Tantum enim Deo c. For so pleasing to God is the Unity of his Servants therein that he will not have his Glory sounded forth in groundless and injustifiable Debates and Discords about the manner of his Worship and Service In Congregations and Churches with them by them where he is called upon and served according to or not against his Rule in his Word as our Church of England in all things punctually observeth For which additional Gloss of mine upon Mr. Calvin's last words I have the Apostle backing of me Romans 16. vers 17. Mark them that cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them for they that are such serve not the Lord Jesus Christ And the aforesaid Author makes so good an use and application of the Apostle's supplication there that were it generally practised by the Factions among us the glory of God would be so magnified the Church of Christ here in England so comforted and augmented the State and Kingdom so settled and united and thereupon so strengthned that then England would be in the eyes of Christ her husband as his Espouse was in the Canticles chap. 6. v. 4. namely Beautiful as Tirzah and comely as Hierusalem and would be to Rome and all other her deadly Enemies terrible as an Army with Banners His useful Inference follows in these words Hac una cogitatio c. The thought whereof alone may be sufficient to restrain that mad and outragious behaviour of contending and scoulding without offence given he means about matters of Religion which as yet doth possess too much the heads of multitudes I translate it scoulding 't is so like the debates of froward Women being commonly carryed on ignorantly by meer passion and spiritual pride not by Scripture Reason Authentick or Church Precedents For as to the later St. Paul saith 1 Corinth 11. vers 16. If any man seem to be contentious we have no such Custom nor the Churches of God And to help all men among us to be as careful and studious to be quiet and to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace hereafter as it hath bâ—â—n their labour and glory to be disquiet and to break it I 'le remembrance ye with one thing more recorded of Mr. Calvan When Dr. Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury Rogers upon the â—0 Articles in his Presaâ—â—… in the Infancy of the Reformed Churches being in the Reign of King Edward the Sixth was taking care for that one mainly necessary thing of Uniformity in Doctrine and Discipline among the said Churches To effect that blessed Work he imparted his thoughts to several persons of rarest note throughout Christendom Mr. Calvin understanding the Archbishop's intent addrest his Letters to him and offer'd his service thereto saying That might his Labours stand the Church in stead Ne decem quidem maria c. It would not grieve him to Sail over ten Seas to give his help to such a blessed Undertaking The which if he had done and had given assent and consent to the Labours of the Reverend Learned and Modest Divines of our Church it might happily have prevented his dangerous and doubtful Determinations about Election and Reprobation deposited in his Institutions or if they had been published before might perhaps have been retracted by him to the laying aside the long and fruitless disturbance of the Churches of Christ thereupon And now drawing towards an end I shall mind ye with the Argument our Saviour useth in his Prayer to keep all Believers in the before-mentioned Unity He prays the Father they may be all one c. That the World may believe that thou hast sent me Here our Saviour mentions the great help of Unity and Concord among men professing Christianity to bring the World that is as I may rightlier gloss upon the word World there than they that tie it up to a peculiar number of the Elect multitudes of people to the Faith of Christ For indeed Unity among Christians will do by the World sometimes doubting of the Christ or Messiah as Christ's Miracles did for John Baptist it will settle them so far in the Faith as to own That this is he that should come and that they will not look for another So our Saviour Christ expresly speaking of Unity under the Notion of Mutual Love among his Disciples or of both together John 13. vers 35. By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have Love one to another And now see the fruit or benefit of Unity and Uniformity in a Church of Christ and among men professing Christianity 't is the great means under God to add to the Church of Christ daily such as may or would be saved and to bring the World to know and believe that Christ is the stone set at naught by the Jewish builders and is become the head of the corner and that there is no Salvation in any other and that there is no other name under heaven given whereby men must be saved Acts 4.11 12. And as Unity in the Church is thus helpful to bring in them that are without and Unbelievers to the saving Faith of Christ so Difference and Divisions there do keep men without from coming in that were entering which is evident from the rule of contrary causes which is to produce contrary effects which I could evidence from Examples if it were not for fear of being too tedious in so apparent truth And upon this consideration to bring back again and to reunite to us them that are separated and gone out from us I desire them to consult and mind the sad state and condition Christ and his Spirit say they are in In the life to come instead of their seat they might had with Abraham Isaac and Jacob it must be with Scribes Pharisees and Hypocrites See Matt. 23.13 and Antichrist 