Christian brethren sisters at the same time Durham high Altar the greatest idoll that ever vvas in the world But the holy Altar say they is not a stock or stone neither may it be called an Idoll Not an Idoll I doe not thinke that any Idoll in the world was ever so worshipped as our Durham Altar hath beene Not the Image of Iupitur Olympius or the Philistims Dagon or the Babilonians Bell or the Trojans Palladium not Apis or Anubis Oxe or Crocadill Dog or Cat qualia demens Aegyptus portenta colit or any other monstrous Deity of the blinde Aegyptians that forlorne and miserable Nation before the comming of Christ who enlightned them with the knowledge of the Gospell was ever so worshipped or had so much cost bestowed on them When they once fell down on their faces before those Idols they had done for that time but every accesse and every regresse and every turning and every rising up and every sitting and kneeling down of the Priest and others about the Altar whether there be a Communion or no hath a low leg to the Altar Neither are they common curtsies ordinary legs such as servants and petitioners use to make to their Lords and Masters but they are wonderfull solemne very profound incurvations before the venerable Altar so low that they seeme sometimes to touch the ground with their noses and beards 16 The Communion table was never so vvorshipped vvith bovving down before it And it is a forbidden ceremony both by the Word of God in the second Commandement and the Church of England Our Saviour Christ living on earth was never so vvorshipped When it was a Table standing in the midst of the Quire it was as good and as holy as now it is being turned to an Altar at the East end of the Church yet no man or woman bowed his or her body to it then as now they do in a prodigious manner Which superstitious ceremony of bowing to that Idoll was generally received and practised amongst us but within these foure or five yeares by the example perswasion and compulsion of our new fangled Popish Arminians without any warrant of Gods Word or direction of the Church in the Book of Common-prayer Canons or Injunctions Nay it is contrary to the second Commandment and forbidden by the Act of Vniformity and the 12. Canon and consequently punishable both in the commanders and obeyers Our Saviour Christ when he lived upon earth was bowed unto and worshipped by them that acknowledged him to be the Son of God The Magi Wisemen of the East fell on their faces and worshipped him they did it once neither they nor the Shepheards nor the blessed Virgin his Mother nor Ioseph her husband danced round about him lying in the cratch or manger ever and anon making low legs before him behinde him on his right hand on his left now one after another now all at once as daylie is done at our high Altar in Durham sometimes far off sometimes close by it now at the South end now at the North end now at the West side sometimes going forwaâ—d towards it sometimes going backward from it still nodding their heads and making legs and curtsies At which time a delicate noise is heard of Organs Pipers and Singers filling the peoples eares with heavenly harmony as was done when Nabuchadonozers golden Image was consecrated and worshipped 17 Our Durham Innovators Cosin and his fellowâ—s which have obtruded to the Church such strange alterations of services and ceremonies set up altars and images and bow down before them may they not â—ightly be termed superstitious Ceremony-mâ—ngers and idolaters They that lately have brought into our Cathedrall Church such fanaticall fopperies such unlawfull rites and abuses whereby it is defiled the service disordered and the Sacraments prophaned as the Homily teacheth They that without authority and against authority even the soveraigne authority of our religious Kings and Princes and Parliaments which established the whole forme of our Liturgy and Ceremonies in decent and comely manner They that with an high hand and great violence durst presumptuously adventure to innovate all things in our Liturgy to overthwart the well setled state of the Church to put us out of the possession of our Religion and forme of Service which was left unto us by our Ancestors and we had quietly possessed above sixty yeares They that not onely observe themselves but compell others to observe and approve their before mentioned ridiculous fooleries superstitious vanities abominations and Idolatries contrary to the custome and practise of this Church contrary to the example of other Cathedrals of this Realme contrary to Laws which straitly forbid under great penalties all Rites and Ceremonies not appointed prescribed by the Book of Common Prayer Injunctions May not such rightly be termed new-fangled Ceremony-mongers Idolatrous Altar-worshippers seditious Innovators schismaticall factious and turbulent breakers of the peace and contemners of governours nay rotten members and rebellious sons of this our Mother the Church of England whose doctrine and discipline they renounce they corrupt and contemne it they shoulder it