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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64582	Parish-churches no conventicles from the minister's reading in the desk when there is no communion : for the vindication of the practice of parochial ministers : in answer to a late pamphlet, stil'd, Parish-churches turn'd into conventicles, pretended to be written by Rich. Hart, but really penn'd by Mr. T.A. Barister at law, shewing how he hath defamed the Church of England, contrary to Canon XI, of those 1603 / by O.V. in a letter to his friend, N.D. ...	O. U.	1683 (1683)	Wing U1; ESTC R5198	18,321	42

Parish-Churches No Conventicles From the Minister's reading in the Desk when there is no Communion FOR THE VINDICATION OF THE Practice of Parochial Ministers IN ANSWER to a late PAMPHLET stil'd Parish-Churches turn'd into Conventicles pretended to be written by Rich. Hart but really penn'd by Mr. T. A. Barister at Law Shewing how he hath defamed the Church of England contrary to Canon XI of those 1603. By O. V. in a Letter to his Friend N. D. both true Sons of the Church of ENGLAND 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socr. Hist Eecles lib. 5. cap. 23. LONDON Printed for John Gellibrand 1683. Reverend SIR HAVING notice the other Day from the Term-Catalogue of a Pamphlet called Parish-Churches turned into Conventicles Printed for Obadiah Blagrave I was desirous to know the Import of it at this Season when our Diocesan and I suppose yours in the Diocess of London with the rest of our Right-Reverend Fathers are by all amicable means labouring to bring Dissenters to the Communion of our Church Soon after I procured it and when I had it I could not but stand amazed for a while at the Contradictions implied in the Title-Page and the Bombastick Nonsence or canting Language in the first Period of the Book wherein the Author seems to account those Reverend Fathers to whom he directs his Discourse little better than inconsiderate Fools who think not of the Obligation of Humane Laws compar'd with pag. 3. ad finem Whereupon I was warm'd into a sollicitude to know who this doughty Writer was After a little Enquiry I was shortly informed by an ancient Gentleman of Essex that it was one Mr. T. A. a Barister at Law and by another that it was the very same that married a late Judge's Daughter and lives at G. B. in Essex who delivered it to the Book-seller for whom it was printed having the Name of Richard Hart for a Disguise and by a third who had good reason for what he affirmed that it had been a dozen Years in hatching I understand also that the Vicar of the Parish where he dwells is a very Orthodox conformable and peaceable Man and in good esteem with your Bishop my Lord of London and therefore can't suppose he hath given him any just provocation You who go often to London where I hear our Reverend Brethren are frequently emitting Persuasives to Communion with us in our Common-Prayers and all the Offices of Divine Service may do well by Letter or otherwise to find out what that same Minister of G. B. thinks of this late Lawyer and his bold Undertaking who would so confidently give Measures to all of us that we may better know the Design of these Sheets he hath addressed to us For since I was so inquisitive it hath been signified to me that he was fourteen or fifteen Years ago a profess'd Papist and that he now differs but in one Point from them viz. in that of the King's Supremacy if he do not equivocate therein That his own Uncle Dr. A. upon the Discovery of the Popish Plot went beyond Seas and he himself is still looking to Rome with which if any should write no Peace as Bishop Hall did it is verily thought it would much vex his Gizard For tho as a mighty Zealot he cries up our Statutes and Canons p. 3 4 9 c. and as I am ascertain'd hath for no less than twelve Years last past been a great Bustler in the Rituals and Circumstantials of Religion however to this Day he hath not learnt to have different Conceptions of Time and Place from Rites and Ceremonies so that no Ministers near him in the Country or of his Acquaintance in the City can be quiet without his Instruction and Guidance in their Offices presuming to tell his Reverend Fathers and all the World too what is Law and what is not yet his Business in this Scrip is contrary to the 11th Canon of those 1603 To affirm and maintain that there are within this Realm other Meetings Assemblies or Congregations of the King 's born Subjects than such as by the Laws of this Land are held and allowed which may rightly challenge to themselves the Name of true and lawful Churches He acknowledges our Parish-Churches to be true