A LETTER FROM A Minister in the Country To a MEMBER OF THE CONVOCATION A LETTER FROM A Minister in the Country To a MEMBER OF THE CONVOCATION Licensed and Entred according to Order LONDON Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Black Bull in the Old-Bailey 1689. A LETTER FROM A Minister in the Country to a Member of the Convocation SIR I Look'd upon it as a good Omen when the first Proctor that I heard of chosen to serve in the Convocation was you of whose Prudence Temper and Judgment I have had long Experience The sense of which so far transported me that had you not invited it I should hardly have forborn to give you my thoughts about the Matters which I hear are likely to be offered to your Consideration in that Venerable Assembly Matters certainly of great Importance to our Church a Church which I am certain of in respect of its Doctrine Worship and Order is inferiour to none upon the face of the Earth And therefore what we ought with all imaginable care at all times to preserve but in this present Juncture more especially to respect For if what Report and some Letters and the Queries suggest be true we have reason to fear there is a Cloud hanging over us in the Commission lately set up that portends no less than Ruin to our Constitution by taking away the two main Supports of it our Liturgy and Episcopacy A matter if true you cannot be too intent upon nor too resolute to oppose and if such things be complied with by you and those of your station you must be false to the Trust reposed in you and to the Church of which you are Members Ministers and at this present Representatives But I must confess to you I begin to think that we have been impos'd upon by the Artifice of some and the Credulity of others for having met with a Book called A Discourse concerning the Ecclesiastical Commission and convers'd of late with several discerning and impartial Persons that have penetrated into this matter further than some of us I find that there is little else intended than what you and I and several of our Acquaintance have thought would be rather for the Advantage Security and Honour of our Church than to the Prejudice and Detriment of it And if the refreshing of these things and laying them in some Order before you will be of any use to you as you pretend I shall as the time will permit do my best to answer your desires and in discoursing upon which 1. I shall shew that there are such things in our Church as are in their nature alterable and what they are 2. That there are such things in our Church which may be altered and the Church not the worse for such alterations 3. There are such things as may be altered and the Church be the better for such alterations 4. That this is a proper season for such alterations 1. That there are such things in the Church as are in their nature alterable and may upon just Occasion be altered has been the constant Opinion of our Church And which for the Authority of it and the Excellency of its Reasoning I shall choose to set down in its own words Preface to the Service-Book It has been the wisdom of the Church of England ever since the first compiling of her Publick Liturgy to keep the Mean between the two Extreams of too much stiffness in refusing and of too much easiness in admitting any variation from it For as on the one side common Experience sheweth that where a change has been made of things advisedly established no evident Necessity so requiring sundry inconveniencies have thereupon ensued and those many times more and greater than the evils that were intended to be remedied by such change So on the other side particular Forms of Divine Worship and the Rites and Ceremonies appointed to be used therein being things in their own nature Indifferent and Alterable and so acknowledged it is but reasonable that upon weighty and important Considerations according to the various exigency of Times and Occasions such changes and alterations should be made therein as to those that are in place of Authority should from time to time seem either necessary or expedient So the Homily of Fasting Part 1. Article 34 c. So that setting aside what in this case is to be supposed not concerned in the present Debate the Essentials belonging to our Religion and our Church without the former of which it would not be a true or compleat Church and without the latter it would not be our Church there is nothing but what as it's alterable so may in such Circumstances be altered 2. There are such things in our Church as may be altered and the Church not be the worse for such alterations Which Rule supposes the Alterations such as are consistent with the Being and Security of our Church With the Being whereby are excluded all such as will not allow a National Church Episcopacy and a Liturgy With the Security and so are excluded such alterations as will do more mischief by dividing us among our selves than good by uniting others to us And such alterations I conceive would be the new modelling of the Liturgy and the forbidding wholly the use of the established Rites and Ceremonies If the matters proposed for Alteration be of the former sort there can be no Accommodation if of the latter the time and season are to be respected as well as the things themselves which will also be debated in the close Setting aside the Objections against the Essentials of our Church as not to our present purpose the rest may be comprehended in this order The Kalendar The Service The Rites Reordination Subscription and Declaration Government and Discipline 1. The Kalendar And herein the first thing that is to be considered is the Apocrypha the Books of which being only of Humane Composure have not only been all along objected against by Dissenters but also wished by many amongst our selves might be exchanged for Lessons out of the Canonical Scripture as by the Bishops and other Episcopal Divines assembled to consider of these matters in 1641. It 's acknowledged that some of these Books contain matter of excellent use and have been anciently read in the Christian Church But the first of these is no Reason for those Books which contain things neither profitable nor true nor can it be of any force when there are Chapters of Canonical Scripture that may with great profit be read and are omitted for their sake 1. If any of them were anciently read So were Hermes Pastor and Clemens Romanus And if that is a reason why the one it 's a reason why what we have of the other should be read also 2 If they were read then we know what mischief ensued from it when there were some of the Ancients thought too favourable of some of them And the Church of Rome has of
