but hypocritically and verbally as Simon Magus did are visibly such as the others ate really But really are still in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity and have no part or lot in this business their hearts being not right in the sight of God This is that truth which we are ready to make good We conceive the present Translation to be agreeable to many ancient Copies therefore the change to be needless Rep. What ancient copy hath the seventh day in the end of the 4th Commandment instead of the Sabbath-day Did King James cause the Bible to be new translated to so little purpose We must bear you witness that in some cases you are not given to change My duty towards God c. It is not true that there is nothing in that Answer which refers to the 4th Commandment for the last words of the answer do orderly relate to the last Commandment of the first Table which is the fourth Rep. And think you indeed that the fourth commandment obligeth you no more to one day in seven than equally to all the dayes of your life this Exposition may make us think that some are more serious then else we could have imagined in praying after that commandment Lord have mercy upon us and encline our hearts to keep this Law Two onely as generally necessary to salvation c. These words are a Reason of the Answer that there are two only therefore not to be left out Rep. The words seem to imply by distinction that there may be others not so necessary and the Lords Supper was not by the Ancients taken to be necessary to the salvation of all We desire that the entring of Infants c. The effect of childrens Baptism depends neither upon their own present actual Faith and Repentance which the Catechism saith expresly they cannot perform nor upon the Faith and Repentance of their natural Parents or Pro-parents or of their Godfathers or Godmothers but upon the Ordinance Institution of Christ but it is requisite that when they come to age they should perform these conditions of faith and repentance for which also their Godfathers Godmothers charitably undertook on their behalf And what they do for the Infant in this case the Infant himself is truly said to do as in the Courts of this Kingdom daily the Infant does answer by his Guardian and it is usual to do homage by proxy and for Princes to marry by proxy for the further justification of this answer see St. Aug. Ep. â—1 ad Bonif. Nihil aliud credere quam fidem habere ac per hoc cum respondetur parvulum credere qui fidei nondum habet effectum respondetur fidem habere propter fidei Sacramentum convertere se ad Deum propter Conversionis Sacramentum quia ipsa responsio ad celebrationem pertinet Sacramenti itaque parvulum si nondum fides illa que in credentium voluntate consister tamen ipsius fidei Sacramentum Repl. 1. You remove not at all the inconvenience of the words that seemeth to import what you your selves disclaim 2. We know that the effects of Baptism do depend on all the necessâ—ry con-causes on Gods mercy or Christ's merits on the Institution and on Baptism it self according to its use as a delivering investing Sign and Seal and they depend upon the promise sealed by Baptism and the promise supposeth the qualified subâ—ect or requisite Condition in him that shall have the benefit of it to tell us therefore of a common Cause on which the efâ—ect depends vâ—z the Institution or Baptism it self when we are inquiring after the special condition that proveth the person to be the due subject to whom both promise and Baptism doth belong This is but to seem to make an Answer Either all baptized absolutely are â—ustified and saved or not If yea then Christianity is another kind of thing than Peter or Paul understood that thought it was not the washing of water but the answer of a good Conscience to God Then let us catch Heathens and dip them and save them in dispite of them But if any condition be requisite as we are sure there is our question is what it is and you tell us of Baptism it self did ever Auguâ—t jure vel 〈◊〉 was to be esteemed a believer we grant with Austin that Infants of believers propter Sacramentum fidâ—i are visibly and professedly to be numbred with believers but neither Austin nor we wil ever grant you that this is true of all that you can catch and use this form of Baptâ—sm ever the seal wil noâ— save them that have no part in the promise The Catechism is not intended as a whole body of Divinity but as a Comprehension of the Articles of Faith and other Doctrines most necessary to salvation and being short is fittest for Children and common people and as it was thought sufficient upon mature deliberation and so is by us Rep. The Creed the Decalogue and the Lords Prayer contain all that is absolutely necessary to salvation at least If you intended no more what need you make a Catechism If you intend more why have you no more But except in the very words of the Creed the essentials of Christianity are left out if no explication be necessary trouble them with no more then the Text of the Creed c. If explication be necessary let them have it at least in a larger Catechism fitter for the riper CONFIRMATION It is evident that the meaning of these words is that Children baptized dying before they commit actual sin are undoubtedly saved though they be not confirmed wherein we see not what danger there can be of misleading the vulgar by teaching them truth but there may be danger in this desire of having these words wronged as if they were false for St. Austin says he is an Infidel that defies them to be true Ep. 23. ad Bonif. Rep. What all Children saved whether they be Children of the Promise or no Or can you shew us a Text that saith Whoever is baptized shall be saved the Common-Prayer-Book plainly speaks of the non-necessity of Unction Confirmation and other Popish Ceremonies and Sacraments and meaneth that ex parte Ecclesiae they have all things necessary to salvation and are undoubtedly saved supposing them the due subjects and that nothing be wanting ex parte sui which certainly is not the case of such as are not Children of the Promise and Covenant the Child of an Heathen doth not ponere obicem actually quo minus baptizetur and yet being baptized is not saved on your own reckoning as we understand you therefore the Parent can penere obicem and either hinder the Baptism or effect to his Infant Austin speaks not there of all Children whatever but those that are offered per aliorum spiritualem voluntatem by the Parents usually or by those that own them after the Parents be dead or they exposed
