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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	book_n	church_n	write_v	2,919	5	5.8866	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61427	The Cranmerian liturgy, or, The subtilty of the serpent in corrupting the true English liturgy, by Cranmer and a faction of Calvinists.	Stephens, Edward, d. 1706.	1696 (1696)	Wing S5425A; ESTC R222003	8,497	9

The CRANMERIAN LITURGY Or The Subtilty of the Serpent In corrupting the True English Liturgy by Cranmer and a Faction of Calvinists THat there is in the most Solemn Proper and Peculiar part of the Christian Worship anciently in all the Western Churches intitled the Mass now in English the H. Communion as it hath always been celebrated throughout the whole Catholic Church not a Sacrament only but both a Sacrifice and a Sacrament hath been the Doctrin not only of the Catholic Church in all Ages received from the Apostles and accordingly it was called Sacrificium Quotidianum but also of most of those of the Church of England who Composed the First Book of Ed. 6. and upon good Deliberation and special Consideration of the Question fitted it for that purpose moreover of divers of the most eminent for Learning in England ever since as Andrews Feild Montague Cousens Laud Mede Heylyn Thorndike Taylor Sherlock Hooper c. As may be seen or perceived in their Writings besides others who are known to have been of the same Judgment though they have left nothing in writing concerning it and others who out of Fondness for the Church whereof they were Members affecting a kind of Infallibility and preferring the Honour of it before the Honour and Unity of the Catholic Church and Peace of the World have rather cavilled at it then could in their Conscience plainly and positively deny it But Cranmer with his Calvinists who were amongst them who composed that Book being unable to carry all in that work according to his own mind in an Honest Plain Orderly way presently applied himself to do it by Craft and the Secular Power though in a Factious and Schismatical manner And a Review of that Book though but just before declared by Act of Parliament to have been composed by the Aid of the Holy-Ghost was soon presumptuously if not impiously resolved upon without any worthy cause as the next Act saith expresly And instead of an English Synod or Convocation of the English Clergy not one of them it seems but had either so much Conscience or so much Caution as not to appear in it Martin Bucer was sent for from beyond Sea and the Book was translated into Latin for him to consider and model according to his own and Master Calvin's humour ad Petitionem Archiepiscopi as far as was thought fit and like to pass Bucer did what was desired and presuming too much upon his own Judgment and perhaps the more thro' the over valuation of it by Cranmer and his Faction tho' he might mean well dismembred disordered and deformed it in the principal part as may be seen in his Scripta Anglicana but was soon after call'd to account for what he had done in another World tho' I do not find that all the Corruptions and Abuses in it are chargeable upon him and particularly that which was none of the least the Defacing and Misplacing the Prayer of Oblation of which more hereafter But he was farther imploy'd to promote the Work by writing to Mr Calvin that by his Perswasions and Authority the Protector and the King himself and other great men might be disposed for the passing it in Parliament whether the Clergy would or not And so the New Book was approved by the King the Young Head of the New Church of England and by him now grown up to fifteen and sufficiently instructed in the New Doctrin recommended to the Parliament so taken up with the Spoils of the Monasteries as left little leasure to think of Liturgies and by them imposed upon the Church and Nation without any Synod or Convocation or declared Consent or Privity of any one of the Clergy of the Church of England who is known to have had any hand in the Alterations besides Cranmer and upon mere Politick Considerations without any other just Cause as is declared by the Act it self by which it was established And this is the true Generation of this spurious supposititious deformed Cranmerian Changling which hath been hug'd by a company of ignorant inconsiderate abused People like a Bastard child by a silly abused Husband made a Bone of Dissention and ridiculously contended for in several small matters by such as were shamefully imposed upon in the greatest of all and therein very tamely and weakly complyed with such as had put the Abuse upon them an Abuse not easy to be digested or thought on without some Motion of Indignation by any intelligent person who hath any Sense of and Concern for the Honour of God of our Saviour or of his Church the true Catholic Church or any remainder of it in this Nation But in short this is matter of Fact not to be denyed and upon this matter of Fact two things are to be inquired 1. By what Spirit this might be done Whether by the Spirit of Christ or the Spirit of Antichrist 2. How far or Whether at all one having Knowledge or Notice of this Abuse ought or may use this imperfect and disordered Form or comply with it by reason of any Humane Law or of his own Subscription before Notice or any Knowledge of it To which may be added a third and fourth 3. Whether the People may communicate in the use of it and not be Partakers in the Guilt 4. Whether the Clergy in general and every particular person of them ought not to use in the Celebration of these Holy Misteries a more Compleat and Perfect Form notwithstanding any temporal Laws to the contrary as they will answer it to God upon the Salvation of their Souls at the last day The First of these Questions may easily be resolved upon a due Consideration of the Alterations which were made of which there are 4 or 5 Very Considerable and notoriously Contrary to the Practice of the whole Catholic Church in the three Principal parts of that Office In the Prayer for the Catholic Church the Commemoration of the Saints and Prayers for the Dead In the Prayer of Consecration that part wherein the Greek Churches and all Antiquity place the very Form of Consecration And the whole Prayer of Oblation the three former expunged and the last not only maimed of a principal part but the remainder removed from its proper place and most perversly plac'd after the Communion In all these Alterations so Considerable in themselves and moreover in respect to the Reverence which ought to be used toward the Holy-Spirit of God and the regard to be had to the Honour of the State if there appear no Considerable Advantage to the State to excuse them nor any thing really for the Honour or Service of God which required them but much to the contrary with great and manifest Gratifications of the Adverse Powers the Devil and his Angels it will not be unreasonable to believe that they were made by the Importunity of Cranmer Arch-Bishop and God-father to the King and thro' the Instigation and Energy of those Powers by whom he was deluded

