Prophaneness by a strict Presentation of them the Court which hath more hotly pursued the Dissenters than the Scandalous and Vicious would like enough have put them upon Presentment of Dissenters without any favour or difference between the weak and the wilful which because of the ill Consequence which too often followed Excommunication and Imprisonment many Ministers and Church-Wardens were more backward and averse unto Their Consciences would not suffer them to work such ill and trouble to their Christian Brethren Fellow Protestants Loving Neighbours for some small difference in lesser matters not destructive of their Salvation And no doubt but the Wisdom of our Governours saw the Evil and Inconvenience of those severities When they took away the Penal Laws that made the Common Prayer and Act for Vniformity so terrible to the contrary-minded Arg. 3. For Proof that the Common Prayer according to the Acts for Uniformity is inconvenient in some respect and may admit of Alteration because of the great disgusts and almost invincible prejudices of People especially in the Country against this Worship or at least some things therein Cars Peaceable Moderator or Plain Considerations for satisfaction to the disaffected to our Common-Prayers In the Preface many stumble much at our Book of Common Prayers and some of them I take to be good Christians honest moderate well-meaning People and have found by experience much of their disaffection to it doth lye upon their mistake through Ignorance not peevish wilfulness After all our Preaching and instruction and Exhortations in behalf of the Common Prayer we do not find that success which we use to have in other matters and which we might expect if their prejudice were not so deeply rooted in them and too mighty for us The difficulty is great because the guilt of People is great Where People have often sinned any Sin the harder it is to repent And how often have may been present at these Prayers Yet I fear scarce ever prayed heartily and acceptably Again Sins descending from Parents to their Children are harder to be worked out of them but prejudices against this Worship have been transmitted down from Parents and as it were entailed upon some Families So that there is as little hopes of gaining them over as for bringing Men off from the Religion of their Ancestours which commonly proves unsuccessful Again the Commonness of this Guilt were it but two or three in a Congregation that were prejudiced against it there were the more hopes that by the Examples of others they might be recovered But when it is a great if not the greater part of the Congregation that is not heartily reconciled to this Worship as I fear it is in too many Parishes It is the greater difficulty when the Disease is so general when the Infection hath spread it self so much to cure it effectually There is too much proof of Peoples prejudices in that the number is so small so few that come to the Prayers upon the Holy Dayes and yet the Church is so exceedingly full at a Funeral Sermon or any other preaching time when People are not much longer at Church than on some Holy Dayes And on the Lord's Day there are few that will come to the Prayers to be present at the whole Service many hard Speeches against them some reviling them as the Mass-Book Popish Superstitious will Worship Prayers of course a cold dead piece of Formality There are so many Objections Scruples and Cavils against it as dull and tedious for the length of it as a Form of others making and not the Ministers own as Book-Prayers slighted by the vulgar upon that account who say they can read the Common Prayer as well as the Parson against the Responses though used among the Jews and Primitive Christians against the short Prayers and Hymns read and not sung disused both in our other Devotions more commonly but one continued Prayer without ony intermixture against some things censured as vain Repetitions and against the Ceremonies used in the Worship As to particular exceptions you may find enough if not more than enough in the Grand Debate between the Conformists and Nonconformists How these prejudices may be in a great measure abated and taken away I shall show as the benefit of Union That a Comprehension of the more sober and moderate Dissenters might do it in time Evils of this Prejudice First It is the cause of the scandalous abuse and profanation of Holy Dayes If People were unprejudiced an Hour spent in devout Prayer and Praises due Attention unto the Word of God and sometime in good instruction of Youth and Explication upon the Church-Catechisme or Exposition of the Epistle and Gospel of the Day would turn to some good account and the Evening Service used to as appointed on Holy Dayes but prejudice mars and hinders all this from taking effect and makes our holy-Holy-Dayes useless in many Parishes a loss and hindrance rather than advantage to Religion Secondly It hath occasioned much dishonour to God on the Lord's Day First By a great neglect of this Worship several absenting from it and staying till the Prayers are over before they come and losing the benefit of this Worship wholly which is commonly the bigger half of God's Worship on the Forenoons and the whole Service of God in many Parishes in the Afternoon there being no Sermon nor Catechising nor at least no Explication of Catechisme And is it nothing for so many People in many Parishes to lose the benefit of half God's solemn Worship No doubt but they are highly guilty before God and will be found so at that day when Sins which the World counts light of shall appear in their just weight of Guilt according to the Word of God Again Secondly It occasions much dishonour to God on his own day by reason of Peoples great unprofitableness in this Duty many present at it manifesting such a careless Spirit as if they were not worshipping God doing any thing rather than that Some