requisite that no man should come to the Holy Communion but with a full trust in Gods mercy and with a quiet Conscience though it be every mans duty to be perfect pro statu viatoris yet it is not requisite that no man come till he be perfect He that hath but a weak Faith though not a full trust must come to have it strenthned And he that hath an unquiet Conscience must come to receive that mercy which may quiet it It is a private Opinion and not generally received in the Catholick Church that one of the People may make the Publick Confession at the Sacrament in the name of all those that are minded to receive the Holy Communion It is a private and not generally received distinction that the body of Christ makes clean our bodies and his blood washeth our souls It is a doubtful opinion to speak easily that when the Lords Supper is delivered with a Prayer not made in the Receivers name but thus directed to him by the Minister the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ c. preserve thy Body and Soul it is so intollerable a thing for the Receiver not to kneel in hearing the Prayer that he must else be thrust from the Communion of the Church and yet that no Minister shall kneel that indeed doth pray But he may pray standing and the Hearers be cast out for standing at the same words It is not a generally received but a private opinion that every Parishioner though impenitent and conscious of his utter unfitness and though he be in despair and think he shall take his own damnation must be forced to receive thrice a year when yet even those that have not a full trust in Gods mercy or have not a quiet Conscience were before pronounced so uncapable as that none such should come to the Communion Abundance more such Instances may be given to shew how far from truth the Assertion is that the Church hath been careful to put nothing into the Liturgie but that which is either evidently the Word of God or which hath been generally received in the Catholick Church unless you speak of some unhappie unsuccesful Carefulness But we thankfully accept of your following words and if the contrary can be proved we wish it out of the Liturgie which we entreat you to perform and impartially receive our proofs But then we must also entreat you 1. That the Primitive Churches Judgment and practice may be preferred before the present declined much corrupted State And 2. If Gods Law rather than the sinful practises of men breaking that Law may be the Churches Rule for Worship For you call us to subscribe to Art 19. that as the Church of Jerusalem Alexandria and Antioch hath erred so also the Church of Rome hath erred not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies but also in matters of Faith and saith Rogers in Art 20. they are out of the way which think that either one man as the Pope or any certain Calling of men as the Clergie hath power to decree and appoint Rites or Ceremonies though of themselves good unto the whole Church of God dispersed over the universal world and indeed if you would have all that Corruption brought into our Liturgie and Discipline and Doctrine which the Papists Greeks and others that undoubtedly make up the far greater number of the now universal Church do use you would deserve no more thanks of God or man than he that would have all Kings and Nobles and Gentry levelled with the poor Commons because the latter are the greater number or than he that would have the healthful conformed to the sick when an epidemical disease hath made them the Majority or than he that would teach us to follow a multitude to do evil and to break more than the least Commands because the greater number break them we pray you therefore to take it for no justication of any uncertain or faulty passage in our Liturgie though the greater number now are guilty of it 3. And we must beseech you if the Churches Judgment or Practice must be urged that you would do us the justice as to imitate the ancient Churches in your sense of the quality and the mode and measure of using and imposing things as well as in the materials used and imposed Consider not only whether you finde such things received by the ancient Churches but also consider how they were received esteemed and used whether as necessary or indifferent as points of Faith or doubtful Opinions whether forced on others or left to their free choice If you finde that the generality of the ancient Churches received the White Garment after Baptism and the tasting of Milk and Honie as Ceremonies freely though generally used you should not therefore force men to use them If you finde that the Doctrine of the Millennium or of Angels corporeity was generally received as an Opinion it will not warrant you to receive either of them as a certain necessary truth If you finde that the General Councels forbad Kneeling in any Adoration on the Lords daies but without force against Dissenters you may not go denie the Sacrament to all that kneel nor yet forbid them to kneel in praying So if you find some little parcels of our Liturgie or some of our Ceremonies used as things indifferent left to choice forced upon none but one Church differing from another in such usages or observances this will not warrant you to use the same things as necessarie to order unitie or peace and to be forced upon all use them no otherwise than the Churches used them We heartily desire that according to this Proposal great care may be taken to suppress these private Conceptions