanding the pretended Ordinances for the New Directory WHereas by a Printed Paper dated the third of Ianuary last past intituled An Ordinance of Parliamâ—â—t for taking away the Book of Common-Prayer and for establishing and putting in execution of the Directory for the publique worship of God It is said to be ordained among other things That the Book of Common-Prayer should not remain or be from thenceforth used in any Church Chappell or place of publique Worship within the Kingdome of England or Dominion of Wales And that the Directory for publique Worship in that printed Paper set forth should be from thenceforth used pursued and observed in all exercises of publique Worship of God in every Congregation Church Chappell and place of publique Worship And by another printed Paper dated the 23. day of August last past intituled All Ordinance of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament for the more effectuall putting in execution the Directory for publique Worship c. particular directions are set down for the dispersing publishing and use of the said Directory in all parishes Chappelries and Donatives and for the calling in and suppressing of all Books of Common-Prayer under severall forfeitures and penalties to be levyed and imposed upon conviction before Iustices of Assize or of Over and Terminer and of the Peace as by the said two printed Papers may appeare And taking into Our consideration that the Book of Common Prayer which is endeavoured thus to be abolished was compiled in the times of Reformation by the most learned and pious men of that Age and defended and confirmed with the Martyrdome of many and was first established by Act of Parliament in the time of King Edward the sixth and never repealed or laid aside save only in that short time of Queen Maries Reign upon the returne of Popery and superstition and in the first yeare of Queen Elizabeth it was again revived and established by Act of Parliament and the repeale of it then declared by the whole Parliament to have béen to the great decay of the due honour of God and discomfort to the Professors of the truth of Christs Religion and ever since it hath béen used and observed for above fourescore yeares together in the best times of peace and plenty that ever this Kingdome enjoyed and that it conteines in it an excellent Forme of Worship and Service of God grounded upon holy Scriptures and is a singular meanes and helpe to devotion in all Congregation and that or some other of the like Forme simply necessary in those many Congregations which cannot be otherwise supplyed by learned and able men and kéeps up an uniformity in the Church of England And that the Directory which is sought to be introduced is a meanes to open the way and give the liberty to all ignorant Factious or evill men to broach their own fancies and conceits be they never so wicked and erroneous and to mis lead People into sin and Rebellion and to utter those things even in that which they make for their Prayer in their Congregations as in Gods presence which no conscientious man can assent or say Amen to And be the Minister never so pious and religious yet it will breake that uniformity which hitherto hath béen held in Gods service and be a meanes to raise Factions and divisions in the Church And those many Congregations in this Kingdome where able and religious Ministers cannot be maintained must be left destitute of all helpe or meanes for their publique worship and service of God And observing likewise that no reason is given for this alteration but only inconvenience alleadged in the generall and whether pride and avarice be not the ground whether rebellion and destruction of Monarchy be not the intention of some and sacriledge and the Churches possessions the aymes and hopes of others and these new Directories the meanes to prepare and draw the people in for all Wée leave to him who searches and knowes the hearts of men And taking into Our further consideration that this alteration is introduced by colour of Ordinances of Parliament made without and against Our consent and against an expresse Act of Parliament still in force and the same Ordinances made as perpetuall binding Lawes inflicting penalties and punishments which was never before these times so much as pretended to have been the use or power of Ordinances of Parliament without an expresse Act of Parliament to which Wée are to be parties Now lest Our silence should be interpreted by some as a connivance or indifferency in Us in a matter so highly concerning the Worship and Service of God the Peace and Unity of the Church and State and the establish'd Lawes of the Kingdome Wée have therefore thought fit to publish this Our Proclamation And Wée do hereby require and command all and singular Ministers in all Cathedrall and Parish-Churches and other places of publique Worship within Our Kingdome of England or Dominion of Wales and all other to whom it shall appertaine that the said Booke of Common-Prayer be kept and used in all Churches Chappels and places of publique Worship according to the said Statute made in that behalfe in the said first yeare of the said late Quéen Elizabeth And that the said Directory be in no sort admitted received or used the said pretended Ordinances or any thing in them conteined to the contrary notwithstanding And Wee do hereby let them know that whensoever it shall please God to restore Us to Peace and the Lawes to their due course wherein Wée doubt not of his assistance in his good time Wée shall require a strict account