waiting with great impatience until the Prayers be at an end as if there were no good to be gotten by them How is it to be expected that it should be done to edifying until Peoples prejudices be removed That their Hearts should be right and devout in a Worship which their minds are not reconcil'd unto They must be brought to some good liking of it as a true and sound Worship of God such as God will own before they will serve God with the Internal Acts of Devotion be Spiritual and acceptable with him in his Worship And if it be little to you to neglect this Worship or lose the benefit of it when you do perform it heartlesly praying as if you pray'd not and so you may expect that God should hear as if he heard not and give you a cold Answer to such cold and faint Requests And it is to be feared that the lukewarmness and indiffe rency of many not the worst of Christians in this
Church the unhappy contentions about it the worst of Devils would soon hasten its destruction Mr. Jekylls Sermon on Jer. 5.29 p. 21. But there is one thing which if not speedily prevented will before we are aware let in that which we so much fear and cry out against viz. Popery and which perhaps too too many of us more or less may be accessary to I mean those unnatural heats and divisions amongst our selves amidst which though we are not altogether swerved from the Form yet we are strangely degenerated from the true Spirit and Power of Godliness and Christianity How sad the effect and consequence of these heart-burnings and animosities unchristian strifes and debates will be I am afraid to think of Item p. 25. We are distracting our own Devotions yea and provoking I had almost said devouring one another whilst our Adversaries in the day they look for which God grant may never come will make no difference but swallow us up together Principles and Practices p. 10. of Ep. It is high time to be reconciled to Moderation and Sobriety to lay aside our uncharitable and therefore unchristian heats against each other and to throw water upon those flames that threaten our destruction and but for Gods infinite Mercy would have effected it before now instead of adding more fewel unto it Mr. Kidder on 1 Pet. 3.11 p. 29. The several Sects and Quarrels of the Jews among themselves and the fury of their Zealots were but a prologue to their miserable destruction Bishop Taylors Coll. of Discourses Ep. before Liberty of Proph. For my own particular I cannot but expect that God in his Justice should enlarge the bounds of the Turkish Empire or some other way punish Christians by reason of their pertinacious disputings about things unnecessary undeterminable and unprofitable Causes of the Decay of Christian Piety p. 427. It is the usual Oeconomy of Divine Justice to make our Crimes our Punishment and to give us up to those ills which were at first our own depraved choice And God knows we have too much reason to fear this may be our case that we who have so perversly violated all the bonds of Unity wantonly wrangled our selves out of all inclinations to Peace should never be able to resume them Item p. 428. This alass as it is the fearfullest so is it the probablest issue of our wild contentions such as nothing but the miraculous effluxes of Divine Clemency can avert To conclude as well we may with this as an undoubted Truth from Mr. Kidders Sermon on 1 Pet. 3.11 p. 22. These Contentions have done more mischief than all the Persecutions put together more have fallen and more dangerously this way than by the Swords of Tyrants and avowed Enemies of our Religion Arguments for taking the Ceremonies away or leaving the Vse of them indifferent especially the Sign of the Cross HEre is the most proper place to premise somewhat concerning the Lawfulness of Ceremonies least I should in any thing which follows be thought to condemn my own practice in point of Conformity to these Ceremonies As to Kneeling at the Sacrament I think the Rubrick should satisfie Persons it speaks very plainly It is hereby declared that no Adoration is intended or ought to be done either unto the Sacramental Bread and Wine there Bodily received or unto any Corporeal Presence of Christs Natural Flesh and Blood For the Sacramental Bread and Wine remain still in their very Natural Substances and therefore may not be Adored for that were Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians and the Natural Body and Blood of our Saviour Christ are in Heaven c. Mr. Bayns Christian Letters p. 201. Kneeling is neither an occasion nor by participation Idolatry Kneeling never bred Bread-Worship and our Doctrine of the Sacrament known to all the World doth free us from suspition of Adoration in it Thus he though a Nonconformist Mr. Tombs Theodulia p. 168. That whatsoever Gesture our Saviour used it doth not oblige us because the Gesture seems not to have been of choice used by Christ 2. Because St. Paul omits the Gesture which he would not have done if it had been binding 3. He mentions the Night and calls it the Lords Supper and if the Time be not necessary much less the Gesture 4. If the Gesture doth oblige then Christians must use the self-same that Christ used i. e. Lying down or Leaning c. Mr. Baxter in his Christian Directory I think speaking of the Sacrament tells us he thinks Mr. Paybodies Book in defence of Kneeling to be unanswerable As to the Surplice Platina mentions it to be brought in very early into the Church in the days of the good Bishops of Rome Anno Domini 250 by Stephen a Martyr under Decius the Emperour And none can deny but that in the Apostles days after Baptism the Baptized in those hot Countries of the East being commonly at least dipped or plunged in the Water with their naked Bodies the persons Baptized put on new white Vestments to shew the Purity of a Christian Whence the Lords day after Easter which Easter was their chief time of Baptizing was called Dominica