pray against Lightning is as good as to pray against Rain Snow and the like by thine Agony too much like an Oath The Word gracious meaned of King or Queen is not proper in a Prayer to God who knoweth whom we mean without such Titles in Prayer the Attribute most gracious which is a superlative Degree is not well applied to Princes we can say no more to God and as good to call most holy King there ought to be a Difference in Titles given to God and those given to Princes specially in Church at the Worship of God In God's Sight they are but Men and the Lord is jealous of his Honour and Glory which he declared he will not communicate to any one Let Men keep flattering Titles when they speak to Princes though I think none but due ones were better but in Prayers to God let Names of Blasphemy be avoided which we all condemn in the Pope of Rome Farther it were well to forbear the often unnecessary Repetitions of the same thing which in this Litany and other Parts of the Book are frequent and those broken Parts of Scripture which have no relation one to another all might be made up into one Prayer and not be divided into so many Then in one of the Prayers 't is said Turn from us all those Evils that we most righteously have deserved We think the Word justly is more proper the other being ambiguous Justice and Righteousness do differ Now for the Collects there are many for several Sundays in Advent and so many after Epiphany and Trinity an odd Way of reckoning the Lord's Days by in that on St. Stephen's Day God is prayed to grant us to learn by the Example of St. Stephen The Name of the Lord Jesus is a strong Argument and sufficient to prevail with God if any can so that of any Man is not necessary but there is a Day appointed to be kept for that Martyr and upon it something of him must be said but we take a great deal of Pains more than the Believers in his Time who appointed no Day for him Who gave the Name of Innocents to the Children killed by Herod's Order They confessed not with speaking but with dying and because they were put to Death to satisfie Herod's Policy and State Jealousie it doth not follow they died either Confessors or Martyrs they did not lay down their Lives for the Testimony of the Lord Jesus for they were not able to know and discern Why to observe the Day of Christ's Circumcision and not of his Baptism No Man as I observed before can say for certain the Day of any such Feasts they keep why to keep Epiphany or Twelft Day so much turned to Excess in Popery and amongst us too None of these produceth Decency nor Edification I think amongst Christians in our publick Devotion book as the Liturgy is The Words Lord's Day or Sabbath were more proper than Sunday Rev. 1.10 having as we have a Warrant out of Scripture This is the Way of reckoning after Popery I pray God we be not called to an Account for too much following after them As to observing Days for the Apostles I know of no Warrant we have to believe God is pleased with it on the contrary nor of the Purification of the blessed Virgin which is but a Continuation of a Jewish Ceremony all which are or ought to be abolished under the Gospel As to the Collect wherein it is said thine only begotten Son was this Day presented in the Temple it containeth either a Lie which no Man can disapprove or at least an uncertain and doubtful thing there being no Certainty of the Day If by Michael the Archangel or Prince of Angels be meaned our Lord and Saviour for the Name Michael signifying who is like unto thee O strong God is appliable to him then he hath his Day called the Lord's Day if Michael be an Angel then he is a Creature so not to be joined with the Creator and no Days to be kept for Angels there being no Warrant for it in Scripture Honour the Angel would receive none Rev. 19.10 and Chap. 22 9. Psal 16.4 As for all Saints Days 't is a Shame a Day for all Popish Saints with David we should say I will not take up their Names into my Lips As for the Apostles whilst alive they never thought nor desired to have Days kept for them after their Death St. Paul the zealous Asserter of Mercy and sworn Enemy to any thing of Merit in Man would never have approved that a Day should be kept for his Conversion he sufficiently declares against observerving of Days Months and Times and Years which makes him say Gal. 4.10 11. 1 Cor. 1.12 and Chap. 3.5 2 Cor. 4.7 Rom. 9.21 I am afraid of you least I have bestowed upon you Labour in vain he would have said Who is Paul Who is Apollo Who is Cephas But Ministers or Servants Earthen Vessels And a Lump of Clay in the Potter's Hand whilest alive when Instruments in God's Hand but much less are they after their Death he would have said what are they that Days should be kept for them and for himself Which once was a Persecutor a Blasphemer and the chief of Sinners After this followeth the Order for the Administration of the Communion there in the Beginning of the Rubrick we read of the Curate and in other Places of Vicars and such inferior Limbs of Hierarchy whereof not the least Step in Scripture If Prayers be appointed to be read in the Chancel for Conveniency of Reader and Hearers it 's well but if upon any Opinion of Holiness or other Privilege of the Place then 't is ill for that Place is no better than any other in the Church but why the Minister should stand on the North Side of the Table except for Conveniency I see no Cause for the Temple of Jerusalem stood on the North Side of the City but now we ought not to stand upon such Points of the Compass The People saying after every Precept Lord have mercy upon us c. is superfluous specially with a loud Voice once after the last as we humbly conceive might be enough Matth. 6.7 Christ forbiddeth to use vain and unnecessary Repetitions for Men are not heard for their much speaking It may be observed that the two Prayers for the King are improper upon that Occasion it supposeth a Communion without a Sermon before instead of which an Homily to be read which is better than nothing but there ought to be a Preparatory Sermon except in Case of Accident or else the Ministers are encouraged to Laziness and Neglect and used to read rather than to preach After Sermon or Homily the Minister or Curate is to declare unto the People Popish Custom still whether there be any Holy-Days the Week following and if there be what To shut their Shops and give over working for the Day By a Moral Commandment of God the