out with Popish cashiered antiquities and outlandish Arminian novelties 18 May not the people be exhorted to communicate in their owne Parish Churches where the Sacrament is rightly administred and so beare to reâ—eâ—ve it in our Cathedrall polluted with idolatry least we receive our own damnation as the Church of England teacheth in the Homilies Now I pray you you I say the people of this City have you not Churches at home in your own Parishes not yet polluted with Idols and Communion-tables not changed into Altars where you may receive with comfort the holy Communion in plaine and simple manner as our Saviour ordained and the primitive Church practised and the Church of England prescribeth But you must needs come hither and wilfully make your selves partakers of our sins and superstitious vanities when you need not seeing that the holy Sacrament is not rightly administred in this Chruch of Durham as it was in our former Bishops time And where it is not lawfully ministred there it cannot safely be received without the danger of damnation Take heed to your selves I warned you before even this time two yeares and now I preach to you the same doctrine againe that I may discharge mine owne conscience and save both mine owne soule and yours if you wil heare obey the voyce of God in this place out of my mouth as I am charged to speake and so do in Ezek. 3. 17. For thus the Church of England teacheth us in the Homily of the worthy receiving the Communion in the first part thereof We must addresse our selves to frequent the same Sacrament in reverent and comely manner left as physick provided for the body being misused more hurteth then profiteth so this comfortable medicine of the soule undecently received tendeth to our greater harme and sorrow But above all things this we must be sure
a greater scandall to our B. White in his Epistle to Archbishop Lawd in his book of the Sabbath Church then the profane negligence of conformable Ministers then their loosnesse of life their avarice and ambition in heaping together benefices and promotions and then a grosse neglect in discharging their duty On the contrary saith he nothing is of greater moment to perswade the people then when they shall observe their Ministers diligent and industrious in serving God and promoting the salvation of Christian soules committed to their charge O ye reformers of the Church learn this of a Bishop and amend this fault which B. Laud would never do The principall Points delivered in this short Apologeticall Treatise 1 Concerning the Communion-Table falsly termed an Altar what manner of furniture is forbidden as being superstitious where it must be placed and how covered pag. 1. 2 D. Hall against innovations and bravery in Gods worship contrary to the doctrine of Durhamers B. Neale and his Chaplains Cosin Lindsell c. p. 2. 3 Bernard against the vanity of such which preferre the glory of materiall Temples before poore-Christians the Temples of the Holy Ghost as Durhamers doe p. 2. 4 B. Motton out of Hierome and Malachy against sumptuous ornaments p. 3. 5 The Homilies and Hemingius concerning true and false ornaments of Churches p. 3. 6 Bernard Augustin c. against the statelines of Temples gawdy ornaments especially at the Sacraments which hinder devotion p. 4. 7 Hierome of the riches brave furniture and musicke in Solomons Temple not in synagogues nor to be imitated in Christian Churches into which Pope Vitalian was the first that brought Organs p. 5. 8 Athanasius Constantine the great Basil of Church-musicke and Psalmes Vitalian hindred preaching with his piping and chancing as some of our Prelates do now p. 6. 9 Justine Martyr and the whole Primitive Church retained the singing of Psalmes but they abandoned Pipers and Chanters and though David ordained instruments of musicke for the Temple yet we may not imitate them no more then we can Aaronicall Vestments p. 7. 10 Our Church ordaineth that all things be done to edification but by immoderate musicke both Service and Sacraments are worsae understood and turned to theatricall stage-playes p. 8. 11 Durhamers would not suffer the Sacrament of Baptisme to be ministred without an hideous noise of Organs and singers with the sight also of many brave images on the Font. But our Homilies teach that we must praise God that our Churches are quit of images and organs p. 9. 12 The Church of England termeth Images Organs Altars profanations and heathenish abominations yet Durhamers retaine and maintain them stoutly p. 10. 13 They bow down often and profoundly before their Alter 〈◊〉 toward the Bible or the body and bloud of Christ in the consecrated Elements as if the Altar were holler then Christs body and the Bible yet they say they worship God not the Altar the second Commandement and B. Buckeridge each otherwise p. 10. 