1 John 2. vers 18. I shall now hint to you in a Breviate what might be shewed further to awaken ye to a return and come into the Society and Fellowship of our holy Church First God is not with ye for God is the God of Love Peace and Unity where he is truly and rightly worshipped as he is in our Church of England and therefore you separating from it in such groundless heady fierce and fiery storms as ye have done God is no more in you nor with you nor them than he was in the strong winds Earth-quake and are that made such noise and havock upon the Mount Horch 1 Kings 19. vers 11. where 't is said God was in none of them In the second place God by his word hath silenced ye and suspended ye from your usurped Office for that in the 50 Psalm vers 16. is against ye Why doest thou preach my Laws and takest my Covenant into thy mouth whereas thou hatest to be reformed and hast cast my words behind thee For vers 20. Thou sattest and spakest against thy brother and
A JUSTIFICATION OF Set FORMS of PRAYER And in Special of the LITURGY Of the Church of England In Answer to And Confutation of Vavasor Powel's Fourteen Considerations against all Composed and Imposed Forms of Prayer By Richard Lewthwat M.A. and Rector of Wethersdale in Suffolk LONDON Printed by A. Godbid and J. Playford for Robert Clavel at the Peacock in St. Pauls Church-Yard 16â—9 To the Right Honorable Henry Earl of Arundel Lord Mowbray c. and his Virtuous and Religious Countess Great Sir BEing put upon the Vindication of Set-Forms of Prayer and especially of the Liturgy of our Church and hearing of your Honour's resolution and beginning according thereto of becoming one in Religion Worship and Service of God in the way of the Church of England with your Illustrious and Devout Consort as ye are become one by Wedlock I thought it my bounden Duty upon the first Opportunity to make known to your Lordship and your religious Lady the great joy there is among us Protestants at your coming in as also to throw in my Mite and small help to settle and continue your Lordship in the Religion you profess with us which I can do no way better than by commending to you with our God and Saviour the daily reading and searching of the Holy Scriptures And as to perusing of Books upon them of which I may say with the Preacher in his prediction namely Ecclesiastes 12.12 there is no end I shall presume to recommend the same Method my Tutor at the Vniversity gave me to settle me firm in our Protestant Religion which was to be conversant in the Homilies of our Church and in the 39 Articles and Rogers upon them And withal I beg your Lordship's favour to do what I intended with all holiness and meekness of Spirit to have desired of your Honourable Father the Duke of Norfolk had he not gone beyond Sea namely to vouchsafe the reading of this short Tractate made publick at the request of divers persons by him who officiated sometimes as Chaplain to your Honourable Family and who is and shall be a truly devoted and well-wishing Servant to your Lordship and your religious Consort and to both your renouned Relations whilest he shall be Richard Lewthwat To my Reverend and Worthy Friend Dr. Laurence Womock Professor of Divinity and Archdeacon of Suffolk Reverend and Learned Sir ACcording to my bounden Duty and the earnest Desire was in my heart to reduce as many as I could of that great number of Scismaticks and Separatists that are about us to the Unity and Communion of our Church among other things in order thereto having received the worthy Tractate of Mr. Robert Conold most fit to help on that my Design I commended the perusal thereof to the chief head of the Independant Faction and most inflexible heart to Reformation about us so I take him to be for he told me then it would be to no purpose he being as in his own expression an old grown Oak in the Principles he was in But through much importunity I got promise of him to read it over and give me his Judgment of it both he granted upon condition that I should answer to things against the late Common-Prayer Book of our Church that were in Print that he would send me Whereupon I promised to give my Answer to the chief Objections whereby I became engaged to return an Answer to him of the things of greatest concern therein which promise of mine will be made good and he obliged to return something about that Tractate of Schism if there be deliver'd to him what I have drawn up to Mr. Powel's Fourteen Considerations in the beginning of his Book of which promise if he fail I hope there will be conviction of him and of his constant hearers and thereupon conversion of them to another Judgment and Practice Now having made known to several persons the said Considerations and my Answers thereto as I have at times drawn them up and my purpose of delivering them to the party in Writing Divers pâ—râ—â—ns have advised and desired me to endeavour the publishing of them by the Press alledging withall several Reasons to perswade me thereto As first because the Factions spreading them by Copies may willingly adulterate the Original and so disable it as to the conviction of them they communicate it to Secondly because if not Printed it will not be so commonly had for the benefit of the Multitude of their weak Proselytes who are captivated and held in the sad bondage of the following and like erroneous Rudiments and Traditions of the Jesuitical Heads of the several Factions in the Kingdom And thirdly because they hearing of my Promise made long since and not yet performed he and others give out that the Allegations