any other way and so Gods blessing cannot go with a Bishop so chosen Did not the Lord himself at the first ordain twelve whom he called Apostles and are not Bishops set up to govern in the Church generally held to be the Apostles Successors to whom singularly the Keyes were committed to bind and loose and why then should not the chusing of them from time to time be referred to the Lord No free People as all Christians are be willing to be governed by any but a Prince of their own electing whom they know well and well approve of to be preferred to this dignity and how then can it be expected that it should go well with that Church which hath no hand in the choice of their Bishop It was most anciently the Custome of Christians for the Clergy and People of the Diocess to chuse their own Bishop and then were they reverend as Fathers neither did this custom cease till Anno Dom. 1120. Poly. in Angl. c. 11. de inven l. 4. c. 10. when Princes began to take to themselves the right of appointing Bishops in every place but before this an 775. in a Synod held at Rome consisting of 133 Bishops to the Emperor Charls the Great was granted the Electing both of Pope Archbishops and Bishops Sidebert distinct 63. Adrianus sub poena Anathematis in the time of Pope Adrian wherefore it was a corruption that crept into the Church in time for Kings to appoint Bishops and not permit to the Clergy and People a free Election the Lord being earnestly sought unto in this so weighty a matter and in fine the Election referred to his Divine Majesty who only knoweth the hearts of all men which if it might be done at this day the King reserving to himself the power of Confirming a Bishop thus chosen His Majesty should free himself from being cause of any corruption in the election through the Covetousness of his Courtiers the Church of God within his Dominions should most probably be supplied with none but worthy Bishops and great unity would every where follow and all cause of Divisions in these Churches be cut off but that it may be orderly proceeded to such election the King is to be sought unto to give leave without whose leave the Peoples assembling of themselves cannot but be unlawfull as his Writs must first issue out to chuse Knights of the Shire in every County and that such leave hath anciently been given the granting of Congedeleers in times of vacancy to this day do declare although the man now to be chosen be nominated by the King and it is in effect no leave to chuse but to receive hin for Bishop whom the King chuseth Secondly for the Bishops power above the Presbyters his brethren it is as Jerom saith only in ordination of Presbyters and Deacons which cannot be done without the Bishop for to him singularly the Apostles committed this power as appeareth by St. Tit. 1. Act. 14.23 1 Tim. 4.23 Pauls writing to Timothy and Titus as he himself and Barnabas had by the imposition of hands ordained many whereas the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery is sometime spoken of nothing else can here be gathered but that when the Bishop ordaineth he ought to do it with the assistance of some of his Presbyters laying their hands on together with him and joyning in Prayer the Bishop having first examined him that is to be ordained and accepted of him but forasmuch as the Apostles had the power of binding and loosing also singularly committed unto them and not the Seventy two sent out to preach and Bishops elected to govern the Church are their Successors it is manifest that the power of Excommunicating and Absolving is peculiar to the Bishop also and to such Presbyters to whom he sends out his Processe to publish it in their particular Churches as Saint Paul wrote to the Church of Corinth to deliver to Satan the Incestuous man declaring the cause as it is necessary every Bishop should do to the Rector of every Church Again forasmuch as to Timothy Bishop of Ephesus St. Paul writeth not to receive an Accusation against any under two or three witnesses whereby is implied that he by vertue of his Apostleship and power to judge the causes of his Brethren the Presbyters about Ephesus it must needs be granted that the same power belongeth to every Bishop in his Diocess Lastly because Timothy and Titus also had power given them to order things in the Churches committed to their Government for praying and preaching and stopping the mouths of ignorant and corrupt Teachers and wicked livers whose sins break out after Ordination it must needs be granted that Bishops chosen to rule have the like power Yet when one is called to the weighty Office of Ruling in the Church of God the duty of Preaching diligently still lieth upon him and rather more than before for Timothy must not onely be instant in preaching in season and out of season but also be an example in Doctrine and Conversation Thirdly touching those whom the Bishop is to use as Assistants in exercising his power I cannot finde any Chancellor Arch-Deacon or Official once named in any ancient Writer but only of Presbyters and Deacons by whose help they did both ordain and censure and being assembled in Counsel together make Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiasticall for which last we have a President Acts 15. in the first Councel assembling which consisted of Apostles Elders or Presbyters and Brethren and for the first in Pauls laying on of his hands upon Timothy and the Presbyters in ordaining him and for the Presbyters assistance in excommunicating see 1 Cor. 5. For although the Church only be there written to yet it is not to be conceived but that the Church consisted of Presbyters and