16. 4 is promulgate onely to the Gentiles at that time of Antioch Syria and Cilicia from whom the occasion thereof was taken but when they passe farther they promulgate them not as appears by 1 Cor. 8. 9. Where in that of Idolothyta things sacrificed to Idols Paul acknowledges the Corinthians-their liberty not retrenched save onely in case of Scandal And Baronius r Anno 57. n. 58. See Doctor Hammond Of Herefie p. 66 67. extends this observation to the Thâ—ssalonians also upon force of that Text 1 Thess 4. 2 3. And 4. His other four Texts s 1 Cor 4. 17. 14. 33. 16. 1. 7. 17. refer not to all Churches universim but to such as Saint Paul planted but then SS John and Peâ—er c. had their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peculiar places or regions and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 portions of Apostleship plantations as well as he Therefore those Texts do not necessarily conclude That what things were done or inordered by Saint Paul in the Churches of his planting were done or brought in universally in all other Churches Which things 5. are manifestly Doctrines or things of that reference at least not the bufinesse we are about Liturgies or Models of Prayer His instance touching Scotland that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good Subjects there their refusing that unfortunate Liturgy sent them from England overthrowes his position for the Governours in both Church and State did agree to compose and impose that Form of Worship they were the Racaille or Rable inflamed by the Clergy-Bel-weathers and the ambitious Grandees that sollevated or tumultuated about it And be it that there were some diversityes there was nothing contrariant in the one to the other as I suppose His Ninth Reason might well be passed-over were I not resolved to follow him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore I demand 1. Is composing Forms of Prayer and imposing them by Lawfull Authority the setting of men's by God's threshold 2. I what 's perfectly subordinate to and compliant or comporting with all Christian Lawes and of high and pregnant advantage to the solemn publick and even private service of God so truly chargeable 3. Is the Common-Prayer-Book really an Idol or the service of an Idol for that is the meaning of the words setting the threshold c. t Their threshald i. e. they set their I dols and perform their service in my Temple in places and Chappels near to the places which are câ—â—secrated to my service Dâ—odâ—â—iâ—in 〈◊〉 Is not this man's conscience where Rachel's Children were just no where just none To the Tenth That no Liturgy of these dayes is a perfect Rule and therefore cannot bind any Saint c. because the Rule of Faith and Obedience ought to be perfect I Answer 1. God forbid that nothing should bind but what proceeds from an infallible Spirit and is in that sense perfect for if so what will become of the bindingnesse of humane Lawes in universum If it be excepted that he speaks of spiritual things I Answer 2. What thinks he of his stock-fathers and good Friends the Smectymnuuans or the Scotch-English Synodians-their Directorie Confessions and Book of Discipline which obtained I think an Ordinance u Dii Jovis 13. Matt 1644. An ordinance of Parliament establishing and observing this present Directory throughout the Kingdome of England and Dominion of Wales for the imposing of them were these perfect if so why then did not Mr. P and his fellow-Sectaries believe and cleave to them Nay 3. His own praying and Preachments I doubt not but he would have all to be bound by and yet he should need a whole Isle of Hellebore that could judge them perfect 4. Is it not enough that a Composure be according to the word of God as far as learned and honest men using all the means to discern right can judge to legitimate the imposition of it the civil Authority or Sanction intervening on all under their Charge and Rule Surely it is or else all the World will become a great Amsterdam or almost universal Bedlam To his Eleventh That all prayers are to be made in the Spirit I say 1. That the right use of a pious Liturgy is praying in the Spirit and more so than extemporary effusions are or can be x See above in Ans to 3d. Reason 2. Himself in Return to a very pertinent and true Objection acknowledges that good men and who thinks wicked men can may pray by a Form where the Reader may observe what he means by Liturgie even any Form to all which he 's an enemy and yet pray in the Spirit too But then 1 he uses a diminuent or qualifying term in some sense praying in the Spirit as if praying in the Spirit were so not onely diversified but opposed in sense as that some praying in the Spirit were not praying that is as if contradictories were reconcileable And 2 he alledges it to be the proper work of the spirit to help the infirmities as well in matter and expressions as in sighs c. Rom. 8. 