hath been shewn And did not the Church in St. Augustin's time contend as much against the Donatists who could plead for themselves as this Author doth for the Dissenters What Article of Faith What necessary requisite of our Worship is it in which any Alterations are intended This St. Augustin granted Nobiscum estis in Evangelio in Sacramentis idem cantatis Hallelujah sed hoc solo nomine For this only cause that they made Divisions and Separations in and from the Church he excluded them not only from the Church but from Salvation and it is observable that the Arrians did not only come in among the Donatists but these joyned with the Arrians against the Church how confidently soever therefore he would assure us that the intended Alterations are only in things indifferent we cannot take his word for it for many things have been well intended the consequences whereof have proved fatal and destructive Page 8. Our Saviour he says prescribed not the particular Rites and Constitutions which the Church made use of Very true but when the Church prescribed the Use of them that all things in the Publick Worship might be done decently and in order they were judged contentious Persons that did not conform to them and therefore I agree with him that as long as those Forms of Prayer used in our Church and those Rites and Constitutions which are received do answer the Ends of their first Establishment viz. the Honour of God and Edification of the People they ought with constancy alway to be retained And in what Assembly not only of the Sectaries but of any Reformed Church in the World either for purity of Doctrine fervency in Devotion and decency in Worship is the Honour of God and the Edification of the People better provided for than in the approved Assemblies of the Church But in this which follows I think no sober Person can agree with him viz. That when either the infirmity or wickedness of Men makes any Alterations and administer to Schism and Division then he says there ariseth a reason altogether as strong for their Alteration as there was for their Institution That is we must alter a godly and well established Worship as oft as the wickedness of Men requires it And how such an Established Worship should become mischievous and so bring on the Church an Obligation which without guilt cannot be resisted to make a change is a very bold saying For Suppose the Papists arguing thus against the Scripture or against our Liturgy that it had occasioned many mischievous Schisms and Errors were it a strong Argument for us to lay them aside And should we be guilty if we did not Page 9. He descends to particulars And concerning the Cross p. 10. he says I think we have an Obligation upon us not to be resisted from absolute necessity of the thing either totally to lay this Ceremony aside or make such Abatements as may allay our Heats of Contention and Mischiefs of Separation as have been caused thereby Answ If I were of the Judgment of this Convocation Man I would not tarry any longer in the Communion of that Church which enjoyns the Use of the Cross tho' I were a Dean or Arch-Deacon But how comes this Man to be more scrupulous than Mr. Baxter who says He will not condemn Ancients or Moderns that use it nor make any disturbance about it in the Church His Opinion is grounded on an unwary Expression as he calls it in the Canons That by it the Person Baptized is dedicated to the Service of Jesus Christ and so attributes a Sacramental effect to it which belongs only to Baptism Sure this Person did never consider that the Church hath declared that Sacrament sufficiently administred where the Cross is omitted and had he considered the definition of a Sacrament in the Catechism he might perceive that no part of that definition agrees with the Cross to make it Sacramental and when we see that the Disputes for laying aside the Cross have been improved to the layin aside of Baptism let the Author consider where the guilt doth lie As to the Surplice p. 11. he says Nothing is more unreasonable than the Cavils against it yet he would have it totally laid aside and another Habit appointed And if that other should be laid aside for the reasons he there gives we might as easily fit a Garment for the Moon as one that should please all Men. Page 11. Kneeling at the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is the last Constitution of the Church that he says he should willingly part with The rest it seems may go with his good will and so may this also by what follows viz. I can see no reason that savours either of a Christian Temper or Charity why to communicate standing may not be allowed to weak and scrupulous Persons He can it seems see a reason why the scrupulous Person should forbear that blessed Sacrament for fear of a fit and prescribed Ceremony but can see none why the Sacrament should not be administred to them in their own way I would ask him Is it not fit when we pray with the Minister as we ought to do that