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
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 LONDON Printed in hopes to doe good to the Publick or at least to give some check to the Impudent Slanders of some Malicious Non-Conformists who by the same Artifice as they did in the Year 1642 goe about to re-inflame these Nations by their Libellous Pamphlets 1660. Munday September 24. 1660. THis night about eleven of the clock was a very violent fire in Fleet-street which began at the Red Lion in a short time consumed many houses and did in a manner surround the dwelling house of the Reverend Doctor Wilde now Bishop of London Derry in Ireland did fiercely blaze against the walls thereof being but of a thin Flemmish building and even into the very windows of sundry rooms And yet God was pleased miraculously to preserve the said house and there to give a stop to the fire as he had done some years since at the same Doctor 's house which is a sufficient confutation if there were no other of that scandalous and Phanatick Pamphlet lately set forth as a little Theatre of God's judgements against such as have been forward to Revive the use of the Common-prayer book 'T is well known that the said Doctor Wilde all along these horrid confusions and even in the heighth of Oliver's Tyranny did constantly uphold and practise as became a true Confessour of the Church of England the Liturgy of the said Church And who can tell though it be indeed an high presumption for any to be too determinate in judging of God's providences and prying into his cabinet counsels yet I say who can tell but that even for a Testimony to these Nations and this great City especially of God's gracious acceptance of the appointed Liturgies and Letanies of our poor persecuted Mother the Church of England God hath been pleased twice so remarkably to preserve that house and family where his worship hath been so regularly observed And if one would be a little industrious to muster the disasters of those that have been adversaries to Episcopacy and the established discipline and Liturgy it were no great taske nor altogether unseasonable for these giddy times As for example The sudden taking off Mr. Gower of Dorchester within few dayes after his coming up to London with the Petition of many associated non-conformists intruders c. of those parts Of the sudden and dangerous rupture of body that not long since befell Mr. Bampfield of Sherborn Dorset and the various mischiefs that have fallen upon him and his assistant forsooth for Curate is grown too low a title viz. The ejection of the latter out of his usurped fellowship in Saint Magdalen's Colledge Oxford The sudden death of both of their horses on which they were wont to ride to associations unlawfull fasts and ordinations caused as is shrewdly suspected by three or four of their own Disciples that pretended to be great Converts of their making but are now under suspition and legal restraint for witches Of so many scores of intruders that for recovery of their Hypochondriack maladies or else to wash off if it were possible by water-drinking the staines of their consciences for the coveting and violent possessing of their neighbours nay their own Mother's sons houses and lands at the late famous waters at Woodbury hill Dorset Their own Mother's sons I say and Fathers two unless they be bastards which 't is to be feared too many of them be and the worst of bastards an incestuous brood being generated not by any Father or Bishop of the Church but in the heat of a schismaticall lust by their own brother Presbyters Of the great infirmity of body and mind which Mr. Newton of Taunton hath been subject to ever since he was present and accessary to the plundring of Sherborn-school and Almes house Of the exceeding great weakness of Mr. Forde of Excester since his recanting his recantation and declaiming so vehemenly against Bishops and common-prayer Of the grievous affliction Mr. Nichols of Excester hath had with his eldest daughter who was first mazed with his over-austere looks his thundring doctrines of absolute predestination and reprobation and his extravagant zeal or choller rather against the old Episcopacy and Liturgy and continues a great affliction to him God of his mercy look upon her and in her conversion convert her Father and her other relations to a due obedience to the Laws of God of the King and the Church Of Mr. Chetwyn of VVells his sad distemper since his being so great a Phanatick and Stickler for Extempore prayers and against the old orders of the Church Of the ill successes of all the intruding fellows of Saint Magdalens Colledge Oxon. Since their division of the Aurum Tolosanum the good founder's gold by their little less then sacrilegious avarice and their rending of the Church by their Chappell chat and Saint Marie's Sermons Of Mr. Ben of Dorchesters monstrous chin-cough which would make any that hears him doubt there 's a shrewd core at his conscience for his subscribing to the Kings tryall and outing Mr. Newt at Tiverton to make room for his son and daughter Polewheel and other hainous crimes besides his great slip at Oxford that all his Hah-hings cannot remove Of young Mr. Tomlins of Newbury who was in armes against Bishops and Common prayer and