in that Pamplet against Set-Forms of Prayer cannot be answer'd by my self or any of my Judgment Upon consideration whereof 't is presumed that if my Promise be not performed and published it may occasion the more secure Settlement of them in those dangerous Errors as also make a greater seduction of others to them than otherwise would have been For which reasons I have pitched upon the latter way of publication hereof if Authority shall permit Now if your self shall upon perusal approve the Answer as Orthodoxal and that it may be helpful to the bringing back but of the simple yet as I presume conscientious Multitude ledd away through good Words and fair Speeches as the Apostle speaketh of those who have caused Divisions and Offences contrary to sound Doctrine Then I most humbly beg that your self would Patronize this small Work being Dedicated to your Protection To which request if you shall condescend 't is very probable those Adversaries of our Church will not dare to rally Forces again about the present concerns or to give me another challenge fearing that if so you may become Second upon the next Quarrel whose success in conflicts of this kind they know to have been such that they will not venture upon any further Undertakings about this matter But Reverend Sir whilst I am arguing against these and other Errors near of kin to one another and reading these Answers to Mr. Powel's Errors to some loth to come out of them they tell me I am not of the same Opinion as formerly they say I was against Infant Baptism and the Book of Common-Prayer I now write for Sir to say a little to these Charges 'T is well known to your self by my Letters word of Mouth and Practice but best known to my self that I can easily take upon me by acknowledgment of my Errors and Mistakes for God's glory my own and others Eternal Safety all the shame and Temporal Evils incident thereupon which is much evident when through your discovering to me the Error I was in your self knew I came as willingly as through your help safely down from that high and dangerous Precipice I had climbed up to of absolute and irrespective as
do thy will O God that they may be one as we are One in will and consent And so the sum of Christ's Prayer there was That the Father would keep the Disciples to be one in Faith in Spirit in Mind in Judgment in Worship and Service of God that they may be one as we are And Christ did not see a necessity of this Unity to be in his Disciples only but saw it necessary also to be among all men that should believe on him or profess Salvation by him as in John 17. vers 20 21. Neither pray I for these alone but for them also that shall believe on me through their word that they all may be one c. Brentius upon these words saith that what Christ before had prayed for his Disciples now prays for all that should believe on him and profess Salvation by him namely that there might be Unity among them all in Spirit in Mind in Worship and Service of God And now to clear up further the necessity of Unity and Uniformity among Believers and Professors of Christianity especially of them living near together I will mind the Readers of some places in St. Paul's Works sometimes praying for us and pressing upon us the same things which Christ pray'd the Father to keep us in In order hereunto I first urge that place of St. Paul to the Romans chap. 15. vers 5 6. God grant ye to be like minded c. I shall give but little of my own Meditations upon the words the Modern Divines having spoken so fully of them as to the present concern The words are the Apostles conclusion as to what he had spoken from the beginning of the 14th Chapter to the Quotation and it consists of Prayer and Exhortation each whereof do invite to the nourishing of Unity and Concord in matters of Religion among Christian Brethren both strong and weak upon the Apostles supplication there God grant ye to be like minded c. Marlorat says That one of the Modern Expositors upon the words saith to this purpose That the Apostle there contends both with God and the Church withal professing Christianity to be of one and the same judgment and mind as to the way of God's Worship which saith the Author there is the very esse and being of Christian Charity and where that effect is not 't is impossible there should be true Christians or any Salvation for that all true Faith is there extinct and the fear of God is not among them The later words of the Author are understood of Dissenters from the true Churches of Christ which be where the Separatists live namely such Churches as ours of England is which is invincible by any authentick Arguments of Romish Presbyterian Independant Anabaptistical Factions or of any other whatever our Church being like that in Sion spoken of in Psalm the 48th vers 12 13. fortified with all the Impregnable Towers and Bulwarks of the Doctrines Seals and Discipline of the Gospel of Peace and Salvation Which Church of ours was by many of the late Presbyterian and Independant Separations acknowledged to be Orthodoxal and that they had no such Exceptions against the Common-Prayer Book but that they could joyn with us in Worshipping of God as well as others of their judgment formerly now did and a long time before had done and this was to my knowledge the loud frequent and publick Expression of many of them long before the last Sea-Engagement with the Dutch but yet many of them thus owning conviction said They thought it not fit to own so much by conforming at that present juncture of time upon this insufficient reason alledged by them