let them be recited if not It is hard that this should even by you be thus affirmed as is sayd by us which we have not sayd We have sayd that the Ceremonies have been the Fountain of much evil occasioning divisions but not what you charge us to have sayd in words or sense 3. And may not you alter them without approving or seeming to approve the reason upon which the alteration is desired when you have so great store of other reasons The King in his Declaration is far enough from seeming to own the Charge against the things which he was pleased graciously to alter so far as is there exprest If a Patient have a conceit that some one thing would kill him if he took it the Physitian may well forbear him in that one thing when it is not necessary to his health without owning his reasons against it If his Majesty have Subjects so weak as to contend about things indifferent and if both sides err one thinking them necessary and the other sinful may he not gratifie either of them without seeming to reprove their errour By this reason of yours he is by other men in such a Case necessitated to sin For if he settle those things which some count necessary he seems to approve of their opinion that they are necessary If he take them down when others call them sinful he seems to own their charge of the sinfulness But indeed he needeth not to do either he may take them down or leave them indifferent professedly for unity and peace and professedly disown the Errors on both sides We are sorry if any did esteem these Forms and Ceremonies any better than mutable indifferent modes and circumstances of Worship and did hazard estate or life for them as any otherwise esteemed And we are sorry that by our Divisions the Adversary of Peace hath gotten so great an advantage against us as that the Argument against necessary charitable forberance is fetch'd from the interest of the reputation of the contending Parties that things may not be abated to others which you confess are indifferent and alterable and which many of them durst not use though to save their lives And this because it will make them thought the pious tender concienc'd men and make others thought worse of But with whom will it have these effects those that you call the generality of the sober loyal children of the Church will think never the worse of themselves because others have libertie to live by them without these things And the rest whose liberties you denie will think rather the worse of you than the better for denying them their libertie in the worshipping of God You undoubtedly argue here against the interest of Reputation which you stand for your Prefaces to your indulgencies and your open Professions and if you will needs have it so your own Practises will tell the World loud enough that the things which you adhered to with so great hazards are still lawfull in your Judgement and it will be your honour and add to your reputation to abate them to others when it is in your power to be more severe And if you refuse it their sufferings will tell the World loud enough that for their parts they still take them to be things unlawful As for the reasons by them produced to prove them sinfull they have been publickly made known in the writings of many of them In Ames his fresh sute against the Ceremonies and in the Abridgement c. and in Bradshaw's Nicols and other mens Writings To the first general Proposal we answer That as to that part of it which requires that the matter of the Liturgie may not be private opinion or fancy that being the way to perpetuate Schism the Church hath been carefull to put nothing into the Liturgie but that which is either evidently the Word of God or what hath been generally received in the Catholick Church neither of which can be called private opinion and if the contrary can be proved we wish it out of the Liturgie Reply We call those Opinions which are not determined Certainties and though the greater number should hold them as Opinions they are not therefore the Doctrines of the Church and therefore might be called Private Opinions but indeed we used not the Word that we can find the thing we desired was that the materials of the Liturgie may consist of nothing doubtfull or questioned among pious learned and orthodox Persons We said also that the limiting Church Communion to things of doubtfull disputation hath been in all Ages the ground of Schisme and Separation which is not to say that the Liturgy it self is a Superstitious usage or a directs cause of Schisme And we cited the words of a Learned man Mr. Hales not as making every word our own but as a Testimony ad hominem because he was so highly valued by your selves as we suppose and therefore we thought his words might be more regarded by you than our own 2. Where you say that the Church hath been carefull to put nothing in the Liturgy but that which is either evidently the word of God or that which had been generally received in the Catholick Church We reply 1. We suppose there is little or nothing now controverted between us which you will say is evidently the Word of God either the Forms or Ceremonies or any of the rest 2. If by in the Church you mean not by the Church but by any part in the Church how shall we know that they did well And if by the generality you mean not All but the Greater part you undertake the proof of that which is not easie to be proved It being so hard to judge of the majority of Persons in the Catholick Church in any notable differences We do take it for granted that you limit not the Catholick Church as the Papists do to the Confines of the Roman Empire but indeed we can only wish that your Assertion were true while we must shew it to be untrue if you speak