ANTIDOTVM LINCOLNIENSE OR AN ANSWER TO A BOOK ENTITVLED THE HOLY TABLE NAME THING c. Said to be written long agoe by a Minister in Lincolnshire And Printed for the Diocese of Lincolne Ao 1637. Written and inscribed to the grave learned and religious Clergie of the Diocese of Lincoln BY PET HEYLYN Chapleine in Ordinary to his M atie 1 COR. 14. 40. Let all things be done decently and in order LONDON Printed for JOHN CLARK and are to be sold at his shop under S t. Peters Church in Cornhill 1637. TO THE KINGS MOST EXCELLENT MAIESTIE CHARLES BY THE GRACE OF GOD King of Great Britaine France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. Most dread Soveraigne YOur Majesties exemplarie piety in the house of God hath spred it selfe abroad amongst all your Subjects and they were ill Proficients in the schoole of piety did they not profit very much under such a Master Your Royall and religious care that all things in your Regall Chappels be done according to the prescript of the publick Liturgie and ancient usage of this Church is a prevailing motive unto all your people not to be backward in conformity to such an eminent part of your Princely vertues Such a most excellent patterne would soone finde an universall entertainment in the hearts of men were there not some the enemies as well of piety as publick Order that disswade from both None in this kind more faulty than an obscure and namelesse Minister of Lincoln Diocese in a discourse of his not long since published A man that makes a sport of your Ma ties Chappell 's as having never heard of the use of the Chappel nor read of any ordering and directing course from the Royall Chappell 's and puts a scorne upon the piety of the times in being so inclinable by your most sacred Ma ties divine example to decencie and uniformity in Gods publick service Nay whereas in the Primitive times the holy Altars as they then used to call the Communion Tables for other Altars they were not were esteemed so sacred that even the barbarous Souldiers honoured them with affectionate kisses this man exposeth them to contempt and scandall as if no termes were vile enough to bestow upon them Nor deales hee otherwise with them who out of their due zeale to God and for the honour of the Reformation against the unjust imputations of those of Rome and the procuring of due reverence to Christs holy Sacraments too much slighted in these times and in many places have travailed to reduce this Church to that ancient Order which hath beene hitherto preserved in your Majesties Chappell 's and the Cathedralls of this Kingdome whom he hath openly traduced as if they were but taking in the out-works of religion and meant in time to have about with the fort it selfe In this regard I thought it was my bounden duty to represent unto your Majesties faithfull and obedient Subiects the true condition of the businesse so by him calumniated together with the doctrine and continuall usage both of the Primitive Church of Christ in the world abroad and the Reformed Church of Christ in this your Majesties Realme of England Which worke as it was principally intended to settle and confirme the mindes of your Majesties people whom some have laboured to possesse with preiudicate feares so to the end it may receive amongst them a more faire admittance I have presumed to prostrate both my selfe and it at your Royall feet with that humility and reverence which best becomes Your Majesties most obedient Subject and most dutifull Chaplaine PET. HEYLYN A PREFACE TO THE GRAVE LEARNED and religious Clergie of the Diocesse of LINCOLN IT is well noted by the Poet that the remedy doth come too late when once the mischiefe is confirmed and setled by too long delayes And thereupon he hath advised us Principiis obstare to crush a spreading evil even in the beginning before it gather head and become incurable On this consideration I applyed my selfe to the present businesse and so applyed my selfe unto it that it might come unto your view with all speed convenient before that any contrary perswasion by what great name so ever countenanced should take too deep a root in any of you to be theÌ„ce easily remâ—ved In the beginning 〈◊〉 March last there peeped into the world a booke entituled The holy Table Name and Thing said to be written long agoe by a Minister in Lincoln-shire in answer to D r Coale a judicious Divine of Queene Maries dayes and printed for the Diocese of Lincolne An. 1637. So that being written by a Minister in Lincoln-shire and printed for the Diocese of Lincoln who could conceive but that it was intended for the private use of you the Clergie of those parts and not to have beene scattered as it was over all the Kingdome But being so faire a Babe and borne in such a lucky houre it would not be restrained in so narrow a compasse and therefore took the libertie to range abroad secretly and by stealth at first as commonly such unlicenced Pamphlets doe till it had gotten confidence enough to bee seene in publick and then which was not untill the first of Aprill I had the happinesse to reade and peruse it thorowly So that as Florus said of the Ligurians that it was aliquanto major labor invenire quam vincere the like may bee aâ—birmed of this and such like lawlesse and nonliâ—â—t Pamphlets that it is no lessâ— labour to finde them but thâ—n having found them to confuâ—â— them For having read and thorowly perused the same I found forthwith that the most part of all the businesse was to detect the extreme falshood of the man which is so palpable and grosse that I dare boldly sav it and will make it good such so many impostnâ—es of all sorts wâ—â—◠〈◊〉 thrust upon the world in so small a Volume For first hee makes an Adversary of he knowes not whom and then hee 〈…〉 hee cares not how mangling the Authoâ—s words whom hee would confuâ—e that so he may bee sure of the easier conquest and practising on those Authors whom he is to use that they may serve his turne the better to procure the victory A strange and cruell kinde of Minister equally unmercifâ—ll to the dead as to the living with both of which he deales aâ— did Procrustes with his captives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 making them fit unto his bed â—f they be longer than his measure then he cuts them shoâ—â—er and if they bee too short then hee racks them longer Hardly one testimony or authoritie in the whole discourse that is any way mateâ—â—â—all to the point in hand but is as true and truely cited as that the booke it selfe was writ long agoe in answâ—r unto D r Coale of Queene Marisâ— dayes which as it is the leading tale stands in front of purpose to make good the entrance so doth it give a good
untill other order should therein be taken by the authority of the Queene c. Which makes it plaine in my opinion that in the latter end of King Edw. the â—ixt there had beene nothing altered in the point of the Churches Ornaments nor consequently in the placing of the holy Table Then for the name it seemes they stood as little upon that as upon the former When the old Altars stood they called them Tables and when the Tables were set up they called them Altars Your Author could have told you at the first that the book of Common prayer calleth the thing whereupon the Lords Supper is ministred indifferently a Table an Altar or the Lords boord without prescription of any forme thereof either of a Table or of an Altar For as it calleth it an Altar whereupon the Lords Supper is ministred a Table and the Lords boorde so it calleth the Table where the holy Communion is distributed with laud and thankesgiving unto the Lord an Altar for that there is offered the same sacrifice of praise and thankesgiving So when the Liturgie was altered the word Altar quite left out they spared not as occasion was to call the holy table by the name of Altar The blessed Sacrament it selfe they thought no sacriledge to intitle by the name of Sacrament of the Altar so did the Martyrs some of them in Qu. Maries time and the whole body of the State in Parliament 1 Eliz. as was shewed before Old Father Latimer speakes positively that it may be called an Altar though you in the repeating of his words have slipped aside that passage and made him cast the common calling of it so upon the Doctors who might be mistaken Yea and Iohn Fox himself hath told you in a marginall note The Table how it may