common Christians amongst whom what was done cannot be thought to have been done but by Presbyters as the mouth and there were some Prophets 1 Cor. 14. but without Presbyters it could not be Fourthly touching punishment inflicting upon any The Bishop ought to have no power but spirituall For the weapons of our Warfare are not carnal saith the Apostle but spiritual 2 Cor. 4. it is onely such power as Christ committed to his Apostles and that was only the power of binding and loosing by excommunicating and absolving which is indeed a power beyond the power of the greatest Monarchs in the world and more to be feared for if an earthly Judge hath power to send the body of an Offender to Prison to be kept there by a Goaler and there to be used most hardly and after that to condemn him to a bodily death or to pardon him and set him at liberty again the power given by Christ to his Apostles and their Successors is to adjudge to the Prison of Hell the spirit and soul to be kept by Satan and by him vexed and terrified with terrors intollerable and after that to be carried to
Unity Restor'd TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND By JOHN MAYER D. D. Minister of the Church of Roydon in the County of Suffolk and Author of the Exposition of the Church Chatechism and the Comentary on the Old and New Testament contained in Six Volumes Matth. 5.9 Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God Psalm 122.6 Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love her LONDON Printed for A. Rice and are to be sold by Book-sellers 1661. Unity Restor'd TO THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND Matth. 5.9 Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be called the Children of God Psalm 122.6 Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love her LONDON Printed for A. Rice and are to be sold by Book-sellers 1661. To the KING 's most Excellent Majesty CHARLES the Second of England Scotland France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith c. Grace and Peace in Jesus Christ MOst Gracious and dear Sovereign so soon as I saw Your Majesties Declaration of October 25. I could not but rejoice greatly for Your Care and holy Solicitude expressed therein and wisdome like the wisdom of Solomon about setling unity and uniformity in the Church of England and devising the means of effecting it And whereas some have in writing cast aspersions upon Your Sacred person I could not but be greatly grieved at it and to see how that notwithstanding this Your Majesties most serious profession to have inform'd your self what you could by consulting with many both grave and learned beyond Sea and of your own Land by what means most probably Vnity may be restored to the Churches under your Majesties Dominion yet may remain unsatisfied who although they are not reverse from Episcopal Government reformed yet at hearing of Suffragens and rural Deans they are much troubled as at Officers not formerly heard of either in the time of Queen Elizabeth King James Your Grandfather or of King Charles Your Father And as for the book of Common Prayer although the Prayers therein contained are most pithy and pious yet the multitude of them and often repetitions of some c. are offensive and above all the Ceremonies therein prescibed which they will never abide to see used although they be not urged upon them and so the seeds of dissention will still continue in our Churches which will in time spring up again the peace and unity desired will never be setled for to settle it must be as but on God so but one way under one Vice-gerent of God upon earth and that must be the best approved of by the word of God which being so and Your Majesties gracious inclination such that you have condescended so far as to consult with some of your own Subjects what way might be best to introduce Vnity about matters Ecclesiasticall which hath been so long wanting My Humble Sute unto your Majesty is that You would vouchsafe to cast Your favourable aspect upon this little book which I a Subject of yours as loyally affected to your Majesty as any other man have written in concurrence with Your Majesty in the earnest desire of Vnity to be restored to our divided Churches before the comming out of your Pious and Learned Declaration having no opportunity hitherto to present it to your Royall view being 78 years of age and full of grievous Diseases so as that I cannot Travell And in this little Book I hope your Majesty shall see good reason to be inclined to go the way therein pointed out to prevail for the restoring of Vnity so much desired and indeed so necessary to promote a setled and lasting peace which God grant unto us under Your Majesty Our Supream Head next unto Christ Jesus And to this end that you may live Usque ad miraculum gloriously reigning upon earth as you have been miraculously brought to this Throne of Your Fathers continuing constantly zealous for the propagation of the true Religion to the end of your days and finally be Crowned in Heaven with a never fading Crown of Glory Your Majesties most Humble and Obedient Subject and dayly Orator before the Throne of Grace IOHN MAYER How Vnity may be restored to the Church of England WE having now by God's singular blessing Unity restor'd to this our Commonwealth under one Head in whom for his gracious disposition and undoubted right to this Diadem we all agree What remains now so much to be desired as Vnity in our Churches also for want of which such bloudy dissentions hath been so long amongst us to the great disgrace of our most true reformed Religion and to the setting of these three Nations