was administred with such a noise that they could not heare one another at the Font to the great offence of many and of Mr. Deane himselfe standing at the Font who grievously complained of that insolent fact of two irregular Canons disturbing most audaciously Divine Service the like to which was never seene nor heard in any Church in Christendome Such immoderate piping and chanting with setting up of Images and Altars have beene even in the beginning of Reformation disallowed and banished out of the Church of England For in the second part of the Homily of the place and time of prayer we are taught to praise God that our Church is rid of the like piping and chanting and playing on the Organs they are the very words of the Homily that was used in Popery and that our Church is delivered from those things which displeased God so sore and filthily defiled his holy house and place of prayer And againe in the same Homily wee read they have provoked the displeasure and indignation of Almightie God because they have prophaned and defiled the Churches with Heathenish and Jewish abuses with Images Idols and Altars too too superstitiously and intolerably abused with grosse corrupting the Lords holy Supper the blessed Sacrament of his body and blood with an infinite number of toyes and trifles of their owne devising to make a goodly outward shew and to deface the homely simple and sincere Religion of Jesus Christ But now we ought greatly to praise God for that such superstitious and Idolatrous manners as were naught and defaced Gods glory are utterly abolished as they deserved 12 They that disallow the doctrine of the Homilies which is the doctrine of our Church against such profanation of Sacraments what can they be but the whore of Babylons bastardly brood they are no true children of the Church of England This is the doctrine of our mother the Church of England in her Booke of Homilies which whosoever borne and bred in the same Church rejecteth he can be no other then a bastardly brat of the Whore of Babylon the Church of Rome unlesse he repent and renounce his foule errors and returne with teares to the bosome of his gracious Mother whom he hath most ungraciously abused and offended by setting up Altars and Images and prophaning the Sacraments c. For to speake plainly me thinks these words of the Homily point out in lively colours this our Cathedrall Church of Durham as now it is changed from that it was lately in our former Bishops time in which these filthy Jewish and Heathenish abominations and intolerable abuses which in time of Popery provoked the displeasure and indignation of Almighty God and prophaned the Lords Supper the blessed Sacrament of his body and blood being long since abolished are now almost on a suddaine restored againe with great advantage As appeareth by the immoderate piping and chanting at that very time when the Sacraments are administred By having an excessive number of wax candles whereof sixty on and about the Altar burning at one time By gilding and painting Images and Angels set up aloft round about the Quire By erecting a most sumptuous Altar with brave furniture belonging thereunto amongst which I have seene abominable and â— Copes used a long time at Masse and May games By bowing downe and worshipping the same Altars so often and so lowly as never was seene the like in the Idolatrous Church of Rome 13 Bowing to the Altar is an idolatrous Ceremony brought in and practised by B. Nâ—ale and his Chaplains Cosin Linsell Burgoin corrupters of our Church with superstitious Innovations But say they we worship not the Altar but God wee bow the knee toward the Altar not to the Altar but to Christ supreame Lord to whom all religious and divine adoration is due Whose death and passion are there represented at the administration of that Sacrament Is this true then are the Papists more excusable which beleeving the reall presence of the true and naturall body of Christ by transubstantiation they worship his body with divine worship and the Altar in respect of his body and blood offered thereon in the sacrifice of the Masse But our Altar-worshippers never bow the knee to Christs body and blood but to the Altar onely to the naked Altar and that continually and daily whether there bee a Communion or not turning their backs to the Preacher in the Pulpit and Ministers saying service to the whole Congregation also and the Bible it selfe to which they never vouchsafe to make one leg as if there were more holinesse in an Altar stone then in the sacred Scriptures the Booke of life These their doings are directly against the second Commandement Thou shalt not bow downe to them nor worship them for either their worship is Religious or Civill if it be Civill they are absurd Ideots in shewing more civility to a stock or a stone then to a poore man or woman much better then any Altar-stone if he be a true Christian to whom none of them will bow their bodies so reverently If