Because that if they did as then conform they should lie under the scandal of conforming out of fear considering the smart and severe Execution of the Penal Statutes in many parts of the Kingdom upon the Direction and Charges of the Judges in their Circuits Which acknowledged Conviction of many of them and reason of Non-conforming alledged for that present is thought by loyal and and charitable Hearts sounded in his Majesty's Ears and was the main end of his suspension of the Penal Statutes for a while by grant of the Tolleration namely that they might thereupon take the opportunity to conform without the forementioned Scandal For his Majesty there said That seeing the forementioned harsher Means would not prevail he would try what that gentle way of Tolleration for the present might do for their return to us I am sure his Majesty's words were to this purpose Of which opportunity some made present use to my knowledge for the Sunday after the Tolleration came down to Norwich some came then to both Common-Prayer and Sermon and not before I Preaching then at St. Stevens and so have continued since as I have had information upon inquiry C. G. C. Which Practice of some was the hope or desire of his Majesty for all which is evident from the other reason alledged by his Majesty for granting the Tolleration which was That whilst he had Wars abroad he might have Peace at home whereupon loyal and charitable hearts cannot but judge that notwithstanding the Tolleration his Majesty therein did publish his dislike of the Separations and openly check Nonconformity and possibly might insinuate a jealousie of the Dissenters from the Established Church of England that it might be in their hearts if they had but Opportunity Power and Advantages as formerly to Rebel forthwith against his Majesty and to Involve again this Church and State in blood and confusion And now I beg pardon for this short Digression from the last quoted Text because not passing by without throwing in a Mite into the Treasury erected for the relief of Uniformity in Religion which stands now in as much need in this Kingdom for help as ever I come with one Gloss more upon the Apostle's forementioned words which I hope shall be prevalent with Dissenters from us for their return of some to us and for the unity of others with us it being as apt and genuine an Exposition of Mr. Calvin a man ever of great Esteem with them as ever he gave of any Scripture speaking of those words of the Apostle namely That with one mind and one mouth ye may glorifie God c. And upon the words immediately going before he saith Ac quo magis commendabilem c. that the Apostle might render their Agreement and Unity the more commendable the Apostle teacheth how necessary Unity in Worship is seeing God is not truly worshipped of us unless all our minds and tongues agree together in praising and glorifying of him The sum of his Inference thereupon is Non est ergo quod jactet quisquam c. Let no man therefore boast or think he hath well worshipped or served God doing it his own way That is separating in Worship from and not joyning therein with the true Church of Christ by him at the times appointed for Publick Worand Devotion
St. Laurence Pulpit the peculiar Thanksgiving day for the Defeat at Worcester in the intention of the Contrivers and Managers thereof though it might be made use of by way of occasion to hasten to the Execution of their long before contrived rebellious Design and wished desire Nor shall I here enumerate or debate their pretended just grounds for their War Nor shall I argue to evidence the unlawfulness of those Insurrections otherwise then by remembrancing men of the displeasure of God with them for those their Enterprises manifested sufficiently in the succeeding events and issues thereof For we see the Presbytery in Scotland and their Confederates in England the Presbyterian Covenanters here the beginners of that horrid Rebellion soundly basted wholly subdued baffled and made the laughing stock of the World by the Sword of their own Party What became of the Hothams that so hindred and disabled his Majesty of most blessed memory to defend himself against these and other enemies in seising his Garrison and Magazine at Hull And as to this Topick I shall desire at present nothing more to be had in memory but the end of that heavy scourge and rod of God's Protestant Church and his beloved Kingdom of England I mean the Independant and Cromwellian Army and the imparallelable High-Court of Injustice the chief whereof though the generality had mercy died not the common death of English offenders but that death by the providence and justice of God appointed by the Law of the Land for the worst of Malefactors and so let all the implacable Enemies of our Church and gracious Sovereign perish And now I 'le have done speaking to this 8th Consideration in the same manner the Author ended it even by way of Application Seeing that God brought upon that party that raised Wars upon the imposing justifiable and pious Liturgies as I presume the Scottish was and am sure the English formerly was and this now is such a miserable and wretched end as the just wages of that rebellion as he did upon the chief heads thereof Let all men henceforth be so cautious as not to dare to think in the least of Disobedience or Levying Wars upon the same or such like grounds as the former Rebels did against this Church and in the close our dread Sovereign or Crown of England To the 9th Consideration Whether if the truth were throughly and truly weighed and examined the