26. your Friends the Directorians will kon you but small thank for what you say about Matter for they in their Directory prescribe that the matter y Wbereas Christ's promise is for the matter for it shall be given you â—â— what yee shal speak Mat. 10. 19. Mar 13. 11. Lu 12. 12. Poor liberty to leave the spirit onely to supply the place of a Vocabulatie or Copia verborum See Mr. Fuller 's Church Hist B. 11. p. 223. leaving the Spirit of God onely the Idol-God Mercurie's part to furnish with language and phrase whence he concludes very bashfully that they need not use stinted Forms But Sir you have hitherto borne us in hand that they were utterly unlawfull under a variety of expressions of that unlawfulnesse and but even noâ— 't was setting threshold against God's threshold Now if the non-needfulnesse of uâ—ng Liturgies be the thing contended-for then besâ—des that I have proved them needfull 't is clear that not-being needfull and being lawfull are very consistent Ey but then he eats his word immediately for this strict use of Forms he concludes to be a limiting and stinting yea no lesse than a quenching of the Spirit which to do sure is highly unlawfull But to this last charge which hath made such a noise in the World I have many things to Return briefly as 1. To forbid and stifle all sudden motions of the Spirit and all pious ejaculations is in some of our men's sense z See Doctor Featley 's Dippers dip't p. 69 70. One main Objection sayes Doctor Preston is this That in stinted prayer the spirit is streitned c. To this he gives three Answers 1. They that object it do the same thing dayly in the congregation whose spirits are limited or stinted by being hearers of him that prayes 2. 'T is no general tye c. 3. The spirit or affections are not
the Imposal be the thing still stuck at besides the reason already assigned we say according to the XXXVIIth Article of the Church of England That our Chief Magistrates the Kings and Queens of these Kingdoms have that prerogative which we see to have been given alwayes to all godly Princes in holy Scriptures by God himself c. Now we know our of the Sacred Code the Scriptures that one of those godly Princes Josiah besides his destroying of Idolatry and Repaire of the Temple a Regiâ suâ authoritate obstrinxit quamvis propensos Judaeorum animos ne ipso vivo ab externo Dei cultu deficerent tantam adhibuit disciplinae severitatem Tremell Junius in 2 Chron. 34. 33. made or compelled all that were found in Israel to serve the Lord their God Another of them King David b 1 Chron. 24. divided the Priests into orders c 1 Chron. 25. constituted the number and offices of the Singers c. Nay and which is remarkable made a change in a constitution or Law of God concerning the Levites viz. d Num. 8. 24. That whereas God appointed e 1 Chron 23. vers 24. 27. the attendance of the Levites that they should serve and do the work of the Lord from the age of but five and twenty years and upward till the age of fifty years old and then they should cease waiting v. 25 they were by Him f And the 28th inordered to serve from the age of twenty years and upward upon a ground there specified v. 25. Now as this alteration cannot that twenty fifth verse forbidding g See Doctor Hammond 's exact Account of Mr. Cawdrey 's Triplex Diatribe Sect. â— 105 106. to which what Mr. Cawdrey ha's return'd in his Account andited and discounted Sect. 4. of Wilworship p. 160. is utterly shifting and unsatisfactory as any that hath his eyes in his head and not bleared with prejudice will upon collation soon discern and confesse reasonably be pretended to be done by any other than Kingly Authority not Prophetical as one h Mr. D. Cawdrey would have it though the pretention be evicted of falsity by his very learned Adversary so one would think it should for ever stop the mouths of this and all other pretenders against the Authority of the Magistrate about things Sacred and Divine One would suppose that I need nor add the mention of the instance of King Hezekiah and the Princes a 2 Chron. 29 30. Examples of Magistrates Compelling the people to serve God Abraham Gen. 17 18. Jacob Gen. 35. 2 3 4. Moses Joshua 24 23. Gedeon Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 19. 4. Josiah 2 Chron 34. 32 33. Asa 3 Chron. 14 15. Ch Manasseh 2 Chron 33. 15 16. Darius Dan 6. 26. Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 3. 29. See S. Augustine Epist 127. Cont Crescon Gram l. 3. c. 50. contr Literas Petiliâ—n l. 2. c. 86. 83. Codex lib. 1. tit 5. de Haeretic Socrates l. 1. c. 34. Gr Lat 21 22. Euseb de vit Constantini l. 1. c. 37. Theod l. 5 c. 20. commanding the Levites to sing praises to the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph though Hezekiah and the Church then had not the very same occasions to use them that David c. had But we shall have farther occasion to speak to this afterwards We come now to his Reasons Why 't is not lawfull to impose a Liturgy whereof The First is Because no Magistrate can produce any Authority Divine we must suppose he means for so doing not Commands Instances or Examples if not then followes none must presume upon their utmost peril to introduce the same To this we Answer We have commands What King Josiah did he did by command of the Moral Law which binds under the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to serve God by prayer and prayse in whatever convenient usefull manner composed And what bound Josiah binds our Princes What should I recount Rom. 13. 