in Albis the Lords day in White Mr. Leighs Annotations on the New Testament tell you those expressions of putting on the Lord Jesus and putting off the Old Man have allusion to the Garments Peter Martyr speaks in his Answer to Bishop Hoopers Letter The Defenders of this Ceremony may pretend some honest and just signification and Zepperus himself though no Friend to the Sign of the Cross in the Baptismal Office as Mr. Sprint tells us in his Cassander Anglicanus speaking of the Papists saith thus We read nothing of the Superstitious Habits in the Monuments of Antiquity except only of the White Vesture Qua usi sunt sine superstitione in signum Commone factionem honestatis vitae So that if it were a significative Ceremony as it is not in the Church of Englands use of it yet in their judgments the use of it might be innocent Bishop Taylors Ductor Dubitantium p. 668. Great Reason have we to honour the Wisdom of the Church of England which hath in all her Offices retained but one Ritual or Ceremony that is not of Divine Ordinance or Apostolical Practice and that is the Cross at Baptism Which though it be a significant Ceremony and of no other use yet as it is a compliance with the Antient Church so is it very innocent in it self and being one alone is not troublesome or burthensome Archbishop Whitgift said the Surplice was not enjoyned as a significant Ceremony The Canon about the Surplice mentioneth nothing of using it for signification of purity or unspotted innocency We do not wear it as monitory or instructive to keep the inner man pure and clean but as a Garment of use in the Antient Church and transmitted down from them to us and retained at our Reformation And some urge it to be decent and no ways
Primitive Christians who used the Sign of the Cross often and very early after the Apostles dayes as Justin Martyr saith in foro in agris And thus the Church of England showed she left the Church of Rome only in her Innovations and would go along with her in what the Ancient Church practised that she might be the more inexcusable and justly condemned if she rejected Communion with us But now the case is altered the Papists are hardned by it and encouraged upbraiding us as Bishop Vsher said of them If our Flesh be not good why do you drink of our Broth But our Protestant Brethren stumble at it and it is disused by other Reformed Churches and therefore in condescention to the weakness of the one and Uniformity with the other Reformed Churches perhaps it were to be wished that how the use of it were forborn V. Against the Imposition of the Ceremonies is because of the many Objections against them especially against the Cross as a significant Ceremony not instituted by Christ as a Dedicating Covenanting Sign as a Sacramental Sign or as having the semblance of a Sacrament or against the use of it in that place immediately after Baptism and the Duties of the Baptized more expresly assixed to that Sign than to the Sacrament it self as a medium cultus Again as Superstitious and Scandalous because of the Popish abuse of it as a cursed Addition to the Word of God and the Sacrament of Baptism as imposed on Ministers and Children of those Parents that scruple and are not satisfied in Conscience about the use of it as well as those that are as the Likeness and Image of Christ Crucified forbidden say they in the Second Commandment as will Worship as disused in other Protestant Churches as against Christian Liberty as unsuitable to the simplicity of the Gospel as needless unprofitable and causing Divisions in the Church Although none of the Objections or Arguments that I can find against it convince me that the submission to it and the use of it is utterly unlawful yet it should seem inconvenient to continue a thing which hath so plausible and numerous Objections against it VI. For making some allowances in respect of the Ceremonies God himself dispenseth with his own Commands about Rituals or smaller matters in case of necessity or when great good or hurt stands on the other side to outweigh them 1 Sam. 21.6 David in his hunger eats the Shewbread which only the Priests were to eat and Christ on the same account lets the Disciples pluck and rub the ears of Corn on the sabbath-Sabbath-day 1 Kings 8.64 Solomon hallows the middle of the Court for an Altar because the Brazen Altar of the Lord was too little for the Offerings A multitude did eat the Passover otherwise than appointed 2 Chron 30.18 on the Second Moneth for they could not keep it at the time appointed as the Second and Third Verses An Ox or an Ass is to be watered or pulled out of a Pit on the Sabbath day Periculum vitae dissolvit Sabbatum as the Proverb says though by many good Men a matter of Controversie or thought to be Moral and not Ceremonial Surely then lesser matters upon great and weighty Occasions when Spiritually necessary for the Churches Good and Peace and for the Labours of able Men in the Work of the Ministry may very well be dispensed with For Humane Ceremonies cannot pretend to a like Authority or Necessity much less a greater than those of Divine appointment That Ceremonies must yield to substance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or King James I. Instructions to his Son p. 15. Learn wisely to discern between points of Salvation and indifferent things betwixt Substance and Ceremonies As for the latter spare not to use or alter them as the necessity of the Times shall require Bishop Halls Works p. 1092. Our Saviour justifies the act of Abimelechs giving David Holy Bread and the Sword Ceremonies must give place to Substance God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice Charity is the summe and the end of the Law that must be aimed at in all our actions Bishop Taylors Duct Dubit p. 735. Thus if a Church commands such Ceremonies to be used such Orders such Prayers they are to be observed when they may but if I fall