the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy Body and Soul to everlasting life to kneel Or is it decent one should stand and another kneel And is not Obedience in such things better than sacrificing to our own humours and making confusion in so solemn an Ordinance Whether the ancient Communicants did stand or kneel they did in obedience to the Constitutions of the Church and so ought we Hear Mr. Baxter in this case If it be lawful to take a Pardon from the King upon our knees I know not what can make it unlawful to take a sealed Pardon from Christ upon our knees See Christian Direct p. 616. And as for kneeling at the Sacrament since the Rubrick my Judgment was ever for it God having made some Gesture necessary and confined us to none but left it to humane determination I shall submit to Magistrates in their proper work I am not sure Christ intended his Example as obligatory but I am sure he hath commanded me Obedience and Peace p. 411. of the Five Disputations Page 12. The Liturgy he saith is the best that ever was used in any Christian Church If then we cannot joyn with our Church therein we cannot joyn with any Christian Church Yet p. 13. he thinks it absolutely necessary not only that it be altered now but every thirty Years And what example doth he set before us but the Church of Rome and the Greek Church which have several Liturgies because they consist of several National Governments but from the beginning of the Reformation under Edw. 6. was the first Law for an uniform Liturgy And shall we take example from the Church of Rome or from our Reformers It was indeed necessary that it should be reformed in those days because all Popish Superstitions could not
of Latitudinarian Principles yet they having hitherto lived in a Conformity to the Church as established we hope they will not give up any thing that is substantial with the Circumstantials for Decency and Order or if they do so it will be as pardonable in us of the Country to forsake them as for some of those eminent Divines that were joyned in Commission with them And I am fully perswaded that on making such Alterations as are said to be prepared by the Commissioners the Church will run the hazard of offending a greater number of more considerable persons than they are likely to gratifie thereby Object But such Alterations being made such as shall thenceforward continue to be Dissenters will be more inexcusable Ans This is not very probable because they will still say you have only taken off the lesser Offences but have continued the weighter Matters on their Consciences still viz. such as in their Consciences they account to be Sinful and their Conformity to them to be Damnable And if after such Alterations be established by Law and any Penalty be annexed for the Sanction of that Law the Legislators will be reflected on as Persecutors and their Laws as so many tearing Engines though I must needs say there never yet were such severe Penalties enacted against any sort of Dissenters though known to be Men of Atheistical and Antimonarchical Principles as against some Reverend Fathers and Members of the Church who are known to be Men of Religious and Peaceable Principles yet they quietly submit with a Deus providebit I may well presume that no Man living in Communion with our Church is convinc'd that there is any thing Sinful in that Communion now these being the greater and the better part I say with Dr. Beveredge in his Sermon to the Convocation p. 25. Neque ratio neque perpetua Ecclesiae consuetudo patitur ut pars toti praeferatur Neither reason nor the perpetual Custom of the Church doth permit that a part should be preferred before the whole And then nothing can justify the Dissenters from Schism in their Separation from us for as to things that are by them judged Inexpedient it is fit that the greater and better Part should judge of Expediency for the rest and not they for themselves or their Betters And if such Opinionative and Ungovernable People were for a while by strict Discipline taught the Duty of Self-denial as to things in their nature indifferent and how necessary Obedience to Superiours is in such cases which even they themselves do practice and in which sort of things only our Governours have Authority we might hope for an Uniformity and not otherwise And to this end it is very observable what Dr. Beveredge says in his Sermon p. 26. Antiquas novis mutare Legibus To change old Laws for new is alway dangerous unless such a Necessity constrain as is otherwise insuperable There was never any Church which hath not inserted into her Laws many things not contrary but beside those things which are in the Holy Scripture and having made such Laws do establish them by the Sanctions of Ecclesiastical Punishments p. 23 When therefore that Learned Doctor says p. 27. Vtrum Ecclesiae noslra c. whether our Church be obliged by a Necessity to change any thing that is by her Laws established is not his part to determine but Prudentis est and immediately