be called an Altar and in what respect The Rubrick was no other then than we finde it now and yet we doe not find that any thought themselves so tyed to the words thereof as to use no other Yet this is pressed upon the Vicar The Church in her Liturgie and Canons calling the same a Table onely doe not you call it an Altar so the old edition doe not you now under the Reformation call it an Altar so saith the new Vnder the Reformation And why so Onely to make poor men beleeve that Altars and the Reformation cannot stand together But you are out in that as in all the rest The writer of the letter cannot but acknowledge that the Altars doe stand still in the Lutherane Churches and that the Apologie for the Augustane Confession doth allow it the Doctors and Divines whereof he doth acknowledge also to be sound Protestants although they suffer Altars to stand And in those other Churches of the Reformation some of the chiefe Divines are farre more moderate in this point than you wish they were Oecolampadius doth allow the Eucharist to be called the Sacrament of the Altar affirming also that for peace sake they would not abhor from the title of sacrifice if there were no deceit closely carryed under it and that there is no harme in calling the Lords Table by the name of Altar Zanchie more fully Quod neque Christus neque Apostoli prohibuerunt altaria aut mandarunt quod mensis ligneis ut antur That neither Christ nor his Apostles have prohibited Altars or enjoyned wooden Tables and therefore that it is to be accounted a matter of indifferenciâ— whether we use an Altar of stone or a table of wood modo absit superstitio so that no superstition be conceived of either So they determine of the point not doubting as it seemes but that it might be lawfull now under the Reformation to call the holy Table by the name of Altar and which makes more against your meaning to use an Altar also in the ministration Which said Ibid adieu to England and the practice here meaning to looke abroad into forrain parts in the rest that followeth where we will labour to find out what was the ancient doctrine in the Church of God concerning Sacrifices Priests and Altars and what the usage in this point of placing the Communion table Yet so that we will cast an eye sometimes and as occasion is on our owne deare Mother the Church of England that wee may see how neare she comes both in her doctrine and her practice to the ancient Patternes And wee will see withall what you have to say and what it is whereof you purpose to arraigne the poore man you wot of in all those particulars SECTION II. CHAP. V. What was the ancient Doctrine of the Church concerning Sacrifices Priests and Altars and what the Doctrine of this Church in those particulars That Sacrifices Priests and Altars were from the beginning by the light of nature and that not onely amongst the Patriarchs but amongst the Gentiles That in the Christian Church there is a Sacrifice Priests and Altars and those both instituted and expressed in the holy Gospell The like delivered by Dionysius Ignatius Iustin Martyr and in the Canons of the Apostles As also by Tertullian Irenaeus Origen and S. Cyprian How the Apologeticks of those times are to be interpreted in their deniall of Altars in the Christian Church Minutius Foelix falsified by the Minister of Linc. What were the Sacrifices which the said Apologeticks did deny to be in the Church of Christ. The difference betweene mysticall and spirituall sacrifices S. Ambrose falsified by the Minister of Linc. in the point of Sacrifice The Doctrine of the Sacrifice delivered by Eusebius The Doctrine of the following Fathers of Sacrifices Priests and Altars What is the Doctrine of this Church touching the Priesthood and the Sacrifice The judgement in these points and in that of Altars of B. Andrewes K. Iames B. Montague and B. Morton IT is the observation of Eusebius that the Fathers which preceded Moses and were quite ignorant of his Law disposed their wayes according to a voluntary kinde of piety 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 framing their lives and actions according to the law of Nature which words relate not onely unto their morall conversation as good men but to their carriage in respect of Gods publick worship as râ—ligious men The light of nature could informe them that there was a God had not their Parents from the first man Adâ—m beene carefull to instruct them in that part of knowledge and the same light of nature did informe them also that God was to bee worshipped by them that there were some particular services expected of him from his Creature Of these the first wee meet with upon record is that of Sacrifice almost to co-aevall with the world For we are told of Cain and Abel the two sons of Adam that the one of them being a tiller of the ground brought of the fruiâ— of the ground an offering unto the Lord the other being a keeper of sheep brought of the first
parts thereof but you know not what I hope there are not many Ministers in Lincolâ—shirâ— of this opinion For let the Bishops stand alone on Apostolicall right and no more than so and doubt it not but some will take it on your word and then pleade accordingly that things of Apostolicall institution may be laid aâ—ide Where are their Ecclesiasticall widâ—wes what service doe the Deacâ—ns at the Table now how many are there that forbeare from blâ—â—d and things strangled Therefore away with Bishops too let all goe together And this I take it is your meaning though not as to the Application yet as to the ground of the Application I am the 〈◊〉 to beleeve it because when Bishop Andrewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had learnedly asserted the Episcopall Order to bee of Christs Institution I have heard that some who were then in place did secretly intercede with King Iames to have had it alâ—â—â—ed for feare forsooth of offending our neighbour Churches This â—â—are you are possessed with also and therefore waâ—ve not onely the name of Bishop but the maine ground-worke and foundation upon which they stand Nay by this note of yours Archdeacons hold by as good a claime as the Bishops doe For being successours as you say to the primitive Deacons who were ordained by the Apostles and Ordinaries too they know that too well what lets but that they meane themselves for those Reverend Ordinaries which were ordained on Apostolicall and for the essentiall parts of their office on divine right also Here is T. C. and I. C. and who else you will new England in the midst of old Yet all this while you are most orthodox in doctrine and consonant in discipline to the Church of England Having thus founded the Episcopall calling on Apostolicall authoritie your next vagarie is upon the Doctor for setting up the Vicar above his Ordinarie How truly this is said wee have seene already And then you adde that these judicious Divines that tamper so much in doctrine with Sancta Clara and in discipline with Sancta Petra will in the end prove prejudicious Divines to the estates of Bishops Here is a fine jingle is it not to make sport for boyes who cannot but applaud your wit for bringing Sancta Clara and Sancta Petra in a string together For good Sir tell me in a word what other use was there of Sâ—ncta Petra but that you love to play and dallie upon words and letters In all his booke being in all 27. Chapters what passage can you finde that tends unto the prejudice of Bishops Or how doth the poore Doctor or any of those whom with so high a scorne you call Iudicious Divines complie with any man that doth Your Sancta Clara and Sancta Petra make a pretty noise but it is onely vox praeterea nihil The Doctor thus shaked up you goe on againe unto the point of Iurisdiction in which you spend two leaves together but not one word unto the purpose You tell us that of old some Priests of Germany were reprehended by Pope Leo the Great because they did presume in the absence of their Bishops Erigere Altaria to erect Altars then that a single Priest quà talis hath no key given him by God or man to open the doores of any externall Iurisdiction that no man should presume to dispose of any thing belonging to the Church without the Bishop What needed this adoe when neither as you know your selfe the Vicar ever did intend to build an Altar nor is it as you say your selfe in any of the Bishops powers to doe it