14 B. Neals Chaplains Cosin Linsell James Duncan c. call bowing to the Altar a comely gesture and they practise it very often and profoundly especially at their coming in and going out is if they would salute God making a low leg before they kneel down to pray and when they have done prayer going out of the Church turn back to look on the Altar towards which they make another profound leg taking as it were their leave of God and departing from God whom they leave at the Altar A most absurd foolery p. 12. 15 There was never in the world a more abominable idoll then Durham Altar p. 14. 16 Christ upon earth was never so worshipped by bowing down of bodies as Durham Altar hath been When it was a table standing in the midst it was as holy as now yet then it was never bowed unto p. 15 17 D. Cosin his fellows which obtruded to the Church such fanatical and idolatrous ornaments are they not seditious innovators p. 16. 18 May not the people of Durham be exhorted to communicate in their own Parish Churches as the Law commands them and forbeare to communicate in the Cathedrall Church where it is not rightly administred yet this is a principall objection against me in their Durham and Yorke Articles and Censure p. 16. 19 The representation of the death and passion of Christ is an action of humiliation of sorrow and weeping Why then should our Cathedrall Priests of Durham pompously and gloriously attired in sumptuous Copes imbroidered with images come to a brave painted Altar with Pipers and Singers making delicate melody in such a time of humiliation p. 18. 20 Such objects of vanities allure the peoples eyes eares â—and minds from sorrowfull meditations of our Saviour Christ his death on the crosse and our sinnes which caused the same for which we can never sufficiently testifie our thankefulnesse by afflicting our selves with mourning and teares p. 19. â—2 God is angry with us for our sinnes which deserve eternall condemnation if he should enter into judgment with us Therefore we must not turne our mourning into merriment when we would pacific our angry Iudge p. 20. THE Communion-Table must not The Communion Table must not have superfluous and superstitious furniture but such only as is prescribed by the Church of England not such as Bishop Neal with his Chapleins brought into Durham and polluted the same with superstition and idolatry have superfluous and superstitious ornaments not allowed by the Book of Common Prayer Injunctions and Canons in which whatsoever Ceremony is not bidden it is forbidden it is unlawfull it is superstitious As the Canonists teach Superstitio est relictis Rubricis directorio Ecclesiae alias Ceremonias adhibere pro sua devotione Leaving the Rubricks and direction of the Church to use other ceremonies for devotions sake that is superstition The Rubrick and Canon command that the Communion-Table shall stand in the body of the Church or Chancell where Morning and Evening Prayer are appointed to be said and it must stand covered with a carpet of silk or other decent stuffe with a faire linnen cloth at the time of the Administration And therein Cathedrall and Parish Churches must be alike they must be uniforme saith the Act of Vniformity Therefore the Table not Altar must not be removed to the East end of the Quire or Chancell as farre as can be from the congregation It must not have a costly Velvet cloth with gold fringe and imbroydered with images much lesse may it have B. Neales precious golden Pall to cover the Altar having upon it the false story of the Assumption of our Lady then which a more abominable Idoll all Popery cannot shew Neither must it be a sumptuous Altar of Stone gilded painted and polished bravely fastned to the ground having crosses crucifixes corporasses basons tapers or candlesticks set upon it which by name are forbidden in the 23. Injunction And never can I
Lawd or D. Cosin going out turn back to make lâ—gs do they take their leave of God do they depart from God They call them comely gestures which are indeed Fryar-like most ridiculous and phantasticall and as they are used in a principall part of Gods service they are not onely histrionicall and mimicall but impious and Idolatrous Why are not the like comely gestures used at the Altar of the Font when the Sacrament of Baptisme is administred Is not Baptisme as comely a Ceremony because so many legs and curches no not one at all is made to the Font Is not comelinesse fit for all times and places in the house of God Must the Altar at the East end of the Church be so duckt unto and worshipped with comely gestures and the West-Altar want all comelinesse of gestures But it offends them that they should be called Altar-worshippers so it would have done the Idolatrous Israelites if one had called them Calf-worshippers for they professed themselves to be worshippers of God which brought them out of the land of Egypt which they knew their golden Calfe did not Therefore Aaron built an Altar before it and made proclamation saying Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord Then the people shouted and sang and danced about the Altar and the Calfe with great devotion Exod. 3â— and perhaps made low legs and curches beholding so goodly an object a Calfe of gold whith religious admiration as some of us doe to our gay gilded Altar For