into the hands of an enemy to that manner of Worship who will kill or afflict me greatly for using it I am in that case disobliged even as Periculum vitae dissolvit Sabbatum Serious and Compassionate Enquiry p. 159. On Davids eating the Shew-bread It is sufficiently intimated that God doth not only prefer Moral acts before Ceremonial but also doth make great allowances limitations and exceptions in the one case and not in the other For it is as if our Saviour had said Had you censorious Pharisees understood either God or Religion you would have known that so long as there is not Contumacy and Contempt in the neglect of those Rituals but the excuse of a just necessity or the Rational Consideration of a greater good to preponderate the omission God doth not impute it for a sin Bishop Saunderson on Rom. 3.8 Sect. 31. Affirmative Duties do not obligare ad semper as being many it is impossible they should And many times Duties otherwise necessary in case of Superiour Reason and Duties do cease to be necessary pro hic nunc and then to omit them is not to do evil Bishop Wilkins p. 413 414. Now Divine Laws themselves are capable of relaxation which is the meaning of that Proverbial saying so frequent in Scripture That God will have Mercy and not Sacrifice and therefore much more will Humane Laws admit it True state of the Primitive Church As to Ceremonies I wonder men of any tolerable discretion should be so eager either for or against them our Salvation no ways depending on them but much hazarded by our contentions about them breaking Peace the principal thing recommended to us by the Gospel of Peace VIII Another Argument for Concessions in the Ceremonies several of our Eminent Men in Queen Elizabeths Reign were for the taking of them away as their Letters to Bullinger inform us mentioned by the Bishop of Salisbury in his Travels Letters of things remarkable in Switzerland c. by Dr. Burnet Bishop of Salisbury tell us that there is a vast Collection of Letters at Zurich written either to Bullinger or by him Bishop Jewel in a Letter Feb. 8. 1566. wishes that the Vestments together with all the other Remnants of Popery might be thrown both out of their Churches and out of the minds of the People and laments the Queens fixedness to them So that she would suffer no change to be made And in January the same year Sands Archbishop of York writes Contenditur de Vestibus Papisticis utendis vel non utendis dabit Deus his quoque finem Horn Bishop of Winchester in a Letter July 16. 1565. He writes of the Act concerning the Habits
would satisfie most The Fathers of our Church when they Reformed this Nation from Popery were desirous to fetch off as many as they could retaining for this cause all the Ceremonies and Forms of Prayer they could with a good rectified Conscience Some other things I could mention in the Book of Common-Prayer though not ill in themselves yet fit to be altered and would obviously appear to every wise man once resolved to compose such a Form as to take in most of this Nation which I humbly conceive Governours should in Conscience endeavour becoming all things to all men to gain some though not all yet happily gain all in process of time Principles and Practises of Moderate Divines c. They would be very glad if some things that most offend were taken out of the way particularly that there might be no expressions in our Forms of Prayer that contain disputable and uncertain Doctrines p. 335. Vid. Mr. Wakes Sermon on Rom. 15.5 6 7. p. 23. And that no such weight be laid on lesser things as that they should be inlisted on to the endangering those of an higher nature and hazarding the Churches Prosperity and Peace Serious and Compassionate Enquiry into the causes c. That it will be no Hypocritical tergiversation no wrong either to our Religion or our Consciences if when the case so requires it we change any phrase of Speech how fit soever in our apprehension for one less fit but more acceptable and currant or any Rite or Ceremony that we have great kindness for for one that is more grateful unto others and that according to the saying of the Lord Bacon we learn of the elder times what is lawful and of the present what is fittest Mr. De L' Angles Letter to his Lordship the present B. of London I am sure that if there were nothing wanting to cure your Divisions but the abstaining from some Expressions the quitting some Ceremonies and the changing of the colour of some Habits you would resolve to do that and something more difficult than that with great pleasure Conformists Plea for the Nonconformists Part 3. Pref. It is clear there must be a Liturgy and very many even to Dr. Sherlock mention some Alterations in the several parts of it as desirable and advisable Without any positive arrogance in a matter of this nature I do offer my observation Some that expect much profit by Preaching do think first and second Service too long and tiresome Others that care less for Preaching are very busie in the Interlocutory parts of the Service grow careless and too often prate and stare about and whisper in the Lessons and sleep under our Sermons both are too long for them also All that I will suggest in the last case is First That the second Service or Communion-Service may be then only read when there is a Communion or when there is no Sermon upon Holy-days Secondly That only one of the three Creeds be used at one time in the same Service Thirdly That the so often Repetitions of the Lords Prayer in the same Service may be limited All cannot most do not keep Curats The work of Reading the ordinary first and second Service besides incidental Offices as Baptism Churchings c. make it very expensive to most mens Strength and Spirits and wearisome to the People and the constant necessary work of Preaching and Catechising is hardly endured by the young and healthful but impossible to be performed by the infirm and