sadly cut his own throat Of the impure daughter of that old factious Puritan Gervase of Andover who first got a great belly among her holy brethren as they call them and then to hide the shame of the ungodlike godly ungratiously hang'd her self in her Father's barn and yet was buried in those sanctified times in the Church-yard as if she had dyed a Christian death whereas yet neither King nor Church are satisfied for her Felo de se out of that estate she dyed possessed of Of two of Captain Doweys souldiers that likewise hanged themselves in Dorsetshire rather then they would live to hear or say Almighty and most mercifull Father we have erred and straied Of the famous Mr. Obadiah Sedgewick of Covent-garden that after his excessive venery now and anon two turn'd mere Sot Of Mr. Ball of Northampton that turned worse then Sot which may serve to put in the scales against that base slaunder of the ingenious Mr. John Ball late fellow of Wadham Colledge that in the book of the Toades is said to have been suddenly struck for his
though some receive hurt thereby Good ought not to be overcome of Evill The second Proposition is not true nor is it so set down but with a Putamus We perhaps think otherwise Besides if it do more harm then good it 's per Accidens The hurt is not from any fault in the thing but from the fault of those that receive hurt by it So Wine may be hurtful and the Sun-shine because of vapours and noisom weeds exhaled by it from the earth By the Church also in this Argument is meant Some i.e. a party in the Church and so we have it in the second Argument which invalidates the force of them To the second Argument we say That a Minister is bound in conscience to do that which may offend some godly men if it be an offence taken not given If a good thing be drawn by evil construction to be made a stumbling block if the thing be a publick Duty not a private Action if thereupon some be offended at the doing Others and they much to be preferred for Number Wisdome Authority be offended at the not doing if a Reason be rendred to take off the offence it ceaseth to be Scandalum Pusillorum and is become Scandalum Pharisaeorum and then our Saviour's Rule takes place Let them be offended To the third It was never forbidden by lawful Authority The Houses made an Ordinance that is no law Ordinances of Parliament are of force but sedente Parlamento Those that think otherwise of that Ordinance and conclude it presumption to go against it are poor Ignaro's and ought not to be humoured For it is a part of the inflaming the Nation to obey Ordinances as Laws He that humours them herein is if a knowing man more guilty then they To the fourth the Proposition is untrue For though Time eats thorough all things yet not Lawes unlesse by a very long disusing It 's not so here Besides the disuse was by reason of force or fear such disuse doth not Antiquate Lavves but only a voluntary laying them aside To the Fifth Faith in that of the Apostle is nothing but a knowledge of the thing I do to be lawfull But to read the Common-Prayers to be lawfull appears 1 Because we have proved it to be a necessary duty 2 Because it is not inexpedient in regard of the Minister or People but most expedient for both as the Arguments do shew To the Sixth The Minister doth incurre thereby no suspition of Levitie but rather he doth Proclaime his Constancy to the Law to the Church to his first Principles If a Woman ravished from her lawfull Husband for twelve years should take the first opportunitie to run from the Ravisher to her first Husband were she to be judged light So c. They rather are to be condemned of lightnesse which have been carried from their first Principles by every winde and now are ashamed to returne To the seventh The Proposition is so false that the contrary is most true For Retractations of Errours publickly broached or privately instilled are as necessary to a Minister as Repentance and Restitution are for Sinners Else the Minister pretends to Lord it over God's People as if he had the Pope's spirit of Infallibility The Minister's humilitie and sincerity should make him do in this what the Pope's pride and selfe ends suffer him not to do To the Eighth If a Prohibition or Alteration of the Service should come from Authority He were imprudent and ridiculous that should afterwards use it But to use it now whilest the law binding thereto is in force were no more ridiculous supposing such Prohibition or Alteration to be so then to observe at present any Law of the Land which the State may think fit to disanull It would not be ridiculous but only to men that are ridiculous To the Nineth No lawfull Superiour hath dispensed with any Minister as is pretended I am sure the King and Parliament have not I am sure a Bishop cannot He can only Connive which is not to Dispense Besides is that Bishop in being Is he your Bishop Will he own it Personall Acts of this nature die and become Null with the Person This is two thin a Fig-leafe To the Tenth That ever Bishop S. ordeined any Minister without the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and that of Canonicall Obedience without subscribing likewise to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church Credat Judaeus If they please the Bishop shall answer