what is to be amended in these Collects therefore to say any thing particularly were to answer to we know not what Repl. We are glad that one word in the proper Collects hath appeared such to you as needs a Reformation especially when you told us before That the Lyturgy was never found fault with by those to whom the name of Protestants most properly belongs which lookt upon our hopâ—s of reformation almost as destructively as the Papists Doctrine of infallibility doth when we deal with them As for the Collects mentioned by us you should not wonder that we brought not in a particular Charge against them For first we had a conceit that it was best for us to deal as gently and tenderly as we could with the faults of the Lyturgy And therefore we have under our Generals hid abundance of particulars which you may find in the Abridgement of the Lincolnshire Ministers and in many other Books And secondly we had a conceit that you would have vouchsafed to have treated with us personally in persence according to the sense of his Majesties Commission and then we thought to have told you particularly of such matters but you have forced us to confess that we find our selves deceived Communion Service Sect. 1. P. 17. Kyries Ans. To say Lord have mercy upon us after every Commandement is more quick and active than to say it once at the close and why Christian People should not upon their knees ask their pardon for their Life forfeited by the breach of each Commandement and pray for Grace to keep them for the time to come they must be more than ignorant that can scruple Repl. We thank you for saying nothing against our four first Requests Though we be thought more than ignorant for our scruple we can truly say we are willing to learn but your bare opinion is not enough to cure ignorance and more By your reason you may make kneeling the gesture for hearing the Scriptures read and hearing Sermons and all If you will but interweave Prayers he must be more than ignorant that will not kneel The universal Church of Christ was more than ignorant for many hundred years that not only neglected but prohibited Genuflexion in all adoration each Lords day when now the 20. of Exod. or 5. Deut. may not be heard or read without kneeling save only by the Clergy Sect. 2. P. 18. Homilies Ans. Some Livings are so small that they are not able to maintain a Licensed Preacher and in such and the like Cases this provision is necessary nor can any reason be given why the Ministers reading a Homily set forth by common Authority should not be accounted Preaching of the Word as well as his reading or pronouncing by heart a Homily or Sermon of his own or any other mans Repl. 1. When the Usurpers would quickly have brought Livings to that competency as would have maintained able Preachers we may not question whether just Authority will do it 2. When abundance of able Ministers cast out would be glad of liberty to Preach for nothing this pretence hath no taste or sense in it 3. When we may not without the imputation of uncharitableness once imagine that your Lordships with your Deans and other Officers do not value the saving of Souls above Money we may conclude that you will voluntarily allow so much out of your ample Revenues as will supply such places or many of them the rather because we find you charging them as inordinately desiring the Honour and Wealth of the World that would have had all Ministers to have had 100 l. or 80 l. per annum a piece and therefore may conclude that you will take no more if you hate that sin more than they do that are accused of it But the next part of your Anâ—wer firghteth us more to which we say That we will not differ with you for the name whether reading Homilies may be called Preaching but we take the boldness to say that it is another manner of Preaching that Christ and his Apostles sent men to perform and which the Church hath gloried in and been edified by to this day and which thousands of Souls have been brought to Heaven by and which we again desire may be enjoyned and not left so indifferent Sect. 3. Sentences Ans. The Sentences tend all to exhort the People to pious liberality whether the Object be the Minister or the Poor and though some of the Sentences be Apocriphal they may be useful for that purpose Why Collection for the Poor should be made at another time there is no reason given only change desired Repl. We have oft told you why the Apocripha should be cautelously used in the Church that Usurper that should pretend to the Crown and have a more numerous party than the King that hath the undoubted Right will be lookt on more suspitiously than ordinary Subjects 2. It is a sordid thing for Ministers to love Money and it 's sordid unless in extraordinary necessities to have them beg and beg for themselves and beg under a pretence of serving God even in times when the Clergy seems advanced 3. We confest our selves deceived in thinking we should have free personal debates with you which made us reserve many of our Reasons Our Reasons are 1. For less disturbance 2. Because the Peoples affections are much more raised usually and so fitter for returns when they have received 3. Especially because it is most seasonable to do the Acts of Gratitude when we had received the obliging benefits and so say What shall I give the Lord for all his Benefits when we have partaked of them and to offer our selves first and with our selves what he giveth us unto him when we have received him and his Graces offered to us These are the Reasons that brought us under your Censure of desiring a Change Sect. 4. P. 19. 