and prosecution against the breakers of the said Law according to the force thereof And in the meane time in such places where Wée shall come and find the Booke of Common-Prayer supprest and laid aside and the Directory introduced Wée shall account all those that shall be ayders actors or contrivers therein to be persons disaffected to the Religion and Lawes established and this they must expect besides that greater losse which they shall sustain by suffering themselves thus to be deprived of the use and comfort of the said Booke Given at Our Court at Oxford this thirteenth day of November in the one and twentieth yeare of Our Raigne 1645. GOD SAUE THE KING A PREFACE TO THE Ensuing Discouâ—se Sect 1 THat the Liturgy of the Church of England which was at first as it were written in bloud at the least sealed and delivered downe to us by the Martyrdom of most of the compilers of it should ever since be daily solicited and
interest and therefore I have thus farre as an Argument ad homines insisted on it Sect 16 3. The not onely practise but precept of Christ in the New Testament who did not only use himselfe a set forme of words in prayer three times together using the same words Mat. 26. 44. and upon the crosse in the same manner praying in the Psalmists words only changed into the Syriack dialect which was then the vulgar but also commanded the use of those very words of his perfect forme which it seems he meant not only as a pattern but a forme it selfe as the Standard weight is not only the measure of all weights but may it selfe be used Luk. 11. 2. when you pray say Our Father c. which precept no man can with a good conscience ever obey that holds all set formes necessary to be cast out of the Church Sect 17 4. The practise not only of John the Baptist who taught his Disciples to pray Luk. 11. 1. which occasioned Christs Disciples to demand and him to give them a forme of Prayer but especially of the Apostles of which we find intimations 1. Cor. 14. 26. when you come together every one of you hath a Psalme which sure referres to some of the Psalmes of David or Asaph used then ordinarily in their devotions and that as even now I said authorized by the example of Christ himselfe upon the Crosse who it is thought repeated the whole 22. Psalme it is certaine the first verse of it My God My God why hast thou forsaken me and so certainly a set forme and that of Prayer too of which thanksgivings and Prayses are a part But because every one had his severall Psalme it is therefore reprehended by the Apostle as tending to confusion and by that consequence Saint Pauls judgment is thence deducible for the joyning of all in the same form as being the only course tending to edification in the end of that verse and then sure 't would be hard that that which the Apostle conceived the only course for edifying should now be necessary to be turn'd out of the Church as contrary to edification Farther yet 't is clear by text that the Apostles when they met together to holy duties such are Fasting Prayer receiving the Sacrament continued very long time sometimes a whole day together This being too much to be alwaies continued in the Church and unsuteable to every mans businesse is said to have been the occasion that S. James first made choice of some speciall Prayers most frequently by them used which was after called his Liturgy which or some other in the disguise of that the Greek Church still use on solemne daies This also being of the longest for every daies use St. Basil is said to have shortned and that again St. Chrysostome how certain these reports are I shall not take upon me to affirme but only adde that the Greek Church who are most likely to know the truth of it by their records do retain all these three Liturgies and would loudly laugh at any man that should make doubt whether St. James S. Basil and S. Chrysostome were not the Authors of them 2. That the judgement of that Church if they are deceived also and may not be thought worthy to be heeded by our Assemblers is yet an argument of great authority to any prudent man if not that these Liturgies were purely the same with those that were written by that Apostle and those holy men yet that there were such things as Liturgies of their penning The like might be added of that short forme of St. Peters which alone they say was used in the Roman Church for a great while till after by some Popes it was augmented and the same of St. Marks Liturgy I am sure S. Augustine speaking of some formes retained in the Church and still to be found in our Liturgy particularly that of Sursum corda Lift up your hearts c. saith that they are verba ab ipsis Apostolorum temporibus petita words fetcht from the times of the Apostles which supposes that they did use such Formes And for that particular mention'd by S. Augustine it is agreeable to the Constitutions of the Apostles l. 8. c. 16. which collection if it be not so antient as it pretends doth yet imitate Apostolicall antiquity and so in S. James's and Basils and Chrysostomes Liturgy in the same words with our Booke as farre as to the word bounden and for many other such particular Formes used by us we find them in Cyril of Hierusalems Catechisme one of the antientest Authors we have and then that it should be necessary for the Church to turne out what the Apostles had thus brought into it will not easily be made good by our Assemblers Sect 18 5. The practice of the universall Church from that time to this which is so notorious to any that is conversant in the writings of the