of Prayers before and after Sermon lest private opinions be made the matter of Prayer in publick as hath and will be if private persons take liberty to make publick Prayers Reply The desire of your hearts is the grief of our hearts the Conceptions of Prayer by a publick person according to a publick Rule for a publick use are not to be rejected as private Conceptions We had hoped you had designed no such innovation as this in the Church When we have heard any say that it would come to this and that you designed the suppression of the free Prayers of Ministers in the Pulpit suited to the varietie of subjects and occasions we have rebuked them as uncharitable in passing so heavie a censure on you And what would have been said of us a year ago if we should have said that this was in your hearts nothing will more alienate the hearts of many holy prudent persons from the Common-Prayer than to perceive that it is framed and used as an Instrument to shut out all other Prayers as the Ministers private Conceptions Such an end and design will make it under the notion of a means another thing than else it would be and afford men such an Argument against it as we desire
in Whitsun week The two Collects for St. Johns and Innocents the Collects for the first day in Lent for the fourth Sunday after Easter for Trinity Sunday for the sixth and twelfth sunday after Trinity for St. Lukes day and Michaelmas day We desire that these Collects may be further considered and debated as having in them divers things that we judge fit to be altered The Order for the Administration of the Lords Supper SO many as intend to be partakers of the holy Communion shall signifie their Name to the Curate over night or else in the morning before the beginning of morning Prayer The time here assigned for notice to be given to the Minister is not sufficient And if any of these be an open and notorious evil liver the Curate having knowledge thereof shall call him and advertize him in any wise not to presume to come to the Lords Table We desire the Ministers power both to admit and keep from the Lords Table may be according to his Majesties Declaration of the 25. Octob. 1660. in these words The Minister shall admit none to the Lords Supper till they have made a credible profession of their faith and promised obedience to the will of God according as is expressed in the consideration of the Rubrick before the Catechisme and that all possible diligence be used as is for the instruction and reformation of seandalous offendors whom the Minister shall not suffer to partake of the Lords table untill they have openly declared themselves to have truly repented and amended their former naughty lives as is partly expressed in the Rubrick and more fully in the Cannons Then shall the Priest rehearse distinctly all the ten Commandments and the people kneeling shall after every Commandment ask God mercy for transgressing the same We desire First that the Preface prefixed by God himself to the ten Commandments may be restored Secondly that the fourth Commandment may be read as in Exodus 20. Deut. 5. He blessed the Sabbath day Thirdly that neither Minister nor People may be enjoyned to kneel more at the reading of this then of any other parts of Scripture The rather because many ignorant persons are thereby induced to use the ten Commandments as a prayer Fourthly that instead of those short prayers of the people intermixed with the several Commandments the Minister after the reading of all may conclude with a suitable Prayer After the Creed if there be no sermon she ll follow one of the Homilies already set forth or hereafter to be set forth by common authority We desire that the preaching of the Word may be strictly injoyned and not left so indifferent at the administration of the Sacrament as also that Ministers may not be bound to those things which are as yet but future and not in being After the Sermon Homily or Exhortation the Curate shall declare c. and earnestly exhort them to remember the poor saying one or more of these sentences following Two of the sentences here cited are Apocryphal and four of them more proper to draw out their peoples bounty to their Minister then their charity to the poor Then shall the Church-wardens or some other by them appointed gather the Devetion of the people Collection for the poor may be better made at or a little before the departing of the Communicants We be come together at this time to feed at the Lords Supper to the which in Gods behalf I bid you all that be here present and beseech you for the Lord Jesus Christs sake that you will not refuse to come If it be intended that these Exhortations should be read at the Communion they seem to us unreasonable The way and means thereto is first to examine our lives conversations and if ye shall perceive your offences to be such as be not only against God but also against our neighbours then you shall reconcile your selves unto them and be ready to make restitution and satisfaction And because it is requisite that no man should come to the holy Communion but with a full trust in Gods mercy and with a quiet conscience We fear this may discourage many from comming to the Sacrament who lye under a doubting and troubled conscience Then shall this general confession be made in the name of all those that are minded to receive the holy Communion either by one of them or by one of the Ministers or by the Priest himself We desire it may be made by the Minister