Logicians are they all But if this was litterally to be taken I see no Reason but we may do so of all those Places where Bodily Members as Eye Hand Arm c. and Passions as Anger Fury Vengeance Jealousie c. are attributed to God and thus fall into the Heresies of Antropomorphites and Antropopathites I must not omit to say how Papists make use of this Place in the Philippians to the same Purpose as our Men do so that this Practice is not free from Superstition Of Holy-days NEXT comes the Point of Feasts by them called Holy-days but there is no other Holy-days besides the Sabbath which God blessed and sanctified and now the Christian Sabbath or the first Day of the Week which our Saviour sanctified by his Resurrection after which he at several times appeared unto his Apostles who constantly observed it so that in St. John's time it was called the Lord's Day Rev. 1.10 As for all other Days kept in Memory of Creatures we disallow Keeping of Days hath Relation to God's Worship which ought not to be communicated to Men We are not satisfied to keep Apostles Days but we must also keep All Saints Michael and his Angels the Innocents c. All idle and superstitious Fopperies for which we have neither Precept nor Example in the Word of God to what purpose they contribute neither to Decency to Order nor to Edification only are an Inlet to Superstition He that keeps a Day let him keep it unto the Lord and not to Man either dead or alive An African Council condemned certain Feasts used in Memory of Martyrs because they were drawn from the Errors of the Gentiles whose Abominations Christians must not meddle or have to do with 1 Cor. 10.20 for the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice it to Devils and I would not that ye should have Fellowship with Devils So that when a Man saith to us this is offered in Sacrifice to Idols we ought not to eat Upon this Consideration that Council resolved on this And this we are to seek of the Emperor that such Feasts as are in many Places contrary to the Word of God and from the Errors of the Gentiles be forbidden for indeed some Christians being too ready to draw such things from them they transmitted them to others Christians and their Guides and Pastors instead of fencing against these things such was their Frailty that they rather complied therewith For Proof of this De Origin fest In Tertul. de Cor. Mil. let us hear what Hospinianus saith after Beat. Renany The old Bishops saith he were used when they could not call Men from the Superstitions of the Heathens by the preaching of the Word to seek at least to do it by observing their Holy-days with their own Worship but this was to drive out one Nail with another no Way to take off Superstition Although at the Beginning these Solemnities seemed tolerable yet at last they grew to such a Heap of Superstitions that they became the Fountain and Beginning of most horrible things Thus far he and Austin who then was alive wished them abolished and he gives in a Counsel for a good End Hom. 6. de Verb. dom in Matth. If ye ask how the Pagans may be won enlightened called leave all their Solemnities and forsake their Toys So we may say at this time only changing the Word Pagans into those of Papists Now the great Reason in those Days used by their learned Men not to receive those Vanities or if received to abolish them was because they were derived from Heathens which made Tertullian so sharply dispute that a Christian might not wear a Lawrel Crown for no other Cause but that the Gentiles did so which makes him say elsewhere Those Ceremonies are superstitious and vain which we used without any Authority of Divine or Apostolical Command and are to be accounted superstitious and therefore be restrained because in some sort they make us like the Gentiles and we may say they in some kind make us like the Papists for certainly we have it from them as they had it from the corrupt Church and this had it from Pagans so that the Springs whence they came and the Pipes thorough which they were conveyed are corrupt if there was no other Fault but this that they are empty Observations to be justly upbraided with Vanity as being done without any Warrant out of the Word for such things serve not to Religion but to Superstition and are affected and forced and rather over curious than any wise rational at all and therefore to be restrained because they do some of them suit with the Gentiles and all with the Papists Why then should we practise Ceremonial Festivals of Man's making 't is well to take occasion of hearing the Word and praying upon any Day when 't is offered but 't is not the Day but the Word of God that puts us in mind of the Birth Resurrection and Ascension of Christ and with Bucer we may well say I would to God that every Holy-day whatsoever besides the Lord's Day In Matth. 