in a most fearfull Combustion Upon this consideration therefore I though the least able among many of my Brethren An. Dom. 60. Jacobus frater Domini fuit Episcopus Hierosolymitanus illo inter fecto Simeon Cleophae filius Hieronimus in Catalogo cap. 23. Marcus Praesul Alexandriae an 67. ibid. post Petrum linus Epist 2. Romae an 70. lib. 3. cap. 3. huic successit annacletus vel Cletus an 89. Crescentius Episcopus Moguntinis an 72. Euseb l. 3. c. 4. shall endeavour to shew my good will to restore this desirable Unity amongst us The main differences I suppose at this day are about Ecclesiasticall Government and the Liturgy or Book of Common Prayer For the first there will not be I perceive any great relucting against Episcopal Government because it hath so ancient and such pregnant proofe hereof is brought from holy Scripture and the practice of the Catholick Church ever since the Apostles dayes and whilst they lived and ordered the Government of the Church of Christ if we will give any credit to the most ancient and most credible History-Writers touching Church-matters But about their election to this high and weighty Office who are to govern herein and what power they ought to have above other Bishops or Presbyters their Brethren and what Assistants they ought to use in exercising their power and whether by any other means they ought to have power to punish notorious Offenders than by delivering them to Satan and not by imprisoning or any pecuniary punishment and whether a Bishop may deliver any over to Satan for any other cause but scandalous living or blaspheming and lastly whether there ought not to be a Bishop in every City and great Town that is for the more Churches therein as a City with the Villages about it and so large Diocesses to the putting both of Clergy and People to such tedious travell to have their Causes heard First touching the electing of a Bishop what better President can there be to follow than that of the first Assembly of Apostles and Believers Acts 1.23 being 120 to chuse one into the room of Judas who was chosen by praying first and propounding two known men amongst them and casting lots which was done by the Apostles and the whole congregation of Believers For let an Election be made
of this present Parliament thus to order this great business touching Episcopacy Oh how easily might each Bishop do his work in his Diocess by going to preach sometimes in one Church and sometime in another all over his Diocess to the stirring up both of Presbyters and People to Godliness and what love and reverence would it procure in all men toward them and quell Sects and Factions in the Church whereas heretofore whilst Bishops sate idly at home priding themselves in their Lordly greatness as if they were so advanced to live as the Rich man in the Gospel when his fruits were encreased in eating and drinking and making merry being for zeale to the Truth most cold but very hot for superstitious ceremonies comming as near to the Popish Church as they could they have been hated as the Pope and despised and been the occasions of great Schisms and divisions in the Church of Christ although not so much breaking out as since Episcopacy was put down in these three Kingdomes but lying before us as fire covered over with Embers And hitherto of Episcopal Govenment For touching Archishops I finde no ground at all in the holy Scriptures and the Bishop of Rome was the first that ever took upon him the title of Archbishop then of Oecumenical Bishop anno Dom. 119. as Platina saith inviting all such as suffered wrong in any place to come unto him and he would relieve them and Higinus a successor of his spends a great part of one of his Epistles in magnifying the Bishops of Rome as those that are Princes over other Bishops and so do most of the Bishops of that Sea and Marcus Antonius de Dominis who was himselfe Archbishop of Spalato in his Book entituled De Repub. Christiana sheweth that Bishops only are of Apostolical institution but not Archbishops Now to proceed to speak of the book of Common Prayer That there should be such a book The Book of Common Prayer and thereby an uniform proceeding in all Churches in this Kingdom I suppose it will be granted on all hands unless by such as are transported by zeal without knowledge and Calvin himself is for the Ministers using of one and the same form of prayer in the publick place and his reasons are very good First because the prayers and thanksgiving there offered are not the Ministers only but of the whole Congregation and therefore ought to be such prayers and praises as the people by continual hearing are well acquainted withall and ready to say a men unto whereas if the Minister be permitted to offer up prayers in publick of his owne conception he may happily offer up such Petitions sometimes as his own phantasie leadeth him to that all the people will not say amen unto and it may not peradventure be good for them to join with him therein lest by so doing they be drawn in some petitions that tend to Heresie being for its prevailing for this being considered of of old by the Councel of Bracca a Decree was thereby made against any Ministers using a Prayer in the publick place which was not first seen by the Councel and allowed Secondly Because every Preacher is not alike guided by the Spirit of God in praying but some supposing that the excellency of praying lieth in long praying will draw out their prayers in publick to halfe an houre or an hour or more at a time till all or most of their hearers have their spirits tyred and have their affections made to fag which if they do the Ministers praying