adds This only I dare to affirm That if it be necessary to reduce wandring Sheep into Christ's Flock if to take off Scruples from the minds of weak Brethren if to allay Hatred appease Anger and as much as may be to suppress all Dissentions concerning Religion if to recall Ecclesiastical Discipline to its Primitive Vigour if to Defend and Establish the best Church in the World against the Assaults of Men and Devils if these things says he seem necessary to any Man it will also seem necessary to that Man to admit such Changes as he is perswaded will conduce to such ends so as the Change be made in such things only which our Church hath constituted by her sole Authority not in such as the Vniversal Church by her common Laws hath Established Here then we say that to alter the Episcopal Government to take the Power of Ordination from Bishops and place it in the hands of Presbyters to take away a Well-ordered Liturgy and bring in Extemporary Prayers for Publick Worship to give every Minister a Jurisdiction and Power of Excommunication and many other things without which some grave Dissenters will not be comprehended is more than the Learned Doctor will grant for of such things he speaks his mind impartially Has sub quovis praetextu vel extremis digitis attingere c. To endeavour the removal of these under any pretence whatsoever or to touch them with one of our Fingers is contrary to the Religious Care of all the Churches of God and of our own And to Abrogate or Reject that which hath been every-where and at all times observed is not to change an Ecclesiastical Rite only but the Church itself and to make it differ from all other Churches of God But what then is the Doctor 's Judgment concerning such Constitutions as are in the Power of a particular Church Ans This the Doctor determined p. 23. ut supra and again p. 26. A Change hath neither been wont nor ought to be made by any Church at any time unless some great Necessity do constrain thereto But of a change of what fort of Laws doth the Doctor speak That he tells us in the same Page Neque enim quispiam c. There is not any Man so skilful as by any Art to foresee how many and great dangers are like to arise by the change of incommodious Laws wherefore to change old Laws for new is alway dangerous unless such a necessity urge it as cannot otherwise be overcome and such as is so manifest to all that whoever seeth the Change may also see Summam ejus rationem necessitatem the greatest Reason and necessity for the Change even of those incommodious Laws To this I shall need to add no more than that apt Allusion of this Learned Doctor concerning the Obligation of Ecclesiastical Laws p. 19. As in this Kingdom there are many Corporations and inferiour Societies which have a Power granted them of constituting Laws for themselves and their Members with this caution That nothing be done or constituted by them which is contrary to the Statutes of the Realm the Common Law or any ancient Custom which beyond the memory of Man hath been introduced and received by the whole Kingdom and thereby hath obtained the force of a Law Now though this be in p. 20. applied to the Universal Church yet in p. 21. the Doctor applies it to particular Churches In quacunque provincia sitae sunt In whatever Province a Church is planted the Bishops and Pastors of that Province may as oft as occasion requires
it is that thorny hedge which he had made his business to pull down and would endeavour it by going on both sides as long as he lived And what dislike some have not only of the pretended defects in our Liturgy but to any Liturgy for publick Worship is too well known by some very late Writings of the Dissenters And Mr. Baxter affirms That of the Forty sinful Terms for a Communion with us if Thirty-nine were taken away and only that Rubrick concerning the Salvation of Infants dying shortly after their Baptism were continued yet they could not conform Now to what purpose should we begin when we cannot see where to end Is it not better to endure some inconveniencies as in all Constitutions some will be than to expose our selves to certain mischiefs And what can we expect when the Six hundred Alterations in 1661 had no competent effect but were rejected with scorn I wonder how this Author can object to you as if you proceeded on the same false grounds as those Papists Heath and Fecknam did in Primo Eliz. in opposing the Act for Uniformity viz. That those changes were departures from the Standard of the Catholick Church That Points once defined were not to be brought again into question That the Church should be constant to it self For he cannot but know that they opposed the Act for Uniformity Primo Eliz. as excluding the false Doctrines and Superstitions of Rome whereas we plead for the Preservation of Uniformity in Doctrine Worship and Government which are all opposed by some sort of Dissenters I shall leave the indifferent Reader to judge of the Inference which he makes p. 18. That if the Commissioners