if they were so minded So farre are you from giving way that Bishops of their owne authoritie may erect an Altar that you denie them any authoritie of their owne to transpose a Table Nor doe you rightly staâ—e the case in Pope Leo neither The businesse was not as you dreame that there were some Priests in France or Germany that encouraged thereunto by the Chorepiscopi or Countrey Suffragans did presume in the absence of their Bishops Erigere Altaria to erect Altars No such matter verily The thing that Leo was offended at was that some Bishops of France and Germany did often-times appoint their Chorepiscopi who by the Canons of some Councels were no more than Priests or sometimes others which were simplie Priests to set up Altars in their absence and to hallow Churches Qui absente Pontifice Altaria erigerent Basilicasque consecrarent As his words there are The Bishops were in fault here not the Priests and you as faultie full as they to raise a scandall both on them and the poore Vicar in things of which they were not guiltie So that this needlesse disputation might have beene laid by but that it is your fashion â—o wheele about that being gotten on the right side you may shew your learning For having store sent in from so many hands you think it would be taken for a great discourtesie if you should not spend it Your next vagaâ—â—e is about formes of Prayer at which you have an evill tooth that bites close but deepe The 55. Canon hath prescribed a forme of prayer before the Sermon according to the forme of bidding of prayers prescribed and practised in the raignes of King Henry the eight King Edw. the sixth and Queene Elizabeth This you turne off with a backe blow as if you strooke at somewhat else and in a word or two give a faire Item to your brethren to use what formes of prayer they list with a non-obstante It seemes by you say you unto the Doctor That we are bâ—und onely to pray but not to speake the words of the Canons i. e. for so must be your meaning as little bound to the one as unto the other No man conceives that hee is bound to use in other things no other words then the Canons use because there is no Canon that requires it of him and by your rule wee are not bound unto the forms of Prayer in the Canon mâ—ntioned although the Canons doe require it Now as you fling aside the Canon and leave your Clergiâ—-friends a liberty to pray what they list so in another place you cast aside the Churches customes and give a liberty unto your Lay-brethreâ— to pray how they list It is an Ancient custome in the Church of England that in the times of prayer in the Congregation wee turne our faces to the East This many of your friends dislike and it is reckoned by H. B. amongst those Inâ—ovations which hee doth charge upon the Prelates as if it were forsooth a tying of God to a fixed place It seemes you were agreed together hee to invent the charge and you to furnish him with Arguments to confirme the same This makes you farre more like Châ—ysippuâ— than before you were of whom Laertius doth informe us that whosoever it was that found out the Dogmata 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
second on-set on the Chappell grounded upon another falsification of the Doctors words Of mother Chappels The Royall Chappell how it may be said to interpret Rubricks The Minister of Linc quarels with Queene Elizabeths Chappell and for that purpose falsifieth both his forraine Authors and domesticke evidences Not keeping but adoring images enquired into in the first yeare of Q. Eliz. That by the Queenes Injunctions Orders and Advertisements the Table was to stand where the Altar did The idle answer of the Minister of Linc. to the Doctors argument Altars and Pigeon-houses all alike with the Linc. Minister The Minister of Linc false and faulty argument drawn from the perusers of the Liturgy the troubles at Frankfort and Miles Huggards testimony Of standing at the North-side of the Table The Minister of Linc produceth the Pontificall against himselfe His idle cavils with the Doctor touching the Latine translation of the Common prayer Book The Parliament determined nothing concerning taking down of Altars The meaning and intention of that Rubrick The Minister of Linc palters with his Majesties Declaration about S. Gregories A copy of the Declaration The summe and substance of the Declaration Regall decisions in particular cases of what power and efficacy CHAP. III. Of the Episcopall authority in points of Ceremonie the piety of the times and good worke in hand and of the Evidence produced from the Acts and Monuments The Minister of Linc arts and aymes in the present businesse Dangerous grounds laid by the Minister of Linc for over-throwing the Episcopall and Regall power He misreports the meaning of the Councell of Nice to satisfie his private spleene The Minister of Linc overthrows his owne former grounds by new superstructures protesteth in a thing against his conscience Chargeth the Doctor with such things as he findes not in him Denyeth that any 〈◊〉 tâ—ing may have two knowne and proper names therefore that the Communion table may not be called an Altar also and for the proofe thereof doth faâ—sifie his owne authorities The Doctor falsified againe about the Canons of the yeare 1571. The Minister beholding to some Arch-deacons for his observations Their curtalling of the Bishops power in moving or removing the Communion table to advance their owne The piety of the times anâ— the good worke in hand declared and defended against the impious and profane derision of the Minister of Linc. The testimonies of Fryth and Lambert taken out of the Acts and Monuments cleared from the cavils of the Minister of Linc. The Minister of Linc. cuts off the words of Lambert Fox Philpot and Bishop Latimer and falsifieth most foulely the Acts and Monuments Corrects the Statute and the Writ about the Sacrament of the Altar Pleads poorely for the Bishop of Lincolne and Deane of Westminster in the matter of Oyster-boards and Dressers and falls impertineâ—â—ly foule on the Bishop of Norwich CHAP. IV. Of taking downe Altars in K. Edw. time altering the Liturgie first made and of the 82. Canon The Doctor leaves the Minister of Lincolns Method for this Chapter to keep close to England Altars not generally taken down in the 4. of K. Edw. 6. The Minister of Linc. falsifieth the Bishops letter to the Vicar palters with a passage in the Acts and Mon. to make them serve his turne about the taking downe of Altars A most notorious peece of non-sence in the new Edition of the letter The Altars in the Church of England beaten down in Germany Altars not beaten down de facto by the common people but taken downe by order and in faire proceeding Matters of fact may be made doctrinall sometimes and on some occasions The Order of the King but a kinde of law The Minister of Linc. takes great pains to free Calvin from haâ—ing any hand in altering the Liturgie Land marks and bounds laid down for the right understanding of the story Calvin excepts against the Liturgie practiseth with the D. of Somerset both when he was Protector and after His correspondence here with Bp. Hooper and ill affection to the ceremonies then by Law established The plot for altering the Liturgie so strongly layed that it went forward notwithstanding the Dukes attainder The shamefull ignorance and most apparant falshoods of the Minister of Linc. in all this businesse Calvin attempts the King the Counsell and Archb. Cranmer The date of his Letter to the Archb. cleared from the cavils of the Minister of Linc. the testimony giuen the first Liturgie by K. Edw. 6. asserted from the false construction of the Minister of Linc. as also that given to it by the Parliament Archb. Bancroft and Io. Fox what they say thereof The standing of the Table after the alteration of the Liturgie and that the name of Altar may be used in a Church reformed SECTION II. CHAP. V. What was the ancient Doctrine of the Church concerning Sacrifices Priests and Altars and what the Doctrine of this Church in those particulars That Sacrifices Priestâ— and Altars were from the beginning by the light of nature and that not onely amongst the Patriarchs but amongst the Gentiles That in the Christian Church there is a Sacrifice Priests and Altars and those both instituted and expressed in the holy Gospell The like delivered by Dionysius