is nothing to them but rather is turned into an occasion of offending God as all saying of prayers without lifting up the heart is and this long praying is so far from having any ground in Scripture as that what is written there makes against it because when Christ taught his Disciples to pray Math. 6. he prescribed a short form and condemned long praying in many words and repetitions of the same things as vain babling Math. 23. and hereby upbraided the Pharisees hypocritical praying that they devoured Widdows houses and for a colour made long prayers and the Preacher saith God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth Eccles 5.2 therefore let thy words be few And both Chrisostom Augustine are for compendious praying and not drawing a Prayer out to a great length by using many words for to this end Chrisostom speaks against those that think to be heard the rather if they make a Prayer consisting of a thousand lines And Augustine adviseth to make short prayers and often that they who join in prayer with thee may be able to keep their hearts lifted up all the time and this may serve to beat down the course which now generally takes with the people in most places that he hath the most excellent gift in prayer that stands longest in making his prayers Others there are who prefer humane eloquence in praying and therefore fill their prayers with Flowers of Rhetorick to the pleasing of the ears of the Hearers which is a way that neither Christ the Prophets or Apostles have ever gone in in praying lastly some Ministers have so poor a faculty in conceiving a Prayer that they are not able without an help to do this duty in so good a manner as it ought to be done Thus to such as will be moved by Reason it is apparent that there should be in our Churches forms of godly Prayers and Thanksgivings to be commonly used by all Ministers and sometimes of prayers proper to the present occasion if there be plague or pestilence or other infectious diseases in the land if there be danger by the sword of the enemy or by Civil Wars if there be famine or unseasonable weather too much rain or drought blasts or mildew thunder lightning or tempests or murrein amongst Cattel of many of which Solomon speaks in his Divine Prayer at the dedication of the Temple which he built Touching Prayers commonly to be used every Lords day they must begin with confession of sins and praying for pardon and mortification of sin in us and for faith to believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and grace to lead holy and new lives and for a blessing upon the Word wherein the Congregation is then to be excercised in reading and hearing thereof that all may give diligent attention unto it hear it with fear and trembling and lay it up in their hearts as Mary did and live alwayes in obedince to it in all things and in praying we must remember all men the people of all Countries and Nations such as already hold the true Faith who are the Church of Christ that they may be preserved from all their enemies and established as upon a Rock against which the gates of Hell may not prevail but fall as Dagon did before the Ark and such as know not Christ that they may speedily be converted and that to this end the true light may rise up unto them and the Christians who
that Dungeon where there is utter darkness there to remain in wailing and gnashing of teeth for evermore and upon serious and hearty repenrance to release the sinner again from this grievous judgement if he be humbled and professeth his penitency without delay and if we believe our Lord Jesus that which is done herein by the Bishop according to his direction is done by God For what ye bind saith he upon earth Math. 18. shall be bound in heaven and what ye loose shall be loosed in heaven most certainly As for any punishment corporall or pecuniary inflicting it is proper to him that bears the Sword Rom. 13. and a Sword-man an Apostle or Bishop must not be as our Saviour shewed when he gave Peter a check for drawing his Sword and smiting For he that smiteth with the sword shall perish by the sword that is he who is sent out to preach peace Fifthly touching the cause of excommunicating although this power hath been heretofore used for not appearing at the Bishops Court when he hath been summoned without any regard to the Calling or Righteousness of the man or for money or to bring in money which was an abuse intollerable yet there is no warrant by the Word of God to deliver over to Satan for any cause but scandalous living or blasphemous Heresie but for either of these causes there is as appeareth 1 Cor. 5. by the Apostles writing to have the incestuous person delivered over to Satan till he repented and to have all scandalous brethren Adulterers Railers Drunkards c. put from amongst them although Erastus denieth this to be a ground for excommunicating or putting the scandalous liver from the holy Communion for although but a Physitian he would seem to have so much skill in Divinity as to assert that none although most wicked who hold the true faith may lawfully be put from it because none such were kept from the Passeover but only such as were legally unclean 〈…〉 which uncleanness is now ceased therefore saith he none are now to be accounted unclean who are believers as though if legal uncleanness which was much lesser makes one unclean 〈…〉 but the uncleanness which is by sin doth not much more whenas that uncleanness which was only outward of this extending to the very conscience witness the Apostles saying to the unclean all things are unclean yea the very conscience is defiled and this is not clensed