it be Religious they are abominable Idolaters in exhibiting Divine worship due to God alone to such contemptible creatures as is an Altar of wood or stone Again either they bow to the Altar in respect of God or to God in respect of the Altar both which respects joyning together God and the Altar being religious not civill make their bowing Idolatrous and themselves Altar-worshippers as Bishop Buckeridge Roch. saith Nec aliud pro illo nec aliud cum illo We may neither adore another thing instead of God nor another thing with God for he is sole a God Moreover every Image when it is worshipped is an Idol and seeing the Altar is not truly and properly an Altar but simulachrum or similitudo an Image or likenesse thereof therefore the bowing downe of bodies to it or before it in regard of some supposed holinesse therein I say that religious not civill adoration or prostration makes it an Idoll and they that use such comely gestures as they call them in their Articles are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 downright Altar-worshippers Surely such comely gestures neither we nor our predecessours since the reformation of Religion ever saw in this Church no nor the name of an Altar for the Communion Table was heard amongst us as you may well remember till very lately a company of innovators Bishop Neales Chapleines and favourites began to corrupt and confound our old services Sacraments and Ceremonies 14 Comely gestures to the Altar not to the â—ont or ought els in the Church Altar cringers may as well be termed Altar-worshippers as the Israelites Calf-worshippers Worshippers of God make nâ—t legs to God but falling down kneeling or standing they lift up their hearts hands and eyes to heaven as we are taught to praâ— Our father which art in heaven When friends pâ—rt one from anoâ—hâ—r they mutually make legs taking their leave When B.
of especially saith the Homily that this Supper be in such wise ministred as our Lord and Saviour did and commanded to be done as his holy Apostle used it and the good Fathers of the primitive Church frequented it For as that worthy father Ambrose saith He is unworthy of the Lord that otherwise doth celebrate that mysterie then it was delivered by him neither can he be devout that otherwise doth presume to receive it then it was given by the Author Now who knoweth not what strange alterations have beene brought into this Church within these few yeares how the Ministers of this Sacrament have presumed lately to change in many things the administration thereof not onely from the practise of the primitive Church and the institution of the author Christ but also from the Rubricks and Canons of the Church and the ancient usuall custome of this place For it is turned rather into a theatricall Stage-play where mens eares are filled with pleasant tunes of musicall instruments and voyces of not communicating singers and their eyes fed with pompous spectacles of glittering pictures and histrionicall gestures of men arrayed in massing and pibald not decent robes And other unlawfull superstitious and vaine rites and ridiculous ceremonies are used with which that holy action is defiled and disgraced Therefore I did well and according to my duty and vocation in admonishing that Congregation then assembled to receive as they were wont to doe in their owne parish Churches as our Church commandeth and to forbeare from communicating in this Cathedrall Church till things were amended which lately were mar'd leâ—t receiving the body and blood of Christ in uncomely and unlawfull manner it should tend to their greater harme and sorrow as the Homily teacheth Augustine saith upon Psal 21. Tempus lugendi est cum passio Domini celebratur tempus gemendi est tempus flendi tempus confitendi 19 The celebration of the Lords supper is the memoriall of his death and passion caused by our sins therfore it is a time of lamentation and weeping not of rejoycing not of pompous and gâ—oâ—â—ous ceremonies not of musick and melody deprecandi When the Passion of the Lord is celebrated in the holy Communion by the breaking of his body which is the bread of life and powring out his blood which is the true aqua vitae the refreshing the comforting the quickning wine and water of life to languishing and dying soules That is a time of mourning a time of sighing a time of weeping and lamenting a time of confessing and begging pardon it is not a time of piping and singing of wearing and beholding brave cloathes and pictures And Cyprian saith In the presence of the Lord teares doe never beg pardon in vaine and the sacrifice of a contrite heart never receives repulse And againe he saith in treating of the Lords Supper and the receiving thereof As often as I see thee sighing in the presence of the Lord I doubt not but the Holy Ghost is breathing upon thee Cùm intueor flentem sentio ignoscentem So often as I see thee weeping I perceive God pardoning And who comes to crave pardon of an