Ignatius Iustin Martyr and in the Canons of the Apostles As also by Tertullian Irenaeus Origen and S. Cyprian How the Apologeticks of those times are to be interpreted in their denyall of Altars in the Christian Church Minutius Foelix falsified by the Minister of Linc. What were the Sacrifices which the said Apologeticks did deny to be in the Church of Christ. The difference betweene mysticall and spirituall sacrifices S. Ambrose falsified by the Minister of Linc. in the point of Sacrifice The Doctrine of the Sacrifice delivered by Eusebius The Doctrine of the following Fathers of Sacrifices Priests and Altars What is the Doctrine of this Church touching the Priesthood and the Sacrifice The judgement in these points and in that of Altars of B. Andrews K. Iames B. Montague and B. Morton CHAP. VI. An Answer to the â—avils of the Minister of Linc. against the points delivered in the former Chapter Nothing delivered in the 31 Article against the being of a Sacrifice in the Church of Christ nor in the Homilies A pious Bull obtruded on the Doctor by the Minister of Linc. The Reading-Pew the Pulpit and the poor-mans Box made Altars by the Minister of Linc. And huddle of impertinencies brought in concerning sacrifice Commemorative Commemoration of a sacrifice and materiall Altars The Sacrifice of the Altar known by that name unto the Fathers Arnobius falsified The Minister of Linc. questions S. Pauls discretion in his Habemus Altare Heb. 13. 10. and falsifieth S. Ambrose The meaning of that Text according unto B. Andrews B. Montague the Bishop and the Minister of Linc. The same expounded by the old Writers both Greek and Latine The Altars in the â—postles Canons made Panteries and Larders and Iudas his bag an Altar by
as you call him For that the Alteration of K. Edwards Liturgie proceeded rather of some motions from without than any great dislike at home the Doctor was induced to beleeve the rather because the King had formerly affirmed in his Answer to the Devonshire men that the Lords Supper as it was then administred was brought even to the very use as Christ left it as the Apostles used it and as the holy Fathers delivered it Acts and Monuments part 2. pag. 667. And secondly because hee had observed that in the Act of Parliament by which that Liturgie of 1549. was called in the booke of Common prayer so called in was affirmed to be agreeable to Gods Word and the Primitive Church 5. 6. Ed. 6. ca. 1. Unto the first of these you promise such an Answer an Anâ—wer set downe in such Capitall letters that he that runnes may reade And this no doubt you meane to doe onely in favour to the Doctor who being but a blinker as you please to call him would hardly see your Answer in a lesser Character But first because we know your tricks we will set downe in terminis as the storie tells us what was demanded by the Rebells and what was answered by the King and after looke upon the glosse which you make of both that wee may see which of them you report most falsely and what you gather from the same The Rebels they demanded thus Forasmuch as wee constantly beleeve that after the Priest hath spoken the words of consecration being at Masse there celebrating and consecrating the same there is very really the body and bloud of our Saviour Iesus Christ God and man and that no substance of bread and wine remaineth after but the very selfe same body that was borne of the Virgin Mary and was given upon the Crosse for our Redemption therefore wee will have Masse celebrated as it was in times past without any man communicating with the Priests forasmuch as many rudely presuming unworthily to receive the same put no difference between the Lords body and other kind of meat some saying that it is bread both before and after some saying that it is profitable to no man except hee receive it with many other abused termes Now to this Article of theirs the King thus replyed For the Masse I assure you no small studie nor travell hath beene spent by all the learned Clergie therein and to avoid all contention it is brought even to the very use as Christ left it as the Apostles used it as the holy Fathers delivered it indeed somewhat altered from that the Popes of Rome for their lucre brought it to And although yee may heare the contrary from some Popish evill men yet Our Majesty which for Our Honour may not be blemished and stained assureth you that they deceive abuse you and blow these opinions into your heads to finish their owne purposes This is the plaine song as it passed betweene the Rebells and the King And now I will set down your descant on it in your owne words verbatim not a tittle altered that all which runne may reade and see how shamefully you abuse your owne dearest Author The Rebels in their third Article set on by the Popish Priests doe petition for their Masse that is that which wee call the Canon of the Masse and words of consecration as they had it before and that the Priests might celebrate it alone without the communicating of the people To this the King answers That for the Canon of the Masse and words of Consecration which is nothing altered in the second Liturgie they are such as were used by Christ the Apostles and the ancient Fathers that is They are the very words of the Institution But for the second part of their demand which was for the sacrifice of the Masse or the Priests eating alone they must excuse him For this the Popes of Rome for their lâ—cre added to it So there is a cleare Answer to both parts of the Article A very cleare answer if you marke it well The Rebels make demand of the whole Masse modo forma as before it had beene celebrated you make them speake onely of the Canon of the Masse and words of Consecration The King in his reply makes answer to the whole Masse as it was commonly then called the whole forme and order of the Communion in the publick Liturgie that it was brought even to the very use as Christ left it the Apostles used it and the holy Fathers delivered it you make him answer onely of the Canon and words of Institution as if that were all This is not to report an answer but to make an answer and draw that commendation to a part of the common Liturgie which was intended of the whole And yet your Inference is farre worse than your Report For you have made the King to say that they should have a Table and a Communion and the words of Consecration as they were used by Christ the Apostles and the ancient Fathers but they should have no Altar nor sacrifice for these the Popes of Rome for their lucre had added to the Institution This were there nothing else would set you forth for what you are a man that care not what you say or whom you â—alsifie so you may runne away from the present danger though afterwards it overtakes you and falls farre heavier on you than before it did Next let us see what you reply to that which concernes the Parliament and the opinion which it had of the former Liturgie as both agreeable to Gods Word and the Primitive Church And first you charge the Doctor with borrowing that passage from father Parsons three Conversions Whether it be in father Parsons the Doctor knowes not But whether it be or not that comes all to one as long as it is so delivered in the Act of Parliament Then for the Act itselfe you answer that whereas some sensuall persons and refractorie Papists had forbâ—rne to repaire to the parish-Parish-Churches upon the establishment of the English Service the Parliament doth in the Preamble tell the offenders against this new law that praiers in the mother-tongue is no invention of theirs as the Priests would make them beleeve but the doctrine of the Word of God and the practice of the Primitive Church medling no farther with the Liturgie in this part of the Act than as it was a service in the mother-tongue I have been told it was a saying of my Lord Chancellour Egerton that D r Day once Dean of Windsor had the most excellent arts of creeping out of the law of any man whose name was ever brought in Chancâ—ry That Doctor and this Minister are much of the same quality our Minister being as expert in creeping out of an authority as ever was that Doctor in creeping out of the law But yet hee creepes not so away but a man may catch him and catch him sure we will