aged And therefore in King Edward VI. days some Ministers were dispensed with in not Reading the whole as Grand Debate mentions p. 5. It is true indeed if a mans Conscience will bear it a Minister may be both short and seldom in the Pulpit but then it is with two great hazards First Of losing his Auditory or of his Auditories great loss to their Souls This humble Proposal for omitting the second Service hath a fair Countenance from the Rubricks Rubrick the last immediately before the Lords Prayer hath a supposition that the Communion is Celebrated every Lords day c. I mean to conclude with an excellent Citation from Bishop Taylor Duct Dubit p. 375. In Rituals and Ceremonies and little circumstances of Ecclesiastical Offices and Forms of Worship in the punctualities of Rubricks in the order of Collects in the number of Prayers and fulness of the Office upon a reasonable cause or inducement to the omission or alteration these things are so little and fit to be entrusted to the conduct of those sober obedient and grave persons who are thought fit to be entrusted with the Cure of Souls And things of such little concernment are so apt to yield to any wise mans reasons and sudden occasions and accidents and little and great Causes that these were the fittest instances of this Rule i. e. of Latitude if Superiours would not make too much of little things All just Governments give the largest interpretation to Churches Orders in these things to persons of a peaceable Mind and obedient Spirit that such circumstances may not pass into a solemn Religion and the Zeal of good Men their Caution and Curiosity may not be spent in that which doth not profit In many cases a Latitude according to Equity may be presumed but if it be expresly denied it may not be used Which is the case of our Conformists as to those things wherein a Latitude might be taken according to the Law of Equity when they carry some considerable inconvenience along with them and reason for the contrary yet we being strictly bound up by the Church it must bring a guilt upon the persons disturb their peace of Conscience and prove vexatious and troublesome to them that way if they often offend in these matters And this I presume to be the case of those who in their common practice do not come up to the strictness of their bounden and promised Conformity though in some cases when extra casum scandali contemptus they may do otherwise than the express Letter of the Law requires and be guiltless as our Casuists affirm I beg the favour with all Humility and with Submission to the Will and Wisdom of our Governours to offer to their Consideration whether it were not desirable to have a Prayer for particular Graces in the Evening Service the Petitioning part being less perfect then and at such times when the Letany is not used We have such a Prayer in the Whole Duty of Man called a Prayer for Grace comprehensive of particular Graces And then no doubt the use of it would be more acceptable in Families than it is now when it runs out so much in Intercessions and so little in Petition Again I offer to their Consideration whether the Hymns and Offices of Praise after the Lessons especially in the Evening Service are not become less edifying in their present use where those Spiritual Songs are barely Read as in Parish Churches and not Sung there being one way
Worship will hardly consist with their Everlasting Welfare much less attain the ends of Devotion Thirdly Consider further That this great abuse of God's VVorship and unprofitable performance of it is like to be an hindrance to you as to God's Blessing on the remaining Duties And will that do no hurt if the Prayers as some think will do no good VVe are forbid to quench the Spirit and his Grace Imagine we Men to be warmed and fervent in Spirit and in frame for Holy things at their first coming to Church this Heavenly warmth and zeal must needs be quenched and cooled by their dull and dead-hearted formality in this VVorship You know one Sin grieves the Holy Spirit and makes him withdraw further from us One Duty carelesly and negligently performed makes him the more unwilling to assist in other duties They that regard not the Word read God will regard them the less in the Word preached They that give not God the Honour in his Praises due to his Name God will regard their Prayers the less And if your first praying in the publick Prayers be turned into Sin shall not their latter Service be less acceptable with him than if every Duty and every Service were performed in a Spiritual manner to Edifying Again Thirdly The Peoples Prejudice and ill Opinion of some things in this Worship does work in them an ill Opinion of the Governours in Church and State who enjoyn them They are ready to think that the Governours have little care and concern for the good of their Souls little regard to their Edification who continue those things which in their Judgments are no edifying and their continuance notwithstanding all the Objections and Exceptions against them Again Fourthly Their prejudice hindereth them from discerning what is good or useful and excellent in the Common Prayer and disposeth them on the contrary to cavil and find fault with it in what is inconvenient to gather the doubtful and obscure passages and to stretch every thing to the worst sense even beyond the intention and design of them when a good liking and approbation of it would dispose them to judge Charitably and Charity you know covers a multitude of lesser faults Cure of these Prejudices I doubt not but that by the Blessing of God such Concessions and Alterations in the Common Prayers as to take in our Dissenting Brethren as certainly the more sober and moderate Ministers of the Presbyterian Perswasion would come in upon some Concessions would weaken much Peoples Scruples and Objections against the Prayers For we know non minus exempla trahunt quam