in 1661 saw reason for making Additions and Alterations to the number of Six hundred That there is equal if not greater reason for some further improvements I think he might rather conclude as he doth immediately after That if they had foreseen what is since come to pass viz. how few of the Dissenters came in upon those Condescentions they would not have done all that they did And perhaps on these Concessions in favour of Dissenters the Papists had those hopes cherished in them of which our Author there speaks of Liberty of Conscience the removal of the Sanguinary and then of other Penal Laws and of Forty Chappels to be opened for them in and about London for they know the Charity of the Church of England is not confined to one Sect as that of the Sectaries is What he says p. 19. That the Conformists have given their Assent and Consent to the Book of common-Common-Prayer whereof the Preface is a part which says That in Churches Circumstantials may from time to time admit of Alteration is true but not the whole truth for it is added Vpon great and important Reasons which the Author omits and if he speaks it not as being in a good Mood but as his setled Judgment that our Church as it is the best constituted Church in the World then certainly they that cannot conform to our Church must on the same reason dissent from all the other Reformed Churches Page 20. he says He is in part of the Opinion that the Prayers cannot be altered for the better by any meer humane composition But he will not grant it of every Collect and what those Collects are we may have occasion to consider hereafter it is enough that our constant daily Prayers are beyond exception His great business as he calls it will be but a great burthen to the Dissenters as well as himself viz. Adding some Offices to the Liturgy and preparing new ones which are wanting Seeing we have had so many complaints of the length and tediousness of them formerly one thing the Author can scarce pardon himself for when writing of those who he says so angrily though causelesly spake against that Work i. e. of making Alterations he adds They must pardon me if so near after the mentioning of them I take notice of the French Papists who have reviled both the Commission and the persons named in it Herein he scems to joyn all such as are not for Alterations with the Papists and whether they must pardon him for this if the People deal with them as Papists let him consider and pardon himself if he can yet I think the Papists would very willingly have us make more Alterations than most Protestants think sit to make It is a pretty insinuation which he makes p. 21. That the Conformists will naturally be glad if the House in which they resolve to live and dye have all the strength and beauty added to it which can be given it by Commission Convocation and Parliament Ans The strength and beauty which it now hath is by all those means confirmed to them and willingly they would live and hope they may happily dye in it But if the Dissenters will make breaches in that House and take possession thereof deface its Beauty and undermine its Strength and force them to leave it I cannot see how they can naturally be glad of the behaviour of such ill-natur'd Men and that there are some such besides those whom I have mentioned already the Author speaks of some in Northamptonshire and I know such in other Counties who oblige their Communicants and have vowed themselves never to return to the Communion of the Church of England and if the present generation be so bad the next is not like if these Men have their desire to be better In p. 22. the Author considers That now is a fit juncture of time for Alterations And his first ground is the Expediency for things which may be done yet are not to be done at a time when they are not expedient And thus he shews the Expediency The Passions of Men at this time are in a vehement fermentation and he that would allay the Feaver may stay too long if he forbears to prescribe till the bloud is quiet But must the Mother be bleeded if the Children be distempered Must the Passions of Men disturb the Peace of the Church and no Man endeavour to suppress them If a sick Man be distempered and ungovernable the Physician is his friend though he cause him to be confin'd or bound for a time 2. He says the Church hath at this time powerful Enemies Therefore I think she ought to stand on her guard and keep strict watch least they that are so make too near approaches And none are more dangerous than those that are or have been of the same House And though the Church had of late as implacable Enemies as ever and they in great Power yet by the blessing of God she hath out-lived them Obj. 3. Their Majesties have declared their desires of it Ans The Commission says Vpon weighty and important Reasons and that the Alterations prepared by the Commissioners may be approved by the Convocation and Parliament Cannot you wait for that time 2. Their Majesties desire may be best known by their living in