only Then shall the Priest or the Bishop being present stand up and turning himself to the people say thus The Ministers turning himself to the people is most convenient throughout the whole ministration Before the Prefaces on Christmas day and seven daies after Because thou didst give Jesus Christ thine only Son to be born as this day for us c. First we cannot peremptorily fix the Nativity of our Saviour to this or that particular day Secondly it seems incongruous to affirm the birth of Christ and the descending of the holy Ghost to be on this day for seven or eight daies together Upon Whitsunday and six daies after According to whose most true promise the Holy ghost came down this day from Heaven grant us that our sinfull bodies may be made clean by his body and our soul washed by his most precious blood We desire that whereas these words seem to give a greater efficacy to the blood then to the Body of Christ may be altered thus That our sinful souls and bodies may be cleansed through his precious body and blood Prayer at the consecration Hear us O merciful father c. who in the same night that he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and gave it to his Disciples saying take eat c. We conceive that the manner of consecrating of the Elements is not here explicite and distinct enough And the Ministers breaking of the bread is not so much as mentioned Then shall the Minister first receive the Communion in both kinds c. and after deliver it to the people in their hands kneeling and when he delivereth the bread he shall say The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life and take and eat this in remembrance c. We desire that at the distribution of the Bread Wine to the Communicants we may use the words of our Saviour as near as may be and that the Minister be not required to deliver the bread wine into every particular Communicants hand and to repeat the words to eachone in the singular number but that it may suffice to speak them to divers joyntly according to our Saviours example We also desire that kneeling at the Sacrament it not being the gesture which the Apostles used though Christ
the contrary then you have here given us for what you thus affirm We might set Epiphanius against Augustine and all the Greek Church till in the midst of Chrysostom's time when they changed their opinion And in our time the judgment of the famous Chronologers Scaliger Beroaldus Broughton Capellus Clopenburgius with many others are not contemptible as set against such an unproved Assertion as this Sect. 8. That our sinful Bodies c. It can no more be said those words do give greater efficacy to the blood then to the body of Christ then when our Lord saith This is my blood which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins c. And saith not so explicitly of the Body Reply Sure Christ there intimateth no such distinction as is here intimated there his body is said to be broken for us and not only for our bodies Sect. 9. 20. Com. Kneel It is most requisite that the Minister deliver the Bread and Wine into every particular Communicant's band and repeat the words in the singular number for so much as it is the propriety of Sacraments to make particular obsignation to each Believer and it is our visible profession that by the Grace of God Christ tasted death for every man Reply 1. Did not Christ know the propriety of Sacraments better than we and yet he delivered it in the plural number to all at once with a take ye eat ye drink ye all of it we had rather study to be obedient to our Master than to be wiser than he 2. As God maketh the general Offer which giveth to no man a personal interest till his own acceptance first appropriate it so it is fit that the Minister that is Gods Agent imitate him when his example and the reason of it so concern to ingage us to it Clemens Alexandr Stromat lib. 1. Prope In it giveth a reason as we understand him for the contrary that man being a free Agent must be the chooser or refuser for himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quemadmodum eucharistiam cum quidam ut mos est diviserint permittunt unicuique ex populo ejus partem sumere and after rendreth this reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad accuratè enim perfecteque eligendum ac fugiendum optima est conscientia And that thing is so agreeable to your own doctrinal principles that we fear you dis-relish it because it comes from us Sect. 10. Kneel at Sacra Concerning Kneeling at the Sacrament we have given account already only thus much we adde that we conceive it an errour to say that the Scripture affirms the Apostles to have received not-kneeling The posture of the Paschal Supper we know but the institution of the holy Sacrament was after Supper and what posture was then used the Scripture is silent The Rubr. at the end of the 1. Ed. C. that leaves kneeling crossing c. indifferent is meant only at such times as they are not prescribed and required But at the Eucharist kneeling is expresly required in the Rubr. following Reply Doubtless when Matthew and Mark say it was as they did eat to which before it is said that they sate down and when Interpreters generally agree upon it this would easily have satisfied you if you had been as willing to believe it as to believe the contrary Matth. 26. 