3. Exhortation Aâ—sw The 1. and 3. Exhortations are very seasonable before the Communion to put men in mind how they ought to be prepared and in what danger they are to come unprepared that if they be not duely qualified they may depart and be better prepared at another time Repl. But is it not more seasonable that in so great business such warning go a considerable time before Is there then leisure of self-examination and making restitution and satisfaction and going to the Minister for Counsel to quiet his Conscience c. in Order to the present Sacrament We yet desire these things way be sooner told them Sect. 5. Exc. 1. Answ. We fear this may discourage many certainly themselves cannot desire that men should come to the holy Communion with a troubled Conscience and therefore have no reason to blame the Church for saying it is requisite that men come with a quiet Conscience and prescribing means for quieting thereof if this be to discourage men it is fit they should be discouraged and deterred and kept from the Communion till they have done all that
the Morning and once in the Evening Rubrick In such places where they do sing there shall the Lessons bee sung in a plaine Tune and likewise the Epistle and Gospel Exception The Lessons and the Epistles and Gospels being for the most part neither Psalms nor Hymns wee know no warrant why they should bee sung in any place and conceive that the distinct Reading of them with an Audible voice tends more to the Edification of the Church Rubrick Or this Canticle Ben'dicite omnia opera Exception Wee desire that some Psalm or Scripture Hymn may bee appointed instead of that Apocryphal In the Letany Rubrick From all Fornication and all other deadly sin Exception IN regard that the wages of sin is death wee desire that this clause may bee thus altered From Fornication and all other hainous or grievous sins Rubrick From Battel and Murther and sudden death Exception Because this expression of sudden death hath been so often excepted against wee desire if it bee thought fit it may bee thus read From battel and murther and from dying suddenly and unprepared Rubrick That it may please thee to preserve all that travel by land or by water all women labouring with childe all sick persons and young children and to shew thy pitty upon all prisouers and captives Exception Wee desire the term All may bee advised upon as seeming liable to just Exceptions and that it may bee considered whether it may not better bee put indefinitely those that travel c. rather than universally The Collect on Christmas-day Rubrick ALmighty God which hast given us thy only begotten Son to take our nature upon him and this day to bee born of a pure Uirgin c. Exception WEE desire that in both Collects the word This day may bee left out it being according to vulgar Acceptation a contradiction Rubrick Then shall follow the Collect of the Nativity which shall be said continually unto New-years-day The Collect for Whitsonday Rubrick God which upon this day c. Rubrick The same Collect to be read on Monday and Tuesday in Whitson-week Rubrick The two Collects for St. Johns day and Innocents the Collects for the first day in Lent for the fourth Sunday after Easter for Trinity-Sunday for the sixth and twelfth Sunday after Trinity for St. Lukes day and Michaelmas day Exception Wee desire that these Collects may bee further considered and debated as having in them divers things that wee judge fit to bee altered The Order for the Administration of the Lords-Supper Rubrick SO many as intend to bée partakers of the Holy Communion shall signifie their names to the Curate over-night or else in the morning before the beginning of morning-prayer or immediately after Exception THe time here assigned for notice to bee given to the Minister is not sufficient Rubrick And if any of these be a notorious evil liver the Curate having knowledge thereof shall call him and advertize him in any wise not to presume to the Lords Table Exception Wee desire the Ministers sters power both to admit and keep from the Lords Table may bee according to His Majesties Declaration 25. Octob. 1660. In these words The Minister shall admit none to the Lords Supper till they have made a credible Profession of their Faith and promised Obedience to the Will of God according as is expressed in the Considerations of the Rubrick before the Catechism and that all possible diligence be used for the Instruction and Reformation of scandalous Offenders whom the Minister shall not suffer to partake of the Lords Table until they have openly declared themselves to have truly repented and amended their former naughty lives as is partly expressed in the Rubrick and more fully in the Canons Rubrick Then shall the Priest rehearse distinctly all the ten Commandements and the people knéeling shall after every Commandement ask Gods mercy for transgressing the same Exception Wee desire 1. That the preface prefixed by God himself to the ten Commandements may bee restored 2 That the fourth Commandement may bee read as in Exod 20. Deut. 5. Hee blessed the Sabbath day 3. That neither Minister nor People may bee enjoyned to kneel more at the reading of this than of other parts of Scripptures the rather because many ignorant persons are thereby induced to use the Ten Commandements