first end of Composing the Common-Prayer Book which doth symbolize with the Mass c. In this Consideration are couched divers Propositions of the Author concerning the Common-Prayer Book One may be this The first that is as I presume the chiefest end of the Author 's Composing the Common-Prayer Book was to bring Papists to Church Answer This is the first charitable Expression that I have hitherto observed Mr. Powel to have given them that were the Authors of this kind of Worship but had he made known in plain and full terms the other gracious designs of those men thereby as namely to help good meaning hearts to God by the only Mediator in Heaven Christ Jesus and not by Saints and Angels as also secondly as St. Paul directs 1 Corinth chap. 14. vers 15. to help those had in them a spirit or heart to pray that they might perform it with understanding and be able to say Amen effectually and servently I say had Mr. Powel mentioned these and other the gracious ends of the Composers of the Service-Book God's mercies and way of salvation being then vailed to the generality of men being set forth only in an unknown Tongue I say he and others thereupon might have owned them to have had to the people of England the like Imployment the Angels had to the Shepherds and the World at the Birth of Christ when vailed to many by the meanness of his coming in the flesh namely this to set forth by that Service-Book the glory of God in his peace on earth and good will towards men that so England might be in a right way to believe in Christ and so to call upon him that they might not perish but have everlasting life And to be short as to speaking to this ninth Consideration what though it be granted that it symbolize with the Mass book or that many things be in it that are in that seeing there 's nothing in our Liturgy but what is good lawful or useful to Edification as will be evident to men doubtful thereof if they will but peruse diligently Mr. Thomas Comber's Companion to the Temple or otherwise termed A help to Devotion in the daily use of the Common-Prayer In two Parts To the 10th Consideration Whether some may not intend by the re-establishing of this Book to oppose and pull down that excellent and gracious Spirit of Prayer As to their excellent Gifts or helps by the Spirit as to Prayer And as to their godly painful soul-saving Preachers both which they have assumed to themselves in the First and Seventh Considerations and have re-assumed in this Tenth Consideration under the notion of an excellent and gracious Spirit of Prayer and Preaching As to their mistake in presuming to such Gifts and Abilities I refer the Reader hereof to what I have before written concerning their Praying and Preaching upon those Fifth and Seventh Considerations And to make a short business as to speak to this Tenth Consideration I 'le give them my thoughts of the ends of re-establishing the former Book with some few Alterations and divers Additions of several Prayers and Services fitted to several accidental occasions The first whereof might be to answer such moderate Dissenters I call them so in comparison of them of these latter days as was Doctor Reynolds Mr. Chadderton and the others with them at the Conference at Hempton-Court on the behalf of other Ministers and themselves whose desires as to the Book of Common-Prayer then were that it might be fitted to more increase of Piety as our Common-Prayer Book now is Another end might be to oppose and pull down as it was high time to do the long tautological heathenish pharisaical extemporary nonsensical erroneous damning kinds of Praying and Preaching were then and had been too long in use in England A third end of confirming this Book might be to revive and re-establish this most blessed and excellent help for Devotion and Worship of God that ever was heretofore in the Church of Christ and to countenance Orthodoxal Preachers and so to maintain sound Doctrine which had for a long time been shut out of publick places for Worship and Instruction by an usurped Authority over this Church and State And whereas he concludes it made as a snare and net against such as out of Conscience could not Conform thereto I am sure no man can have any ground now for such accusation or uncharitableness if they do but consider the religious care taken by his Majesty soon after his Restauration to answer the Doubts and Objections of such
that perhaps because he would not have the Church of England nor the Worshippers of God by the said Book to have the honour to be thought to share with them in the happy events of their ways Verily I think none shall need to be offended at their secluding them from their Fellowship or Fraternity therein for both Presbyterian and Independant in most of their undertakings were but like Simeon and Levi brethren in Iniquity and at the last day without repentance must have the same doom they had from their father Jacob Gen. 49 vers â— Cursed be their anger for it was fierce and their wrath for it was cruel Well but to take it in his own terms that it was offensive to many Christians This term of Christian was the ancient and best name was given to true believers in Christ after his Assension this name is in the opinion of Divines that St. James spake of in 2d chap. vers 7. which he saith was the worthy name whereby believers were called And Divines describe a Christian as followeth namely to be one that is endowed through Grace with Faith and the holy Ghost serving God in righteousness and true holiness all his days as a person dedicated to Christ Now