20 21 26. the same phrase is used v. 26. As In vers 21. where it sheweth they were still sitting For the sense of the Rubr. if you prove that the makers so interpret it we shall not deny it but the reason of both seems the same Sect. 11. Com. three times a Year This desire to have the Parishioners at liberty whether they will ever receive the Communion or not savours of too much neglect and coldness of affection towards the holy Sacrament It is more fitting that order should be taken to bring it into more frequent use as it was in the first and best times Our Rubr. is directly according to the ancient Council of Eliberis C. 81. Gratian. de Consecrat no man is to be accounted a good Catholick Christian that does not receive three times in the year The distempers which indispose men to it must be corrected not the receiving of the Sacrament therefore omitted It is a pitifull pretence to say they are not fit and make their sin their excuse Formerly our Church was quarrelled at for not compelling men to the Communion now for urging men how should she please Reply We confess it is desireable that all our distempers and unfitnesses should be healed and we desire with you that Sacraments may be oftner But that every person in the Parish that is unfit be forced to receive is that which we cannot concurre with you to be guilty of Two sorts we think unfit to be so forced at least First abundance of people grossely ignorant and scandalous that will eat and drink judgment to themselves not discerning the Lords Body Secondly many melancholy and otherwise troubled doubting Souls that if they should receive the Sacrament before they find themselves more fit would be in danger to go out of their wits with fear lest it would seal them to destruction and as the Liturgy saith lest the Devil enter into them as into Judas or at least it would grievously deject them As formerly so now there is great reason at once to desire that the unprepared be not forced to the Sacrament and yet that so great a part of the body of the Church may not be let alone in your Communion without due admonition and discipline that ordinarily neglect or refuse the Churches Communion in this Sacrament those that are so prophane should be kept away but withall they should be proceeded with by discipline till they repent or are cast out of the Church Sect. 12. This Rubr. is not in the Liturgy of Queen Elizabeth nor confirmed by Law nor is there any great need of restoring it the World being now in more danger of profanation then of Idolatry besides the sense of it is declared sufficiently in the 28. Article of the Church of England The time appointed we conceive sufficient Reply Can there be any hurt or danger in the people's being taught to understand the Church aright Hath not Bishop Hall taught you in his life of a Romanist that would have faced him down That the Church of England is for Transubstantiation because of Kneeling p. 20. And the same Bishop greatly differing from you saith in the same Book p 294. But to put all scruples out of the mind of any Reader concerning this point let that serve for the upshot of all which is expresly set down in the fifth Rubrick in the end of the Communion set forth as the judgment of the Church of England both in King Edward and Queen Elizabeth's times note that though lately upon negligence note upon negligence omitted in the Impression and so recites the words Where you say there is no great need
c. Seeing the Ceremony of the Ring in marriage is made necessary to it and a significant sign of the vow and covenant betwixt the parties and Romish Ritualists give such reasons for the institution and use of the Ring as are either frivolous or superstitious It is desired that this Ceremony of the Ring in marriage may be left indifferent to be used or forborn The man shall say with my body I thee worship c. This word worship being much altered in the use of it since this form was first drawn up We desire some other word may be used instead of it In the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost c. These words being only used in baptism and here in the solemnization of Matrimony and in the absolution of the sick We desire it may be considered whither they should not here be omitted lest they should seem to favour those that count Matrimony a Sacrament Till death us depart This word depart is here improperly used Then the Mioister or Clerke going to the Lords Table shall say or sing this Psalm The Psalm ended the man and woman kneeling before the Lords Table the Priest standing at the Table and turning his face c. We conceive the change of place and posture mentioned in these two Rubricks is needless and therefore desire it to be omitted Consecrated the state of Matrimony to such an excellent mystery Seeing the institution of Matrimony was before the fall and so before the promise of Christ as also for that the said passage in the Collect seems to countenance the opinion of making Matrimony a Sacrament we desire that clause may be altered or omitted Then shall begin the Communion and after the Gospel shall be said a Sermon c. The new married persons the same day of their marriage must receive the holy Communion This Rubrick doth either inform all such as are unfit for the Sacrament to forbear marriage contrary to Scripture which approves the marriage of all men or else compels all that marry to come to the Lords Table though never so unprepared And therefore we desire it may be omitted the rather because that marriage festivals are too often accompanied with such divertisements as are unsutable to those Christian duties which ought to