as a Prayer 4. That instead of those short Prayers of the People intermixed with the several Commandements the Minister after the reading of all may conclude with a suitable prayer Rubrick After the Creed if there be no Sermon shall follow one of the Hoinilies already set forth or hereafter to be set forth by common Authority Exception We desire that the Preaching of the Word may be strictly enjoyned and not left so indifferent at the Administration of the Sacraments as also that Ministers may not be bound to those things which are as yet but future and not in being After such Sermon Homily or Exhortation the Curate shall declare c. and earnestly exhort them to remember the Poor saying one or more of these sentences following Then it all the Church-Wardens or some other by them appointed gather the Devotion of the People Two of the sentences here cited are Apocryphal and four of them more proper to draw out the peoples Bounty to their Ministers than their Charitie to the poor Collection for the poor may be better made at or a little before the departing of the Communicants Exhortation We be come together at this time to féed at the Lords Supper unto the which in Gods behalf I bid you all that be here present and beséech you for the Lord Jesus Christ sake that ye will not refuse to come c. The way and meanes thereto is first to examine your Lives Conversations and if ye shall pâ—rceive your offences to be such as be not only against God but also against your Neighbours then ye shall reconcile your selves unto them and be ready to make restitution and satisfaction And because it is requisite that no man should come to the holy Communnion but with a full trust in Gods mercy and with a quiet conscience If it be intended that these Exhortations should be read at the Communion they seem to us to be unseasonable We fear this may discourage many from coming to the Sacrament who lye under a doubting and troubled Conscience Before the Confession Then shall this general Confession be made in the name of all those that are minded to receive the holy Communion either by one of them or else by one of the 〈…〉 Priest himself We desire it may be made by the Minister only Before the Confession Then shall the Priest or the Bishop being present stand up and turning himself to the people say thus Exception The Minister turning himself to the people is most convenient throughout the whole Ministration Before the Prefaces on Christmass day and 7 dayes after Because thou didst give Jesus Christ thine onely Son to be born as this Day
of our dear Brother here departed We therefore commit his body to the ground in sure and certain hope of resurrection to eternal life These words cannot in truth be said of persons living and dying in open and notorious sins The first Prayer We give thee hearty thanks for that it hath pleased â—â—ee to deliver this our Brother out of the miseries of this 〈◊〉 world c. That we with this our Brother and all other departed in the true Faith of the holy Name may have our perfect Confirmation and Eliss These words may harden the wicked and are inconsistent with the largest rational charity The last Prayer That when we depart this life we may rest in him as our hope is this our Brother deth These words cannot be used with respect to those persons who have not by their actual repentance given any ground for the hope of their blessed estate Of the thanksgiving of women after Child-birth commonly called Churching of Women The woman shall come unto the Church and there shall kneel down in some convenient place nigh unto the place where the Table stands and the Priest standing by her shalt say c. In regard that the womans knâ—eling near the Table is in many Churches inconvenient we desire that these words may be left out that the Minister may perform that service either in the Deâ—k or Pulpit Rubrick Then the Priest shall say this Psalm 121. O Lord save this woman thy servant Ans. which puttteth her trust in thee Exception This Psalm seems not to be so pertinent as some other viz as Psal. 113. and Psal. 128. It may fall out that a woman may come to give thanks for a child born in Adultery or Fornication and therefore we desire that something may be required of her by way of profession of her humiliation as well as of her Thanksgiving Last Rubr. The woman that comes to give Thanks must offer the accustomed offerings This may seem too like a Jewish purification rather then a Christian Thanksgiving The same Rubrick And if there be a Communion it is convenient that she receive the holy Communion We desire this may be interpreted of the duly qualified for a scandalous sinner may come to make this Thanksgiving Thus have we in all humble pursuance of his Majesties most gracious endeavours for the publike weal of this Church drawn up our Thoughts and Desires in this weighty Affair which we humbly offer to His Majesties Commissioners for their serious grave Consideration wherein we have not the least thought of depraving or reproaching the Book of Common-Prayer but a sincere desire to contribute our endeavours towards the healing the distempers and as soon as may be reconciling the minds of Brethren And inasmuch as his Majesty hath in his gracious Declaration and Commission mentioned new forms to be made and suted to the several parts of Worship We have made a considerable Progress therein and shâ—ll by Gods assistance offer them to the Reverend Commissioners with all convenient speed And if the Lord shall graciously please to give a blessing to these our endeavours We doubt not but the peace of the Church will be thereby setled the hearts of Ministers and people comforted and composed and the great Mercy of Unity and Stability to the immortal Honor of our most dear Soveraign bestowed upon us and our posterity after us To the