praecepta docent the People are lead by the Example of their Teachers as much as by their Doctrines When they shall find the ablest Ministers among the Dissenters to read and conform to it in their Practice and in their Preaching to defend and vindicate it exhort and perswade others to conform thereunto as even the Old Nonconformists not to the Prayers but to the Ceremonies and the subscription by Canon used to do the People at least in some considerable measure may come to be convinced of their Errour in the disesteem of these Prayers Besides that their Prejudices Opinionative Conceits and Scruples will fall of themselves when the things that offend them are taken out of the way Then People will profit more when prejudice is abated and be ashamed to carry themselves so negligently and contemptuously as before and the whole Worship of God the Prayers and Office of the Desk as well as of the Pulpit be done to Edifying not clashing one against another nor contending for the Pre-eminence holy-Holy-Dayes of the Churches appointment by that means will be more improved as Peoples prejudices against the Service shall cease or decay and we may hope to see the Lord worshipped in the Beauty of Holyness and somewhat like the Zeal and Devotion Grace and Spirit which the Primitive Christians manifested in their Forms of Prayer Whereas now we bear only or chiefly a Conformity to them in the External Modes of our Worship while we have lost the inward Life and keep the Form of their Godly Prayers without that Power and Spiritual Affection which they had as Tertullian tells us Besieging God with their Prayers as it were piercing the Heavens to the Throne of Grace doing Violence unto it to take Heaven or Heavenly and Spiritual Blessings by force We are told too how forward the Primitive Christians used to be and earnest to be present at the beginning of their Worship with Sighs and Tears in their Eyes manifesting their Internal and unfeigned Devotion And if Peoples prejudices should once be overcome and they come to any good Appetite to this Spiritual Food they would be as sure to come to the beginning of God's VVorship as commonly they do to the beginning of a Feast or at least few that will stay until that is over before they come and few that would lose the benefit of so much of God's VVorship as they do by coming late and worshipping God in an outward lifeless way without an inward Conformity which is the unhappiness of our times and is never like to be remedied while Peoples prejudices continue and the things that they disgust as the length of the Prayers the often use of the Lord's Prayer the Sign of the Cross Reading the Second Service at the Communion Table or Altar with bowing towards it Godfathers c. Arg. 3. For Alteration in the Prayers is from the difference of the present Case from that at the Reformation First This Worship considered with the several Forms Orders c. was more necessary then when the Ministers were very ignorant many of them and more fit to read others Sermons as they did the Homilies with profit and to use others Prayers than either to make Sermons or Prayers of their own They were so ignorant that it was complained some of them could scarce Read and many of them did not understand Latin and then a Form of anothers making sound in Doctrine and Worship was profitable if not necessary least they should have put in Errors or Heresies into their own Prayers For they would have made very pitiful stuff sorry matter of it if they were to have made any long Prayer of their own though a Form But now there is more Light and Knowledge in these days to give that Argument a just weight insomuch that if Ministers be not very idle and negligent so many good Books of Devotion and excellent pieces of Divinity as the Church of Christ abounds with they may be able to make such Prayers as may be sound and comprehensive suitable and edifying Nay they may attain to some ability to express their desires to God without an exact Form if they are such persons as are much in the practice of this Duty as it is fit Ministers should be after the example of the Apostles Acts 6.4 But we will give our selves continually to Prayer and the Ministry of
with great regret and expresses some hopes that it might be Repealed next Session of Parliament if the Popish Party did not hinder it and he seems to stand in doubt whether he should Conform himself to it or not upon which he desires Bullingers advice And in many Letters writ on that Subject it is asserted that both Cranmer and Ridley intended to procure an Act for abolishing the Habits and that they only defended their Lawfulness but not their fitness and therefore they blamed private persons that refused to obey the Laws Bishop Grindal in a Letter Aug. 27. 1556. writes that all the Bishops who had been beyond Sea had at their return dealt with the Queen to let the matter of the Habits fall but she continued inflexible He laments the ill effects of the opposition that some had made to them which had extreamly irritated the Queens Spirit Cox Bishop of Ely laments the aversion that they found in the Parliament to all the Propositions that were made for the Reformation of abuses Peter Martyr to Bishop Hooper At first I conceived no small joy of your singular and earnest study in that you put your endeavour that Christ his Religion may be brought again unto a chast and simple Purity For what should be more desired of all Godly hearts then that all things by little and little should be clean taken away and cut off which have very little or nothing in them that can be referred wholly to Edification but rather be judged of the Godly to be superfluous Homily of Fasting Part 1. p. 172 173. Edit 1673. Gods Church ought not neither may it be so tyed to that i. e. Fasting or any other Order now made or hereafter to be made and devised by the Authority of Man but that it may Lawfully