be before and follow after the receiving that holy Sacrament Of the order for the visitation of the sick BEfore Absolution here shall the sick person make a special confession c. after which confession the Priest shall absolve him after this sort Our Lord Jesus Christ c. And by his Authority committed to me I absolve thee Forasmuch as the conditions of sick persons be very various and different the Minister may not onely in the exhortation but in the prayer also be directed to apply himself to the particular condition of the person as he shall find most suitable to the present occasion with due regard had both to his spiritual condition and bodily weaknesse and that the Absolution may be onely recommended to the Minister to be used or omitted as he shall see occasion That the form of the Absolution be declaratory and conditional as I pronounce thee absolved instead I absolve thee if thou dost truly repent and believe Of the Communion of the sick BUt if the sick person be not able to come to Church yet is desirous to receive the Communion in his house then must he give knowledge over night or early in the morning to the Curate and having a convenient place in the sick mans house he shall there administer the holy Communion Considering that many sick persons either by their ignorance or vicious life without any evident manifestation of repentance or by the nature of the disease disturbing their intellectuals be unmeet for receiving the Sacrament It is proposed that the Minister be not injoyned to administer the Sacrament to every sick person that shall desire it but onely as he shall judge expedient Of the order for the buriall of the dead We desire it may be expressed in the Rubrick that the prayers and exhortations here are not for the benefit of the dead but onely for instruction and comfort of the living THe Priest meeting the Cords at the Church-stile shall say or else the Priest and Clerk shall sing c. We desire that Ministers may be left to use their discretions in these circumstances and to perform the whole service in the Church if they think fit for the preventing of those inconveniencies which many times both Minister and people are exposed unto standing in the open aire For asmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear Brother here departed we therefore commit his body to the ground c. In sure and certain hope of resurrection to eternal life These words cannot in truth be said of persons living and dying in open and notorious sins The first Prayer We give thee thanks for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our Brother out of the misery of this sinful world That we with this our Brother and all other departed in the true faith of thy holy Name may have our perfect consummation and blisse These words may harden the wicked and are inconsistent with the largest Charity The last Prayer That when we depart this life we may rest with him as our hope is this our Brother doth These words cannot be used with respect to those persons who have not by their actual repentance given any ground for the hope of their blessed hope Of the thanksgiving of women after Child-birth commonly called the Churching of women THe woman shall come into the Church and there shall kneel down in some convenient place nigh unto the place where the Table stands and the Priest standing by shall say In regard that the woman's kneeling where the Table is in many Churches inconvenient we desire that those words may be left out and that the Minister may perform that service in the Deske or Pulpit Then the Priest shall say this Psalme c. This Psalm seems not so pertinent as some others as Psal 113. and Psal 128. c. Lord save this woman thy servant which putteth her trust in thee It may fall out that a woman may come to give thanks for a Child born in Adultery or Fornication And therefore we defire that something may be required of her by way of profession of her humiliation as well as of her thanksgiving The woman that comes to give thanks must offer her accustomed offerings This may seem too like a Jewish Purification rather then a Christian thanksgiving And if there be a Communion it is convenient that she receive the holy Communion We desire this may be interpreted if duly qualified for a
dissent shewed Rom. 14. then you ever yet produced for forcing others from Ministry and Church into sin and Hell if they will not obey you against their consciences and all for that which you never pretended to shew a command of God for and others shew you as they think Scripture and Councils and customes against To tell us then that Paul spake of things not decent and sign ficant is pardon our plainess to say much less then nothing For it was not against imposing that Paul spake but using and not using censuring and despising And their Arguments were sutable to their cause of another kind of moment then decency or indecency significancy or insignificancy even from supposed Idolatry rejecting Gods Law and complying with the Jews and Hereticks in restoring the Law and casting away the liberties purchased by Christ even in their private eating drinking To be no more tedious now we humbly offer in any way convenient to try out with that Reverend brother thaâ— so confidently asserted the disparity of the Cases and to prove that these Scriptures most plainly condemn your impositions now in question though we should have thought that one impartial reading of them might end the controversy and save the Church and you from the sad effects As to that 1 Cor. 11. 