Apocrypha made them Canonical To whom our reading of them may be thought to give too much countenance To this I may add the revising of the Psalter added to our Liturgy which though in its time and before a better could be had was of singular use The Protestant Peacemaker p. 120. 1682. yet seems now not so defensible when there is a more correct in our hands A more correct I call it after the Bishop of Cork since those that will take the pains to compare this with the original cannot but be sensible of the manifold variations of it from the Hebrew some while adding Phrases and Verses another while leaving out and frequently mistaking the sense of it And as learned men observe this so vulgar Readers may sometimes find the inconsistency of one Translation with the other which must needs create no little scruple in their minds by having inconsistent as well as confusion by having different Translations And whereas it 's pleaded the people are used to this and some so as to have it by heart I answer the people are used at home and by the Quotations from it in Sermons and Books and Paraphrases upon it in Print to the other And if we compute how few come to daily Prayers to those that do not and how few of those that do come can repeat the Psalms memoriter to those that cannot the number that may be presum'd will be for the old will be inconsiderable to those that will be for the new Besides if this were true it s an argument only for the present age and not for the next And which if it had been of any force there could never reasonably have been any second Translation of the Bible after a first for what they had they were more used to than what they had not These are things the aforesaid excellent Bishop thinks will easily be granted p. 120. 2. As for the Service I shall consider it in another place and shall therefore now pass to the 3. Rites and Ceremonies Here I take it for granted 1. That the Ceremonies that we are obliged to observe are no other than what are prescribed in the Book of Common-Prayer and so Bowing at the Name of Jesus and toward the Altar being not therein prescribed are not concerned in the case before us 2. I take it for granted that the Ring in Marriage is now on all sides accounted a meer Civil and not a Religious Rite and so what remain are only the Surplice the Cross and Kneeling at the Sacrament 3. I take it for granted again that if the circumstances of times and state of the Church make it more necessary to lay any of them aside or alter them than to continue the use of them that it 's then lawful and reasonable according to the Doctrine of our Church to alter or abolish them And that though they have been never so venerable for Antiquity since even those that were once of Divine Institution and of Apostolical use have been changed or prohibited when the case was altered or need so required as it was in the posture at the Passover among the Jews the time of Celebrating the Lord's Supper the Holy Kiss and Love-Feasts in the Primitive Church But how indifferent soever the things are in themselves and that the nature of the thing varies not nor is bettered by the use or made worse by the alteration or forbearance of them yet I confess there is a difficulty in our circumstances how to proceed For without quitting or altering it seems the Dissenting party is not to be brought into the Church and without retaining them it 's likely many of our own will hardly be kept in it Both parties are in the Extremes and yet both are to be regarded the one that there be no Schism from the Church the other that there be no Schism in it And therefore to accommodate this matter some have thought it most convenient to leave the case wholly indifferent to wear or not wear a Surplice to use or not use the Cross to kneel stand or sit in the Lord's Supper but I am afraid instead of uniting this would more divide us and set Clergy against Clergy and People against People and sometimes People against Clergy And therefore in my poor opinion the best expedient is first of all to have some Rubricks drawn up to set forth for what reason the Church doth use and retain them without the Tokens and Dedications heretofore alluded to And then to find out some way for a mitigation As for instance if the Minister to be admitted yet scruples the use of the Surplice or Cross upon application to the Bishop another may be appointed to do that Service And if one of the Laity scruples the use of the Cross the Minister may be permitted in that case to Baptize without it Or if Kneeling at the Sacrament that the person so scrupling may have it delivered unto him in another posture provided it be not at the Table but in some convenient Pew or Place appointed by the Minister And the same course may be taken for Godfathers which if the Parent signifies he cannot procure or is not satisfied in it shall be lawful for the Minister to accept of the Sponsion of the Parent 4. Reordination This is the case of those that are not now against Episcopal Orders but having been Ordained by Presbyters they think it unlawful to renounce them and to be Reordained where they have been already Ordained And they plead for themselves That though by the late Act of Parliament none are to be admitted to officiate in the Church of England without Episcopal Ordination yet it was not so before For 1. the Ordination by Presbyters was by our Church accounted valid though not every way perfect and Foreigners were suffered to enjoy Ecclesiastical Preferments here without Reordination as was the case of Peter du Moulin c. 2. It was not only so with Foreigners Bp Spotsw Hist of Scotland but also those that were made Presbyters by Presbyters in Scotland were made Bishops without any New Ordination 3. They plead though their case is somewhat different yet it 's so near the same that the difference cannot as far as they conceive make that altogether invalid in them which was so far valid in the other as not to require a New Ordination 4. They plead Quod fieri non debet factum valet and that were it to do again they would not chuse it but being done and sometimes when they could not have Episcopal Ordination they think some favour is to be allowed for this once My business is not to enquire into the sufficiency of their Reasons but what may be done for the composing now of this matter and the preserving of the Right of Episcopal Ordination which St. Epist ad Evagr. Hierom himself makes the sole Prerogative and distinguishing Character of that Order and the quieting of the Consciences of those that