Churches yet arraigns them for Conventicles But the best of it is we who really officiate according to the Liturgy and Practice of our Church need not fear to traverse the Action of Defamation which this poor Lawyer doth prosecute us upon no more than he doth dread an Excommunication for his Contra-Canonical Charge for he will not be able with all the Law he makes shew of to prevail with any one Justice of the Peace to convict any one of us for Twenty Pounds a Holy-Day for preaching at a Conventicle whiles we do conscienciously in our reading of Prayers observe the Usage and Practice of our Church but will indeed be laugh'd at by those of the Long-Robe for playing the Tom-Fool again in a Gown by which he could never get his Bread having it seems left it off in despair of having his wise Counsel accepted Belike he would at the Sessions or Assizes when his mimy Face should appear with Gravity and Laughter at the same instant but make the Bench merry just as the Title of his Pamphlet doth considerate Readers when by the Practice of the Parish-Churches he would prove that they serve God contrary to their Practice c. Alas poor Lawyer being dash'd out of countenance he would disrobe himself again become an Appendant to the obsequious Family of Ignatius Loyola and turn a Puny Prophet as they do of what they are plotting to effect giving us already a taste of that Office when for a meer Non-observance of his Locality he predicts they will in a short time become triumphant over our Church p. 2. and over our Church-Doors we must write in Capital Letters what he doth in the Roman or Latin Style p. 16. Because the Priesthood among us fell within it could not stand without and there will be an End of the Church of England Which there might be some kind of pretence for if our Church which yet he somewhat reckons Apostolical had no better Foundation as he would suggest pag. 2. than that of the Apostatical Popish Church in laying claim to a Power of enjoining what God never commanded But our Church stands not on such a sandy Foundation as this wavering Prophet doth imagine And tho I perceive upon certain Report that he pretends to be a Perfectionist in his Practice conformable to our Liturgy and Canons yet those who have strictly observed his Steps have found he is not faultless in his Conformity to the Laws of God and his King and one of us might say to him in the Words of St. Paul Rom. 2. 1 3 21 23. Therefore thou art inexcusable O Man whoever thou art that judgest For wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thy self for thou that judgest dost the same Things But thinkest thou

this O Man that judgest them that do such Things and dost the same that thou shalt escape the Judgment of God Thou therefore which teachest another teachest thou not thy self Thou that makest thy boast of the Law through breaking the Law dishonourest thou God For it seems he is remarkably obnoxious for his Irreverence at the Minister's Prayer and Sermon which in one of our Statutes whether he knows it or no is call'd Divine Service by reading some Book of his own yet neither the Bible nor Service-Book all the time contrary to Primo Eliz. wherein he is required to abide orderly not only during the Time of Common-Prayer but Preaching or other Service of God there to be used or ministred and contrary to the 18th Canon wherein he is required not to disturb the Service or Sermon by walking or talking or any other way nor depart out of the Church during the Time of Service and Sermon without some urgent or reasonable cause Yet this as well as the former he hath often done as several Gentlemen have noted who have occasionally been there hearing his own Minister a Man they say without all Exceptions in every respect Further he is tax'd for being a Hinderer of the Word of God to be sincerely preached a Defender of Popish and Erroneous Doctrine against the 110th Canon which describes such as Schismaticks And indeed this Roman AEmylius doth so flirt at our Sermons p. 17. that it is easy to give credit to this part of his Character Having thus discover'd this daring Author and his Design at least that of his Pamphlet because he doth in some Pages of it charge us and the Generality even Thousands of our Brethren whom yet he calls Reverend Fathers with no small Offence before God i. e. he saith with very great Sin p. 4. particularly A playing fast and loose with God Almighty and putting Tricks upon our Mother the Church of England cheating of her and with great perfidiousness yea with being Sacrilegists p. 3. worse than the worst of Conventiclers p. 7. blinder than the Presbyterians p. 17. Such Offenders against the common