but by the bloud of Christ that by the bloud of buls goats For not keeping from the Passover the notoriously wicked by express Precept there may be this Reason yielded the keeping of the Passover was but a legal Ceremony and was to be eaten by all that were circumcised although not circumcised yet in heart and therefore neither Children nor Fools were debarred therefrom nor wicked livers it sufficed that they who did eat hereof were not legally unclean but the Lords Supper is so holy and separate from prophane use that whoso eateth and drinketh of it unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself and this he doth whosoever doth not first examine himself and finding what a grievous sinner he hath been sorrows not therefore with Godly sorrow and confesseth it not neither is converted therefrom And if it be so how can they that rule in the Church but be accessary to their sin whom they know to be unworthy but put them not from participating of this holy Ordinance till that by repentance and promise of Reformation they be sanctified that so holy a thing may not be given but to the holy at the least so far forth as may be gathered from their own mouths although we cannot but admit of some unworthy whose wickedness is conceal'd but for the commonly known to be prophane or notoriously wicked even the Heathen abhorred from having them come to their sacrifices for one was at such times set to cry thus Procul procul este prophani for excommunicating blasphemous Hereticks we have S. Paul for our example who saith 1 Tim. 1.2 he delivered Hymeneus and Alexander to Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme that is for a chastisement of the blasphemous Heresies which they held that they might be made to recant as is the excommunicating of notorious Offenders that being by Satan terrified who is now let loose upon them they may be made to repent and although they suffer in their bodies this have their souls saved at the last day for some then being excommunicated were grievously handled in their bodies by Satan whereby they were made to know how cruelly they should be tormented in the life to come if they were not made thereby to repent as we may gather that the incestuous person at Corinth was for that he was so terrified after his excommunication 2 Cor. 2. that he was ready to be swallowed up of despair 6. Touching more or fewer Bishops making in this Kingdome It is not so convenient that their Diocesses should be so large as they have been because that although in former Ages it might be necessary when the land was not so populous to enlarge the limits of Bishopricks laying many more Towns together and sometime two Counties to make one Bishoprick and able Shepherds of whom Bishops might be made were more rare yet now thanks be to God Christian people having far more encreased in Cities Townes and Villages and Pastors of great ability both to preach and govern it were much more convenient that there should be more Bishops made in this Land not onely one to a City and the Villages circumjacent but to each City-like Town most Diocesses in England as now they are constituted being too great a burthen to their Bishops to bear as Moses sometime complained of the burthen of so numerous a Nation laid upon him alone and therefore desired the help of more Rulers and had by the Lord added unto him 72 whereby he and the people were more eased and the better enabled to do the work for which they were raised up As Diocesses now are some belonging to their Charge are so far off that they cannot know or ever hear their Bishop preach although he continueth amongst them many yeares neither can he know all the Clergy or their worthiness or unworthiness to encourage or reprove them according to their deserts and what a trouble and weariness is it to the people to be forced to travel some of them 30 or 40 miles to have their Causes heard and to be at the charge to retain Proctors to plead for them yea and sometimes Rectores Ecclesiae also but if more Diocesses should be made whence should means be raised to maintain so many Bishops Even out of the Bishopricks that now are and Deanaries and Prebendaries of which what use is there in the Church of Christ and of which Antiquity was utterly ignorant If it would please God to move the hearts of the Kings Majesty and the right Honorable and worthy Members
the people perfect in them I hold it most necessary for if a man must in his own house dayly speak of the Commandements Deut. 6. how much more ought the Minister of God in his house and add together with the people the precatiuncle set forth in the end For the Ministers giving warning to keep divers holy days which have not most anciently been kept in the Church of God that is the Saints days Of Saints days there is great need to put down the keeping of all these both because we do not read of any such days keeping before anno 501. which was a time of great Superstition Anastasius being then Bishop of Rome who was a Nestorian Heretick and caused Macedonius Bishop of Constantinople to keep the Feasts of Peter and Paul which had never been done in the East before as I have shewed in my History of the Church where I have also proved by good reason that it was a corrupt Superstition crept into the Church to injoin the keeping of them First because working was prohibited poor men upon those days who can hardly live upon their labour all the six days when as the Lord alloweth all to work upon all the six dayes and prohibiteth work only upon the seventh Secondly such as are idly disposed both poor men and Servants had by this means a Cloak for their