ad Serapion Tom. 1. nor was originally either in the Nicene truly so called or Athanasian Creed Nor lastly is it so thought by our Church which receiving the four first General Councils consequently agrees with the third Concil Ephes Part 2. Art. 6. that of Ephesus which made a peremptory Decree against all Additions to be made hereafter to the Creed From whence it follows that nothing else was then accounted necessary to be believed but what was contained in the Nicene And now this young man's Doubt is further advanced because this is a Creed and to be subscribed to and so seems still less capable of the sense before given of Subscription as a matter of Peace only Now how our Querist about the Commiss did in these matters I know not but I suppose there are others that found it difficult to conform because they found it difficult to satisfie themselves in these and the like things And therefore it 's convenient that the Forms of Subscription and Declaration be explained And it would be worth your while perhaps to consider also whether it will not be requisite to have a Rubrick drawn up and inserted before the Athanasian Creed signifying That this Creed may be read or with an Alias This or the Nicene or that the Condemning Sentences be left out or if continued it may be express'd that they are to be applied only to those that obstinately deny the Fundamental Articles of the Christian Faith contained in that Creed The want of which doth give occasion of scruple to many of our own People that will not say Amen to it as well as to the Dissenters and trouble to several of the Order that subscribe it 5. I should now proceed to the Government of the Church in which the chief thing desired by the Dissenters is that the Presbytery might be restored to its ancient Priviledge and that the Bishops would consult them and permit them to share in all acts belonging to their station which it's likely would be a great ease to and also be for the honour of the Bishop It would make him more beloved by his Clergy and take off from him what-ever he may suffer when he is alone by any mis-government He would then be as a Cyprian reverenced by all Epist 6. when he doth as he that did nothing without their assistance and concurrence 6. The last thing complained of is the want of due Discipline and especially in the superficial issuing forth of Excommunications A matter indeed highly scandalous and that is complain'd of by the Church as well as those that dissent from it And is a Subject therefore worthy of mature consideration and to that I leave it I have now done with the Case of Dissenters and have shewed how there are Alterations may be made in the Church in favour of them and the Church not be the worse for them Against which I know not what can be reasonably objected but that either what can be hoped for from them though the Church should be disposed to make such Concessions Relaxations and Alterations where are they that will come in Or if they are so disposed and should embrace these Overtures what advantage will this be to the Church To the first I Answer 1. It 's but trying upon such terms as the Church will not be the worse for and if it succeed not the fault will be theirs and not ours We shall thereby stifle their Clamours against the Church and shall shew our selves to be persons of Candour and Charity and I may add Justice and Integrity When the Church having it now in their power do perform what they so lately promised by their Bishops when it was not in their power viz. That they wanted no due Tenderness towards Dissenters but were willing to come to such a Temper as should be thought fit when that matter should be considered and setled in Parliament and Convocation We know not how far such steps may prevail upon the most dissatisfied but we may be certain of their due effect upon those that are sincere and impartial But it may be said what need is there of such or what benefit will it be to the Church to admit those who when kept out are Enemies and when let in will be no Friends To this I answer in the words of the Venerable Prelate before quoted These men The Protestant peace-maker p. 127 128. in behalf of whom I have spoken are in being already and will Preach somewhere or other and 't is better we had them in publick than in corners that so the Church either had Security for their peaceable Doctrine which I verily believe we may have as to most of them or opportunities to convict them of Sedition What he saith further is worthy of perusal and is sufficient to put the Querie out of Countenance viz. But I have other guess Arguments that move me 1. To those who ask What need af more Vnion I return What need of Holiness What need of Godliness Charity Justice Are these Christian Duties and is not Vnion and Peace as much so 2. I am and must be in the mind that the strength of the Protestant Cause both here at home and throughout Christendom lies in the Vnion of Protestants and the Glory Purity and Power of Christianity in this World stand or fall with Protestantism 3. I must be so ingenuous as to acknowledge That though the City and divers particular places flourish with such Preachers as never they had before yet the way of Preaching in many parts of the Country and in some no obscure places too might be much improved and needs supply And it can never be made out to the World but it were better we had too many good Preachers than too few I could tell some men in their ear They also have strangely multiplied Curacies which are too often vacant The Lord forgive them and redress this great evil in his Church Having clear'd this Point I shall proceed to shew 3 General 3. That there are such things in our Church and Constitution which may be altered so that the Church shall be the better for such alterations And this is a case would require our consideration although there was not a Dissenter amongst us And that may be by taking away what may be spared and that sometime is superfluous By supplying what is wanting by clearing what is doubtful by amending what 's amiss and improving what is tolerable and well so as to make it yet more beneficial and solemn 1. By taking away what may be spared And here it may well be queried whether it 's not better both for Minister and People to have the Sunday Service shortned than continued to that length that it has at present For the People who whatever some Devout Persons may conceive or howsoever they may be able to keep up their minds and temper are apt to flag and have their Spirits tired and cloy'd by a tedious