of the Primitive Church or of an universality of time as well as place if not its more against you that the Primitive Catholick Church was against you The very thing in question that containeth the rest that it s needfull to the peace of the Church that all the Churches under one Prince should use one form of Liturgy was not received by the Catholick Church nor by the generality in it when it is so well known that they used diversity of Liturgies and Customes in the Roman Empire The generality in the Catholick Church received not the Lords Supper Kneeling at least on any Lords dayes when it was forbidden by divers generall Councills and when this prohibition was generally received as an Apostolical tradition We have not heard it prov'd that the Surplice or Cross as used with us wree received by the Universal Church It is a private Opinion not received by the Catholick Church that it is requisite that no man should come to the Holy Communion but with a full trust in Gods mercy and with a quiet Conscience though it be every mans duty to
note of distinction or notice given to the people that they are not Canonical Scripture they being also bound with our Bibles is such a temptation to the vulgar to take them for Gods Word as doth much prevail and is like to do so still And when Papists second it with their confident affirmations that the Apocriphal Bookes are Canonical well refelled by one of you the R. Reverend Bishop of Durham we should not needlesly help on their successe If you cite the Apocripha as you do other humane writings or read them as Homilies when and where there is reason to read such we speak not against it to say that the people are secured by the Churches calling them Apocripha is of no force till experience be proved to be dis-regardable and till you have proved that the Ministers is to tell the people at the reading of every such Chapter that it is but Apocriphal and that the people all understand Greek so well as to know what Apocripha signifieth The more sacred and honourable are these Dictates of the holy Ghost recorded in Scripture the greater is the sin by reading the Apocripha without sufficient distinction to make the people believe that the writings of man are the Revelation and Laws of God And also we speak against the reading of the Apocripha as it excludeth much of the Canonical Scriptures and taketh in such Books in their stead as are commonly reputed fabulous By this much you may see how you lost your Answer by mistaking us and how much you will sin against God and the Church by denying our desire That the Minister should not read the Communion Service at the Communion Table is not reasonable to demand since all the Primitive Church used it and if we do not observe that golden Rule of the venerable Council of Nice Let antient customes prevail till reason plainly requires the contrary We shall give offence to sober Christians by a causelesse departure from Catholick usage and a great advantage to enemies of our Church than our Brethren I hope would willingly grant The Priest standing at the Communion Table seemeth to give us an invitation to the holy Sacrament and minds us of our duty viz. To receive the holy Communion some at least every Sunday and though we neglect our duty it is fit the Church should keep her standing Repl. We doubt not but one place in it self is as lawful as another but when you make such differences as have misleading intimations we desire it may be forborn That all the Primitive Church used when there was no Communion in the Sacrament to say Service at the Communion Table is a crude assertion that must have better proof before we take it for convincing and it is not probable because they had a Communion every Lords day And if this be not your meaning you say nothing to the purpose To prove that they used it when there was none And you your selves devise many things more universally practised than this can at all be fairly pretended to have been The Council of Nice gives no such golden Rule as you mention A Rule is a general applyable to particular Cases the Council only speaks of one particular Let the antient Custom continue in Aegypt Lybia and Pentapolis that the Bishop of Alexandria have the power of them all The Council here confirmeth this particular Custom but doth not determine in general of the Authority of Custom That this should be called a Catholic usage shews us how partially the word Catholick is sometimes taken And that this much cannot be granted as least we advantage the enemies of the Church doth make us wonder whom you take for its enemies and what is that advantage which this will give them But we thank you that here we find our selves called Brethren when before we are not so much as spoken to but your speech is directed to some other we know not whom concerning us your reason is that which is our reason to the contrary you say The Priest standing at the Communion Table seems to give us an Invitation to the holy Communion c. what when there is no Sacrament by himself or us intended no warning of any given no Bread and Wine prepared Be not deceived God is not mocked Therefore we desire that there may be no such service at the Table when no Communion is intended because we would not have such grosse dissimulation used in so holy things as thereby to seem as you say to invite Guests when the Feast is not prepared and if they came we would turn them empty away Indeed if it were to be a private Mass and the Priest were to receive alone for want of Company and it were really desired that the people should come it were another matter Moreover there is no Rubrick requiring this service at the Table It is not reasonable that the word Minister should