for himself I will procure it You see how willing I am to serve you and howmuch I rely upon your wisedome and fidelitie to betray these things into your hands I pray remember they are not to be communicated by tran-scribed Copies You know they must needs be almost Extemporary Conceptions I should be unwilling to father such Scribbles yet they were ever my destiny Odi puerum you say and I Scriptum praecÅcis ingenii Make what use you please of the thing if it be usefull but not of my Name There is little hope of prevailing with those that are contrary minded unlesse Authority stip in And there is as little in it to confirme you in your practice of going to another Church This is another Case viz. VVhether my own Minister refusing to do his duty as he ought by Law to doe I may forsake him and the Congregation Is not this also against the Law of the Church and State Is it not to countenance the Schismaticks in their Separating May it not seem to disturbe be Churches peace VVhat then is to be done 1. Treat with him in all gentlenesse and meeknesse in private for rebuke openly belongs to Authority 2. If this succeed not then according to Christ's rule take others with you If that fayle Dic Ecclesiae If this may not at present be had desire his leave to be of another Congregation till a settlement by order be obtained I must have this Copie again for I have no other It 's fit I should have a counterpart of all my deeds But I hope you will not think it worth your keeping I beleeve you will prove a bad Conjurer All your spells will not send me to London till the Convocation if then Against vvhich as to my ovvn particular I vvill as heartily pray as I do novv resist your exerciseness Thanks be to God there be store of my betters much abler Penns and Tongues and those also personally concerned I am tyred vvith this long Scribble Read it as vvell as you can and Command to Love and Serve you Yours IN Answer to that part of this Letter where the Reverend man caveats the young man that consulted him for going to another Church where Common-prayer was from his own Parish-Church where it was not The young man made this Reply That though indeed by the Lawes of the Realm and the Church neither he nor any man seem to be bound to go out of their ovvn Parish to Church but may if they please serve God
to consultation who stood for it 10. All exceptions against our Liturgie must either be against a Set-form in general or against This form To the first I answer The special sacerdotal Benediction and decimal profession were deliver'd in an expresse forme and the Psalms of David of which St. Jerome has observed foure to be intitled prayers were standing parts of the Jewish Liturgy The 70. Disciples were all to use one short Benediction when sent to preach the Gospell Luke the 10. And Peter concludes almost all his Epistles with one set-forme Justine Martyr one of the eldest Sons of the Church mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the same we have in Tertullian who has left us heads of prayer for their Emperours vitam prolixam domum tutam senatum fidelem c. And Constantine had his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 composed with study 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Euseb which is as I conceive He duely said his Set and Appointed prayers with his houshold As for this forme that our Church uses our Hooker has long since at large asserted it with such arguments as may be enough to caution a moderate and peaceable man to be very tender and wary how he opposes his Private to the Publick judgment of the Church though he be not fully satisfied in every particular Adde to this that our Liturgie had the approbation of Calvin whose judgment in other things is of very great weight with us Worthy Sir presuming on your goodnesse I have made bold to offer these Reasons to you which if they prevaile not with you yet may be a Testimony of my observance and respects to you July the 20. 1660. Your unworthy fellow-labourer in the Ministry C M. To this Letter the over-grave Gentleman gave only this Ansvver to the Endighter of it though no vvhit inferior to him in age degree or standing in Vniversity but his superior in all those respects but very magisterially thus or very neer to this purpose and in as fevv vvords Sir I thank you for your Letter but there vvere some mistakes in it But vvhere or hovv his seraphicalnesse vvould not vouchsafe to shevv Vpon the Communicating the above-said Letter and some other Papers to that Reverend Person who stated the Case afore recited was returned this brief Answer following Sir YOu must not be offended if I answer your Folio in this Decimo sexto I have perused your Chartar your counsells opinion your Scholars glosse upon it my judgment is in brief Go on and prosper To me the Chartar is express the counsells opinion clear for you and many cases in the printed Book come home and I observe all the Decisions are more then ordinarily favourable to your pious use I cannot believe whatsoever is pretended to the contrary but that your Governours will be found to stand in a double capacitie 1. As Governours 2. As Feoffees and so questionable otherwise they might without fear either keep all to themselves or sell the Lands to others without