most Reverend Archbishop Bishops And the Reverend their ASSISTANTS Commissioned by his Majesty to treat about the Alteration of the Book of COMMON-PRAYER Most Reverend Fathers and Reverend Brethren WHen we received your Papers and were told that they contained not onely an Answer to our Exceptions against the present Liturgie but also several Concessions wherein you seem willing to joyn with us in the Alteration and Reformation of it Our Expectations were so far raised as that we promised our selves to find your Concessions so considerable as would have greatly conduced to the â—ealing of our much-to-be-lamented Divisions the setling of the Nation in Peace and the satisfaction of tender Consciences according to his Majesties most gracious Declaration and his Royal Commission in pursuance thereof But having taken a survey of them we finde our selves exceedingly disappointed and that they will fall far short of attaining those happy Ends for which this Meeting was first designed as may appear both by the paâ—city of the Concessions and the inconsiderableness of them they being for the most part Verbal and Literal rather then Real and Substantial for in them you allow not the laying aside of the reading of the Apocrypha for Lessons though it shut out some hundreds of Chapters of Holy Scripture and sometimes the Scripture it self is made to give way to the Apocryphal Chapters You plead against the addition of the Doxologie unto the Lords Prayer You give no liberty to omit the too frequent repetition of Gloria Patri nor of the Lords Prayer in the same publick Service nor do you yeild that the Psalms be read in the new Translation nor the word Priest to be changed for Minister or Presbyter though both have been yeilded unto in the Scotish Liturgie You grant not the omission of the Responsals no not in the Letany it self though the Petitions be so framed as the People make the Prayer and not the Minister nor to read the Communion-Service in the Desk when there is no Communion but in the late Form instead thereof it is enjoyned to be done at the Table though there be no Rubrick in the Common-Prayer-Book requiring it You plead for the Holiness of Lent contrary to the Statute You indulge not the omission of any one Ceremony You will force men to kneel at the Sacrament and yet not put in that excellent Rubrick in the v. and vi of Edw. 6. which would much conduce to the satisfaction of many that scruple it And whereas divers Reverend Bishops and Doctors in a Paper in print before these unhappy Wars began yeilded to the laying aside of the Cross and the making many material alterations you after twenty years sad calamities and Divisions seem unwilling to grant what they of their own accord then offered You seem not to grant that the clause of the fourth Commandment in the Common-Prayer-Book The Lord blessed the seventh day should be altered according to the Hebr. Exod. 20. The Lord blessed the Sabbath day You will not change the word Sunday into the Lords Day nor adde any thing to make a difference between Holy-days that are of Humane Institution and the Lords Day that is questionless of Apostolical practice You will not alter Deadly Sin in the Letany into Heynous Sin though it hints to us that some sins are in their own nature Venial nor that Answer in the Catech. of Two Sacraments onely generally necessary to salvation although it intimates that there are other New Testaments Sacraments though Two onely necessary to Salvation You speak of singing Davids Psalms allowed by Authority by
being one of them the mouth of all the rest in the Confession at the Lords Supper 4. By being the onely Petitioners in the far greatest part of all the Letanie by their Good Lord deliver us and We beseech thee to hear us good Lord while the Minister onely reciteth the matter of the matter of the prayer and maketh none of the Request at all we fear lest by parity of reason the people will claim the work of preaching and other parts of the Ministerial Office 3. And we mentioned that which all our ears are witnesses of that while half the Psalms and Hymns c. are said by such of the people as can say them the murmur of their voices in most Congregations is so unintelligible and confused as must hinder the edification of all the rest for who is edified by that which he cannot understand We know not what you mean by citing 2 Chron. 7. 1 4. Ezra 3. 11. where there is not a word of publick prayer but in one place of an Acclamation upon an extraordinary sight of the glory of the Lord which made them praise the Lord and say He is good for his mercy is for ever when the prayer that went before was such as you call A long tedious prayer uttered by Solomon alone without such breaks and discants And in the other places is no mention of prayer at all but of singing praise and that not by the people but by the Priests and Levites saying the same words For he is good for his mercy endures for ever towards Israel The people are said to do no more then shout with a great shout because the foundation of the House was laid and if shouting be it that you would prove it 's not the thing in Question Let the ordinary mode of praying in Scripture be observed in the prayers of David Solomon Ezra Daniel or any other and if they were by breaks and frequent beginnings and endings and alternate Interlocutions of the people as yours are then we will conform to your mode which now offends us but if they were not we beseech you reduce yours to the examples in Scripture we desire no other rule to decide the Controversie by As to your Citation 1 Socrat. there tells us of the alternate singing of the Arrians in the reproach of the Orthodox and that Chrysostome not a Synod compiled Hymns to be sung in opposition to them in the streets which came in the end to a Tumult and Bloudshed