be only used in the Liturgy for since some parts of the Liturgy may be performed by a Deacon others by none under the Order of a Priest viz. Absolution Consecration it is fit that some such word as Priest should be used for those Offices and not Minister which signifies at large every one that ministers in that holy Office of what Order soever he be The word Curate signifying properly all those who are trusted by the Bishops with Cure of Souls as antiently it signified is a very fit word to be used and can offend no sober person The word Sunday is antient Just Mart. Ap. 2. And therefore not to be left off Repl. The word Minister may well be used in stead of Priest and Curates though the word Deacon for necessary distinction stand yet we doubt not but Priest as it is but the English of Presbyter is lawful But it is from the common danger of mistake and abuse that we argue That all Pastors else are but the Bishops Curates is a Doctrine that declares the heavy charge and account of the Bishops and tends much to the ease of the Presbyters minds if it could be proved If by Curates you mean such as have not directly by divine Obligation the Cure of Souls but only by the Bishops Delegation But if the Office of a Presbyter be not of divine Right and so if they be not the Curates of Christ and Pastors of the Church none are And for the antient use of it we find not that it was so from the beginning And as there 's difference between the antient Bishops of one single Church and a Diocesan that hath many hundred so is there between their Curates But why will you not yield so much as to change the word Sunday into the Lords Day when you know that the latter is the name used by the Holy Ghost in Scripture and commonly by the antient Writers of the Church and more becoming Christians Just Mart. speaking to Infidels tells how they called the Day and not how Christians called it All he saith is
Subject that can exempt him from the duty of obeying But it may ensnare him in a certainty of sinning whether he obey or disobey For as God commandeth him to obey and also not to do that which man commandeth when God forbiddeth it So he obligeth the erronious first to lay down his errours and so to obey But if a thing he forbidden of God and commanded of man and one man erroniously thinke it lawful and that he should obey and another is in doubt between both it is neither a duty nor lawful for either of them here to obey For mans errour changeth nor Gods Laws nor disobligeth himself from obedience But this mans duty is both to lay by that errour and to refuse obedience but if the question be only of the order of such a persons duty we answer If the thing be really lawful and obedience a duty then he that doubteth or erreth should if possible suddenly lay by his errours or doubt and so obey But if that cannot be he should first go about the fittest means for his better information till he be resolved and so obey And so on the contrary if really the thing commanded be unlawful if he be sure of it he must resolve against it if he hesitate he is not therefore allowed to do a thing forbidden because he is ignorant For his ignorance is suposed culpable it self but he is first to consult and use the best means for his Instruction till he know the truth and in the mean time to suspend his Act. But yet because of humane frailty between several faults we must consider when we cannot avoid all as we would in what order most safely to watch and to avoid them And so when I have done my best and cannot discern whether a Command be just and the thing lawful or not If it have the face of Idolatry Blasphemy or some hainous Sin that is commanded and our dis-obedience have the appearance but of an effect of involuntary ignorance it is more excusable in us to fear the greater Sin and so to suspend till we are better satisfied than to do that which we suspect to be so hainous a Sin though in leed it prove no sin So on the contrary if our disobedience be like to bring Infamy or Calamity on the Church and our Obedience appear to be but about a very small sin if we doubt of it it is more excusable to obey than to disobey though both be faulty supposing the thing to be indeed unlawful and we discern it not So that your Rule of obeying where you are not as sure c Is an unsure Rule unless as we have fullyer cautioned it Pretence of Conscience is no exemption from obedience for the Law as long as it is a Law certainly binds to obedience Rom. 13. Ye must needs be subject and this pretence of a tender gainsaying Conscience cannot abrogate the Law since it can neither take away the Authority of the Law-maker nor make the matter of the Law in it self unlawful Besides if pretence of Conscience did exempt from obedience Laws were uselesse whosoever had not list to obey might pretend tenderness of Conscience and be thereby set at liberty which if once granted Anarchy and Confusion must needs follow Repl Neither pretence of Conscience nor real Errour of Conscience exempteth from the Obligation to obey though sometime it may so ensnare as that obeying shall become of the two the greater sin so also real Errours or pretence of Conscience will justifie no man for obeying when it is by God forbidden Though Charity will move to pity and relieve those that are truly perplexed or Scrupulous yet we must not break Gods Command in Charity to them and therefore we must not perform publick Services undecently or disorderly for the ease of tender Consciences Repl. O that you would but do all that God alloweth you yea that he hath commanded you for these ends how happy would you make your selves and these poor afflicted Churches But as to the instance of your Rule we answer 1. When the