angry King and terrible Judge whom he grievously offended with many haynons crimes deserving death who I say dare come into his presence Pompaticè gloriâ—se saith Cyprian pompously and gloriously in slanting apparell in goodly Babylonish robes imbroidered with Images of silver gold and pearle and with an excellent consort of Musitians singing merrily piping and playing joyfully and jollily And D. Buckeridge the late Bishop of Rochester now of Ely saith very well in his Book of kneeling at the Communion What hath musick to do with mourning or a song of mirth with a day of the greatest sorrow which is the Passion of Christ when the seeds of contrition and repentance must be sowed with teares that the harvest in Heaven may be reaped with joy And againe we must come weeping before him that offered up supplications and prayers with strong cries and teares to redeeme us Heb. 5. 7. Wee must prostrate our selves humbly before our Judge that is offended by us and weepe before him whom wee would pacifie with our teares and compunction So then saith he since we come to the Lords house and table to pacifie him let our caraiage be such that we stir him not to more anger we must shut up our senses that they wander not our eyes must see Gods beauty not gad after vanities and send teares as Embassadors Our eares must attend the word of truth not delicious tunes of musicall melody 20 Such gaudy ornaments and paultry furniture as are used in Duâ—ham Cathedrall at the Communion with organs other musick hinder godly meditations therefore K. Iames when he received the Communion at Durham on Easter Day 1617. commanded all things to be done plainly without musick or other bravery Why then are set before us so many objects of vanity so many allurements of our outward senses our eyes eares consequently our minds from the meditation of Christs death passion and our sins which were the only cause of all our miseries his lamentable sufferings Can such paltry toyes bring to our memory Christ and his blood-shedding Crosses Crucifixes Tapers Candlesticks gilded Angels painted Images golden Copes gorgious Altars sumptuous Organs with Sackbuts and Cornets piping so loud at the Communion table that they may be heard halfe a mile from the Church Bernard saith no. Orantium in se retorquent aspectum impediunt affectum Such glorious spectacles draw away from God the minds of them that pray they further not but hinder entire affections and godly meditations The consideration of which impediments of devotion moved our most learned and religious King Iames when he received the holy Communion in this Cathedrall Church upon Easter-day 1617. to give charge or at least in his name charge was given upon my knowledge I speake it and in my hearing in mine own house that the Communion should be administred in plain maÌ„neâ— it was expresly commanded that no chaunting should be used by the Quire-men nor playing on the Organs or other Instruments Which my selfe being treasurer of this Church at that time and receiving the Communion with his Majesty as my office required I did see take order should be performed according to the Kings pleasure direction at which time there were no Images or other gay and gaudy monuments of superstition and Idolatry to be seene Two Copes indeed were worne both decent as the Canons prescribe not party-coloured nor pibald like ours at Durham but plaine without any picture or other imbroidring of Crosses or Images which the doctrine of the Church of England in the book of Homilies and Injunctions straightly forbids in our Churches to be used at any part of Gods service especially at the Communion table or in windowes abâ—â—â— it And shall we â—ffect so excessive and extraordinary bravery such a deale and so great variety of delicious musick at the receiving of the holy Communion an action of the greatest humiliation and mourning which the religiouâ— wisedome of so learned a Prince forbad and refused 21 When we come to Gods â—ble we must endeavour to pacifie his anger with our humiliation and mourning and not provoke him against us with our proud behaviour merriment and flaunting bravery When we come to Gods house and sacred table to pacifie him saith the Bishop of Rochester in his Book of kneeling at the Communion pag. 19. our carriage must be such that we stir him not to more anger and how can lie but be angry when we turne our mourning into merriment our fasting and prayer into stage-playing saith he And again in the same book we must weep before him to wash away our â—ins and deplore and prevent our present and future misery The depth of sin saith he pierced not only his hands and feet but his heart also in which he offered up prayers and supplications with strong cryes and teares that he might overcome the clamour of our crying sins And if our Saviour wept for us the Redeemer for the redeemed we have much more reason to weepe for our selves and let none be found so prophane amongst us that