the Margin The Table or the Altar were to them such indifferent words that they used both equally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Eusebius in the tenth and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Eusebius in the sixt Chapter of his fiâ—sâ— de Demonstratione Evangelica Altars saith S. Austin in the tenth and mensa saith the same S. Austin in his 17 de Civitate Gregory Nyssen in one breath doth make use of both and cals the same one thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the holy Table the undefiled Altar Altars of stone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this Gregory Nyssen Altars of wood ligna Altaris in S. Austin both used with such indifferency that Nyssen calleth his stone Altar by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Table and Austin calleth his wooden Table Altare Altar So that in all this search into antiquitie wee find a generall consent in the Church of God touching the businesse now in hand the Sacrament of the Lords Supper being confessed to be a Sacrifice the Minister therein intiâ—uled by the name of Priest that on the w ch the Priest did consecrate being as usually called by the name of Altar as by that of Table and you may â—ake this testimony also from the mouth of a Gentile that the Christians called their Table by the name of Altar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in Zozimus lib. 5. Not an improper Altar and an improper Sacrifice as you idly dreame of For Sacrifices Priests and Altars being Relatives as your selfe confesseth the Sacriâ—ice and the Altar being improper must needs inferre that even our Priesthood is improper also And wee may speake in proper and significant termes as the Fathers did without approving either the Popish Masse or the Iewish Sacrifices from which the Doctor is as farre as either you that made the booke or hee that licensed it though you have both agreed together to breed some base suspition of him as if he meant somewhat else than for feare of our gracious King he dares speake out The Doctor I assure you dares speake what hee thinkes though you as I perswade my selfe thinke not what you speake and will now tell you what hee thinkes to bee the Doctrine of this Church in this present businesse of Sacrifices Priests and Altars that wee may see shee is no flincher from the words and notions no more than from the Doctrines of most orthodox Antiquity And first beginning with the Priesthood in case you are not growne ashamed of that holy calling you may remeÌ„ber that you were admitted into holy Orders by no other name Being presented to the Bâ—sh at your Ordination you did require to bee admitted to the Order of Priesthood and being demanded by the Bishop if you did thinke in your heart that you were truly called according to the will of our Lord Iesus Christ and the order of this Church of England unto the Ministerie of the Priesthood you answered positively that you did if you thought otherwise than you said as you doe sometimes you lyed not unto men but unto God Looke in the Booke of Ordination and you shall finde it oftner than once or twice entituled the Office of Priesthood and the holy Office of Priesthood the parties thereunto admitted called by no other name than that of Priests Or if you thinke the Booke of Ordination is no good authority to which you have subscribed however in your subscription to the Articles look then upon the Liturgie and the Rubricks of it by w ch you would perswade the world that you are very much directed in all this businesse Finde you not there the name of Priest exceeding frequent especially in that part therof which concerns the Sacrament The Priest standing at the North side of the Table Then shall the Priest rehearse distinctly all the tenne Commandements Then shall the Priest say to them that come to receive the holy Communion Then shall the Priest turning himselfe to the people give the absolution Then shall the Priest kneeling downe at Gods Boord c. Infinitum est ire per singula It were an infinite labour to summe up all places of and in the Rubricks wherein the Minister is called by the name of Priest which being so as so it is and that your own sweet selfe hath told us that Altar Priest and Sacrifice are Relatives the Church of England keeping still as well the Office of Priesthood as the name of Priest must needs admit of Altars and of Sacrifices as things peculiar to the Priesthood But not to trust so great a matter to your rules of Logicke wee will next see what is the judgement of the Church in the point of Sacrifice Two wayes there are by which the Church declares her selfe in the present businesse First positively in the Booke of Articles and that of Homilies and practically in the Booke of Common prayers First in the Articles The offering of Christ once made is that perfect redemption propitiation and satisfaction for all the sinnes of the whole world both originall and actuall and there is no other satisfaction for sinne but that alone This Sacrifice or oblation once for ever made and never more to bee repeated was by our Saviours owne appointment to bee commemorated and represented to us for the better quickning of our faith whereof if there be nothing said in the Booke of Articles it is because the Articles related chiefly unto points in Controversie but in the Booke of Homilies which doe relate unto the Articles as confirmed in them and are though not dogmaticall but rather popular discourses a Comment as it were on those points of doctrine which are determined of elsewhere wee finde it thus That the great love of our Saviour Christ to mankinde doth not only appeare in that deare-bought benefit of our redemption and satisfaction by his death and passion but also in that he hath so kindly provided that the same most mercifull work might bee had in continuall remembrance Amongst the which meanes is the publick celebration of the memorie of his preâ—ious death at the Lords Table our Saviour having ordained and established the remembrance of his great mercie expressed in his passion in the Institution of his heavenly Supper Here is a commemoration of that blessed Sacrifice which Christ once offered a publick celebration of the memorie thereof and a continuall remembrance of it by himselfe ordained Which if it seeme not full enough for the Commemorative sacrifice in the Church observed the Homilie will tell us further that this Lords supper is in such wise to be done and ministred as our Lord and Saviour did and commanded it to be done as his holy Apostles used it and the good Fathers in the Primitive Church frequented it So that what ever hath beene proved to bee the purpose of the Institution the practise of the holy Apostles and usage of the ancient Fathers will fall within the meaning and intention of
expressing of his minde affirmeth Veteres Ecclesiae Patres c. That the ancient Fathers did acknowledge one onely Sacrifice in the Christian Church which did succeed in place of all those sacrifices in the law of Moses that hee conceived the said sacrifice to bee nothing else nisâ— commemorationem â—jus quod semel in Cruce Christus Patri suo obtulit than a Commemoration of that sacrifice which CHRIST once offered on the Crosse to his heavenly Father that oftentimes the Church of England hath professed she will not strive about the Word which shee expresly useth in her publick Liturgie All this you seeme to grant but then make a difference betweene the Commemoration of a Sacrifice and a commemorative sacrifice And though you grant that in the Eucharist there is commemoratio sacrificii yet you flie out upon the Doctor for saying that the Church admits of a commemorative sacrifice which is as much you say as P. Lombard and all his ragged regiment admit of If this be all you stand upon you shall soone be satisfied Archâ—Bishop Cranmer whom you your selfe acknowledge to be the most learned on this Theame of our late Divines distinguisheth most cleerly betweene the sacrifice propitiatory made by Christ himself only and the sacrifice commemorative and gratulatory made by the Priests and people My Lord of Durham also doth call the Eucharist a representative and commemorative sacrifice in as plaine language verily as the Doctor did although hee doth deny it to bee a proper sacrifice As for your Criticisme or quarrell rather betweene a commemorative sacrifice and a commemoration of a Sacrifice which you insist on it was very needlesse both termes being used by Bishop