Antient Fathers and of which so many testimonies are gathered together for many mens satisfaction by Cassander and other writers of the Liturgica that 't were a reproach to the Reader to detain or importune him with testimonies of that nature To omit the practice of Constantine who prescribed a forme for his Souldiers a Copy of which we have in Euseb de vit Const l. 4. c. 20. I shall only mention two grand testimonies for set Formes one in the 23. Canon of the third Councell of Carthage Quascunque sibi preces aliquis describet non iis utatur nisi prius eas cum instructioribus fratribus contulerit No man may use any Prayers which he hath made unlesse he first consult with other learneder Christians about them and the other more punctuall Concil Milev c. 12. Placuit ut preces quae probatae fuerint in Concilio ab omnibus celebrentur Nec aliae omninò dicantur in Ecclesia nisi quae à prudentioribus tractantur vel comprobatae in Synodo fuerint ne fortè aliquid contra fidem aut per ignorantiam aut per minus studium sit compositum It was resolv'd on that the Prayers that were approv'd in the Councell should be used by all and that no other should be said in the Church but those that had been weighed by the more prudent or approv'd in a Synod lest any thing either through ignorance or negligence should be done against the Faith Instead of such Citations and because whatsoever argument is brought from that Topick of Ecclesiasticall tradition is now presently defamed with the title of Popish and Antichristian because forsooth Antichrist was a working early in the Apostles time and every thing that we have not a mind to in antiquity must needs be one of those works I shall rather chuse to mention another as a more convincing argument ad homines and that is Sect 9 6. The judgement and practice of the Reformed in other Kingdomes even Calvin himselfe in severall ample testimonies one in his Notes upon Psal 20. 1.
of that whole number of Divines whether I should do them wrong in affirming that there yet are not ten Divines in that number that think all Liturgy unlawfull and consequently that it was necessary not to reforme but to abolish our Booke which is the stile of the Ordinance If this challenge of mine may not be answer'd with a plain punctuall subscription of so many to the condemnation of all Liturgy as unlawfull I am sure this is an Argument ad homines unanswerable And the ground of my challenge and of my specifying that number is the relation we have oft had of the but seven dissenting Brethren i. e. the but so many of the Independent Party among them which upon my former ground I now suppose the only mortall enemies to all Liturgy But if I am mistaken and this be the common sense of those Assemblers then have I reason to add to my former complaints this other of their so over-cautious expressions which through this whole Book hath not once intimated either the whole or any part to be unlawfull but only quarrel'd the inconveniencies which suppose it otherwise to be lawfull Sect 11 And this much might suffice of the first observable in the Ordinance the concluding this abolition to be necessary But because I would foresee and prevent all possible rejoynder and because I would here interpose some considerations which would otherwise take up a larger place I shall suppose the Presbyterians may have another motion of the word necessary of a lower importance then this under which we have hitherto proceeded against them though still the Independents whose judgment is not wont to be despised in the framing of Ordinances cannot be imagined to take it in any other and that is that it shall signifie only a Politicall necessity or that which is necessary if not to the being yet to the well being i. e. to the Peace and prosperity of this Kingdome Now because there be two parts of every Christian Kingdome a State and a Church and so two branches of Policy Civill and Ecclesiasticall I shall not undertake to be so far Master of their sense as to pitch upon either as that wherein they affirme this abolition necessary but say somewhat to both and to shew that it is not necessary in either sense of Politicall necessity Sect 11 And first that the abolition of Liturgy cannot have so much as a benigne influence on the State much lesse be necessary to the prosperity of it I shall inferre only by this vulgar aphorisme that any notable or grand mutation if from some higher principle it appear not necessary to be made will be necessary not to be made at least not to be made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 altogether but only by degrees and prudent dispensings I shall not any farther enlarge on so plain a theme then to mention one proportion or resemblance of this truth in the naturall body observed by the Physitians in the cure of an hydropicall patient who when the body lyes covered with such a deluge of water that it proves necessary to make some sluce to let out the burthenous superfluity do not yet proceed by any loose way of letting out all at once because the violent effluvium or powring out of Spirits constantly consequent to that would certainly destroy the Patient and endanger him on dry ground as much or more then in the midst of those waters but the method is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the making so small a hole in the skin that shall drain the body by insensible degrees by drawing out a little at once and never above a pint at a time though many gallous are designed to passe by this way of evacuation I shall adde no more to this