indecency and disorder is so small as that it will not crosse the ends so much as our disobedience would we are here so far more conformable and peaceable than you as that we would even in Gods worship do some things indecent and disorderly rather than disobey And so should you do rather than destroy your Brethren or hinder that peace and healing of the Church For Order is for the thing ordered and not contrarily For example there is much disorder lies in the Common-Prayer Book yet we would obey in it as far as the ends of our calling do require It would be undecent to come without a Band or other handsome raiment into the Assembly yet rather than nor worship God at all we would obey if that were commanded us we are as confident that Surplices and Copes are undecent and kneeling at the Lords Table is disorderly as you are of the contrary And yet if the Magistrate would be advised by us supposing himself addicted against you we would advise him to be more charitable to you than you here advise him to be to us We would have him if your Conscience require it to forbear you in this undecent and disorderly way But to speak more distinctly 1. There are some things decent and orderly when the opposite species is not undecent or disorderly 2. There are some things undecent and disorderly in a small and tolerable degree And some things in a degree intolerable 1. When things decent are commanded whose opposites would not be at all undecent there Charity and Peace and Edification may command a Relaxation or rather should at first restrain from too severe Impositions As it is decent to wear either a Cloak or a Gown a Cassock buttoned or unbutton'd with a Girdle or without to sit stand or kneel in singing of a Psalm to sit or stand in hearing the word read or preached c. 2. When a Circumstance is undecent or disorderly but in a tollerable degree to an Inconvenience Obedience or Charity or Edification may command us to do it and make it not only lawful but a duty pro hic nunc while the preponderating Accident prevaileth Christs instances go at least as far as this about the Priests in the Temple breaking the Sabbath blamelesly and Davids eating the Shew bread which was lawful for none to eate ordinarily but the Priests And the Disciples rubbing the ears of Corn I will have mercy not sacrifice is a Leston that he sets us to learn when two duties come together to prefer the greater if we would escape sin And sure to keep an able Preacher in the Church or a private Christian in Communion is a greater duty caeteris paribus than to use a Ceremony which we conceive to be decent It is more orderly to use the better translation of the Scripture than the worse as the Common-Prayer-book doth and yet we would
the Church to be confessed and of such Petitions and Thanksgiving as are ordinarily by the Church to be put up to God and that Puplick Catechismes or Systemes of Doctrine should summarily comprehend all such Doctrines as are necessarily to be believed and these explicitely set down The present Liturgy as to all these seems very defective particularly 1. There is no preparatory Prayer in your addresses to God for assistance or acceptance yet many Collects in the midst of the Worship have little or nothing else 2. The Confession is very defective not clearly expressing Originall sin nor sufficiently enumerating Actuall sins with their aggrivations but consisting only of generals whereas Confession being the exercise of repentance ought to be more particular 3. There is also great defect as to such Forms of publick prayers and thanksgivings as are suitable to Gospel-worship 4. The whole body of the Common Prayer also consisteth very much of meer generals as to have our prayers heard to be kept from all evil and from all enemies and all adversities that we may do Gods will without any mention of the particulars wherein these generals exist 5. The Catechism is defective as to many necessary Doctrines of our religion some even of the Essentials of Christianity not mentioned except in the Creed and there not so explicite as ought to be in the Catechism XVIII Because this Liturgy containeth the imposition of divers Ceremonies which from the first Reformation have by sundry Learned and pious men been judged unwarrantable as 1. That publick Worship may not be celebrated by any Minister that dares not wear a Surplice 2. That none may Baptise or be Baptised without the transient Image of the Cross which hath at least the semblance of a Sacrament of humane institution being used as an engaging sign in our first and solemn Covenanting with Christ and the Duties whereunto we are really obliged by Baptism being more expresly affixed to that Aery fign than to the holy Sacrament 3. That none may receive the Lords Supper that dares not kneel in the act of receiving but the Minister must exclude all such from the Communion although such kneeling not only differs from the practice of Christ and of his Apostles but at least on the Lords daies is contrry to the practice of the Catholick Church for many hundred years after and forbid by the most venerable Councila that ever were in the Christian world All which Impositions are made yet more grievous by that subscription to their lawfulness which the Cannon exacts and by the heavy punishments upon the non observance of them which the Act for uniformity inflicts And it being doubtfull whether God hath given power unto men to institute in his worship such mysticall teaching signs which not being necessary in genere fall not under the rule of doing all things decently orderly and to edification and which once granted will upon the same reason open a door to the arbitrary Imposition of numerous Ceremonies of