Andrewes as great a Clerke as any Minister of Lincolne Diocesse as aequipollent and aequivalent both of one expression of which see the Margin But to goe forwards with the Sacrifice my Lord of Chichester thus speakes unto his Informers I have saith hee so good an opinion of your understanding though weak that you will conceive the blessed Sacrament of the Altar or the Communion Table which you please to be a sacrifice What doe I heare the Bishop say the blessed Sacrament of the Altar And doe you not perswade us or at least endeavour it out of his answer to the Gagger that Gaggers of Protestants call it so but Protestants themselves doe not It is true that in his answer to the Gagger he hath those very words which you thence produce the Sacrament as you call it of the Altar but then it is as true that hee doth call it so himselfe and is resolved to call it so howsoever you like it Walk you saith he at randome and at rovers in your by-pathes if you please I have used the name of Altar for the Communion Table according to the manner of Antiquity and am like enough sometimes to use it still Nor will I abstaine notwithstanding your oggannition to follow the steps and practice of Antiquity in using the words Sacrifice and Priesthood also Finally hee brings in Bishop Morton professing thus That he beleevâ—d no such sacrifice of the Altar as the Church of Rome doth and that he fancieth no such Altars as they imploy though hee professed a Sacrifice and an Altar Thus having plainly layed before you the Doctrine Vse and Practice of Antiquitie in the present businesse together with the tendries of the Church of England conforme thereto we will next see what you can say unto the contrary and what faire dealing wee are like to finde in your proceedings CHAP. VI. An Answer to the Cavils of the Minister of Linc against the points delivered in the former Chapter Nothing delivered in the 31 Article against the being of a Sacrisice in the Church of Christ nor in the Homilies A pious Bull obtruded on the Doctor by the Minister of Linc The Reading-Pew the Pulpit and the poore-mans Box made Altars by the Minster of Linc. An huddle of impertinencies brought in concerning sacrifice Commemorative commemoration a sacrifice and materiall Altars The Sacrifice of the Altar knowne by that name unto the Fathers Arnobius falsified The Minister of Linc. questions S. Pauls discretion in his Habemus Altare Heb. 13. 10. and falsifieth S. Ambrose The meaning of that Text according unto B. Andrewes B. Montague the Bishop and the Minister of Linc. The same expounded by the old Writers both Greeke and Latine The Altars in the Apostles Canons made Panteries and Larders and ludas his bag an Altar by this man of Linc. The Doctor and Ignatius vindicated in the three places touching Altars The prophane Passage in the Ministers Booke of a Widow-Altar An Answer to the Cavils of the Minister of Linc. against the evidence produced from Ireuaeus and S. Cyprian The Ministers ignorant mistakes about the meaning of Tertullian in the word Ara. Pamellus new reading about Charis Dei not universally received A briefexecitall of the substance in the so two last Chaepters WEE ended our last Chapter with the Church of England and with the Church of England wee must now begin your method leads me to it which I meane to follow as well as such a broken clew can leade mee in so confused a Laberinth as of your compositions And here you change the very state of the question at your first entrance on the same The Bishop charged it home as hee conjectured that if the Vicar should erect any such Altar his discretion would prove the onely Holocaust to be sacrificed thereon Now you have changed it to a close Altar at the upper end of the Quire where the old Altar in Queene Maries time stood This is no honest dealing to begin with The mention of close Altars and Queene Maries time comes in here very unseasonably if not suspiâ—iously onely to make poore men afraid whom you have throughtly possessed already with such Panick feares that Altars and Queen Maries dayes are comming in againe amongst us Nor have you dealt better with the 31 Article in your own Edition of the Bishops letter where you have made it say that that other oblation which the Papists were wont to offer upon these Altars is a blasphemous â—igment and pernicious imposture These was not in the Text before and is now onely thrust into it to make the Vicar come up close to Queene Maries Altars I pray you good Sir whar spectacles did you use when you found Altars and these Altars Papists and that other oblation in the 31 Article wherein my dull and heavy eyes can see no such word This is another of your tricks to make your credulous followers beleeve that by the doctrine of the Church in her publick Articles Papists and Altars are meere Relatives that so whosoever shall but use the name of Altar or speake of placing the Communion-Table Altar-wise may be suspected presently to bee a Papist or at least Popishly affected Nor doe I speake this without good
High-Priest himselfe to partake thereof Of what I pray you Not of the things professed in the Christian Church I hope you will not say but it was lawfull to the Priests to be partakers of the doctrine of our Lord and Saviour Why did the Apostles preach unto the Iewes in case it were not lawfull for them to make profession of the Faith Therefore the Father must needs meane the Christians Sacrifices performed upon the Altar which the Apostle speakes of of which it was not lawfull for the High-Priest continuing as he was High-Priest to bee partaker And this I take the rather to have beene his meaning because Theophylact who followed Chrysostome so exactly that hee doth seeme to have abridged him doth thus descant on it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Having before said v. 9. that no regard was to be had of meats lest our owne Ordinances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might bee thought contemptible as things unobserved hee addes that we have Ordinances of our own 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not about meats as were the Iewes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but such as doe concerne the Altar or the unbloody sacrifice of Christs quickning body Of which which sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not lawfull for the Priests to bee partakers as long as they doe service to the Tabernacle i. e. the legall signes and shadows The like saith also Oecumenius with his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which you have Englished Tenets with the like felicitie as you did the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Chrysost. For Oecumenius saying as Theophylact had done before because the Apostle had affirmed That no regard was to bee had of meates c. hee addes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and have not we also our owne Ordinances or observations To which hee answers with Theophylact but a great deale plainer Yes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not of meats but of our Altar If you goe downe ward to the Latines they are cleare as day Haymo who lived about the yeare â—â—0 affirmes expresly on the place Altare Ecclesiae est ubi quotidie corpus consecratur Christi that is the Altar of the Church whereon the body of Christ is daily consecrated And so Remigius who lived and writ about those times Haâ—emus ergo Altare Ecclesiae ubi consecratur corpus Dominicum the same in sense though not in words with that of Haymo This Doctor Fulk almost as great a Clerke as you conceives to bee so really intended by Oecumenius and Haymo that he reports that they did doate upon the place even as you say the Doctor melts upon the place But say you what you will As long as hee can back it with so good authority the Doctor will make more of Habemus Altare than before hee did though you should raise Iohn Philpot from the dead to expound it otherwise as neare told he did in the Acts and Mon. p. 90. of your holy Table From the Apostles Text both re nomine proceed wee to the Apostles Canons nomine at the least if not re also which if not writ by them are by the Doctor said to be of good antiquity nor doe you deny it Onely you â—ling them off with a Schoole-boyes jest affirming confidently that all good Schollers reckon those Canons but as so many Pot-gunnes