when the son of God wept and suffered for our redemption we should laugh and make merry pipe and sing at our condemnation as if we were senselesse of our owne confusion We may not presume to eate the bread of Heaven and forget the duty of sinfull and earthly men that are but dust and ashes Reverend and dreadfull mysteries must have receivers that come with reverence and dread and such as our action is such must be our affection that is to receive that with feare and trembling and not with piping and singing which is so fearefull and dreadfull in it selfe And then he concludeth with this admonition Behold thou sinner how great reproaches Christ suffers at thy hands who by thy wilfull impieties doest crucifie againe to thy selfe the Lord of life And then resolve that as Christs hands and feet and head and every poare and passage of his body was a fountaine of mercy that runs in his blood so thine heart must be as a spring of sighs and groanes and thine eyes must be as fountaines of teares to wash with Magdalen not so much Christs feet as thine owne soule FINIS
A short Treatise of Altars Altar-furniture Altar-cringing and Musick of all the Quire Singing-men and Choristers when the holy Communion was administred in the Cathedrall Church of Durham by Prebendaries and Petty-Canons in glorious Copes embroidered with Images 1629. Written at the same time by Peter Smart senior-Prebendarie of the said Church a little before he was expeld deprived degraded and imprisoned for the space of twelve yeares till the second yeare of this present Parliament by the Bishops and Commissioners of Durham London and York for preaching against superstitious vanities and opposing then Thus by the meanes of B. Neal and his Chaplains Altars and Images c. were brought in Then after the death of B. Iames in May. 1617. There in the Cathedrall Church of Dutham frō which they spread over all England and alwayes before their unlawfull innovations brought into Durham Cathedrall by B. Neal and his Chaplains after the death of B. James who died in May. 1617. THus and then and there began the setting up of Altars and Images with a multitude of superstitious Ceremonies changing of services and corruptions of Sacraments which beginning in Durham have since that time spread themselves over all the Cathedrall Collegiate Churches and Colledges in this Realme yea and many parish Churches have set up Altars Images and Organs where they were never before since the reigne of K. Philip and Q. Mary of all such alterations and Popish Innovations in our Church Bishop Neale laid the foundation who being an old Courtier ambitious violent and cruell against all that gainsaid him and opposed his doings and dispairing to climbe to high preferment by learning and Preaching which he could not abide hee set his minde wholly upon advancing Cathedrall pomp and glorious Ceremonies easier a great deale to be performed and practised by an ignorant ideot who hath onely the outside of a man then the making of Sermons or writing books so that in few yeares he got the government of many Cathedrals first Westminster which once was a Bishoprick and yet hath Episcopall jurisdiction secondly Rochester thirdly Coventry and Lichfield fourthly Lincolne fifthly Durham sixtly Winchester seventhly the Archbishoprick of Yorke Thus sate Doctor Richard Neal upon 7. hils 7. Seas he Lorded it upon 7. thrones above thirty yeares in the last twenty of which he preached not three Sermons which is the principall office of a Bishop as S. Paul teacheth Yet at the censure of Doct. Bastwick he said openly that he was made Bishop by our Lord Jesus Christ and consecrated by the Holy Ghost unto what office and what to doe to hinder Preaching to persecute Orthodoxe and painfull Preachers to countenance cherish and maintaine schismaticall hereticall and traiterous Arminians and Papists Cosin Linsell Burgoin Duncan c. to heape livings and Church dignities upon his creatures and favourites idle loiterers unsatiable cormorants seven or eight a peece above all meane and measure for what good of the Church and Common-wealth did our Lord Jesus make him Bishop and the holy Ghost consecrate him to weare a Rochet to set out Ceremonies to defile the Church of God with Altars and Images to gather riches by oppression of his tenants and to play the ravenous Wolfe in devouring so many thousand flocks which he tooke upon him to feed in seven Bishopricks the hundred part of which he never saw nor one of a thousand ever heard the voice of their Lordly shepheard their Bishop their ghostly Father and the Pastor of their soules as he would be taken to be being chosen to the office of a Bishop by Christ and consecrated by the holy Ghost I have knowne this man about sixty yeares for we were schoole-fellowes in Westminster when he was plaine Richard Neal and I Peter Smart under Deane Goodman and Doctor Grant hee was then counted an heavy-headed lubber put out of that schoole for a dunce