And hereupon he tells us of the original of alternate singing viz. a pretended Viâ—ion of Ignatius that heard Angels sing in that order And what is all this to alternate Reading and praying or to a Divine Institution when here is no mention of reading or praying but of singing Hymns and that not upon pretence of Apostolical Tradition but a Vision of uncertain credit Theodore also speaketh onely of singing Psalms alternately and not a word of reading or praying so and he fetcheth that way of singing also as Socrat. doth but from the Church at Antioch and not from any pretended Doctrine or Practise of the Apostles and neither of them speaks a word of the necessity of it or of forcing any to it so that all these your Citations speaking not a word so much as of the very Subject in question are marvellously impertinent The words Their Worship seem to intimate that singing of Psalms is part of our Worship and not of yours we hope you disown it not for our parts we are ashamed of it Your distinction between Hopkins and Davids Psalms as if the metre allowed by Authority to be sung in Churches made them to be no more Davids Psalms seemeth to us a very hard saying If it be because it is a Translation then the prose should be none of Davids Psalms neither nor any Translation be the Sâ—ripture If it be because it is in metre then the exactest Translation in metre should be none of the Scripture If because it 's done imperfectly then the old Translation of the Bible used by Common-Prayer-Book should not be Scripture As to your reason for the supposed priority 1. Scripture-examples telling us that the people had more part in the Psalms then in the Prayers or Reading satisfie us that God and his Church then saw a disparity of Reason 2. Common Observation tells us That there is more order and less hinderance of Edification in the peoples singing then in their reading and praying together vocally It is desired that nothing should be in the Liturgie which so much as seems to countenance the observation of Lent as a Religious Fast and this as an expedient to peace which is in effect to desire that this our Church may be contentious for peace sake and to divide from the Church-Catholick that we may live at unity among our selves For St. Paul reckons them amongst the lovers of contention who shall oppose themselves against the custome of the Churches of God That the religious observation of Lent was a custome of the Churches of God appears by the testimonies following Chrys. Ser. 11. in Heb. 10. Cyrill Catec myst 5. St. Aug. Ep. 119 ut 40 dies ante Pascha observetur Ecclesiae consuetudo roboravit and St. Hierom ad Marcell says it was secundum traditionem Apostolorum This Demand then tends not to peace but Dissention The fasting forty days may be in imitation of our Saviour for all that is here said to the contrary for though we cannot arrive to his perfection abstaining wholly from meat so long yet we may fast forty days together either Cornelius his fast till three of the Clock after noon or Saint Peters fast till noon or at least Daniels fast abstaining from meats and drinks of delight and thus far imitate our Lord. If we had said that the Church is contentious if it adore God in kneeling on the Lords Days or use not the White Garment Milk and Honey after Baptism which had more pretence of Apostolical tradition and were generally used more anciently then Lent would you not have thought we wronged the Church If the purer times of the Church have one custome and latter times a contrary which must we follow or must we necessarily be contentious for not following both or rather may we not by the example of the Church that changeth them be allowed to take such things to be matters of Liberty and not Necessity If we must needs conform to the custom of other Churches in such things or be contentious it is either because God hath so commanded or because he hath given those Churches authority to command it If the former then what Churches or what Ages must we conform to If all must concur to be our pattern it will be hard for us to be acquainted with them so far as to know of such concurrences And in our Case we know that many do it not If it must be the most we would know where God commandeth us to imitate
Prayer and that the body of your dayly Prayers broken into severy Collects should not as set together have any considerable respect unto that order nor yet to the order which reason and the nature of the thing requireth which is observed in all things else and yet that you should so admire this and be so tenatious of that which in conceived Prayer you would call by worse names then Confusions this sheweth us the power of prejudice We were thus brief in this Exception lest we should offend by instances But seeing you conceive the Order and Method to be excellent and to be willing to hear more as to this and the following Exception we shall when you desire it give you a Catalogue of Defects and Disorders which we before forbore to give you The Psalms have ordinarily an observable Method If you find any whole parts you cannot so well set together as to see the Beauty of Method will you turn your eye from the rest and from the Lords Prayer and choose that one for your President or excuse disorder on that pretence Sect. 2. The Collects are made short as being best for Devotion as we observed before and cannot be accounted faulty for being like those short but prevalent Prayers in Scripture Lord be merciful to me a Sinner Son of David have mercy on us Lord increase our Faith Repl. We do in common speech call that a Prayer which containeth all the substance of what in that business and addresse we have to say unto God And that a Petition which containeth one single request usually a Prayer hath many Petitions Now if you intend in your addresse