Idlenesse to the great detriment of the Common-wealth and because Idlenesse giveth advantage to to fleshly lusts which fight against the Soul the keeping of those days was a letting loose of the reins to wicked mens inordinate affections that they might run to all excesse of riot as former experience hath often proved especially at the Festival time of Christmas when so many dayes together were spent in idlenesse and vanity and if there were nothing else amisse in keeping these days but idlenesse when all should work it were enough to presse to the putting of them down for that idlenesse is so much condemned in holy Scripture Thirdly because they are commanded to be kept holy by resorting to Church to read and hear the word of God and to pray and yet no days are spent so prophanely there being no care had but to keep labouring men and Trades-men from the necessary work of their Callings and if they do their work to punish them and so the holy day is made but a stale to bring money into the Commissaries Court. Fourthly It is too great an honor to be given to any but God to call a day after his name to keep it in way of honouring them for this commeth near to the worshipping of the Saints departed and Mine honour saith the Lord will I not give to another If it had pleased God that such honour should be given to his Saints surely something would have been said of it and days should have been instituted under the old Testament by Abraham Isaac and Jacob Joseph and Moses Samuel and David c. and under the new by the Apostles before that so long a time as five hundred years had passed Lastly in other reformed Churches this burden of keeping any holy days besides the Lords days and some to the honor of our Lord Jesus Christ as the day of his Nativity without the tale of so many days more added of his Resurrection Ascension and of his sending down of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost and the day of his Passion hath been long ago cast off but not the keeping of the day of the Lords Nativity as lately hath been done in England when our Divines Assembled at Westminster could not find that any days ought to be kept holy but the Lords days whenas by ancient History it appeareth that the day of the Lords Nativity was kept in the very first Century of years after Christs death for there it is recorded that in the year 130 Nativitatis Domini Telesphorus being Bishop of Rome he amongst other Decrees made this for one that three Masses should be said that is there should be three Communions as upon a most high day upon the day of the Lords Nativity one in the Evening when he was born another in the night when by Angels from heaven his birth was declared a third at day light because the first day of Salvation then began to shine whereby it is intimated that our Lords Birth day had been kept before in his Church no man being to tel how long whence it may be gathered that the custom began immediately after his Ascention to Heaven now the Solemnity thereof began to be more increased among Christans but the increasing thereof by keeping 12 days was not brought in til 400 years after wherefore upon the reasons before going they may be cut off and it will be best pleasing to our Lord to keep his day alone by doing duties of Devotion in Feasting and other expressions of joy and exercising liberality to the poor partly upon other days also when that day approacheth And thus much touching Holy days Now to say something touching the Holy Communion and the Service appointed about it the Exhortations to be made to the Communicants before receiving are all very good and Godly if they were not too much tyring to the Minister after his Spirits spent so much before in praying reading and preaching and therefore it were to be wished that all the Service going before might be omitted as being in effect said before amongst all the people and one of the Exhortations to prepare to the worthy receiving and so proceed immediately to that short one beginning thus Ye that do truly and earnestly repent ye of your sins c. to the end a Psalm being finally sung as Christ hath given us example and then The peace of God which passeth all understanding c. some places of Scripture tending to stir up Charity to the poor Of kneeling being in conclusion recited and the Alms gathered For the gesture of kneeling appointed in receiving it is a gesture shewing the greatest humility that can be as is in all reason expected by the Lord when at his hands we receive so great a Blessing and the Minister at the same instant is praying that the body of our Lord Jesus Christ should preserve us bodies and souls to eternall life Whereas it is excepted against by some because at the Institution the Apostles did not kneel but sit and as it was done then so ought we to do I answer this I deny but what they were commanded to do we ought to do that is to take bread Give thanks break and eat it as his body in remembrance of him c. for the gesture sith there is nothing said we are left to our own liberty therein and the Governours of the Church have power to appoint in what Gesture it shall be done so that it be according to the generall rule most decent such is kneeling for a subject before his Soveraign confering some honor upon him as he doth that