Not all good Scholers certainly you are out in that What thinke you of my Lord of Chichester of whom the Doctor and the Minister of Linc. too may well learne as long as they live He a geod Scholler in your own confession doth not alone call them the Apostles Canons but cites the 40 of them as a full and strong authority to prove that by the ancient Canons Church-men had leave to give and bequeath their Goods and Chattels by their last Will and Testament And this in his reply unto Io. Selden whom he knew too well to thinke hee would give back at the report or blow of a School-boyes Pot-gunne Next where those three Canons that the Doctor cited doe speake so clearly of the Altar and that by the same name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 used by the Apostle to the Hebrewes that there is no deniall of it you flie unto your wonted refuge a scornfull and prophane derision Hee that shall read say you what is presented on these Altars for the maintenance of the Bishop and his Clergie will conceive them rather to bee so many Pantries Larders or Store-houses than consecrated Altars O Curvae in terris animae coelestium inanes So dead a soule so void of all coelestiall impressions did I never meet with I am confirmed now more than ever for the first Author of the Dresser otherwise you had never beene allowed and licensed to call it as you doe a Pantrie or a Larder and a Store-house I see there is good provision towards and as much devotion Your Pigâ—on-house wee have seene already and Pottage you will serve in presently if we can bee patient Larders we have and Store-houses and Pantries which portend good cheare Thinke you a man that heares you talke thus would not conceive your Kitchin were your Chappell the Dresser in the same your High-Altar and that your Requiem Altars were your Larder Pantrie and Store-house Get but a Cooke to bee your Chaplaine and on my life Comus the old belly god amongst the Gentiles was never sacrificed unto with such propriety of Vâ—ensils and rich magnificence as you will sacrifice every day to your god your Belly Nor need you feare that your estate will not hold out I hope you are a provident Gentleman and make your Altars bring you in what your Altars spend you For say you not in that which followeth that Iudas his bagge may with as good reason as these Tables bee called â—n Altar I wonder what fine adjunct you will finde out next You cannot probably goe on and not set downe ad mensâ—m daemoniorum that Table of Devils which Saint Paul speakes of Iudas his bagge Just so yet you would shift this off unto Baronius as you have done the Dresser on the rude people of Grantham Baronius as you say implieth it Doth he so indeed All that Baroniâ—â— saith is this that those who ministred in the Church did from the first beginnings of the Church receive their maintenance from the oblations of the faithfull Immo cum adhuc dominus supeâ—stes c. And that the Lord himselfe when he preached the Gospell used from these offerings to provide for himselfe and his For Iudas saith S. Iohn bearing the bagge Ea quâ—â— mittebantur portabat did carrie up and downe that store which was sent in to him What say you doth the Cardinall imply in this that Iudâ—s his bagge may with good reason any how be called an Altar Take heed of Iudas and his â—agge of Iudas and his qualities for feare you come unto that end that Iudas did Your answers to the Doctors allegations
not in those early dayes above one Altar and may bee serviceable as others of this nature are against the Pluralitie of Masses in the Church of Rome many of which you have in Bishop Iewell Art 13. § 6. But that it should be thence concluded that there S. Cyprian onely means the summe and substance of the Gospell is to make aliquid ex nihilo so it serve your purpose Or if it could bee thence collected it could not but be much unto the honour of the Altar and the Priesthood both that those two words should comprehend the whole bodies of religion and yet the Priesthood and the Alter might stand well enough for all that collection Nor need wee feare that following this Interpretation The Popedome would be set up and erected in every Parish Church in England because forsooth the Father speaks of una Cathedra in the words before Saith not Ignaâ—ius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one onely Bishop in a Church as before was said Neither of them I trow endeavoured to advance the Popedome but that for the avoiding of schismes and divisions there ought to bee one Bishop onely within one Diocese whereof see Bishop Iewel passim in that of the Supremacy And as one Bishop so one Priesthood and one Altar onely in each Church on the self-same reason The like may bee replied to your evasion from S. Cyprians meaning in his ninth Epistle of which you tell us as before that hee meanes there by Altar the Ministeriall functions and offices If so it were but pars pro toto the chiefest and most excellent part of the whole Ministerie put for all the rest But are you sure of what you say are you sure of any thing Saint Cyprian speakes five times of Altars in that one Epistle foure times of Sacrifices and Altars Thinke you hee meanes in every place the Ministeriall functions and offices What say you then to this Nequâ— enim meretur nominari ad Altare Dei in Sacerdotum precâ— qui ab Altare sacer â—otes avocare voluit What signifieth Altare in the first place thinke you What the materiall Altar or the 〈◊〉 function However you may wrest this meaning in the later clause to the Priestly function yet in the first you cannot possibly give him any other meaning than that the Priests officiated at the reall and materiall Altar For shame dâ—ale better with the Fathers and let them speake their mindes according to the liberty of thâ—se most pure and pious times without those base disgâ—ises which you put upon them onely to blinde your readers eyes and abuse Antiquiâ—ie Thus have I given you a briefe view in these two last Chapters of the chiefe point in controversie betweene the Doctor and your selfe and hunted you as well as my poore wits would serve me out of all your starting holes Altars and Priests and Sacriâ—â—ces being Relatives as you say your selfe I have layed down in the first place the Orthodox and ancient doctrine of the Church concerning Sacrifice followed it in the way of an historicall narration from Abel downe to Noah from him to Moses from Moses to Christ who instituted as S. Irenaeus hath it the new sacrifice of the new Testament novam oblationem novi Testamenti in this Fathers language This sacrifice thus instituted by our Lord and Saviour the Church received from the Apostles and offers it accordingly to the Lord our God throughout the habitable world the passage and descent whereof from the Apostles times untill S. Austins wee have traced and followed And wee have also found that from the first times to the last there was no sacrifice performed without Priests and Altars excepting those spirituall Sâ—crifices which every man is bound to offer in what place soever All which both Altars Priests and sacrifice we have diâ—covered to you in the Church of England out of the publick monuments and Records thereof and that so answerably unto the Patternes of Antiquitie as if it had beene 〈…〉 the ancient Fathers than the 〈…〉 have cleared up those mists which you endeavoured to cast upon the ancient Writers that so your Readers might not see the true intent and meaning of those passages w ch concern this Argument those most especially whereby you would perswade weake men such as are bound to take your word without further search that in the Primitive Church there was neither Altar Priest not Sacrifice truly and properly so called which what a ruine and confusion it would bring in the Church of God taking away all outward worship enabling every man to the Priestly function robbing the Church of all the reverence due unto it no man knowes better than your selfe who have endevoured to promote that doctrine for this purpose onely that you may be cryed up and honoured as the Grand Patron and defender of mens Christian libertie Finally I have answered unto all those Cavils and exceptions w ch you had made against the Allegations and Authorities pressed and produced by the Doctor against the Writer of the Letter to the Vicar of Granthan and left him statu quo in the