unto God to do no more then speak a transient request or Ejaculation which we may do in the midst of other business then indeed your instances are pertinent but why then do you not give over when you seem to have done but come again and again and offer as many Prayers almost as Petitions This is to make the Prayer short as a Sermon is that is cut into single sentences every Sentence having an Exordium and Epilogue as a Sermon but it is to make the Prayers much longer then is needful or sutable to the matter Do you find this the way of the Saints in Scripture indeed Abraham did so when Gods Interlocution answering the first Prayer called him to vary his request Gen. 18. but that 's not our Case The Pâ—alms and Prayers of David Solomon Hezekiah Asa Ezra Nehemiah Daniel and the other Prophets of Christ John 17. are usually one continued Speech and not like yours as we said before Sect. 3. Why the repeated mention of the Name and Attributes of God should not be most pleasing to any godly Person we cannot imagine or what burden it should seem when David magnified one Attribute of Gods mercy 26. times together Psalm 36. Nor can we conceive why the Name and Merits of Jesus with which all our Prayers should end should not be as sweet to us as to former Saints and Martyrs with which here they complain our Prayers do so frequently end since the Attributes of God are the ground of our hope of obtaining all our Petitions such Prefaces of Prayers as are taken from them though they have no special respect to the Petitions as following are not to be termed unsutable or said to have fallen rather casually then orderly Repl. As we took it to be no controversie between us whether the mention of Gods Name is deservedly sweet to all his servants so we thought it was none that this reverent Name is reverently to be used and not too lightly and therefore not with a causeless frequency tossed in mens mouths even in Prayer it self and that Tautologies and vain repetitions are not the better but the worse because Gods Name is made the matter of them Is it not you that have expressed your offence as well as we against those weak Ministers that repeat too frequently the Name and Attributes of God in their extemporary Prayers and is it ill in them and is the same and much more well in the Common Prayer Oh have not the Faith of Worship of our Glorious God in respect of Persons Let not that be called rediculous idle impertinent or worse in one which is accounted commendable in others Do you think it were not a faulty crossing of the mind and Method of Jesus Christ if you should make six Prayers of the six Petitions of the Lords Prayer and set the Preface and Conclusion unto each As Our Father which art in Heaven hallowed be thy Name for thine is the Kingdom c. and so on all the rest Yet we know that the same words may be oft repeated as David doth Gods enduring mercy without such Tautological vanity when it is not from emptiness or neglect of order or affectation But in Psalms or Hymnes where affections are to be elevated by such Figurative Elegancies and strains as are best beseeming Poetry or rapture we are not against such Repetitions But if we may according to the Common Prayer Book begin and end and begin and seem to withdraw again and make a Prayer of every Petition or two and begin and end every such Petition with Gods Name and Christs Merits as making up half the Form or neer nothing is an affected empty tossing of Gods Name in Prayer if this be not We are perswaded if you should hear a man in a known extemporary Prayer do thus it would seem strange and harsh even to your selves Sect. 1. There are besides a preparative exhortation several preparatory Prayers Despise not O Lord humble and contrite hearts which is one of the Sentences in the Preface And this That those things may please him which we do at this present at the end of the Absolution and again immediately after the Lords Prayer before the Psalmody Oh Lord open thou our Lips c. Repl. Despise not O Lord humble and contrite hearts is no Prayer for assistance and acceptance in that worship suited to the duty of a People addressing themselves to God But it is recited as a Scripture invitation to Repentance And that those things may please him which we do at this present are no words of Prayer but part of an exhortation to the People And O Lord open thou our lips comes after the Exhortation Confession Absolution and Lords Prayer and ergo is not in the place of such an address as we are speaking of What will not serve to justifie that which we have a mind to justifie and to condemn that which we have a mind to condemn Sect. 2. This which they call a defect others think they have reason to account the perfection of the Lyturgie the Offices of which being intended for common and general Services would cease to be such by descending to particulars as in Confession of Sins while it is general all persons may and must joyn in it since in many things we offend