good King when the people committed Idolatry with the brazen Serpent which had been by Moses set up and miraculous cures had been thereby wrought upon such as were stung by the fiery flying Serpents brake it down so ought every good Christian King to do by the Crosse that such an occasion of Superstition being taken away Laying on of hands the like sin may be no more committed As for Confirmation by the Bishops laying on of his hands in due time upon children that have been baptized there seemes to be a ground for it Heb. 6. where Imposition of hands is spoken of as one of the principles of the Christian Religion and that next to the Doctrine of baptism and therefore it is hereby intimated that Children which had been baptized were to come when they had attained to the knowledge of that which they were in their Baptism bound unto to have hands laid upon them by such as had power committed unto them to blesse them as the Apostles had that they might receive the Spirit of Grace and Sanctification as actual believers as being baptized and having the Apostles hands laid upon them received the Holy Ghost and spake with tongues as is to be seen specially Acts 8. where the Samaritans who believed being baptized by Philip when Peter was come and laid his hands upon them received the Holy Ghost but Philip had not commission thus to do and as was said before Bishops are the Apostles successors and therefore to them only it seemes that this power was given and that they ought to goe about in their limits to do this office and herein the Apostles had Christ for their example to whom little children were brought and he blessed them and required that it should so be done saying suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not c. as being of availe towards the attayning of the kingdome of Heaven and therefore this is to be believed touching Christs blessing of little children although they were not then intelligent enough to believe actually but the Bishops blessing is to be after some knowledge attained unto as the Apostles laying on of hands was not but upon them that had knowledge and did prosess the true faith wherefore the Ordinance of conformation is not to be disallowed but not to be extolled as it is in the Church of Rome as a Sacrament and that not inferiour to Baptism and as necessary to Salvation it must needs be granted to be very necessary because a necessity is hereby put upon parents to teach their children betimes the ten Commandements the Creed and the Lords Prayer c. and to cause them to come to Church to be examined by the Minister as is appointed that the Catechism which is so short being learned by them they may be blessed and the work begun about them in their baptism perfected whereas if this Ordinance of conformation by imposition of hands and Praying be neglected neither will parents who are ignorant themselves or were not thus brought up have any care of teaching or getting their Children taught these things as by long experience hath proved too true and so many by Baptism received in their infancy to be Christians are for ignorance of the Christian Principles like Heathens differing only from them in this that they have been baptized which when they are grown up will avail them no more to Salvation then circumcision in the flesh did the Jew that was without the circumcision of the spirit wherefore let this most ancient custom of the Church be again revived and Ministers of the Gospel in all Churches streightly injoyned to Catechize as well as to Preach at the least till the children of their Parishes are made perfect in that so short a Catechism set forth by Authority and if any ministers mind moveth him to add more questions therunto he may find above 100 more interlaced in my Catechism put out near 40 years agoe and allowed and along time by many of my brethren in the Ministry used till that unhappy confusion came into our Church and under a pretence of more Reformation much more deformity came to the face of our fair Mother the Church of England and because Parents are generally most negligent in causing their Children to come to be Catechized and much more in teaching them at home it is as necessary to lay some pecuniary mulct upon them if they cause them not as is upon them if themselves be absent from the Church if our higher powers would take this into their serious consideration and strictly injoyn all Ministers to do their parts in Catechizing and Parents in teaching and causing their Children to come to becatechized instead of a most ignorant we should have a most knowing generation and where there is any Grace a more conscionable to live and do as with their own mouthes every one shall acknowledge to be his bounden duty but Bishops diocesses being so large that they cannot in person go about to lay their hands upon all that are instructed will it not be necessary to make deputies in more remote places to do it in their stead Of Matrimony Touching the proceedings and service in Matrimony by the Book of Common Prayer appointed these words which the Husband is bidden to say with my body I thee worship sound so ill as that most men take exceptions to them because they may be taken as implying the husbands making a God of his wife seeing as Christ saith Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve To take away this exception therefore if instead of those words these might be used And I will honour thee as the weaker vessel it would not be without ground in the Holy Scripture and of the going of the Priest immediately to the Lords Table the persons Married following and kneeling there to pray and to take the Communion what reason can be yeelded yea is there not reason against it it is a shew of worshipping and praying to the host as it is called as to Christ made of the Bread standing there Secondly there is danger of their unworthy receiving for want of examining themselves before to which they are then most probably indisposed as having their hearts then taken up with other pleasures Wherefore this also would be considered and no more injoyned they that are to be married being rather required at some other time before when there is a Communion reverently to receive it being duly prepared Now remaineth nothing more to be spoken to in the Book of Common Prayer The Visitatioâ— of the Sick but the Visitation of the Sick the Burial of the Dead and Thanksgiving for women comming to Church after Child-bearing in all which none other but the good spirit seemeth to have been the guid of such as thus ordered it and it is pitty that the order for the visitation of the sick is not generally followed being so Godly and comfortable And for