short work of it and would not have his Country-Brethren to be obliged to their daily labour in the Service of the Church but to be left free to attend it how and when they please to perform one part of the Service at one time and another at another and to be left to their own discretion and not tied up to Forms and to do what is commanded them Thus he pleads for himself and fellow-labourers whom he thinks fit to share with the Master-builders and to that end he thus mis-represents them p. 20. That they are ready to impose such burthens on others as they will not touch with themselves That they only walk from a warm House to a Cathedral and for half an hour turn over a Service-book hear a Sermon and return to a warm Room and good Fare and know not what it is to do the Service of a Cure perhaps all their life This would be very edifying Doctrine in a Conventicle but not so acceptable when a Country-Minister shall preach it to a Convocation which consists of the select Clergy of the Land who are for the most part obliged to the Service of God in Cathedrals or in their own Churches and moreover to all those Services which the Country-Minister is bound to do And which is as difficult a work as any of the other to Oversee those Labourers least they do more hurt than good by their Idleness Ignorance or Immorality for too many such there be who if they were kept to their daily duty might be restrained from many inconveniencies which are more prejudicial to their Lives than the appointed Service of God would be And doubtless the Convocation will not be of the Country-Minister's mind p. 21. That he should be left to his discretion to read one part of the Service one day and another another and in the Afternoon to leave out the first Lesson or the like leaving out on Sunday the Communion-Service and shortning the Liturgy at the Lord's-Prayer For which he gives this reason That it was composed peculiarly with respect to a State of Persecution For which cause it ought rather to be continued for he asks the Question p. 27. Are we without danger and if not have we less danger to fear now when we are divided than when united But why must the Communion-Service be left out when the Primitive Church did communicate at their daily Assemblies And it is the Peoples fault that the Communion is not Administred every Sunday in the Parish-Churches as well as in the Cathedrals so that the reading that Service minds the People of their backwardness to partake of so great a Blessing and both minds and prepares them for it But I see not to what end these Offices should be shortned except it be to yield to the Country-Minister's extemporary Prayers and tedious Sermons which if left to his discretion would doubtless be the consequence And his desire That the first Lesson or the like may be left out in the Afternoon that Men may fodder their Cattel when I suppose the turning of the Afternoons Sermon into Catechizing may better answer that end and be more profitable to the People both young and old and it is more agreeable to Order and this course would neither hamper their Consciences nor expose them to the rash Censures of those whom he calls their not over-laborious Brethren Which Epithet some such Country-Ministers as himself may deserve p. 19. he would have some of the Convocation sent down to some Country-Parishes to ease the poor Ministers by reading Prayers and Preaching c. As if the Members of the Convocation never did perform the intire Service of the Church in Praying and Preaching The Country-Minister might consider that a great part of them have travelled some a hundred some near two hundred Miles to meet in Convocation to consult for the common benefit of the Clergy and sit sometime near the whole day in a cold place in the depth of Winter And some Country-Ministers now of the Convocation do now see in what great ease and plenty the City-Ministers live who have their Readers and Lecturers and frequent Supplies and sometimes tarry in the Vestry till Prayers be ended and have great Dignities in the Church besides their rich Parishes in the City Having pleaded for the shortning of the Liturgy he pleads p. 22. for the prolonging of it by adding an Office to receive Penitents after an Apostacy and in case of notorious Scandal this may concern the Country-Minister 2. For receiving persons Absolved after Excommunication this as he desires is left to the discretion of the Priest that Officiates 3. An Office for the Prisoners which is provided for by the Bishops who generally appoint able Men for that charitable Office So that all this notwithstanding he concludes in the words of Dr. Featly c. concerning the Liturgy as it stood before the 600 Amendments in 1661. That the Book of Common-Prayer is the most compleat perfect and exact Liturgy in the Christian World and such as a Godly Man may with a good Conscience use and not only lawfully but comfortably joyn in Wherefore it having already received so many