12. were abolished that Zeal which at first brought them in was without all warrant from the Word and it meerly follured corrupt reason to drive out the Holy-days of the Pagans as one Nail drives out another Those Holy-days have been so tainted with Superstition that I wonder we tremble not at their very Names and yet these every Year upon certain Days are observed with Mention of him or her whose Day it is and with an Epistle Collect Gospel Of Fasts WHAT I say of Feasts may also be spoken of Fasts We own Fasts publick or private being kept out of a right Principle in a true manner and for a good End are commendable but it must be upon occasion either to prevent an imminent Danger to remove some Judgments or to be humbled for our Sins then it must be joyned with Prayer for 't is an Accessary and Help to it and to speak more generally there is a Fast from Sin and evil Works which we are constantly bound to observe 't is what Scripture calleth ceasing from Evil but here this is not the Question 't is of prescribed Fasts which ought not always to be upon certain Days of the Year which are a Yoke upon the Church but as I said only upon Occasion voluntary and not forced and they ought not to consist in the Abstinence of some Meats but of all sorts for a time the better to fit us for Prayer not to have them too frequent as in the Church of Rome which looks on it as meritorious The Heretick Montanus brought in and promoted the stinted Fasts which afterwards did superstitiously multiply and to this Day Papists are full of them from them we borrowed some as those by the Church ordered to be kept upon Eves of several Holy-days so called all to be returned to those whom we had it from as well as the Feasts of
Week is divided into two Parts six Days to labour which many seem not to take notice of the seventh is the Sabbath to keep it holy After this are heaped one upon another Sentences which have no Connexion with themselves nor Relation to the present Occasion the thing therein most plain is that the People ought to make Provision for the Minister and that is pressed in five Paragraphs something indeed is afterwards said for the Poor but the gathering is for fear of missing made before the Communion when without Diversion People ought wholly to be taken up with Meditation upon that high Mystery it were more proper after the Action to gather But mention is made of Offering Days a Device at first of the Popish Clergy to satisfie their Covetousness so that every Man and Woman shall pay to the Curate the due and accustomed Offerings which is a meer unhandsome Trade in the Church as if one should say there is such a Rate set upon the holy Sacrament which must be paid before you receive it for it is said there after which done that is the Money laid down and not before the Priest shall say that is shall go on this tendeth to neither Decency Order or Edification rather to Scandal If our blessed Saviour was upon Earth here now as much as as ever he would have Cause to turn out many who make Simony and Merchandise in and about the Church Matth. 2.12 Joh. 14 15 16. as he did formerly But to go on in the following Prayer a third time mention is made for the King We as much as they can be are for praying for Kings and Superiour Powers but every thing ought to have its Time and Place if you will observe Order and Decency once is enough afterwards our Thoughts ought to be taken up with higher things with the King of Kings Before the Confession in the Rubrick a Difference is made between the Minister and the Priest 't is said the Confession shall be read by one of the Ministers or the Priest himself By the Minister may be is understood the Reader or the Clark under the same Name here is another Office in the Church different from the Priest's Thus in Convents and Monasteries Papists have Fathers and Brothers Moncks and serving Fryers for these to do what the others think to be below themselves and the Drudgery Then the Dialogue between Priest and People is not very proper it might be done without Dialogue Of two Prayer just before the receiving of the Communion one is to be said or read for every thing is but reading kneeling the other standing why in a different Posture After the Prayer the Minister may rise and consecrate In the Glory be to God on high is said thrice in the same Words thou that takest away the Sins of the World c. In the Lord's Prayer such Repetitions are not to be found if it be in relation to the most holy and blessed Trinity we have other Ways to do it than with such Repetitions Last of all there is this Clause and yearly at Easter every Parishioner shall reckon with his Parson Vicar or Curate no such Distinction in Scripture or his or their Deputy or Deputies and pay to him or them all Ecclesiastical Duties a Sabbath and Easter Day very improper to give in and cast up Accounts a Day or two before or after might be fitter but this I must not insist upon to come to more material things We now must come to publick Baptism and I cannot forbear taking notice of a thing in the very Beginning It is not convenient Baptism should be administred but upon Sundays or other Holy Days Here Holy Days so called are equal with the Sabbath or Lord's Day when a Difference ought to be made between What God hath instituted and what Men have invented this strikes at the Morality of the Sabbath wherof the keeping is a Precept of the first Table so that Men may as well murder commit Adultery steal even take the Name of God in vain as to break the Sabbath Whosoever makes no Scruple to break it will make no Conscience of any thing in Religion The Questions asked of Godfathers and Godmothers with their Answers in the Child's Name are unbecoming so holy and so serious a Matter to say to forsake the Devil c. to believe and to desire to be baptized by the Mouth of those who without special Grace cannot do it for themselves a Child who can neither hear nor speak is destitute of the Use of Reason 't is a manner of jesting with and profaning that holy Sacrament Then followes the aerial Sign