and a droane as himselfe confessed at his last Visitation in Durham 1627. saying openly in the audience of many that the three last yeeres when he was a Grammar scholar of Westminster he made no exercise at all whereupon it came to passe said he that when I went from Westminster to Cambridge I could not so much as write true Orthography put letters and syllables rightly together in Latin and I cannot do it yet What not make true Latin being a Doctor 60. yeares old when he had passed through five Bishopricks and was to be translated to Winchester and Yorke the two greatest in England This Bishop said M. Kirton in the Parl. 1628. though he hath leapt thorow many Bishoprtcks yet he hath left Popery behind him after Canterbury But howsoever he was an ignorant and unlearned Grammarian he profited better in divinity he had learning enough to run through 7. preferments seven Bishopricks containing the one half of England in all which his principall care and study was to enrich himself and his kindred Chaplains creatures and favourites which he made non-Residents and Tot-quots heaping upon them all manner of preferments benefices and Q. Mary of all such alterations and Popish Innovations in our Church Bishop Neale laid the foundation who being an old Courtier ambitious violent and cruell against all that gainsaid him and opposed his doings and dispairing to climbe to high preferment by learning and Preaching which he could not abide hee set his minde wholly upon advancing Cathedrall pomp and glorious Ceremonies easier a great deale to be performed and practised by an ignorant ideot who hath onely the outside of a man then the making of Sermons or writing books so that in few yeares he got the government of many Cathedrals first Westminster which once was a Bishoprick and yet hath Episcopall jurisdiction secondly Rochester thirdly Coventry and Lichfield fourthly Lincolne fifthly Durham sixtly Winchester seventhly the Archbishoprick of Yorke Thus sate Doctor Richard Neal upon 7. hils 7. Seas he Lorded it upon 7. thrones above thirty yeares in the last twenty of which he preached not three Sermons which is the principall office of a Bishop as S. Paul teacheth Yet at the censure of Doct. Bastwick he said openly that he was made Bishop by our Lord Jesus Christ and consecrated by the Holy Ghost unto what office and what to doe to hinder Preaching to persecute Orthodoxe and painfull Preachers to countenance cherish and maintaine schismaticall hereticall and traiterous Arminians and Papists Cosin Linsell Burgoin Duncan c. to heape livings and Church dignities upon his creatures and favourites idle loiterers unsatiable cormorants seven or eight a peece above all meane and measure for what good of the Church and Common-wealth did our Lord Jesus make him Bishop and the holy Ghost consecrate him to weare a Rochet to set out Ceremonies to defile the Church of God with Altars and Images to gather riches by oppression of his tenants and to play the ravenous Wolfe in devouring so many thousand flocks which he tooke upon him to feed in seven Bishopricks
find them allowed in any well-reformed Church sure I am they were never in Durham Church till Bishop Neale came to that Bishoprick 1617. 2 B. Halls excellent lessons against Innovations and affected bravery in the worship of God and consequently against Durham Innovators with their sumptuous altar organs copes et caet It is a dangerous presumption saith a learned Father of our Church D. Hall now Bishop of Exceter to make innovations it but in the circumstances of Gods worship These humane additions which would seem to grace the institution of God deprave it That infinite Wisdome knoweth best what will please it selfe and prescribeth accordingly The foolishnesse of God is wiser then the wisdome of men Idolatry and falshood is commonly more gawdy and plausible the◠truth That heart which can for out ward homelinesse despise the Ordinance of God is already alienated from true religion and lies open to the greatest superstition Never any Prince was so fouly idolatrous as that he wanted a Priest to second him An Vriah is fit to humour an Ahaz Greatnesse could never command any thing which some servile wits were not ready to applaud and justifie Thus much saith D. Hall whose excellent lessons if the new-fangled innovators and corrupters of our Durham Church would have learned and followed no Sermon need to have been preached against superstitious vanities with superfluity of which it is exceedingly pestred at this day by our idolatrous altar-building Priests without any direction or approbation of our religious Kings and Princes who in their Lawes forbid both altars and images and all other superstitious rites and ceremonies For they Bishop Neales Chaplains have taught the people in their Sermons that too much cost cannot be bestowed upon Christ that is the Church and Church-ornaments brave Altars rich Altar-furniture gorgeous Vestments Sumptuous