all but if there be a particular enumeration of Sins it cannot be so general a Confession because it may happen that some or other may by Gods Grace have been preserved from some of those sins enumerated and therefore should by confessing themselves guilty tell God a lye which needs a new Confession Repl. If General words be its Perfection it 's very culpable in tediousness and vain repetitions For what need you more than Lord be merciful to us sinners There 's together a general Confession of Sin and a general Prayer for Mercy which comprehend all the particulars of the Peoples Sins and wants We gave you our Reason which you answer not Confession is the exercise of Repentance and also the helper of it and it is no true Repentance which is not particular but only general If you say you repent that you have sinned and know not wherein or do not repent of any particular sin you do not indeed repent for sin is not existent but in the individuals And if you ask for Grace and know no what Grace or desire no particular Grace indeed you desire no Grace at all We know there is time and use for general Confessions and Requests but still as implying particulars as having gone before or following or at least it must be supposed that the People understand the particulars included and have inward Confessions and desires of them which cannot here be supposed when they are not at all mentioned nor can the People generally be supposed to have such quick and comprehensive minds nor is there leisure to exercise such particular Repentance or desire while a general is named And we beseech you let the Scripture be judge whether the Confessions and Prayers of the Servants of God have not been particular As to your Objection or Reason we answer 1. There are general Prayers with the particular or without them 2. There are particular Confessions and Prayers proper to some few Christians and there are others common to all It is these that we expect and not the former 3. The Churches Prayers must be suited to the Body of the Assembly though perhaps some one or few may be in a state not fit for such expressions What a lamentable Lyturgy will you have if you have nothing in it but what every one in the Congregation may say as true of and suitable to themselves Then you must leave out all thanksgiving for our Justification and forgiveness of Sins and Adoption and title to Glory c. because many in the Assembly are Hypocrites and have no such mercies and many more that are sincere are mistaken in their own Condition and know not that they have the mercies which they have and therefore dare not give thanks for them lest they speak an untruth Then the Lyturgy that now speaks as in the persons of the sanctified must be changed that the two fore-mentioned sorts or the later at least may consent and when you have done it will be unsuitable to those that are in a better state and have the knowledge of their Justification This is the Argument which the Sectaries used against singing of David's Psalms in the Congregations because there is much in them that many cannot truly say of themselves But the Church must not go out of that way of Worship prescribed by God and suited to the state of the ordinary sort of spiritual worshippers because of the distempers or super-eminent excellencies of some few It were easie to go over David's Psalms and your own Lyturgy and shew you very much that by this Argument must be cast out He that finds any passage unsuitable to himself is not to speak it of himself Sect. 3. As for Original Sin though we think it an evil Custom springing from false Doctrine to use any such expressions as may lead people to think that to the persons baptized in whose persons only our Prayers are offered up Original Sin is not forgiven in their holy Baptism yet for that there remains in the Regenerate some reliques of that which are to be bewailed the Church in her Confession acknowledgeth such desires of our own hearts as render us miserable by following them That there is no health in us That without Gods help our frailty cannot but fall That our mortal nature can do no good thing without him which is a clear acknowledgement of original sin Repl. 1. He that hath his Original Sin forgiven him may well confess that he was born in Iniquity and conceived in Sin and was by nature a Child of Wrath and that by one man sin entered into the World and that Judgement came on all men to condemnation c. The pardoned may confess what once they were and from what Rock they were hewn even actual sins must be confessed after they are forgiven unless the Antinomians hold the truth against us in such points 2. All is not false Doctrine that crosseth mens private opinions which you seem here to obtrude upon us We know that the Papists and perhaps some others hold that all the baptized are delivered from the guilt of Original Sin But as they are in the dark and disagreed in the application of it so we have more reason to incline to either of the ordinary opinions of the Protestants than to this of theirs 1. Some learned Protestants hold that visibly all the baptized are Church-Members pardoned and justified which is but that they are probably justified indeed and are to be used by the Church upon a judgement of Charity as those that are really justified but that we have indeed no certainty that they are so God keeping that as a secret to himself concerning individuals till by actual Faith and Repentance it be manifest to themselves Another opinion of many Protestants is that all persons that are Children of the Promise or that have the conditions of pardon and justification in the Covenant mentioned are to receive that pardon by Baptism And all such are pardoned and certainly in a state of justification and salvation thereupon And that the Promise of pardon is made to the faithful and their Seed and therefore that all the faithful and their Seed in infancy have this pardon given them by the promise and solemnly delivered them and sealed to them by Baptism which investeth them in the benefits of the Covenant but withal that 1. The professed Infidel and his Seed as such are not the Children of the Promise and therefore if the Parent ludicrously or forcedly or the Child by error be baptized they have not thereby the pardon of their sins before God 2. That the Hypocrite that is not a true Believer at the heart though he profess it hath no pardon by Baptism before God as being not an Heir of the Promise nor yet any Infant of his as such But though such are not pardoned the Church that judgeth by profession taking Professors for Believers must accordingly use them and their Seed 3. But though