of the Cross on the Forehead which one may accidentally happen to make when he puts Flies out of his Face this Sign saith the Priest is made in Token that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ and this as good as the Godfathers Promise to forsake the Devil for he is positive he shall not be ashamed Something that followeth we except against namely these Children be regenerate and grasted c. which is repeated in the following Prayer We yield thee hearty Thanks that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this Infant with thy holy Spirit c. Somewhat lower I shall give my Reasons last of all 't is said the Minister shall command here is a Magisterial and I thought it had been but a Ministerial Authority that the Children be brought to the Bishop to be confirmed of him c. This makes Confirmation an Appendix to the Sacraments as if it had not perfectly been administered but something had remained to be added to it In the manner of Administration of private Baptism are some things which I observed before This private Baptism seems with Papists to argue an absolute Necessity of the Sacrament which we deny when Men have done what they can to bring the Child to Baptism and God through Sickness Death or otherwise alloweth it not then Men must submit to his holy Will other things there are which in the following Head I shall take farther notice of This Point of Confirmation is that which followeth next at the Beginning of the Rubrick is something that needs being explained for though the Words be clear the Sence is not these are the Words to the end that Confirmation may be ministred to the more edifying of such as shall receive it according to St. Paul 's Doctrine who teacheth c. This seems to intimate as if Confirmation were according to St. Paul's doctrine but no such thing as this Confirmation is to be read in his Epistles Prayer and laying on of the Hands may profitably be used upon Children but such an Act needs not to be called Confirmation which Papists make a Sacrament of and use it to the same purpose Last of all this is said he any Man shall koow for truth that it is certain by God's Word that Children being baptized have all things necessary for
of his Homilies speaks of an absurd Practice of some to put a living Man under the Bed of the deceased and then the dead person was asked whether he would be baptized whereupon he that was under the Bed made answer for the dead and desired Baptism and him they immediately baptized in the place of the dead and this he justly calls there a piece of meer Mockery an histrionical Sacrament aludicrious Prophanation of Baptism for thus they did but act a Part in a Play And indeed I believe our Questions in Baptism to the Child and the God-father's Answers come very nigh to this for the Child though naturally alive yet wanting the Use of Reason and Senses is as good as morally dead Further to see the Errors of primitive times baptizing of the dead was anciently used by some Christians as it was usual to give the dead the other holy Sacrament as both appear to have been practised out of two ancient Councils in which is a Prohibition against that Administration of Baptism and of the Eucharist to the Bodies of the deceased the Grounds of these Practices are given by Zonara and Balsamon 3 Conc. Carthag Can. 6. and Conc. Trullo Can. 83. and if we must believe Buxtorf so well versed in the Tongue and Rabbinical Learning in his Synagoga the Jews had the same Error about Circumcision for if the Child died before the eight Day he was circumcised in the Burying-place After this we must agree with Scaliger Disput 17. De Baptismo who out of Lactantius and Austin speaks of the Dotages of the primitive Church which he calls Ineptiae patrum Ecclesiae Doctorum So we must say of the Sign of the Cross in Baptism which once was introduced into the Church though perhaps without an ill Design but hath thorough Superstition been continued therein and is abominably abused in the Romish Church Hence we may see how those things that are brought into God's Ordinances without a Warrant from his Word thorough a just Judgment become a Snare as Altars proved to Ephraim wherefore they ought to be left off and forsaken Hos 3.11 and the Lord never blesseth what he hath not appointed in his Worship Now I say this every Image or Likeness for a religious Use is forbidden in the second Commandment but the Sign of the Cross in Baptism is a Likeness for a Religious Use wherefore it is forbidden by the second Commandment whose Latitude no Man may restrain Of the Surplice NOW I proceed to another Point which I shall be the shorter upon because some things I already said concerning the Cross that may be appliable to the Surplice which say they signifieth Purity and Righteousness required in Ministers yet with some Country Ministers that Purity is very foul as well as their Surplice where we have seen some make use of them as of Hankirchifs and so dirty that they spoiled the Decency However Angels appeared in white Apparel and in the Book of Revelation Ministers are called Angels This indeed is a strange way of arguing for People who pretend to much Reason Thus because God calleth himself the antient of Days Dan. 7.9 he may be represented as an old Man with a grey Hair and a grey Beard as Papists do so may Ananias be represented with a Surplice because St. Paul calls him a whited Wall Acts 23.3 I also should have said the Holy Ghost may be represented under the Shape of a Dove because he appeared so in our Saviour's Baptism Luke 3.22 but if to prove the Surplice a Sacrament for that 's the long and the short of the business only it wanteth God's Institution though it hath Man's and that Sanctity wherewith Ministers ought to be endued we have no better Grounds in Scripture for if we had we would fetch it than Angels appearing in white Raiments we have nothing but Apparitions to ground it upon Out of this way of arguing we should also conclude that every Minister should have six Wings fastened to his Body with certain Faces like Faces of Lyons Isa 6. and Ezech. 