for just causes alter change or mitigate those Ecclesiastical Decrees and Orders yea recede wholly from them and break them when they tend either to Superstition and Impiety when they draw people from God rather than work any edification in them This Authority to mitigate Laws and Decrees Ecclesiastical the Apostles practised signifying Acts 15. they would not lay any other burden upon them than these necessaries King Charles I. in his Declaration with the Advice of his Privy Council Jan. 164â— As for differences among our selves for matters indifferent in their own nature we shall in tenderness to any number of our Loving Subjects very willingly comply with the Advice of our Parliament that some Law may be made for the exemption of tender Consciences from Punishment or Prosecution for such Ceremonies in such cases which in the judgment of most men are held to be matters indifferent and of some to be absolutely unlawful Bishop of Cork and Ross 's Protestant Peacemaker Some Circumstantials may be on our side abated and had been doubtless long ago if men of eager and inflexible Spirits had not hindered Du. Goods Firmianus Dubiâ— p. 153. Some Wife and Peaceable Men have desired that the use of certain Ceremonies might be forborn at least for a time which notwithstanding they are still continued These Peaceable Men do abhor the great sin of Separation and do continue their Conformity Dr. Stillingfleet also in Preface to Vnreasonableness of Separation Mr. Claud of France Mr. De L' Angle c. Ceremonies to be left free The Canons made 1640. Can. 7. In the Practice or Omission of this Rite bowing towards the Altar we desire that the Rule of Charity prescribed by the Apostle may be observed which is that they which use this Rite despise not them who use it not and that they who use it not condemn not those that use it Bishop Bilson of Subjection Part 4 p. 15 Strangers are suffered in their Churches to retain their own Ceremonies as be neither against Faith and good Manners and therefore may be born in Christian Unity without offence or confusion Letter to Johannes a Lasco concerning the use of such Signs It is surely the part of Brotherly Charity commanded us by God to leave the use of those Signs free to the Judgment and Conscience of the Congregation except we see an open abuse either of Superstition or of Contention as if they displeased the greater and better part of the Church It was evident at St. Pauls time by the most clear Scriptures of God that the use of days meats and all other external things was made free and it was a sure token of infirmity of Faith to doubt thereof Lord Bacon in his Consideraâ— Dedicat. to K. James I. For the Cap and Surplice since there be things in their nature indifferent and yet by some held Superstitious and that the Question is between Science and Conscience it seemeth to fall within the compass of the Apostles Rule which is that the stronger descend and yield to the weaker only the difference is that it will be materially said that the Rule holds between a private man and a private man and not between the Conscience of a private man and the order of a Church But yet sith the Question at this time is of a Toleration not by connivance which may encourage disobedience but by Law which may give a Liberty it is good again to be advised whether it fall not within the equity of the former Rule And for subscription it seemeth to be in the nature of a Confession and therefore proper to bind in the unity of Faith and to be urged rather for Articles of Doctrine than for Rites and Ceremonies and points of outward concernment For howsoever Politick Considerations and Reasons of State may require Uniformity yet Christian and Divine grounds look chiefly upon Unity Dr. Edw. Bulkleys Apol. for the Religion Established Edit 1608. p. 112. Touching the use of Surplices Organs c. in Divine Service I say that men may differ in Opinions of these things and agree in unity of Faith and Knowledge of the Son of God Doctor Fuller in his Appeal of injured Innocence in defence of his Church History Multiformity in things meerly indifferent with mutual Charity doth more promote Gods Glory then Uniformity it self Doctor Mores Mystery of Godliness Sect. 10. Pref. About the Communion I confess an Uniformity would look better in outward shew but is not worth the least stir and violence in diversities of actions or rather circumstances interpretable to so good a meaning as either Kneeling or Sitting at the Communion is and the real exercise of Charity in leaving every one free is every whit as suitable to this solemn performance as the most exquisite Uniformity if devoid of the Spirit of Meekness and mutual forbearance Item To the same purpose about the Cross Unity of Hearts being better than Uniformity in Actions indifferent there ought to be no breach nor quarrel about these things By an high value of the indispensables of Christianity and of the tender regard to the Consciences of men the Minister will conciliate more authority to himself than if he