resemblance but that the totall violent illegall abolition of Liturgy in a setled Church is certainly of this nature and being superadded to the change of the Government into a Forme quite contrary to that which for 1600 years hath prevailed in the universall Church of Christ there setled by the Apostles may be allow'd the stile of insignis mutatio a mutation of some considerable importance to a Christian State which being admitted altogether without any preparative alleviating steps will by the rapid suddain motion at least if there were nothing else have a dangerous influence upon the whole body of which the cunningest diviner cannot at this instance foresee the effects or prevent the emergent mischiefes which succeeding times may discover If it be said that this abolition is now necessary to conclude the present Warre and that be affirmed to be the Politick necessity here meant I answer that if it were able to do that I should acknowledge it the strongest argument that could be thought on to prove it Politically necessary this Warre being so unnecessarily destructive and any thing that could rid us of that so strongly convenient that if Conscience would permit the use of it I should allow it the title of necessary But to make short of this no man can believe that these Armies were raised or continued to subdue the Common Prayer-Booke for besides that there was a time when 't was found necessary for the Houses to declare that they had no design to take away that Book for feare the People should be disobliged by it and another when the Earle of Essex his Army exprest some kindnesse to it 'T is now confest by the pretenders of both Perswasions Presbyterians and Independents one that they doe not the other that they must not take up Armes for Religion and so that kind of politicall necessity of abolishing the Book is and by themselves must be disclaimed also Sect 12 Now for the second branch of this necessity that which is in order to Ecclesiasticall or Church-policy we shall take liberty in this place to consider this matter at large because it may perhaps save us some pains hereafter and because their pretending of this necessity of doing what they do is a tentation if not a challenge to us to do so and then we shall leave it to the Reader to judge what grounds may hence be fetcht for this pretended necessity And this must be done by laying together the severall things that are in our Liturgy and are purposely left out in the Directory and so are as it were the Characteristicall note by which the Directory is by the Assemblers designed to differ from our Liturgy as so much food from poyson Christian from Antichristian if Necessity be properly taken or if improperly for that which is necessary only to the well being as a more perfect and more profitable from that which if it be so at all is not either in their opinion in so high a degree Sect 13 Now the severalls of our Liturgy which are purposely avoyded in this Directory I have observed to be principally these Of those that are more extrinsecall sixe 1. The prescribing of Formes or Liturgy it selfe 2. Outward or bodily worship 3.
yeare is resolv'd to prove fatall that so there may be at length as little imitation of Christ among us as reverence to Apostles Then for Rogation week though the originall or occasion of that cannot be deduced so high but is by Historians referred to Claud Mamertus Bishop of Vienne in France for the averting of some Judgements which on the observation of many inauspicious accidents and prodigies were sadly feared to be approaching yet will it not be Necessary to turne the Fasts or the Letanies or the Services assigned to it out of the Church as long as dangers are either present impendent or possible or indeed as long as there be sinnes enough among us to abode us ill or provoke any wrath of Heaven any judgments on us And when all those occasions cease I am content those Services may be laid aside also i. e. when we meet all together in heaven Next the Ember weeks are of great Antiquity in the Church called the quatuor tempora in the Latine Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from whence I conceive is the English Ember in the Greek and beside the first institution of them for quarterly seasons of devotion proportion'd to each part of the yeare as the first fruits of every season that the whole and each division of it might be blest by it and again beside their answerablenesse to those foure times of solemne Fast mention'd among the Jewes that we Christians may not be inferiour unto them in that duty an admirable use is assign'd to them in the Church in imitation of the Apostles Act. 13. 3. by Fasting and Prayer to prepare for the ordination of Ministers immediately consequent to every such week that God would send and furnish worthy Instruments of his glory to serve him in that glorious Office and till Ministers are acknowledg'd to be generally so good that either they cannot or need not be better till those are also grown immortall as the framers of this Ordinance and so no use of care for succession I shall suppose it not over-necessary to precipitate these out of the Church of Christ but rather wish that there were in our Liturgy some Service appointed of Lessons and Prayers for this purpose to be used constantly on the dayes of Fast through those weekes Sect 47 Thus have I as briefly as I could examined all the pretended exuberances of our Liturgy which have required it thus to be more then lanced even to a deliquium animae to many fainting fits a long