which St. Aug. complained in his dayes and the things in Controversie being in the Judgement of the Imposers confessed indifferent who dare not so much as pretend any real goodness in themselves otherwise than what is derived from their being imposed and consesequently the Imposition ceasing that will cease also and the Worship of God not become indecent without them whereas on the other hand in the Judgement of the Opposers they are by some held sinful and unlawful in themselves by others very inconvenient and unsuitable to the simplicity of Gospel-Worship and by all of them very grievous and burdensome and therefore not at all fit to put in balance with the peace of the Church which is more likely to be promoted by their removal than continuance considering also how tender our Lord and Saviour himself is of weak Brethren declaring it to be much better for a man to have a Milstone to be hanged about his neck and to be cast into the depth of the Sea than to offend one of his little ones and how the Apostle Paul who had as great a Legislative power in the Church as any under Christ held himself obliged by that common rule of Charity not to lay a stumbling block or an occasion of offence before a weak Brother chusing rather not to cat flesh while the world stands though in it self a thing lawful than offend his Brother for whom Christ dyed we cannot but desire that these Ceremonies may not be imposed on them who judge such impositions a violation of the Royalty of Christ and an Impeachment of his Laws as insufficient and are under the holy Law of that which is written Deut. 12. 32. VVhat thing soever I command you observe to do it thou shalt not adde thereto nor diminish from it but that there may be either a total abolishion of them or at least such a liberty that those who are unsatisfied concerning their lawfulness or expedency may not be compolled to the practice of them or subscription to them but may be permitted to enjoy their Ministerial Functions and Communion with the Church without them The rather because these Ceremonies have for above an hundred years been the fountain of manifold evils in this Church and Nation occasioning sad Divisions between Ministers and Ministers and also between Ministers and people exposing many orthodox pious and peaceable Ministers to the displeasure of their Rulers casting them upon the edge of the penal Statutes to the loss not only of their Livings and liberties but also of their opportunities for the service of Christ and his Church and forcing people either to worship God in such a manner as their own consciences condemn or doubt of or else to forsake our Assemblies as thousands have done and no better fruits than these can be lookt for from the retaining and imposing these Ceremonies unless we could presume that all his Majesties Subjects should have the same subtilty of Judgement to discern even to a Ceremony how farr the Power extends in the things of God which is not to be expected or should yeeld obedience to all the Impositions of men concerning them without enquiring into the will of God which is not to be desired We do therefore most earnestly intreat the Right Reverend Fathers and Brethren to whom these Papers are delivered as they tender the Glory of God the Honour of Religion the Peace of the Church the Service of His Majesty in the accomplishment of that happy Union which his Majesty hath so abundantly testified his desires of to joyn with us in importuning His most Excellent Majesty that His most gracious Indulgence as to these Ceremonies granted in His Royall Declaration may be comfirmed and continued to us and our posterities and extended to such as do not yet enjoy the benefit thereof XIX As to that Passage in His Majesties Commission wherein we are authorized and required to compare the Present Liturgy with the most ancient Liturgy which have been used in
be perfect pro statu viatoris yet it is not requisite that no man come till he be perfect He that hath but a weak Faith though not a full trust must come to have it strenthned And he that hath an unquiet Conscience must come to receive that mercy which may quiet it It is a private Opinion and not generally received in the Catholick Church that one of the People may make the Publick Confession at the Sacrament in the name of all those that are minded to receive the Holy Communion It is a private and not generally received distinction that the body of Christ makes clean our bodies and his blood washeth our souls It is a doubtful opinion to speak easily that when the Lords Supper is delivered with a Prayer not made in the Receivers name but thus directed to him by the Minister the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ c. preserve thy Body and Soul it is so intollerable a thing for the Receiver not to kneel in hearing the Prayer that he must else be thrust from the Communion of the Church and yet that no Minister shall kneel that indeed doth pray But he may pray standing and the Hearers be cast out for standing at the same words It is not a generally received but a private opinion that every Parishioner though impenitent and conscious of his utter unfitness and though he be in despair and think he shall take his own damnation must be forced to receive thrice a year when yet even those that have not a full trust in Gods mercy or have not a quiet Conscience were before pronounced so uncapable as that none such should come to the Communion Abundance more such Instances may be given to shew how far from truth the Assertion is that the Church hath been careful to put nothing into the Liturgie but that which is either evidently the Word of God or which hath been generally received in the Catholick