Orders of the Church hurt the Magistrates Authority and wound the Consciences of weak Brethren like himself p. 5. To say no more of that which he accounts the Nakedness of his Reverend Fathers and yet lays it open I shall take occasion to divert you with some Strictures here and there on his other Pages that we may plainly see the Illogicalness of his Arguing to convict us of these heinous Crimes he doth reproach us with To prove his great Assertion That Parish-Churches are turned into Conventicles by reading the Communion-Service or any part thereof in the Desk he doth p. 7. alledg the Definition of a Conventicle or that which by the Statute doth constitute a Conventicle But the Logicians will tell this Well-wisher to Syllogisms before he comes to Argumentation that every Definition must reciprocate with the Thing defin'd Wherefore if the statutable Definition of a Conventicle doth not agree to the Exercise of Religion in our Parish-Churches this Logicaster will be baffled and found after all his Travel upon this Errand in a Condition worse than Balaam's Asse p. 3. For A Conventicle is a Meeting of above four Persons besides those of the same House for any Exercise of Religion in other manner than according to the Liturgy and Practice of the Church of England 22 Car. 2. But the general Exercise of Religion in our parish-Parish-Churches is not in any other manner than according to the Liturgy and Practice of the Church of England when the Minister doth read the Communion-Service so far as is appointed in the Desk when there is no Communion because it is and hath been since the Reformation the general Practice of our Church And tho this quick-sighted Zealot for a Station at the Altar could not see it where he discourses of what constitutes a Conventicle yet he owns it as a Custom in the same Page where he blunders fearfully in denying and asserting contradicting himself being proper to him Place and Number to be needful to make a Conventicle For if it be a Custom according to him then it is a Usuage and in this case Custom Use and Practice are greatly to be regarded by reason Practice in the Statute is industriously brought in to note that an Opposition to it is of the Essence of a Conventicle so that where there is an Observation of the Practice of the Church of England in her Common-Prayers there is not a Conventicle And therefore this Accuser of us did not wisely in describing a Conventicle to put in the exceptive or restrictive only to the Observation of the Common-Prayer-Book and Canons p. 7. for he might have easily learn'd from the Book called Reformatio Legum Eccles Tit. de consuet c. 1. That Custom Use and Practice are ever allowed and here in this case as part of the Rule when neither against Reason or an express Law and where a Law is not clear in a Circumstance as after we shall see this Writer can here produce nothing positive that is explicite especially of a particular Place Custom is accounted a good Interpreter of the Law For our Ecclesiastical Laws affirm That Custom is a certain Jus or Right instituted by Manners or Practice which is taken for the Law when the Law is deficient or not sufficiently explicit Or it is a certain Right by the Manners or Uses of the whole People or of the greatest Part of them begun by Reason continued and setled having the Authority of a Law For of that which is not written plainly the Right comes which Use hath approved for daily Manners allowed by the consent of the Users to imitate the Law when the Customs are not repugnant to the Word of God or the Edification of the Church say they Can. 4. But methinks this Gentleman never regards that however our Law-makers were so careful before they past the Law against Seditious Conventicles to put in the Word Practice as part of the Definition that they might exempt Sermons the Ministers Prayers before and after Sermon Singing of the Psalms c. Usuages of our Church So that when the Bill came up from the Commons without the Word Practice or Usuage the then Lord Treasurer the Earl of Southampton at a Conference of both Houses about it told Sir Job Charlton If that Word Practice or Usuage were not in he should every day there being more than four Strangers at his Table have a Conventicle in his House when his Chaplain said Grace before and after Meat for which there was no Form in the Liturgy Sir Job then being so hard put to it told his Lordship That he might desire all but four of his Strangers to take a turn in his Garden Which occasioned Laughter by all those present of both Houses and so the Word Practice was put in which this feeble Denominator of Conventicles hath not well weighed or else he