1. Let every soul be subject c. or Hebr. 13. 17. Obey them that have the over-sight or rule over you c b See also 1 Tim 2. 3. 1 Pet 2. 13 14. Instances or Examples we have in the same Josiah and in David in a matter of much higher consideration as some will construe it than imposing such or such a mode or form of God's service agreeable to his will and mind in all things for the matter To the Second Because 't is forbid in the second Commandment and elsewhere in Scripture Liturgies being Ordinances Traditions and Rudiments of men in God's worship all which things are there forbid We Answer by denying the Minor Proposition as in syllogisme challenging any man to prove That Liturgies are Ordinances Traditions and Rudiments of men in the Holy Apostles sense and therefore what-ever the Second Precept c That stinted Liturgies are no wayes against the second Commandment See Mr. John Ball 's Tryal of the grounds tending to separation c. 3. per totum as venerable an Authour sure and of the same Family as Dod or Bifield if they should which 't is certain enough they did not saâ— the contrary forbids it toucheth not those a See 12 Addâ—tional to Bishop Andrews on the second Commandment p. 194 195. Adjuments of Devotion and the Service of God being no such Rudiments c. or if they be all prescript forms of Prayer of what kind soever are involvable under the same charge It were well if men could or would penetrate a little-thought beyond the shell and surface of words and learn or weigh what these words that so amuse and affright the Vulgar do truly import Ordinances Traditions Rudiments Do 's a Liturgie signifie that bill which the Jews were bound by signed as it were by their own hands against themselves by professing to expect justification from the Law and yet this is the very meaning of hand-writing of ordinances b It would better be rendred having by his doctrines blotted out the handwriting against us Hebr. 9. 10. Carnal ordinances is meant of those transient external constitutions of the Levitical oeconomie against eating any unclean meat c. or the vain empty â—roâ—hy and pretended knowledge or wisdom of the Gnosticks tâ—ken out of the heathenish Pythagorean Philosophie as it signifies Col. 2. 8. Col. 2. 14. Do's it signifie external performances about washings c. alone heeded to the neglect of Gods prime Commands or the dubbing those things or inventions with the high style of Gods Commands which are not to the superseding and evacuating of his real Commands Yet so traditions S. Matth. 15. 9. and S. Mar. 7. 7 9 13. signifie Lastly do's a Liturgie signifie or implie the observances of the Mosaical Law very distant and contrary to the Christian Divinity or abstinences out of Heathen or Jewish practises brought-in as rudiments imports Coloss 2. 8 20. If the import and sense of words were considered and not the sound onely we should not
5. I have considered the dayes of old the years of ancient times Quamvis de Scripturà Canonicâ non proferatur exemplum c. Though example be not brought out of Canonical Scripture yet we hold the verity of those Scriptures when we practise this which hath pleased the Universal Church commended to us by the Authority of the same Scriptures S. Augustine contra Cresconium â—itante Grotio in Voto pro Pace Ecclesiae ΛΕΙΤΟΥΡΓΙΑ ΘΕΙΟΤΕΡΑ ΕΡΓΙΑ OR LITVRGY A MOST DIVINE SERVICE c. HAVING by a Preface to the Reader either accounted with our Authour about his Epistle or therein refer'd to the Book wherein it is satisfied more distinctly what next insues like something Prefatory being collections out of Smectymnuus as indeed a great part of the little strength of his Pamphlet seems to be of that extract and the naked heads that another semblable Disciplinarian or Sectarian Piece proceeds upon what is out of Smec being for substance and sometimes also in termes respersed in the slender maigne or body of the Paper-kite shall there be spoken to What is out of The Common-Prayer unmasked by way of heads or summarily will together with the entire piece whence we have these goodly extraits fall under prejudice enough and receive full and final doom from the Character that the above-cited learned man one of the worthy Prebends of Canterbury Doctor Casaubon hath pass't upon it in these words a Postscript to Epist prefix't to 's Vindic of the Loâ—ds Prayer â— â— 2 3. Since this was printed and ready to come forth a Book or Pasquil rather it is so full of railing intitled The C. P. B. unmasked c. came to my sight It is such a peece of exquisite Non-sense of groundlesse impudent Sophistry with bitter