That there was no such Advantage to the State appears by the very Act it self Nor have I ever yet known any thing alleadged or pretended in them for the Honour or Service of God that had so much weight as deserved to be taken notice of But on the contrary in them all there is one Common Gratification of the Spight and Malice of the Spirit of Antichrist against both the Catholic-Church by contempt of the Authority of it and such a Breach and Division in it and against the Church of England in particular by making it Guilty of so execrable Schism and Seperation from the whole Catholic-Church of all Ages with great Presumption and Indignity to it by so insolently rejecting and by consequence condemning so many such Solemn Acts of her Worship and this not merely against the Church Militant but extending even to the Church Triumphant and Communion of Saints For besides all this in the Expunging of the Commemoration of the Saints there was a Special Gratification of their Spite and Malice against Them by whom and in whom by Christ residing in them they had been so often overcome and even against Christ their Head and God the Father himself For the Thanksgiving to God for the Grace communicated to them which was a Principal Fruit of Christ's Passion being a Duty to God and an Honour to Christ in the Honour done to them and a most Solemn Act of Communion of Saints answered by them in their Prayers for the Church upon Earth To have all this abolished was undoubtedly matter of much Joy and Tryumph in the whole Kingdom of Darkness And such another Special Gratification of their Spight and Malice was the Expunging of the Common Prayers of this Office for the Souls of the rest departed in the Faith of Christ and Communion of the Catholic Church by the Interruption of so Solemn an Act of the Church of Charity to them and Communion with them In the due Consecration of the Eucharist it hath always been believed in the Catholic Church that there is a Special Sanctification of the Elements of Bread and Wine by the Descent of the Holy Spirit at the Prayers of the Church In the putting out therefore of that Prayer there is a double Gratification of that Malicious Spirit 1. By the Injury or Disrespect thereby done to the Holy Spirit by whom the Oblation should be Sanctified and by whose Aid the former book was declared to have been composed a special Instance of the Madness and Inconsiderateness of Schismaticks and 2. by depriving the Church of the Benefit of that Prayer and making the Consecration at least doubtfull but none at all according to the Sentiments of the greatest part of Christians at this day and generally of all anciently as may be beleived upon the Agreement of all Ancient Liturgies in what is here put out and that by Tradition from the Apostles as is affirmed by S. Basil Nor is it much to be wondered to see such Decay of Primitive Fervor and Vigor when we see such Departure from Primitive Institutions and Orders and such Neglect and Contempt of so Divine Means of Spiritual Supplies Nor was it without some particular Gratification of the same wicked Spirit that the use of the Sign of the Cross was also left off at the Consecration contrary to the Practice of the whole Catholic Church derived from the Primitive times The Victories obtained by Holy Christians over the Powers of Darkness by the Use of that Sign for which the English Reader may have recourse to Dr. Caves Lives of the Fathers and others are an Evidence of their Abhorance of it and that of the true Original of the like Abhorance in the minds of some men from what Spirit it proceeds But the Subtilty of the Serpent as well as his Malice is in none of the Alterations more remarkable then in those of the Prayer of Oblation which Bucer did not think fit to alter yet were made and designed purposely to abolish all that might import the Oblation of an Vnbloody Sacrifice And that was done as affectually as could be in this manner 1. It must not be quite taken away lest that should give occasion for some contest about it but 2. It must be exenterated and the Heart taken out and then 3. be placed after the Communion so that then the Memorials could not be offered or presented to God which were eaten and drunk by the people whereby the business was efectually done And yet this was not enough but 4. Another Prayer must be added to be used the one or the other at discretion that so none might be obliged to the use of so much as that and they who understood the Mystery of it needed not to be troubled with any relick of it or the Spirit which inspired them with the Memory of a thing so offensive to him And yet was not all this enough but after all even the Lords Prayer it self must also be displaced contrary to the use of the Catholic Church in all Ages that so all the Prayers of this Church might be Schismatically separated and set at a Distance from the Memorials of our Saviours Sacrifice upon the Cross through which alone they have Acceptance And if from the beginning of this Service we do but take notice how the Special Confessions in use in the Greek as well as Latine Churches are by a very formal General Confession and Absolution superseded and brought into disuse we may observe the same Subtilty from end to end throughout Such is the Subtilty of Schismatical Superstition inspired by a Spirit of Delusion and imposed upon inconsiderate People under a false Cover of Zeal for God against Superstition Nor are the Gratifications less remarkable than the Subtilty The Matter of Fact is plain in the Books and the Design not only easily perceivable in the Alterations but moreover owned and expresly affirm'd in the Charge and Allegations of the Scotish and English Calvinists who better understood the Mystery of all than the Clergy of the Church of England did or were willing for shame to acknowledge against Archbishop Laud for restoring it And had it been a Fault he had been really guilty of it but was really guilty of Preferring the Honour of his particular Church before the Honour of our Lord and his Catholic Church and not faithfully and plainly setting out the Truth and indeavouring in the proper and regular way of a National Synod to have it restored at home And therefore while he thought to do the Work and save his Life in the Cranmerian way of a Crafty Trick he was suffered to lose both his Design and it too It is not a light matter to corrupt the Solemn Worship of God or for those in place of Authority knowingly to connive at such Corruptions Nor are matters of true Religion to be promoted by Tricks and underhand Dealings I know none of the known Actors in the Cranmerian Corruptions who liv'd long after or