if the Author should produce any Christian according to this description which I am confident he cannot do or according to any description hereof congruous to the Scripture sence that ever was offended at the worshipping of God in this Form of Prayer yet there 's but little said to the Author's fore-mentioned purpose namely of that Book being an offence to many Christians it being but an offence taken where none is justly given I can easily grant that the Book of Common-Prayer was offensive to such Christians as this Author means and as himself was and so was many parts of the whole Bible In the 1st Book of the Kings chap. 22. vers 8. Ahab loved not to enquire of the Lord by Micaiah because he prophesied no good concerning him but evil And if the Author and others offended at the Book would publish the reason thereof from their hearts 't is probable 't is because there 's nothing of good for them there but evil being in those perverse ways For as I said before should they have used that Liturgy in the time of the Wars using the Forms of Prayer they must as much as in them lay have been blessing them they were fighting against and cursing themselves and their cursed undertakings And truly from those Lessons Epistles and Gospels culled out of the Scriptures and injoined by the Liturgy to be read in our daily Service The whole Book is but a Micaiah to them prophecying no good to them but evil for therein they must have found themselves an Army fighting against the Almighty God to their sudden both present and eternal overthrow and confusion without repentance Now to have done speaking to the groundless exceptions against the Common-Prayer Book in this 12th Consideration I have this following Opinion That if the Author and his Party could upon the two former reasons have procured our Church and the Civil State of the Kingdom to have serpentized the Book of Common-Prayer as Hezekiah did the Nehushtan they would be soon Scribling and Printing either to have the Scriptures the full set and stinted Rule for Faith and Obedience to be taken away and destroyed they having the Spirit in a more abundant measure than formerly as to help to call upon God as in Consideration the Fifth So also to set up upon their Assertions another fuller and righter Rule for Faith and Obedience leading to salvation or else at least to have the Romish Priviledge of an Expurging Index to have the Texts in the Scriptures expunged and left out in the Printed Bibles that make for Obedience and Subjection to the higher Powers either in Church or State And also all places that command or commend Unity Order Peace or Conformity in or to the Churches of Christ and whatsoever in the Bible make against their Opinions and Practices Which Opinion of mine may be looked upon as charitable or true considering among other things of that kind I could instance and prove was acted at Much-Hâ—â—â—…um Church in Hartford-shire by Mr. Hardwick Chaplain to the Earl of Warwick usurping the Cure after Doctor Pask Master of Clare-Hall was outed and sequestred for the said Hardwick reading in the Church for part of his own or the Morning-Service before Sermon the 1â—2 Psalm having read to the last Verse which contained God's Promise of clothing the Enemies of his anointed with shame c. he passed by the Verse and then went on Which Mr. Hern there present observing went out of the Church immediately and according to his resolution upon Hardwick's not owning one place of Scripture as well as another heard him no more the time he lived in Town And thus the Dissenters from the Church of England that have lived and do live among us through pretence of their New Light which is the blackness of darkness here their contrary Revelations to those in the time of the Gospel and before and through their false and groundless Expositions of holy Scripture they have darkned the Heavens of God and the light of his Grace so in this life that they have done in this our Age as our Saviour said the Scribes Pharisees and Hypocrites had done then Matt. 23. vers 13. namely shut up the Kingdom of Heaven before men neither going in themselves nor suffering many that would enter to go in Blessed Lord in whose hands are the heads and hearts of all men lighten the darkness of all their understandings change and soften all their hearts that they may recover their strength and strengthen all them they have seduced before they go hence and be not seen To the 13th Consideration which is this Whether one end of Christ's coming into the World was not to redeem men from the Rudiments and Traditions of men of which this is one And whether it be not against the Blood and Spirit and Gospel of Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Hebr. 9.10 11. The Opinion of the Author in this Consideration may be set forth in two Propositions The first is this One end of Christ's coming into the World was to put an end to the Use and Observation of the Ruliments and Traditions of men and to the Use of the Common-Prayer Book Established in the Church of England by Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the First in the years 1500 and 1600 after his coming into the World or going out of it The latter part of the Proposition is evidently a conclusion flowing from the Consideration for he saith that this Book of Common-Prayer was one of the Rudiments or Traditions that Christ came to put an end to In answer to which Proposition I say The end of Christ's coming into the World was to compleat the love and kindness of God to Mankind which was the redemption and