Church unless you speak of some unhappie unsuccesful Carefulness But we thankfully accept of your following words and if the contrary can be proved we wish it out of the Liturgie which we entreat you to perform and impartially receive our proofs But then we must also entreat you 1. That the Primitive Churches Judgment and practice may be preferred before the present declined much corrupted State And 2. If Gods Law rather than the sinful practises of men breaking that Law may be the Churches Rule for Worship For you call us to subscribe to Art 19. that as the Church of Jerusalem Alexandria and Antioch hath erred so also the Church of Rome hath erred not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies but also in matters of Faith and saith Rogers in Art 20. they are out of the way which think that either one man as the Pope or any certain Calling of men as the Clergie hath power to decree and appoint Rites or Ceremonies though of themselves good unto the whole Church of God dispersed over the universal world and indeed if you would have all that Corruption brought into our Liturgie and Discipline and Doctrine which the Papists Greeks and others that undoubtedly make up the far greater number of the now universal Church do use you would deserve no more thanks of God or man than he that would have all Kings and Nobles and Gentry levelled with the poor Commons because the latter are the greater number or than he that would have the healthful conformed to the sick when an epidemical disease hath made them the Majority or than he that would teach us to follow a multitude to do evil and to break more than the least Commands because the greater number break them we pray you therefore to take it for no justication of any uncertain or faulty passage in our Liturgie though the greater number now are guilty of it 3. And we must beseech you if the Churches Judgment or Practice must be urged that you would do us the justice as to imitate the ancient Churches in your sense of the quality and the mode and measure of using and imposing things as well as in the materials used and imposed Consider not only whether you finde such things received by the ancient Churches but also consider how they were received esteemed and used whether as necessary or indifferent as points of Faith or doubtful Opinions whether forced on others or left to their free choice If you finde that the generality of the ancient Churches received the White Garment after Baptism and the tasting of Milk and Honie as Ceremonies freely though generally used you should not therefore force men to use them If you finde that the Doctrine of the Millennium or of Angels corporeity was generally received as an Opinion it will not warrant you to receive either of them as a certain necessary truth If you finde that the General Councels forbad Kneeling in any Adoration on the Lords daies but without force against Dissenters you may not go denie the Sacrament to all that kneel nor yet forbid them to kneel in praying So if you find some little parcels of our Liturgie or some of our Ceremonies used as things indifferent left to choice forced upon none but one Church differing from another in such usages or observances this will not warrant you to use the same things as necessarie to order unitie or peace and to be forced upon all use them no otherwise than the Churches used them We heartily desire that according to this Proposal great care may be taken to suppress these private Conceptions of Prayers before and after Sermon lest private opinions be made the matter of Prayer in publick as hath and will be if private persons take liberty to make publick Prayers Reply The desire of your hearts is the grief of our hearts the Conceptions of Prayer by a publick person according to a publick Rule for a publick use are not to be rejected as private Conceptions We had hoped you had designed no such innovation as this in the Church When we have heard any say that it would come to this and that you designed the suppression of the free Prayers of Ministers in the Pulpit suited to the varietie of subjects and occasions we have rebuked them as uncharitable in passing so heavie a censure on you And what would have been said of us a year ago if we should have said that this was in your hearts nothing will more alienate the hearts of many holy prudent persons from the Common-Prayer than to perceive that it is framed and used as an Instrument to shut out all other Prayers as the Ministers private Conceptions Such an end and design will make it under the notion of a means another thing than else it would be and afford men such an Argument against it as we desire
diversity of Liturgies and Ceremonies be allowed where they allowed it May we but have love and peace on the Terms as the ancient Church enjoyed them we shall then hope we may yet escape the hands of uncharitable destroying Zeal we therefore humbly recommend to your observation the concurrent Testimony of the best Histories of the Church concerning the diversity of Liturgies Ceremonies and modal observances in the several Churches under one and the same civil Government and how they then took it to be their duty to forbear each other in these matters and how they made them not the test of their Communion or center of their peace Concerning the observation of Easter it self when other Holy dayes and Ceremonies were urged were lesse stood upon you have the judgement of Irenaeus and the French Bishops in whose name he wrote in Euseb Hist Eccl. l. 5. c 23. Where they reprehend Victor for breaking peace with the Churches that differed about the day and the antecedent time of fasting and tell him that the variety began before their times