16. We answer first it is uncertain whether the word Custom referr to the matter of Hair or to Contention so many Expositours judge q. d. The Churches of God are not contentious 2d Here is no institution muchless by fallible men of new Covenanting dedicating or teaching Symbols or Ceremony nor is here any unnecessary thing enjoyned but that which nature and the custom of the countrey had made so decent as that the opposite would have been abusively undecent This is not your case A Cross or Surplice is not decent by nature or common reputation but by institution that is not all for if it be not instituted because decent it will not be decent because instituted nor are these sodecent as the opposite to be indecent The Apostles worshipped God as decently without them as you do with them the Minister prayeth in the Pulpit as decently without the Surplice as in the reading place with it 3d. Paul doth but exhort them to this undoubted comliness as you may well do if men will do any thing which nature or common reputation makes to be slovenly unmannerly or indecent as being covered in prayer or singing Psalms or any such like about which we will never differ with you but even here he talks not of force or such penalties as tend to the greater hurt of the Church and the ruine of the person Sect. 12. A. 4. That these Ceremonies have occasioned many divisions is no more fault of theirs then it was of the Gospel that the preaching of it occasioned strife betwixt father and son c. The true cause of those divisions is the cause of ours which S. Jam. tels us is Last and inordinate desires of honors or wealth or licentiousness or the like were these Ceremonies laid aside there would be the same divisions if some who think Moses and Aaron took too much upon them may be suffered to deceive the people and to raise in them vain fears and jealousies of their Governours but if all men would as they ought study peace and quietness they would find other and better fruits of these Laws of Rites and Ceremonies as edification decency order and beauty in the service and worship of God Reply Whether the Ceremonies be as innocent as to divisions as the Gospel a strange assertion will better appear when what we have said and what is more fully said by Dr. Ames Bradshaw and others is well answered If the true cause of our divisions be as you say lust and inordinate desires of honours or wealth or licentiousness then the party that is most lustfull ambitious covetous and licentious are likest to be most the cause And for lust and licentiousness we should take it for a great attainment of our ends if you will be intreated to turn the edge of your severity against the lustfull and licentious O that you would keep them out of the Pulpits and out of the communion of the Church till they reform And for our selves we shall take your admonitions or severities thankfully when ever we are convicted by you of any such sins We are loath to enter upon such comparison between the Ministers ejected for the most part and those that are in their Rooms as tends to shew by this Rule who are likest to be the dividers And for inordinate desire of honors and wealth between your Lordships and us we are contented that this Cause be decided by all England even by our enemies at the first hearing without any further vindication of our selves and so let it be judged who are the dividers only we must say that your intimation of this Charge on us that seek not for Bishopricks Deaneries Archdeaconries or any of your preferments that desire not nor could accept pluralities of Benefices with cure of souls that never sought for more then food and raiment with the Liberty of our Ministery even one place with a tolerable maintenance whose provoking cause hath been our constant opposition to the Honors Wealth Lordships and pluralities of the Clergy yea who would be glad on the behalf of the poor Congregations if many of our brethren might have leave to preach to their Flocks for nothing we say your intimation maketh us lift up our hearts and hands to heaven and think Oh what is man What may not by some History be told the world Oh how desirable is the blessed day of the righteous universal judgment of the Lord how small a matter till then should it be to us to be judged of man we hope upon pretence of not suffering us to deceive the people you will not deny us liberty to preach the necessary saving truths of the Gospel considering how terrible a Symptom and Prognostick this was in the Jews 1 Thes 2 15 16. Who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own Prophets and persecuted the Apostles and God they pleased not and were contrary to all men forbidding to preach to the Gentiles that they might be saved to fill up their sins alwaies for wrath was come upon them to the utmost We can as easily bear what ever you can inflict upon us as the hinderers of the Gospel and silencers of faithfull Ministers and troublers of the Churches can bear what God will inflict on them And so the will of the Lord be done Sect. 13. Cer. 3. There hath been so much said not only of the lawfulness but also of the conveniencies of those Ceremonies mentioned that nothing can be added This in brief may here suffice for the Surplice that reason and experience teaches that decent ornaments and habits preserve reverence and awe held therefore necessary to the Solemnity of Royal Acts and Acts of justice and