railing and much profane jeering all along that I must needs think they that have patience to read such stuff without detestation may as plausibly be perswaded to sing Ballads instead of Holy Hymnes and to think that men serve God best in Tap-houses The whole strength of the Book lyeth in this The Masse-Book Breviaries c. are idolatrous Popish-Books therefore whatsoever is taken out of them or may be supposed to be taken out of them because to be found there is Popish and idolatrous Now a good part both of the Old and New Testament besides the whole Book of Psalmes is to be found in Masse-Books and Breviaries is any man so blind that doth not see what will follow And is it not the same reason for many Godly prayers and forms not to speak of Ceremonies though it be true of them also that were in use in time of purest Christianity yet to be found in Masse-Books and Breviaries Or is it the bare word Masse that turneth all into Idolatry Why might it not be a good word what ever it is now a thousand years ago Many ages are not yet passed when Canticles or the Song of Songs as it is in the Original was called in English the Ballad of Ballads Now many if not most Ballads we now so call are profane or ridiculous and that word now a word of Scorn therefore the Canticles or Song of Songs shall be no longer part of Scripture but meer Idolatry Certainly it must be granted that wise Governours see much more then ordinary men else such senselesse impious stuff a man would think would not be permitted to the publick This judgment of the above-named most worthy man may serve as for an Antidote against several poysonous passages in the Book ensuing so for a legitimate supersedeas to me and my Readâ—r for not looking into that so branded Scriblet and yet if it light into my hands seasonably I shall wash his face for him make some strictures upon the doughty Paper But we enter upon the Book it self which sets out with a Question Whether it 's lawfull for Magistrates Ministers c. to make stinted Liturgy and impose the same To which the Answer is by him given It is not Lawful Of which Negative the Reasons more than a good many follow no fewer than XXVII But before we annul his Reasons against we shall lay down some few besides what the Preface ha's of many of our own for a Liturgy and that imposed 1. The First is Because it is lawfull to compose and impose the Service of God But now the very notation of Liturgy speaks the Service of God and Liturgie was so called at first from serving or ministring to God For from Act. 13. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they were doing their Liturgie to the Lord as they ministred to the Lord say Ours the Fathers in all Ages have called the Service of God a Liturgie And then the composed service of God being perfectly lawfull that it the same should being imposed commence unlawful is abhorrent from all reason unlesse lawful Magistrates and Governours that impose it be found the onely unlawful things 2. The Second is Because that Liturgie which the Question before us styles also exegetically or explanatively Common-Prayer-Book containing and being made-up of Prayers Confession of Faith holy Hymns divine Lessons Absolutions and Benedictions it must be proved either that the severals are unlawful prayers confessions c. singly unlawful otherwise the Aggregate or the entire Form or Frame so compounded will never be concluded unlawful Or else that the imposing of these so many good things alters their nature and poysons them there remaining no third thing unlesse happely the intermixture of Prayses c. with Prayer can be supposed faulty Now there 's no man so forsaken of his Christian wits as to say any of the particulars in their separate consideration are unlawful acts or things and the imposing the performance of them by lawful Authority must not be deemed faultable for the reason even now alleadged which will receive more strength by and by the intermixture which is the last cannot fall under sober censure unlesse we arrive at that passe and pitch of Phrensie as to blame the like mixture in David's Fsalms which were a standing Office to the Jewish Nation not to speak of other pieces of Scripture nor the practise of many Ministers in their peculiar own prayers extemporal ones also if not especially nor even of this Authours own Effusions all mesled in this sort 3. The Third and last shall be Because Prayer is at least lawfull and to bind it on men to pray is lawfull Whence it may be concluded naturally and irrefragably to impose a Liturgy is lawfull For Liturgy is nothing but Prayer in such a mode dress accommodation or composure Now the mode not being prescribed in all Prayer by God it is left to private persons much more then to publick Ones men in Authority so to frame and reigle it for the manner the matter being supposed lawfull and good as shall seem best to their wisdomes and to impose the use thereof those on their Families these upon the Churches in their Dominions If