1. Eagles Oxen c. because Angels have so appeared and nothing of black about them no black Caps no Tippets nor Hood because Angels appeared all in white It cannot be denied but that this white Garment is an Invention of Popery used in most if not all their religious Worship hardly any Foppery is acted amongst them but this is in nay it is ever used in the very Act of Idolatry for idolatrous Ends hence one may judge how defiled it must be but say they amongst Papists 'tis consecrated not amongst us as for that it may as well be consecrated as Altars Churches and Church-yards however we ought to hate even the Garment spotted by the Flesh Jud. 23. not to bring them in and make significant Ceremonies of them this might very well be spared and no hurt in the case as there is some to use it but say they 't is appropriated to an holy use in God's Service reading of his Word c. But the thing is never the more holy for that or else the Pulpits Tables Table-cloths Cups Railes Bells Seats would be so for they are appropriated to God's Service in their kind as the Surplice is As to Decency is not a black Gown as decent as a Surplice The Worship of God doth not confist in Garments or such Ceremonies that 's good for those who will make Religion as pompous as they can like the Romish Church and we imitate it upon coronation-Coronation-days but Soundness and Purity in Doctrine Simplicity in Worship and Holiness of Life is what we ought to stand upon so then the use of Surplice or Font in Baptism gives them not any Sanctity no more than have the Bottles wherein is the Wine to be used in the Lord's Supper or the Mud and Banks that contained the Water of Jordan where Baptism was administred Now amongst the several Evils this idle Ceremony causeth this is a great one that it stops the Course of the Gospel the Church is deprived of the Labours of many a good and learned Man the wearing of it is so necessary a Qualification that no Surplice no preaching and time hath been when Men neither ignorant nor scandalous who had a lawful Call to the Ministry being distressed between two either to be deprived of the Exercise of their Ministry a thing more grievous than the Loss of their Places or else to do things contrary to their Consciences were put to a sad and lamentable Dilemma either to be deprived of all or else to comply with the times and become Hypocrites We justly blame the Violence in France offered to the Consciences of People and yet here hath been done as ill though in another kind within these 30 Years till the time of our late Deliverance We made nothing of above a thousand poor Ministers at once upon the account of these Superstitious Rags and Ceremonies turned out
Pleasure have justled out Right and Reason and when selling and buying and such like evil Practises turn the House of God into a Den of Thieves But this Point I shall conclude with an excellent Letter sent to the Bishops by Dr. Humphrey President in Magdalen College in Oxford and Reader of Divinity Lecture there It is thus Your Lordship's Letters directed unto us by our Vice-chancelour although written in general Words yet hath so hearted our Adversaries that now we are no more accounted Brethren and Friends but Enemies And seeing the old Mass Attires be so straighly commanded the Mass it self is shortly look'd for a Sword is now put into the Enemies Hands of those that under Queen Mary have drawn it for Popery and under Pretence of good Order are ready without Cause to bewreck their Popish Anger upon us who in this will use Extremity in other Laws of more Importance Partiality I would my Lords have wished rather privy Admonition than open Expulsion yet I had rather receive Wounds of my Brother than Kisses of mine Enemy If we had privily in a convenient Day resigned then neither should the Punisher have been noted of Cruelty nor the Offender of Temerity neither should Papists in their seditious Book have accused Protestants of Contention Religion requireth naked Christ to be preached professed glorified that graviora legis the most weighty things by the most faihful Ministery of feeding Pastours should be furthered and after that Orders tending to Edification and not to Destruction advanced and finally the Spouse's Friends should by all means be cherished favoured and defended and not by Counterseit and false Intruders condemned over-born and defaced But alas A Man qualified with inward Gifts for lack of outward how is he punished And a Man only outwardly conformable inwardly quite unfurnish'd is let alone yea exalted the painful Preacher for his Labour is beaten the unpreaching Prelate offending in the greater is shot-free the learned Man without his Cap is afflicted the capped Man without Learning is not touched is not this directly to break God's Law Is not this the Pharisees Woe Is not this to wash the Outside of the Cup and leave the inward Part uncleansed Is not this to prefer Mint and Anise to Faith Judgment and Mercy Man's Tradition before the Ordinance of God Is not this in the School of Christ and in the Method of the Gospel a plain Disorder Hath not this preposterous Order a Woe That the Catechism should be read as the Word of God it is the Order of the Church to preach it a necessary Point of a Priest to make quarterly Sermons is Law to see poor Men of the poor Men's Box reliev'd Vagabonds punish'd Parishes communicate Rood Lofts pulled down Monuments of Superstition defaced Service done and heard is Scripture