Amendments there should be some important Reasons given why it should admit of more for his May-be's are no Arguments It may-be some things are obscure and too doubtfully express'd It may be in its Phraseology liable to misapplication It may be too fanciful And all these May-be's may not be if the most exceptionable Expressions in the whole Liturgy be allowed as the Preface to it says such just and favourable construction as in common equity ought to be allowed to all humane Writings Page 23. Our Author comes to enquire more nicely into it but whether more wisely let the Reader judge He instanceth first in what he thinks obscure As in the Prayer for the Clergy Who alone workest great Marvels send down c. of which Who dares deny saith Dr. Comber that the assistance granted to the Ministers for the conversion of sinners are as marvellous as was the Creation of Light out of Darkness or the Resurrection from the Dead see Ephes 1.19 So in the Collect for Trinity Sunday Who hath given us Grace in the Power of the Divine Majesty to Worship the Vnity This is not obscure to any that acknowledgeth the Trinity which is to be worshipped in the Unity of Divine Majesty As when in the Litany we pray O holy blessed and glorious Trinity three Persons and one God In the Preface at the Communion for Trinity Sunday that which we believe of the Glory of the Father the same we believe of the Glory of the Son and of the Holy Ghost without any difference or inequality viz. as to the Godhead Christ having said I and my Father are one And the Church in all Ages hath professed the same belief in the Father Son and Holy Ghost and ascribes the same Glory to each of them in the Tresagion In the Prayer
very shame the Convocation thought it necessary to make them But our Author finding all his arguings to be lost as in p 28. he betakes himself to a sham-plot against those that are not for Alterations as if because they said or rather he for them That they were not seasonable they had said the Parliament was illegal the Government precarious and the Laws no Laws it becomes not a Country-Minister to be a Minister of Satan in falsly accusing his Brethren who have all owned the present Authority and Laws and he that blames the want of Connexion in our Collects should have been more cautious then first to raise an Objection of his own and then infer from it such impertinent conclusions as may be mischievous to others But what think you says he if this Government sink I think our causless dissentions will be one of the greatest causes Who sunk the Government under the Royal Martyr Who had well nigh sunk it a second time under the late King to whom such multitude of Dissenters addressed Thanks for Suspending the Laws and promised to obey him without reserve we have had experience enough who they were that could after all their Pleas for Liberty part with their Consciences to save their Lives though with the loss of their Religion Laws and Liberty so as their Brethren might perish a little before them When therefore he would perswade us that we may have a new Law for the intended Establishment I think no Man will be perswaded to run such a risque for having many good Laws already for our Established Worship we may conclude that as to certainty the old are better Having thus treated the Members of the Convocation he takes his Farewel of them leaving them to their Couch and Consideration intimating that they are all become mighty Politicians or Tools for them that are so Who have been made and used as Tools by the late unhappy Politicians is as evident as any matter of fact can be and I wish I could leave this Country-Minister well in his Wits to consider whether he be not used as a Tool to destroy the Established Church by some who think themselves mighty Politicians Some REMARKS on a LETTER from a Member of the Convocation NO sooner had I finished my Remarks on the Letter of the Country Minister to a Member of the Convocation but I were encounter'd with another from a Member of the Convocation to his Friend in which I feared my Opinion would have been oppugned not only by a greater Authority but by sharper Arguments than any I had yet met with But having viewed his Weapons I found that they were flourished and glittered with a Rhetorical style yet they wanted that Logical strength that might enforce them This encouraged me to take my Pen in hand again and to enter the List against this Master of the Assembly for I considered that though his Weapons were keen yet the Arm that wielded them was but weak and it was no great danger to wrest them out of his hands and imploy them against himself His great flourish was A Necessity an absolute Necessity of yielding to many Alterations in our Established Worship This I thought might prove durum telum for Necessity hath no Law especially when it is Absolute then like the Absolute power it bears down all before it This lookt somewhat formidably for I considered that Necessity had destroyed many great and