same case wherein you found him all your assaults and stratagems of fraud and falshood notwithanding But this in reference onely to the thing it selfe that the Church had Altars in those early and dawning dayes of Christianity we will next looke upon the place and situation of them what you say to that CHAP. VII Of Churches and the fashion of them and of the usuall place allotted in the Church for the holy Altar Places appointed for Divine worship amongst the Patriarchs Iewes and Gentiles The various conditions and estaâ—te of the Christian Church and that the Churches were according unto those estates What was the meaning of the Apologâ—ticks when they denyed the having of Temples in the Church of Christ. The Minister of Linc. stops the mouth of Minutius Felix and falsifieth Arnobius Altars how situated in the troublesome and persecâ—ted times of Christianity The usuall forme of Churches and distinct partâ— and places of them in the Primitive times That in those times the Altars stood not in the body of the Church as is supposed by the Minister of Linc. Six reasons for the standing of the Altars at the upper end of the Quire or Chancell in the dayes of old Of Ecclesiasticall traditions and the authority thereof The Church of England constant to the practice of the former times The Minister of Linc. tels a Winter tale about the standing of an Altar in the Cathedrall Church of Dover The meaning of the Rubrick in the Common-prayer-booke about the placing of the Table in Communion timâ— as also of the 82 Canon of the Church of England IT is well noted by our incomparable Hooâ—ker That solemne duties of publick service to bee done unto God must have their places set and prepared in such sort as beseemeth actions of that regard Which layed for his foundation he thus builds upon it that Adam even
〈◊〉 hee had an excellent Art of finding proofes to make it good Now to make good this charge of your friend H. B. you tell us that it is a Paganish thing to make God more propiâ—ious in any one corner of the world then hee is in an other For this you cite these words of Minutius Felix viz. Deo cunâ—ta plena sunt Vbique non tâ—ntum nobis proximus sed infusâ—s est But gentle Sir those words are spoken in the Author not in relation unto the placing of the Altars or to the peoples turning of themselves in the Act â—f Prayer but to the point of having Temples iâ—e such Temples as were then in use amongst the 〈◊〉 for the immediate and locall habitations of thâ—ir God Which being as he saith unnecessarie in regard that God was everie where and filled all things with his presence was a good Answer to the Argument that Câ—â—ilius used but very ill brought in by you upon no occasion Onely you please to intimate unto your dependants who understand your meaning at halfe a word that as they may pray what they will for all the Canon and hâ—â— they will for all the Custome so they may pray also when and where they will for all our Churches Excellent Doctrine credit mee not a New-Englander of them all could have done it better From your unnecessarie discourse about the jurisdiction of Bishops and these baâ—k-bloâ—es on the by wee must next â—ollow you unto a more unnecessarie about the Office of Archdeacons which they that perhaps sent you in your notes desired to have extreamely heightned but all the proofes they bring to exalt the same â—end to the diminution of it Now for the finding out of that authoritie which you ascribe to the Archdeacons or rather they unto themselves you goe as high as the first Deacons whose ancient power you say is now united and concentred in that of theirs and tell us many things that before we knew not Fiâ—st take it as we will that the very Altar it selfe with the Raile about it hath beene termed in ancient Councels the Diaconie as a place belonging next after the Bishop to the care and custodie of the Deacon only Secondly that it is affirmed by an ancient Councell that the Priest can boast of nothing that hee hath in generall but his bare name not able to execute his very Office without the autority and ministery of the Deacon Thirdly that in a Precedent of this very particular it was the Deacons office portare to move and remove the Altar and all the implements belonging thereunto as saith Saint Austine And thereupon you draw this inference that from these first Deacons to our present Archdeacons Incumbents have beene excluded from medling with the utensils of the Church or Ornaments of the Altar and for the proofe hereof you tell us in the Margin out of Linâ—wood that they the Archdeacons have in charge omnia ornamenta uteâ—silia Ecclesiarum This is a compound dish and was perhaps served in for an olla podrida or the Graâ—d Sallet of the Feast and therefore that we may the better judge of the ingredients wee will taste them severally And first you say the very Altar it selfe with the â—â—ile about it in ancient Councels hath beene â—ermed the Diaconie This is the first Caper in your Sallet and it tastes very high indeed as high as the Councell of Laodicea which was before the famous Synod of Nice Now in this Councell it is ordered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no inferiour Minister should have place in the Diaconie and touch the holy vessells or the holy utensils This Canon afterwards was incorporated into those made in a Councell held at Agatha or Agde in Gaul Narbonnoyse Anno 506. in this forme that followeth viz. Quoniam non oportet insacratos ministros licentiam habere in secretarium quod Graeci diaconion appellant ingredi contingere vasa dominica Now in al this you are mistaken very â—ouly no man ever more For neither was the Diaconion the place between the wall and rail where the Altar stood nor do those Canons give the Deacon any dignity above the Priests as you intend it The Diaconion or Diaconicon as the old translation in Binius read's it or the Diaconie as you call it doth signifie the Vestrie and not the Altar place a roome appointed for the keeping of the sacred utensils not for the ministration of the holy Sacraments And it was called Sacrarium also as being the repositorie of the hallowed Ornaments from whence wee have the name of Saâ—rist to whom the keeping of the same was in fine committed That living magazin of Learning Sir Henry Spelman could have told you this Diaconion Diaconicum locus in circuitu Ecclesiae conservandis vasis Dominicis ornamentis Ecclesiae deputatus alias secretarium alias Sacrarium and this he saith with reference to this very Councel of Laodicea which you build upon Then there 's Iosephus Vice Comes whom you have magnified to our hand for the most learned in â—ur age of all that have dealt with Rites and Ceremonies who affirmes the same For speaking of the Councell of Agatha or Agde the second of the two to which you referre us hee doth resolve of Secretarium which is there said to be called Diaconion by the Grecians that it is the Vestrie Secretarium i. e. locum sacris asservandis praestitutum as hee there informes us Nor can it but seem strange to any man that hath his wits about him as he ought to have that the Altar with the raile about it or the Altar place should be entituled the Diaconie wherein the Deacons had so little if at all anything to do But were it so as you would have it yet were this little to the honour of the Archdeacons office as now it stands and very much unto the Priests All that is given the Deacons here is but a trust committed to them above those other Ministers which were insacrati as the later of your Councels cals them not yet admitted unto any of the holy Orders or to them onely of the lowest or inferiour sort which are not properly to be called Orders but rather preparations to them The washing of the plate and laying up the sacred utensils in their proper places was not conceived to be a fitting service for so high a dignity as the holy Priesthood and therefore was put off to them who being in ordine ad spiritualia in some degree or way unto it were thought most fit to undertake it So that this charge was plainly cast upon the Deacon rather to ease the Priest and for the honour of his calling than to give any place or priviledge unto the Deacon who as you might have seen in the Canon next before was not to sit downe in the presence of the Priest without speciall leave to perk before him And you have done your Bishop but a