is Statute That the Oath to the Queen's Majesty should be offered and taken is required as well by Ordinance of God as of Man These are plain Matters necessary Christian and profitable to wear a Surplice a Coap or a cornered Cap is as you take it an accidental thing a Devise only of Man and as we say a Doubt or Question in Divinity seeing then all these substantial Points are in all Places of this Realm almost neglected the Offenders little or nothing rebuked and seeing the Transgressors have no Colour of Conscience it is Sin and Shame to proceed against us first having also reasonable Defence of our Doings Charity my Lords would first have taught us Equity would first have spared us Brotherliness would have warned us Pity would have pardoned us if we had been found Trespassers God is my Witness who is the Beholder of a I Faith I think of your Lordships honourably esteeming you as Brethren reverencing you as Lords and Masters Alas Why have you not some good Opinion of us Why do you trust known Adversaries and mistrust your Brethren We confess one Faith of Jesus we preach one Doctrine we acknowledge one Ruler upon Earth in all things saving in this we are of your Judgment shall we be used thus for a Surplice Shall Brethren persecute Brethren for a forked Cap devised singularly of him that is our Enemy Now shall we fight for the Popish Coat his Head and Body being banished Shall the Controversy so fall out in Conclusion that for lack of this necessity Furniture as it is affirmed Labourers shall lack Wages and Churches preaching shall we not teach shall we not exercise our Talents as God hath commanded us because we will not wear that which our Enemies have desired and that by the Appointment of Friends O that ever I saw this Day that our Adversaries should laugh to see Brethren fall together by the Ears O that Ephraim should thus eat up Manasseh and Manasseh Ephraim My Lords before this takes place consider the Cause of the Church the Triumphs of Antichrist the Laughter of Satan the Sorrow and Sighs of a Number the Misery and Sequel of the Tragedy I writ with Zeal without Proof of my Matter at this present time but not without Knowledge of it nor without Grief of Mind God move your Spirit at this present to fight against Carnem Circumcisionem imo Concisionem against Literam Legem which principally is now regarded and rewarded Speak I humbly beseech you to the Queen's Majesty to the Chancellour and to Mr. Secretary and the rest that these Proceedings may sleep that England may understand your zealous Mind towards the Worship of God your Love towards the poor Well-willers your Hatred towards the professed Enemies your Unity in true conformity the other neither be needful now neither exacted in any good Age so shall the little Flock be bound to you so shall the great Shepherd be good to you There appears in this Letter a Sence of Piety Modesty and Christian Resolution not to halt between two but to suffer rather than to sin according to our Saviour's Rule we cannot serve God and Mammon When one is convinced of a Truth he ought to adhere to it Yet one Dr Burgess who hath written for that Cause would make us believe our blessed Saviour was a Trimmer when in his Rejoynder he saith our Saviour walked a middle Path between the Excess of the Pharisees and the Preciseness of the Sadducees observing many significant Ceremonies in Religion The instituted Ceremonies under the Law he fulfilled but as to their Traditions the Evangelists declare how smartly he reproproved them for certainly such Expressions to speak of them as moderately as may be shew a great Want of Reverence for our blessed Saviour but thatStyle is no Stranger with some of them witness what Dr. Morton saith in his Defence In Hezekiah's Time saith he the Idolatry about the Serpent could not be cured but by abolishing the Serpent but in our most truly Reformed Church which doth most lively express the Face and full Body of her primitive Mother Church this Disease would be found curable without any such Extremity
Thus whilest with one Hand we are hugging and imbracing Papists and as it were courting them to own a Relation of our Bishops being by means of Ordination descended from theirs on the other Endeavours were used here to crush and destroy poor Brethren Some though Christians and Country men proved Wolves and Tygers against others Nonconformists as were and are submissive and obedient to Authority who are for Order and Ministry by way of Office in the Church not guilty in the least of any blasphemous Doctrine against the Person Offices or Grace of Christ nor of any Fundamental Errors yet meerly for Consciencce sake for nothing but Non-conformity was laid to their Charge they were vexed fined cast into Prison where some of them died and otherwise cruelly persecuted which ought to make those that have any thing of the Spirit of Christianity to blush and be ashamed Such Practices ought to be left for the Children of him who is a Murderer from the Beginning For cruel Tyrants and Heathen Emperors and for the Romish Anti-Christ who by any means goes about to compel Men to believe their Opinions to believe as they say as they and do as they do a thing never practised by the Lord Jesus nor by his Apostles nor by true Christians when they had the Power of the Sword For Christian Religion and the true Doctrines of the Gospel must not by Men be forced but perswaded nor promoted by any violent ways One Man may have a Power over the Body of another but no Right or Authority over the Souls one of another that 's God's own Right and Property and they are all Usurpers that do encroach upon it Reformation began first in Saxony under Luther but there they neither kept nor did set up any Bishops nor have any such Diocesian to this