good Men. It was said of that great Hero the Earl of Strafford Illum non tulit Lex verum necessitas non habens Legem And of a greater than he we have a Law viz. of the Jews making and by that Law Oportet mori to dye and dye he did because it was expedient also for the People But that there was an Absolute necessity that Judas should betray his Master I can no more believe than that there is a Necessity That he who is a Member of the Church of Christ and hath familiarly eaten of her Bread and born the Bag too should lift up his heels and kick at her I considered therefore what kind of Necessity this might be for our Opponent grants there is no necessity in respect of the Church her self that she should make Alterations Because saith he p. 1. nothing is more dangerous to Religion than frequently to make Alterations 2. Because an unsteadiness though in Circumstantials only which are always alterable may become an Argument against the whole the Multitude not being able to judge what is Circumstantial and what is Essential in our Worship what is in the Power of the Church to alter and what is not and are apt to call every Alteration though in things indifferent and by variation of times made totally insignificant to be a change of Religion it self and so concluding that we have no firm bottom become Apostates from us to Popery or Atheism And therefore he thinks the Church of England may be justified that it hath not been forward on every demand of the Dissenters to unhinge those of her Communion but hath to the utmost resisted all Alterations hoping by other less dangerous Methods to heal the Divisions that are among us By this I perceived the Absolute necessity would not much affect the Church yet I considered farther whether there were an Absolute necessity from any Precept that did oblige the Church to make Alterations in the external Parts or Rites of Worship and I found she had a Power by Precept to see that all things be done decently and according to her Order and Appointment and another Precept That the People should Obey those that had the Rule over them And accordingly the most Primitive Church of which we read Acts 2.45 Continued daily with one accord in the Temple and in the Apostle's Doctrine and Fellowship and in breaking of Bread and in Prayer Nor would St. Paul endure any Contention about Circumstantials contrary to the Custom of the Church 1 Cor. 11.16 Nor can I see this Absolute necessity in the things that are to be altered because they are confessed to be in their own nature indifferent and when they fall under a Precept of those whose proper work it is to injoyn them we cannot without Disobedience to our lawful Governors reject them Neither can this Necessity affect the Persons for whose sake the Alterations are desired because if there be nothing sinful in our Communion it is sinful to separate from it besides the Dissenters would take it ill of any Man that should say they cannot be saved in that way of Worship which they have chosen for themselves and then there is no Absolute necessity for the Church to alter her Constitutions to gain them to her Communion In a Church where Salvation is to be had we ought to abide notwithstanding some inconvenient circumstances whose Amendment is desirable Though there were great Disputes in the Primitive Church about the Place of Worship Circumcision and Meats and Days yet was there no Separation And
be cast off at once He tell us p. 14. Of many Alterations formerly made and would fain know a reason why we should not make more I Answ Because there is not such reason as was to reform the Liturgies in the Reign of Edw. 6. when there was Crisme and Prayers for the Dead and such other things which Calvin called Tolerabiles ineptias and Q. Elizabeth kept in some things to bring in the Papists and it had good effect But ours being so well accommodated to Truth Piety and Devotion there needs no other Alterations unless better reasons can be shewed it being confessedly the best in the Christian World But moreover what good effect hath followed the six hundred Alterations in 1661 Who desireth them at our hands And their not desiring them argues they will not be satisfied by them but they expect such things as they are not willing to ask knowing they cannot be granted His Objections from Tobit and the old Translation of the Psalms have been already considered and so hath that of the Athanasian Creed As to the Liturgy therefore I commend Mr. Baxter to him and the Dissenters again p. 76. of Concord I constantly joyn with my parish-Parish-Church in Liturgy and Sacraments and hope so to do while I live I take the common-Common-Prayer to be bester incomparably than many of the Sermons and Prayers that I hear His next charge p. 15. is against Excommunication which he says Is sometime denounced against the best of our People right or wrong for some Penny or Two-penny Cause This is a gross Scandal for if any be sued for small matters if it be due to their Minister he is