controule I thank you for your Letter newes though nothing in them comes up to my expectation Bishops Deans Prebends are settled but no Vote for Church Lands Will they leave them to the Law When they did not the King And will not as it seemes by Coll. Kings Petition leave to the Law those that have sequestred Ministers nor do sequestred Gentlemen returne to their Estates by Law I cannot reconcile this That Dr. W. should be a Bishop is not beyond my expectation nor that he gives you so faire an invitation only I think that a good Parsonage in England is better then a Deanery in Ireland I am glad to hear that Dr. H. is of Sarum but stand at gaze to hear that my antient Friend Dr. Sb. shall be of Canterbury I attribute it to Dr. St. They were ex Intimis I am glad Mr. M. comes off and labours to draw after him Arietem gregis but I beleeve in vayne For the man I beleeve is now dyed in graine and thinks the whole service unlawfull though he pretend disuse dispensation offence c. Mr. M. doth court him handsomely with high flights and stooping c. But I hope he meanes Ironically All their high flights being like those of the Swallowes in foggy weather which are as low as the Earth it self when they hunt for flies I wish he had managed his Argument of Schismes in another vvay He saith from the Church of Rome against vvhich perhaps Mr. B. thinks it impossible to be a Schismatick But I vvould have said from the Church of England Nor do I commend his argument from the grovving of Popery vvhich I beleeve vvas not from the disuse of the Service but from abolishing Bishops and the Discipline and a vvorld of learned men vvith them And to conclude notvvithstanding all your Magical malice I am sure to be safe till October In the vvhile if you think any thing considerable vvrite to Your affectionate Friend Your Papers are in your Chartar TO Conclude these Discourses ' t vvill not be amisse to adde one seasonable Exhortation to all such as are ill-affected to the old Government of the Church by Bishops and the Publick Divine Service by the Liturgie that are not contented to worship God and hear his holy Writt read expounded or preach't at the Canonical houres in Churches and to pray and reade the Bible at due times in their own Families besides their Closet or private Devotions and occasional good Conferences that they may finde opportunities for as they ride or walk or otherwise regularly converse with others as they be going about their other lawful occasions but must needs have and by no Prohibition of the Laws of the Realm and the Church will forbear their riotous meetings unlavvful Assemblies and Conventicles in and by which principally the late horrid Rebellion was hatcht Let them but seriously reflect upon the past troubles and the first Rise of them and make impartial enquirie vvhether or no all those and only those that vvere for such Conventicles and Despisers of the Church-Government and Liturgie vvere not those that made up the first Army that Rebell'd against the King Robbed Churches Seized on other mens estates and out of whom are spawned all the Phanaticks of latter dayes They seriously considered and found true which will easily be if in every Town or Parish a slight kenne be taken one would think it sufficient to make every sober minded person to repent heartily if he be guilty in this kind and after so much mercy from so gracious a Prince to beware how he be found faultie by countenancing or frequenting such unlawful Assemblies or Conventicles After so much mercy I say of so gracious a Prince who as a Rank Phancie did expresse it t'other day hath in some sense been more merciful then God Almighty hath ever given us hope he will be toward those that trespasse against him For God never did nor ever will forgive any that repent not and make
no restitution But his Majestie hath forgiven hundreds nay thousands I doubt millions that never truly repented of their trespasse against Him and his Father of blessed memory and for ought that yet appears intend no restitution 'T were to be wisht they would consult their beloved Mr. Calvin Mr. Perkins c. and then answer this Question viz. VVhether they be not bound in Conscience to make Restitution to those they have wronged to their utmost ability if ever they hope for Heaven notwithstanding the Kings Act of Oblivion which absolves them only in Foro Humano not in Foro Conscientiae But it is too too Apparent how farre from any such Act as this nay how Diabolically malicious some Non-conformists and Phanaticks be if they cannot compasse their irregular designes by a late Horrid slaunder that an unworthy more then Treble Turn-coat wretch the other day forged against the Reverend Father in God the Bishop of Bath and Wells not sticking to brand him in the Audience of one of the most eminent persons in the Nation for an old Leacher or Goat as the vile foul-mouth exprest it affirming That the good old Father who is now in his fourscorth year and even bowed together with age was a most insatiate effeminate person and had lately married a young wench of one or two and twenty and yet was not satisfied with her but neighed after other women Now all this Hellish Aspersion was raised upon no other ground but because the said vile wretch a vertiginous Colonel forsooth