while and at last to it 's fatall period if our Assemblers may be allowed of the Jury and this Ordinance have leave to be the executioner And as yet to the utmost of our impartiall thoughts can we not discerne the least degree of Necessity of any the most moderate signification of the word to own so tragicall an Exit The leafes which have been spent in this search as it may seem unnecessarily might perhaps have been better employed Yet will it not be unreasonable to expect a favourable reception of them when 't is considered that by this meanes a farther labour is spared there needing no farther answer to the whole body of the Directory or any part of it when it shall thus appeare that there was no necessity for the change nay which I conceive hath all along been concluded that the continuance of the Liturgy unlesse some better offer or bargain were proposed to us is still in all policy in all secular or Christian prudence most necessary And therefore when we have considered the second particular in the Ordinance and to that annext a view of some severalls in the Preface the Readers taske will be at an end and his patience freed from the tentation of our importunity Sect 48 The second thing then in the Ordinance is that all the severals which this Ordinance is set to confront are Statutes of Edward the sixth and of Queen Elizabeth all which are without more adoe repealed by this Ordinance which I mention not as new acts of boldnesse which now we can be at leasure to declame or wonder at but to justifie the calumniated Sons of this Church who were for a long time offered up maliciously to the Peoples hatred and fury first as illegall usurpers and adders to Law then as Popishly affected and the patterne of Queen Elizabeths time vouched to the confirming of this their Charge and the Erection of her very Picture in some Churches and solemnization of a day for her annuall remembrance by those who will not now allow any Saint or even Christ himselfe the like favour design'd to upbraid those wayes and reprove those thoughts It seemeth now 'tis a season for these men to traverse the scene to put off disguises and professe openly and confidently what 'till now they have been carefull to conceale that their garnishing the Sepulchre of Queen Elizabeth was no argument that they were cordially of her Religion or meant kindnesse sincerely to the Queen Elizabeths Reformation Some seeds we know there were of the present practises transmitted hither from our Neighbour Disciplinarians in the dayes of Q. Elizabeth and some high attempts in private zeale in Hacket and Coppinger and Arthington at one time which when God suffered not to prosper it was the wisedome of others to call phrensie and madnesse in those undertakers And generally that is the difference of fate between wickednesse prospering and miscarrying the one passeth for Piety the other for Fury I shall now not affirme or judge my Brethren but meekly aske this question and leave every mans own Conscience to answer not me but himselfe in it sincerely and without partiality whether if he had lived in the dayes of Q. Elizabeth and had had his present perswasions about him and the same encouragements and grounds of hope that he might prosper and go thorough with his designs he would not then in the matter of Religion have done just the same which now he hath given his Vote and taken up Armes to doe If he say out of the uprightnesse of his heart he would not I shall then only aske why it is done now what ill planet hath made that poyson now which was then wholesome food why Q. Elizabeths Statutes should be now repealed which were then so laudable If any intervenient provocation or any thing else extrinsecall to the matter it selfe have made this change now necessary this will be great injustice in the Actors Or if the examples of severity in her dayes the hanging of Coppin and Thacker An. 1583. at S. Edmundsbury for publishing Brownes book saith Cambden which saith Stow p. 1174. was written against the Common-Prayer-Book might then restrain those that were contrary-minded I know no reason why the Lawes by which that was done should not still continue to restrain or at least why Conscience should not be as powerfull as Feare From all this I shall now take confidence to conclude that were there not many earlier testimonies to confirme it this
one Ordinance would convince the most seducible mistaker of these two sad truths Sect 49 1. That the preservation of Lawes so long and so speciously insisted on was but an artifice of designe to gaine so much either of authority to their Persons or of power and forte into their hands as might enable them to subvert and abolish the most wholesome Lawes of the Kingdome and in the mean time to accuse others falsly of that which it was not their innocence but their discretion not their want of will but of opportunity that they were not really and truly and perfectly guilty of themselves that so they most compleatly own and observe the principles by which they move and transcribe that practice which hath been constantly used by the Presbyterians wheresoever they have appear'd to pretend their care zeale to liberty that by that means they may get into power like Absalom a passionate friend to justice when he had an itch to be King or like Deioces in Herodotus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his ambition of Magistracy made him content to be just which as soon as they attain they inclose and tyrannically make use of to the enthralling and enslaving all others Even Lawes