the burial of the Dead Buriall of the Dead what can be excepted against unlesse it be in that prayer that we with this our brother and all other departed in the true faith may have our perfect consummation and blisse in thine everlasting Kingdome but they are too quick of apprehension who say that this is with the Papists a praying for the dead whenas indeed it is not a praying that they may be saved but for the hastning of the time of perfecting our Salvation both in Soul and Body that is that the coming of our Lord Jesus may be hastned when this shall be done and the person deceased being a Christian who in the judgement of charity supposing him to be gone to Heaven in his Soul pray thus for him together with our selves and other believers The thanksgiving for women Thanks giving for Women and their bringing of an offering after child-bearing in way of real thankfulnesse is grounded upon Levit. 12. For although it were a Ceremonial Law and Ceremonial rites are now done away yet there was a moral in the same injoyned which bindeth alwaies that is to shew thankfullnesse in the house of God for so great a deliverance Isa 28.22 as Hezekiah being delivered from his deadly sicknesse went up to the house of the Lord and praysed God And thus by the help of God I have finished the task undertaken to shew how unity may be restored to the Church of England in respect of Episcopal Government and the book of Common Prayer now the God of peace and unity work so in the hearts of his Majesty and Parliament that it may be so done and the doubts and Scruples about the Book of Common-Prayer being taken away as hath been said the same good God work so in the hearts of all his Ministers that all contention being laid aside they may with one heart and one mind agree to serve God in the publick place in such uniformity that the Pristine splendor of this our Mother Church through uniformity may be restored and the foul blemish of differences may be done quite away to the great comfort of all true hearted Christians and the glory of God Almighty And because unity in opinion is no lesse necessary than uniformity indivine worship and there be many Sects in the Church of England at this day although it be not possible for the higher powers on Earth by their authority or for the learned in divine knowledge to make by their most convincing arguments all to be of one mind with the Chatholick Church reformed yet there may be some course taken to keep their erronious opinions from spreading further and their liberty may be so suppressed as that there may in appearance and ex professo be little or no discord and this may be by injoyning all under a penalty to be taken off such as shall afterwards offend to come duly to their own parish Church as is by Law required 2. By not permitting under a greater penalty private meetings in houses 3. By stoping the mouthes of their ringleaders and teachers the punishment of imprisonment or banishment being laid upon them that will not forbear for so godly Emperors have dealt with such disturbers of the peace of the Church in times past good reason for as Elijah said if the Lord be God follow him if Baal be he go after him it is intollerable that there should be more religions in one Kingdome than one generally professed therein under one head because as Religion hath the name a religando binding mens harts together so permit divers religions and although in some politick respects they may live together in external peace yet their hearts not being knit together but seperated from one another this peace cannot alwaies continue but as there is an oportunity offered break out into bloody dissention as was proved by woful experience in the Romish Chatholicks in Ireland and Anabaptists in Germany and when in time of peace so great a Massacre was made in France Anno 1573. To conclude whereas in this Tract I have made some mention of my History of the World from the creation to the end of Nehemiah his principality 2. From thence to the destruction of Jerusalem 3. From thence to the Year of our Lord 1648. His Majesty may be pleased to take notice and all others that delight in the best Histories that I have by Gods assistance finished this great work divers years agoe and have it ready to be published if it might be accepted of as being next unto the sacred history most necessarie for all Christians who are studious to read for the better understanding of the most notable things done in the world both before the Flood and since in the 4 Monarchies and other Kingdomes of the world and of the state of the Church of God in those 500 yeares of which the Holy Scripture saith nothing and lastly of the government that hath been by Emperours and Bishops of Rome and Councels of Heresies corruptions in Religion famous Doctors in the Church and most memorable occurrances in Kingdomes and miracles wrought to confirm faith or superstition true or false FINIS