very Day but they have a Lay-man residing at the Elector's Court commonly a privy-Counsellor called the President of the Presbytery and in those Parts of Germany they have secularized several Bishopricks as Bremen Minden Halberstad c. Now to the third and last general Part about the Liturgy Of the Common-prayer-book ONE thing more I must speak of though already this Discourse be longer than at first I thought it would be and that is the Liturgy which I shall do as briefly as possibly I can In order to it 't will not be amiss to take notice how much that Space of Time namely Queen Mary's Reign between King Edward's and Queen Elizabeth's had altered that Spirit which appeared in the Reformation under that pious young Prince the Josiah of his time That bloody Persecution had destroyed the Lives of several of those Godly and Learned Instruments of Reformation under the former Reign who in that great and good Work proposed unto themselves no Humane By-Ends but only the Glory of God according to his Word and though in the Beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Days there were several worthy Instruments yet the Spirit they were acted by was somewhat altered if not in the whole yet in part as it will appear if we compare the Articles as they were set forth in King Edward's Days in the Year 1552 with the Edition which the Convocation under Queen Elizabeth in 1571 hath left us There are some considerable Alterations in the Articles as also in the Common-prayer-book what they are for Brevity sake I shall not set down yet I shall say they are about the Articles of Grace of Justification of Sacraments of the Lord's Supper and of Traditions The Expressions left out of them hath proved some Detriment to the Truth for they were strong against some Errors that appeared since and to confirm the Truths therein contained But this in general may be observed about the Prayer-Book how the Common-prayers are taken out of the Breviary the Administration of Sacraments Burial Marriage Visitation of the Sick out of the Ritual the Consecration of the Lord's Supper Collects Gospels and Epistles out of the Missal and for the Book of Ordination of Archbishops Bishops Ministers c. out of the Romish Pontifical Two Popes Pius 4th and Gregory 13th would have approved of it if Queen Elizabeth had been content to have taken it from their Hands and as to matter and manner they are such as that when the Devonshire Papists understood it was no other but the Mass-book in English they were pacified about it A ranck Papist Dr. Carrier said the Common-prayer-book and the Catechism contained in it hold no Point of Doctrine expresly contrary to Antiquity that is the Romish Service only it hath not enough in it Considerat pag. 45. sect 8 9. It is observable how Secretary Walsingham hearing there was a Bull of Excommunication to come out against Queen Elizabeth used a politick Trick to prevent it He caused two of the Pope's Intelligencers at the Pope's own Choice to be as it were in secret brought over and to them he appointed a Guide to shew them in Canterbury and London Service solemnly sung and said with all its Pomp which Order the Popish Intelligencers seeing and admiring they wondered their Master would be so unadvised as to interdict a Prince or State whose Service and Ceremonies did so well agree with his own so returning to the Pope they shewed him his Oversight affirming how they saw no Service or Ceremonies in England but what might very well have been performed in Rome whereupon the Bull was presently called in The Prayer-book is the Beads of our high Church-People for as Papists think all is well with them if they do but tell their Beads so many times a Day hence it is that they look upon it as their great Work when they go to their Churches where they mutter so many Pater Nosters or so many times the Lord's Prayer and Avemarias or the Angel's Salutation to the Virgin So we have amongst us those who think to have performed the whole Christian Duty if they do but go to the Service as they call it and hear the Prayer-book read Out of the Common-prayer-book in that Part of the Litany where it is said from Sedition and privy Conspiracy the following Words are left out From the Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and from his detestable Enormities I think after the bloody Tragedy acted under Queen Mary we had no more reason to leave out that important Truth than they had before to have it in But to speak something more in general upon this Subject though within as narrow a Compass as I can because by others much hath been said to the Purpose We declare we are not against Liturgies other Reformed Churches have them and we own they are Help upon Occasion wherefore we be wronged when traduced for Enemies to Liturgies we love them full comprehensive and to the purpose but not clogged with superfluous Repetitions 'T is good to have a Form for Administration of Baptism of the Lord's Supper and blessing of Marriages but they must not be too long nor too many