very unjust that will with-hold it and the Excommunication is issued against such for the contempt of the Authority which is practised in all other Churches even in Scotland as by an Order printed June 1571. ch 4. Any small Offence say they may justly deserve Excommunication by reason of the contempt and disobedience of the Offender He comes p. 16. to answer Objections The first is That altering any thing in this now Constituted Church will be like the plucking a Beam but of a well built House which may endanger the whole Fabrick To which he answers If all had been of this mind we could never have Reformed from Popery This is very impertinent for is there no greater reason to reform False Doctrine and Idolatrous Worship than to change innocent and lawful Ceremonies in our well constituted Church there we are sure we altered for the better here we are not sure but we may alter for the worse Object 2. If we once begin to alter where shall we stop his Answer is When any thing is proposed to us which is not fit to be done This Answer is insufficient upon his grounds for he will not have the Church to judge what is fit but to do what is unfitly demanded by the Dissenters whom he makes Judges what ought to be altered Object 3. And he says If we yield now they will still be craving till they have taken all away And there is a crossing of his old Proverb by another Give an Inch and they will take an Ell. Obj. 4. That Alterations are required in some things as was in the Primitive Church Answ We are not hound to observe all that the Primitive Church did as their Love-Feasts and Deaconesses which is the same as if we were bound to revive the old Saxon and British Laws To which the Reply in brief is this When old Laws or Usages are antiquated and laid aside by the common consent of those that instituted them there remains nothing but our due Obedience to those new Ones that are in force I perceive now this Champion's Arms grow feeble and therefore he makes use of his Tongue and thinks to supply the defect of Reason by railing and his Bolt is quickly shot but shot at randome and hits No-body for he mistakes his Mark he aimed at the Prolocutor by an Inuendo that he was he who had been promoted in the Church by him whom he stabs with a Motto Nolumus leges Angliae mutare Which was not spoken by the Prolocutor but another person who owed his Preferment to his own merit and not another's favour but whoever spake the words they could not deserve the name of a stab unless the telling of a Truth be so and that ancient saying may excuse him Amicus Socrates Amicus Plato magis amica veritas But the other stab that of the Church is given her by the Author who complements the Church as Joab did Abner Art thou in health my Mother And the words are no sooner out of his mouth but the Sword is in her Bowels which as another Nero he unnaturally rips up though he had been long nourished in them nor doth he spare him whom he intended to vindicate by changing the Motto into a Volumus leges Angliae mutare And thus he insults over his dying Mother as if in his judgment her Case were desperate being reduced to the Ultimus Conatus Naturae p. 18. That she sits down quietly and languisheth to death rather then she will make the least effort to save herself But God be thanked she hath more dutiful Sons than this unnatural Brutus In the sixth Object p. 18. Our Author having so much mist his mark is so much in passion that he is angry with and as far as a plain contradiction will reach stabs himself The Objection is We have no reason to make Alterations for the sake of the Dissenters because the fault of our Divisions is not from any Constitutions of ours but from their obstinacy and perverseness in unreasonably dissenting from them To which his Answer is I acknowledge all this to be true that it is not the fault of the Church by any of its Constitutions or Impositions which are all rational and good but they Onely who refuse to conform to them Whereas in p. 3. he had affirmed That those excepted passages in the Liturgy and those Ceremonies in our Worship had given the whole Origine to those prevailing Evils among us and therefore thinks it necessary to lay aside those Penal Laws and Church Censures which have been inflicted with a Severity beyond what we can justifie and this he says hath heightned our Divisions and increased the Mischiefs which we endeavoured to remove If ever I read a contradiction this is one What then is our Author's Opinion but that our Penal Laws and Church Censures must of absolute necessity be laid aside and the Fathers of the Church be reconciled to their disobedient Children on their own terms as if he had never read of those terrible Judgments which were denounced against old Eli for his fondness towards his profane Sons who were Sons of Belial That would endure no Yoke themselves and made the People to abhor the Offerings of the Lord 1 Sam. 2.17 And he restrained them not but though they kicked at the Sacrifices and