when yet they neverthelesse retained peace and yet retain it and the discord in their fasting declared or commended the concord of their faith that no man was rejected from Communion by Victor's predecessors on that account but they gave them the Sacrament and maintained peace with them and particularly Polycarp and Anicetus held Communion in the Eucharist notwithstanding this difference Basil Epist 63 doth plead his cause with the Presbyters and whole Clergy of Neocaesarea that were offended at his new Psalmodie and his new order of Monasticks but he only defendeth himself and urgeth none of them to imitate him but telleth him also of the novelty of their own Liturgy that it was not known in the time of their own late renowned Bp. Greg Thaumaturgus telling them that they had kept nothing unchanged to that day of all that he was used to so great alterations in 40. years were made in the same Congregation as he professeth to pardon all such things so be it the principal things be kept safe Socrat. Hist Eccl. l. 5◠c. 21. about the Easter difference saith that neither the Apostles nor the Gospels do impose a yoke of bondage on those that betake themselves to the doctrine of Christ but left the Feast of Easter and other Festivals to the observation of the free and equal judgement of them that had received the benefits And therefore because men use to keep some Festivals for the relaxing themselves from labours several persons in several places do celebrate of custom the memorials of Christs passion arbitrarily or at their own choice For neither our Saviour nor the Apostles commanded the keeping of them by any Law nor threaten any mulct or penalty c. It was the purpose of the Apostles not to make Laws for the keeping of Festivals but to be Authours to us of the reason of right living and of piety And having shewed that it came up by private custom and not by Law and having cited Irenaeus as before he addeth that those that agree in the same faith do differ in point of Rites and Ceremonies and instancing in divers he concludeth that because no man can shew in the monuments of writings any Command concerning this it is plain that the Apostles herein permitted free power to every ones mind and will that every man might do that which was good without being induced by fear or by necessity And having spoken of the diversity of customes about the Assemblies Marriage Baptism c. He tells us that even among the Novatians themselves there is a diversity in their manner of their praying and that among all the forms of Religions and parties you can no where find two that consent among themselves in the manner of their praying And repeating the decree of the Holy Ghost Acts 15. To impose no other burden but things necessary he reprehendeth them that neglecting this will take Fornication as a thing indifferent but strive about Festivals as if it were a matter of life overturning Gods Laws and making Laws to themselves c. And Sozomen Hist Eccles l. 7. c. 18. and 19. speaketh to the same purpose and tells us that the Novatians themselves determined in a Synod at Sangar in Bythinia that the difference about Easter being not a sufficient Cause for breach of Communion all should abide in the same concord and in the same Assembly and every one should celebrate this Feast as pleased himself and this Canon they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and c. 19. He saith of Victor and Polycarp that they deservedly judged it frivolous or absur'd that those should be separated on the account of a custom that consented in the principal heads of Religion For you cannot find the same traditions in all things alike in all Churches though they agree among themselves and instancing in some Countries where there is but one Bishop in many Cities and in other Bishops are ordained in the Villages After many other instances he adds that they use not the same prayers singings or readings nor observe the same time of using them And what Liturgy was imposed upon Constantine the Emperour or what Bishops or Synods were then the makers of Lyturgies when he himself made publick prayers for himself and auditory and for his Souldiers Euseb de vit Constantini l. 4. c. 18. 20 c. But the diversity liberty and change of Lyturgies in the Churches under the same Prince are things so well known as that we may suppose any further proof of it to be needless In the conclusion therefore we humbly beseech you that as Antiquity and the custom of the Churches in the first ages is that which is most commonly and confidently pleaded against us that your mistake of Antiquity may not be to our Cost or paid so dear for as the loss of our Freedom for the serving of God in the work of the Ministery to which we are called we beseech you let us not be silenced or cast out of the Ministery or Church for not using the Liturgy Cross Surplice kneeling at the Sacrament till ye have either shewed the world that the practice or Canons of the Catholick Church hav◠led you the way as doing it or requiring it to be done And make not that to necessary as to force men to it on such dreadful terms which the ancient Churches used with diversity and indifferency of liberty we beseech you shew the world some proof that the ancient Churches did ever use to force or require Ministers to subscribe to their Liturgies as having nothing in them contrary to the word of God or to swear obedience to their Bishops before you impose such things on us while yet you pretend to imitate Antiquity And have but that moderation towards your brethren as in suffering or at death or judgement you would most appear Remember how unpleasing the remembrance of such differences about Ceremonies was to Bp. Ridley as