Censure so contrary to what Scripture prescribeth in matter of passing a Judgment upon others There is nothing of an healing Spirit which a little before and at the time of the Conferences in Worcester House only to have time to settle their Affairs and amuse others those Men pretended to But in the Head following concerning the Service of the Church are these Words The Service in this Church of England these many Years hath been read in Latin to the People whereby is meaned the Time of Popery so 't is called the same now as it was then namely the Church of England which I think is no great Credit or Honour to the present Church then it implieth the Service now used to be the same as 't was in those Days only with this Difference that then it was in Latin now in English So there is mention made of the Division of the Psalms into several Portions called a Nocturn and the Rules called the Pie which made the turning of the Book so intricate However though it hath suffered some Alterations in Substance 't is the same as it was in times of Popery only put in plainer Order and whereas heretofore there hath been a great Diversity in saying and singing in Churches within this Realm according to the Uses of Salisbury Hereford Bangor York Lincoln henceforth there shall be but one Vse namely the Romish or next to it in Cathedrals Collegial Chappels and the like In the following Rubrick an unnecessary and unrequired Leave is given to say in any Language understood Morning and Evening Prayers by which means the Latin is still continued but all Priests and Deacons 't is imposed upon to say it thus amongst Papists their Clergymen must say their Breviary which is meritorious Morning and Evening to pray to God is a necessary Duty incumbent upon all but I see no reason why one should always be stinted to such a Form In the proper Lessons is a Feast called Annunciation of our Lady it is not sufficiently expressed by the Name of the blessed Virgin Mary but our Lady Seeing they come upon those Terms they ought to have said which of the Ladies either of Egypt Loretto Monserrat and fifty more without Hyperbole which we could name for they are all Ladies with Churches dedicated to and Days appointed for them The Word Lady is not enough 't is common to so many though in the Word we read of one Lord Jesus Christ but of no Lady she should have been called Queen of Heaven and those great Titles given her in her Litany In a due and decent manner we honour her Memory and call her the most blessed amongst all Women but not in a Popish and Superstitious Way In the Kalender we are taught to reckon the Month after the Roman Way by Nonae Idus and Calend but to what purpose they know best In the manner of ordering of Priests and consecrating of Bishops we have Veni Creator Spiritus for those Words in Latin have a greater Emphasis and Energy than in English but not in ordering of Deacons that is used in the Conclave in the Election of a Pope which brings Infallibility in the Election Acts 24.23 and 1 Tim. 4.14 and 2 Tim. 1.6 when Paul and Barnabas ordered Elders or Ministers in every Church they prayed fasted and laid Hands upon them without any other Ceremony I should have said how their Way of Service in Cathedrals depriveth People of the Comfort of singing Psalms But we must return back to the Kalender there in red Letters we find King Charles Martyr and the 29th of May Observations upon the 30th of January and 29th of May in 1694. but I shall say nothing thereupon one not long ago having published something upon the matter and thus saved me that Trouble only I take notice he is in the 3 d. Collect of Evening Prayer mentioned in this Stile according to the Example of this thy blessed Martyr if a Martyr then of Hierarchy as his Son King James Confessor of Popery in the Morning Prayer 't is said instead of Venite exultemus for we cannot leave off our Latin shall the Psalm following be used called a Psalm a Mixture of broken Parts of Scripture Acts Jonah Lament and Baruch too and this one Verse by the Minister the next by the People so round about and the last Collect of the three the People to repeat it after the Minister The Service for Charles II's Birth and Restoration as to the Occasion Matter and Manner is a fit Match for this all alike I remember one thing I shall mention now we speak of Kings and that 's about Coronation wherein are observed some meerly Popish Fopperies which make Westminster Abbey so much like a Church in Rome or upon such an Occasion any Popish Church elsewhere the manner of laying the Regalia upon the Altar the bowing and cringings c. But I shall only speak of the anointing an idle Ceremony now formerly a Jewish one anointing of Priests Prophets and Kings under the Law were Typical all ended in the Lord Jesus Christ who yet though a Priest a Prophet and a King was not anointed with Oyl but with the Gifts and Graces thereby signified our Ministers or Priests as they call them should also be anointed as well as our Kings in this and that certain Parts of the Body rather than in another it is pity but that to perform so solemn an Action we should also have a miraculous Bottle of Oyl brought down from Heaven or a St. Ampoul that 's never diminished to anoint our Kings as the French pretend to as also till now they imitated them in touching for the King 's Evil however anointing may not be said to be essential to the Coronation Now to the manner of using the Prayer-book Why should the Minister read one Verse and the People with a loud Voice another which is against Decency and St. Paul's Rule not to speak all at once Why should the Doxology Glory be to the Father be repeated so often as well as the Lord's Prayer And why so divided as that the Minister should ever say one Half and the People the other Like Priest and Clark in Popery this to answer for the other Why should the Title of every Psalm be Latin Why is Simeon's Song called the Nunc dimittis The blessed Virgin 's to be known under the Name of Magnificat when we speak of the Rich Man to call him Dives Why Simon rather Magus than the Sorcerer If we be so fond to call things by Names in an unknown Language let it be in Hebrew or in Greek which are the original Tongues of Old and New Testament and not in Latin which with their Decrees is the Language of the Beast if in English we wanted Words to signifie things then there would be Cause to borrow of others but we are not brought to such Streights every one knows how all the Popish Service is in Latin wherein we still