themselves the only Bounds and Bulwarks of Liberty which alone can secure it from servitude on one side and licentiousnesse on the other which very licentiousnesse is the surest way to servitude the licentiousnesse of one implying the oppression and captivity of some other and being it selfe in a just weighing of things the greatest slavery as much as the mans own unruly passions are greater Tyrants then Lawes or lawfull Princes are to be levell'd in their Jehu-march to be accused and found to be at last the only guilty things and the same calamity designed to involve the pretended Enemies of Lawes and the Lawes themselves Sect 50 The second truth that this unhappy Ordinance hath taught us is that which a while ago had been a Revelation of a Mystery indeed which would without any other auxiliary have infallibly quencht this flame which now like another Aetna and Vesuvius is gotten into the bowells of this Kingdome and is there likely to rage for ever if it be not asswaged from Heaven or determin'd through want of matter by having devoured all that is combustible but now is a petty vulgar observation that hath no influence or impression on any man and therfore I scarce now think it worthy the repeating and yet to conclude this period fairly I shall 't is only this That the framers of this Ordinance that have so long fought for the defence of the establisht Protestant Religion will not now have Peace unlesse they may be allowed liberty to cast off and repeale every of those Statutes that of the second and third of Edward the sixth that of the fifth and sixth of the same King that of the first of Qu. Elizabeth that of the fifth that of the eighth of the same Queen though not all at once yet as farre as concernes the matter in hand by which you may be assured that the fragments of those Statutes which remain yet unabolished are but reserved for some other opportunity as ready for a second and third sacrifice as thus much of them was for this by which the Protestant Religion stands established in this Kingdome and in which the whole worke of Reformation is consummate And all this upon no higher pretence of Reason then only a Resolution to do so a not being advised by their Divines to the contrary and to countenance the weaknesse of those two motives a proofelesse scandalous mention or bare naming of manifold inconveniencies which might as reasonably be made the Excuse of Robbing and Murthering and Damning as farre as an Ordinance would reach all men but themselves as of abolishing this Liturgie Lord lay not this sinne to their Charge CHAP. II. Sect 1 THe Preface to the Directory being the Oratour to perswade all men to be content with this grand and suddain change to lay down with patience and aequanimity all their right which they had in the venerable Liturgy of the Church of England and account themselves richly rewarded for doing so by this new framed Directory begins speciously enough by seeming to lay down the only reasons why our Ancestors a hundred yeares agoe at the first Reformation of Religion were not only content but rejoyced also in the Booke of Common Prayer at that time set forth But these reasons are set down with some partiality there being some other more weighty grounds of the Reformers framing and others rejoycing in that Booke then those negative ones which that preface mentions viz. the perfect Reformation wrought upon the former Liturgy the perfect conformity of it with and composure out of the Word of God the excellent orders prescribed and benefit to be reaped from the use of that Booke and the no manner of reall objection or exception of any weight against it All which if they had been mentioned as in all justice they ought especially when you report not your own judgements of it but the judgements of those rejoycers of that age who have left upon record those reasons of their rejoycing this Preface had soon been ended or else proved in that first part an answer or confutation of all that followes But 't is the manner of men now adaies to conceale all that may not tend to their advantage to be taken notice of a practice reproached by honest Cicero in his bookes of offices of life in the story of the Alexandrian ship-man that went to relieve Rhodes and out-going the rest of his fellowes sold his Corne at so much the more gain by that infamous artifice though not of lying yet of concealing the mention of the Fleet that was coming after and to cut off the locks of that Sampson whom they mean to bind pare and circumcise the clawes of that creature they are to combate with I mean to set out that cause and those arguments at the weakest to which they are to give satisfaction And yet by the way I must confesse that even these weake arguments which they have named are to me of some moment as first The redresse of many things which were vaine erroneous superstitious and Idolatrous which argues that all is not now involv'd under any of those titles nor consequently to be abolisht but further reform'd only 2. That they which did this were wise and pious which they that were would never take pains to purge that which was all drosse their wisedome would have helpt them to discern that it was so and their piety oblige them to reject it altogether and not to save one hoofe when all was due to the common slaughter 3. That many godly and learned men rejoyced much in the Liturgy which argues that all was not to be detested unlesse either these men now be somewhat higher then Godly or Learned of that middle sort of rationalls that Iamblichus out of