drew too hard to an uniform complyance in things where Christ hath left us free True state of the Primitive Church p 20. Let us be men of understanding men in Devotion be zealous and hold fast the substantial parts of Religion and let us leave it to Women and Children to contend about Ceremonies Let it be indifferent to us whether this or that or no Ceremony whether Kneel or not Kneel Bow or not Bow Surplice or no Surplice Cross or no Cross Ring or no Ring Let us give Glory to God in all and no offence to our Brethren in any thing Doctor Stillingfleets Irenicum p. 65. He must be a great stranger in the Primitive Church that takes not notice of the great diversity of Rites and Customs used in particular Churches without censuring of those that differ'd from them or if any by inconsiderate Zeal did proceed so far how ill it was represented by other Christians And he concludes with that Divine Aphorism of St. Austin Indignum est ut propter ea quae nos Deo neque digniores c. It is an unworthy thing for Christians to condemn and judge one another for those things which do not commend us unto God To the same purpose in Vnreasonableness of Separation That the Cross be left at liberty as the Parents desire it or wholly taken away Pref. p. 83. Edit 3. King Charles II. Declaration at Breda Agreed to leave the Ceremonies at liberty Dr. Rudde Bishop of St. Davids Speech in the Convocation 1604. In the life time of the late Archbishop then Whitgift these things were not so extreamly urged but that many Learned Preachers enjoyed their Liberty therein conditionally that they did not by word nor deed disgrace or disturb the State established King Charles II. Declaration from Breda None shall be denied the Lords Supper for not Kneeling none compelled to use the Cross it shall be Lawful to him that desires to use the Cross to have such Ministers as will use it and if the proper Minister refuse to get another None compell'd to bow at the name of Jesus The Surplice left to liberty except in the Royal Chappel Cathedrals and Universities Another Argument The mischief to the Church hath been very great from these Ceremonies especially from the Cross First as to the Imposition though the present Fathers of the Church have signified their consent unto a due liberty to Dissenters and some Indulgence to them beyond their Predecessors yet several Ministers in Queen Elizabeths and King James I. Reign and that of King Charles I. and at King Charles II. Return have been turned out of their Benefices and silenced for Nonconformity to these Ceremonies although the Church of England confesseth them to be but things indifferent And it were hard for refusing upon a Conscientious account to submit to things indifferent to have one of the greatest punishments inflicted on a man Suspension and Deprivation even as Conformists would many of them think it hard to be Silenced for not assenting to the Perseverance of the Saints or any other of the five points according to the common sense or notion of our Dissenting Brethren Secondly These Ceremonies have been as it were a bone of Contention thrown in between Conformists and Nonconformists Zanchies Letter to Queen Elizabeth 1571. tells her This Counsel about strict Imposition of Ceremonies will trouble the publick Peace of the Church by causing contentions among men and cause them to write Books one against another about things indifferent which are the Golden Apples of Contention Many an hot Dispute and Conference there hath been and Books wrote for and against them with bitterness of Spirit some contending as earnestly about these indifferent things as about matters of Faith as if the very Life and Soul of Religion lay in them and as if the cause of Christ and our Protestant Reformation were to stand or fall with them The Ceremony of the Cross hath been as vexatious to our Church as ever the difference about the Jewish Ceremonies of Days and Meats was in the time of the Apostles which occasioned a Council at Jerusalem Acts. 15. so many Chapters in St. Pauls Epistle and such contention among them Thirdly Much time hath been spent to little purpose or profit in Reading or Studying these matters Oh the many that have wrote for and against No little time doth it cost men in Writing as Bishop Mourton Dr. Bourges for Dr. Ames against them and others nay every Book for or against Conformity as God knows there are abundance of them upon these fruitless Controversies makes the Ceremonies materiam contentionis matter of the Controversie and it calleth for a part and a considerable share in the Book Time also spent in Reading and Studying the point and there must be Prayer to be led by the Spirit to find out the Truth for satisfaction The time also which is spent in Preaching on this point for it is commanded in the Canons I say this time would be much better spent in reading the Bible with Comments or Treatises of Divinity and so be Redeemed for Eternity which now men are necessitated to spend for satisfaction herein All this a great deal or a considerable portion of time may be better improved if this Ceremony be taken away And then as my Lord Bacons Essays p. 13. Speaking of Peace in the Church It turneth the labours of Writing and Reading Controversies into Treatises of Mortification and Devotion Again The strict exaction of these Ceremonies hath occasioned some to cry them up as if a considerable part of Ministers Conformity to the Laws of God and Man lay therein when in truth it is a very inconsiderable part And some have sought to get into favour with greater Persons and attain Preferment by a niceness and strict observance of every Punctilio about the Ceremonies exacting perhaps a more strict Obedience to these than to the Laws of God And he shall pass for an obedient and very good Son of the Church with some that is a zealous stickler for these though he be loose in his Life formal in his Religion and uncharitable to those that differ from him Again Some have declared that they cannot joyn with us in Baptism suffering their Children to be Baptized by Conforming Ministers because of the Sign of the Cross which they in their Consciences cannot allow of nor joyn in the Lords Supper because of Kneeling which seems to them though through great weakness and a more unreasonable prejudice when the Rubrick is so expresly against the Idolatry and Adoration of the Sacramental Bread a symbolizing with Idolaters which things have bred no small perplexity of mind and outward trouble to some Godly Persons said Mr. Sprint in his days Cass Anglic. I shall conclude this with Dr. Preston on the Lords Prayer p. 89. Thy Kingdom come We intreat the Lord that he would curse and cross all Antichristian Plots and Practices and we are to Pray against all lets and