Organs glorious glasse-windowes painted gilded and garnished images and other excessive bravery vaine and unnecessary which hath cost the Church of Durham above 2000. pound wring'd out of poore mens purses to the utter undoing of many poore tenants 3 Bernard crieth out against the excessive vanity of sumptuously adorned Churches and the neglect of poor Christians the temples of the Holy Ghost which is worse now in Durham then in the time of Popery What would Bernard say if he were now alive and saw the glory of our Abby-Church as it is called the superfluous ornaments of which have cost more then would build a faire Church who thus writeth AdGul Abbatem to Abbot William making this exclamation O vanitas vanitatum sed non vanior quà m insanior fulget Ecelesia in parietibus sed in pauperibus eget O vanity of all vanities but whether more vaine or more mad I know not the Church shineth in trimly decked walls but in the poore members of Christ it is naked and needy And who dare withstand their vaine and mad courses who dare gainsay them or mislike their doings if any do so let him look for no better then to be persecuted to death for they teach the people that such are very Iudasses Counting all to be wast that is bestowed upon Christ as if Christ were in walls Altars and Images more then in the temples of the Holy Ghost the bodies and soules of poore Christians whereby the people learne to contemne their own parish-Churches because they are plaine and simple after the old fashion handsome enough and decent though not so proud and stately not brave and magnificent as this Cathedrall Abby as now it is adorned passing gaily with paintings and gildings 4 B. Morton out of Ierom upon Malachy calleth it a festred superstition of the Iewes to esteeme a brave Altar and ornaments of gold and silver better then the godly minds of them that bring oblations This soule errour and superstitious folly is thus refuted by D. Morton now Bishop of Lichfield in his Appeale If any haply shall contemne the worship of God because it is not sumptuous he shall but renew an old infestred superstition of the Iewes who esteemed an Altar built of unhewen stones to be but a prophane and polluted thing As Ierome hath observed upon the first of Malachy Reversus de Babylone populus Altare tantùm impolitis lapidibus extruxerat the people of Israel returning home from the Captivity of Babylon built an Altar of rough stones unpolished before there was a Temple or walls of a City Esdr 1. and they esteemed their religion contemptible because the ornaments of the Temple were wanting to whom God speaketh by the Prophet Malachy You thinke that mine Altar is polluted the sacrifices also laid on the Altar and the fire that consumes the sacrifice you count to be unhallowed and defiled Neither understand ye that Almighty God regards not nor lookes for either gold or precious stones or a multitude of sacrifices but the willing minds of them that bring their oblations 5 The Church of England in the Booke of Homilies and Hemingius shew what are true and false ornaments of Gods Church acceptable to God and profitable to men Agreeable to this is the doctrine of the Church of England in the Homilies against the perill of Idolatry and superfluous decking of Churches which utterly disalloweth our abominable ornaments Altars and Images and teacheth wherewith Gods house is truely adorned which are these The Word of God ought to be read taught and heard the Lords holy name ought to be called upon by publike prayer and thanksgiving his holy Sacraments ought duly and reverently to be administred not gawdily flauntingly theatrically due reverence is stirred up in the hearts of the godly by the consideration of these true ornaments of the house of God and not by any outward ceremonies and costly and glorious decking of the said house or Temple of the Lord. Pratendunt ornatum saith Hemingius si illi ornatui adjunctum sit ullum periculum sit maledictus They pretend that Altars and Images are set up in Churches for ornament but cursed be such ornaments to which the perill of Idolatry is joyned And again Spiritus Sanctus saith Ezechiel Ch. 20. vocat Idola abominationes oculorum sed pulvis cinis ea vocat ornamenta oculorum The Holy Ghost cals Images and Altars all such as God appointed not the abominations of the eyes but man that is but dust and ashes cals them ornaments of the eyes And then he concludeth Verus ornatus templorum utilis Deo gratus est concio cantio oratio communio non haec quae vel impediunt vel vitiant The true ornaments of Churches profitable to men and acceptable to God is the preaching of Gods Word the singing of Psalmes the administration of the Sacraments and prayer and not such things as do hinder and defile the same This is the doctrine which the Church of England teacheth in sundry places in the book of Homilies in the Articles and Injunctions that Images and Altars superstitious ceremonies and superfluous ornaments