of the worst stamp could not wrest out of the said Reverend Bishops hands one of the best Mannors belonging to the See of Bath and Wells But the Bishop being as was said now in his eightieth year and his second wife whom he married about foure or five years since for a Nurse and Comfort in his disconsolate condition being a very grave Matron of sixty years of Age what spark of Probability or ground for such a base slander there could be let all candid Christians judge to whom the Reverend Father does appeal and the same Father is ready to take an Oath with such an Awful Execration for his purgation in that particular that his slanderers dare not follow him therein Yet what if an Ancient Bishop or Churchman had indeed taken a young Abishag in the way of Matrimony to comfort and cherish him in his old age as David did without it had it been such an abominable thing The truth is too many of our English Nobilitie and Gentry as vvell as the Commonaltie do speak too vilely of Gods Ordinance Matrimony especially in the Clergie as if they did more then encline to Poperie in that point And some coy Ladies that think it a fine thing to have a spruce Chaplain to vvait upon them in a little higher Sphere then a Serving-man do even vomit to hear of the marriage of a bavvdy Priest as they most unchristianly speak as if they honoured neither God nor his Christ so much as Ethnicks honour'd their false gods and their Priests for their sakes Hovv frequent is it vvith the most to make a scorn in all companies of a Minister of the Gospel by calling him Parson Parson at every turne not in Respect but in base contempt Which vvord hath too long and yet doth continue to be in as great derision as of late the name of King Duke Earle Lord or Bishop And vvhat mocks and flouts are daily and hourely cast at the Regular Clergie as they passe in the streets and even in some of the most Eminent Noble Families in and about London 't is a shame to hear and see And if his Majestie and other Noble Personages do not speedily declare in their Families and elsewhere their detestation of such scornes and give open countenance to those that are set apart for God's Service as well as to that Worship by Common prayer established by Law 't is to be feared that all our old Animosities will ferment to that height that 't will be too late to suppresse them 'T was some few daies ago spoken in no lesse a family then the Lord Generall 's by a Majors wife who may be supposed to speak the sense of her husband and of divers others of that gang that the Kings Quire were no better then a company of Fidlers and that she hoped to live to see all such superstitious fooleries pulled down with a vengeance and to have those that love to go in long Garments and yet were indeed Wolves in Sheeps clothing to bestript of their formalities and that she knew there were thousands nay millions in the three Nations of her minde The reason why this is here inserted is that if possible some notice of such seditious spirits may come to his Majesties and the Lord General 's eares and be speedily checkt That slander lately raised against the Bishop of Bath and Wells is much like that other of old forged and in all Pulpits of the Non-conformists most impudently as grosse a lie as it is proclaimed to make him and that whole order odious viz. That he should say that he thanked God he had left never a Lecturer in his whole Diocesse Whereas there is not a Person of any Intelligence that lived in that Diocesse but knowes that there were continually as learned Lectures of Reverend men with the approbation of the said Bishop in the said Diocesse as in any other Indeed that prudent Governour of the Church was and is somewhat of Sir Henry Wootton's or rather of Lipsius his opinion that not only Disputandi but also Praedicandi pruritus fit Ecclesiae scabies and therefore did his endeavour to suppresse and hinder the placing of single Lecturers in Cities Townes and Villages by any faction of the people without and against the good liking of the lawfull Rector or Incumbent And how many are there that were the greatest followers and admirers of such single factious Lecturers that are now convinc'd that they were the bellowes that blew up the flame that hath so long wasted both Church and State And indeed such is imprudence and passion of many Preachers that wise men conceive Sir Francis Bacon's proposal not without very good reason and that it would tend more to the Churches peace and the good of souls if there were one compleat body of wholesome Homilies or Sermons one or two for every Lord's day and other Festivalls thorowout the whole year composed or collected by the most learned and pious of our Church and set out by Authority to be read to the people in stead of so many Crude Rhapsodies as are many times through haste or want of learning and prudence obtruded on them And that only some few that are known to be prudent and of a right sober and peaceable temper upon very speciall occasions or emergencies should be allowed to compose Prayers or Sermons of their own and those likewise to be well scanned by some in Authority before they be pronounced in publick
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-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