every man and woman which makes a leg or curchee they do it to some visible object directly before them as Abraham and Let did to the Angels that came unto them in the likenesse of men and to the people of the land before whom they bowed themselves with civill reverence as Iacob also did when he met his brother Esau hee bowed his body thrice to the ground to appease his wrath But when they or any else did worship God they did prostrate themselves upon their faces or fell downe on their knees lifting up their hearts with hands and eyes to heaven they used not to make legs to God above in heaven And this the very Heathen knew by the light of nature for the Poet speaking of Cassandra King Pryamus his daughter which was taken prisoner at the burning of Troy writeth thus in 2. Aeneid Ad coelum tendens ardentia lumina frustra Lumina nam teneras arcebant vincula palmas Vp to the skies in vaine her eyes Cassandra she lifted Eyes for palmes of her hands from lifting manacles hindred She implored the help of God above in her distresse lookind upward she made not a low curchie to God in Heaven whom she saw not so it is said of S. Stephen in the seventh of the Acts That he looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God and Iesus standing at the right hand of God and said Behold I see the heavens open and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God It had beene an absurd thing in Stephen to have made legs to God the Father and his Son Christ whom he saw above his head in heaven as our leg-makers say they doe to God and Christ at the Altar before them For although God be every where round about us as well at the Font in the West end of the Church as at the Communion Table in the East and although heaven be round about the world yet every man wheresoever he be even our Antipodes are taught by the light of nature to apprehend the glorious majesty of God to be above his head in heaven There to be worshipped with lifting up of heart hands and eyes and not in those parts of heaven which are before behinde on the right hand on the left or under our feete as it seemeth on the other side of the world Christ teacheth us to say Our Father which art in heaven Indeed the Gentiles which worshipped visible Deities in their Images or annexed to them bowed downe their bodies before the same Idols as that Roman Q. Catulus did of whom Cicero reporteth these verses Constiteram solem exorientem fortè salutans Cum subito à dextris Roscius exoritur Vp as he rose once stood I the Sun with a congy saluting Roscius o' th right hand when I spied on a suddâ—n arising So that he bowed his knee reverently to the Sun before his face not above his head no higher appearing above the Horizon then the height of Roscius standing on his feet In like manner our Altar-worshippers bow their bodies downe to the ground to the Altar standing on the earth directly before their faces yet they say they make legs to God and to Christ not to the Altar then which what can be more absurd When they have done their prayers upon their knees then to stand up and to make a low leg to God and going out of the Quire doore to turne about and looking on the Altar make a leg againe to God taking as it were his leave of God and farewell departing from God as one man doth of another they take their leaves bid one another farewell when they part company shake hands and mutually make legs To teach the Coristers going up to the Altar to make legs to God when they light the Tapers and when they have done them to goe backwards with their faces to the East and looking on the Altar make legs againe to God at every approaching neere it and every departing from it at the taking up or setting downe of any thing upon the Altar ever and anon to make a low curtsie to make a profound leg to God especially going out of the Church as it were taking his leave and departing from God which is a phrase of speech as absurd as the action it selfe is vaine superstitious and Idolatrous 15 D Coâ—n dishonoured and reviled Christian people in the Church yet he made low legs to the Altar so low that his breech was higher then his head as vvas proved before the Lords in Parliament Again are they not absurd Ideots or rather incarnate devils who in tiâ—e of Divine Service will take poore men standing quietly in the Church and thrust them out by their heads and shoulders calling them Pagans Why stand you here you Pagans if you will not observe the Ceremonies of our Church get you out of the Church Who will say to others even Gentlewomen of the best rank sitting in their pues Can ye not stand you lazie sows taking them by their armes and tearing their sleeves to raise them up when the Nicene Creed is sung thus Doct. Cosin did Who going up to the Altar in a Cope will say in his pride and contempt of poore people stand out of my way ye dirty whorâ—s dishonouring the Image of God in them and immediatly make a low leg downe to the ground before his Idol the Altar honouring it being a stock or a stone having unchristianly and uncivilly disgraced and abused his