would bee were the Pope Antichrist and the Papistâ— Idolaters Though to those that believe them so because they believe them so the measure and the bounds of Reformation will never appear to stand where indeed they do But let them look to the consequence of their own imaginations This one must needs render them Schismaticks to God abhorring communion upon imaginary reasons But will render us with them Schismaticks both to God and to his Church if wee make all that to bee Reformation which their imaginations tainted with such a prejudice would have to bee Law to this Church and Kingdom CHAP. XXII The present State of the Question concerning our Service The Reformation pretended abominable Such Preaching and Praying as is usual a hindrance of salvation rather then the means to it What Order of Service the continual Communion will require What form of Instruction this Order will require Of that which goes before the Preface in our Communion Service Of the Prefaces and the Prayer of Consecration Of the Prayer of Oblation and the place of it Of the Commemoration of the dead in particular Why the Communion Service at the Communion Table when no Eucharist A secondary Proposition according to present Law I conceive I have by this time shewed a reason for that The present state of the Question concerning our Service which I said in the beginning that there is so much in question between us and the Puritans comprising in that name all the parties into which it stands now divided as if it were decided for them would give the Papists the advantage against the Protestants Now as for the great question amongst us concerning our Service if it were truly stated it would soon be at an end If it may bee once considered that the question is indeed and in truth whether Sermons shall drive the Communion out of the Church or not whether or no arbitrary Prayers in the Pulpit shall chase out of the Church those which St. Paul commanded to bee made and the Church by his command hath frequented ever since I conceive the Dispute would bee easily decided And that is the thing in question indeed and in effect how little soever it appear Certainly if there were never any common Prayers made in the Pulpit if there were always common Prayers made at the Altar they who had no common Prayers but at the Eucharist had the Eucharist as oft as they had common Prayers Not as if the Church did never assemble but when the Eucharist was celebrated But because their desire and endeavour was to celebrate the Eucharist once every day and that in the morning unless it were a Fast and always at dismissing the Assembly as the principal Office of it For hence the Eucharist came in time to bee called the Mass which had formerly been the name of the Assembly it self from the dismissing of it And they who endeavoured to celebrate the Eucharist every day were not like to let Lords days and Festivals pass or think them solemnized as they should bee by Christians without it Since therefore I claim that this came by Tradition of the The Reformation pretended abominable Church from St. Pauls order I will infer no less then I have proved That to change the Communion every Lords day and Festival together with Morning and Evening Prayer every day in the Church and that with the Litanies upon Wednesdays and Fridays which the Law of the Land hitherto requireth for two Sermons every Sabbath with arbitrary Prayers afore or after them would not bee Reformation but Apostasie For it is manifest that at the Reformation the Eucharist was in possession in all Churches though the Communion had been surceased Nor was it ever excepted that the frequenting hereof had in it any colour of abuse or abatement to that very Christianiâ—y which wee receive from our Lord and his Apostles The abuse was in private Masses It was also a just complaint that the people were not taught their duty out of the Holy Scriptures and that the instructing of them by preaching was neglected beyond all reason and conscience But was it ever pretended that the reforming of the abuse in private Masses consisteth in two Sermons a Sabbath for wee must speak like Jews if wee will not offend tender consciences with the Prayers of the people such as the Minister shall please before or after it which is the Reformation now pretended Had it been said that this is Reformation when abuses were so visible that the name of Reformation was popular it had been easily answered that this were to bring the chief Office of Christianity to little or nothing And therefore if this bee the form that was called Reformation in some places it must bee said that it was easieâ— to see what ought not to bee then to settle what should bee But for a Christian Kingdom having upon deliberation setled an order whereby the Eucharist is to bee celebrated all Lords days and Festivals for Reformations sake to leave Ministers of tender consciences free not to celebrate it above thrice a year and that having a competent number to communicate which may bee not once in seven years as now is demanded I hope it shall never bee said in the streets of Gath that it past undetested It is necessary for him that is come to the state of salvation Such Preaching and Praying as is usual a hindrance of salvation rather then the means to it as a Christian to learn how hee is to live as a Christian and to grow every day in the knowledg of his duty that hee may discharge it But shall hee bee able to do this by hearing two Sermons every Sabbath and as many more as if hee did nothing else Or may hee not bee able without it Certainly that which their Preachers now do is so far from being necessary that it is no fit means to the salvation of the generality of Gods people They may easily make it a trade never to fail to while out an hour or two in the Pulpit in discoursing the meaning of their text in framing Doctrines out of it and proofs of those Doctrines more plentiful a great deal when they are so manifest that they need not then when they are so obscure that they cannot bee proved to the generality of Christians and upon these Doctrines and Proofs Exhortations Invectives Instructions Reproofs such as the driving of Faction shall require and yeâ— hee that would learn his duty shall bee as far to seek after many thousands of such Sermons as afore And yet it shall bee an act of no less charity to Preach a Sermon of Christian instruction and exhortation in and to the known duties of all or the generality of Christians then it hath always been reputed by Gods Church But let not a man therefore think if hee have any doubt in some difficult point of Doctrine in some nice case of Conscience in the meaning of some leading text of
And therefore there is no ground for private Masses by granting the Eucharist to bee in this nature a Sacrifice But can any man say that it is not the principal Office of The Eucharist not the Sermon the Chief Office of Gods Service Christian Assemblies That it ought not to bee frequented upon all the chief occasions for the Assemblies of Gods Church That the ordinary work for which wee meet all Lords days and other days if on other days wee ought ordinarily and solemnly to meet is a Sermon with an arbitrary Prayer before or after it That they who take the pains to minister the same are to bee excused of celebrating the Eucharist or ministring the prayers of the Church which it is to bee celebrated with unless it bee three or four times a year and much more of reading the Scriptures or praising God upon Davids Psalter and the Hymns of the Church I confess Calvins Reformation is much after that form And all the arâ— of the Blessed Reformation here pretended hath been to impose it for a Law upon this Kingdom without once pleading that it is for the best But so grosly prejudicial to the Service of God and the Common Christianity that it were injurious to fear that a Christian Kingdom can suffer such an Imposture derogating far more from the perpetual Custome of Gods Whole Church then it can from the present Law of this Kingdom That therefore I may make way to the determining of that which remains most questionable amongst us What is the best form of Service which the Church of this Kingdom can worship God with I must in the first place lay down that Rule by which all Reformation of Lawes Ecclesiastical is to bee directed together with the ground of it CHAP. XV. The ground that determines the Form of our Service The Offices of which the Service is to consist Of the Vse of the Psalmes Of reading the Scriptures commonly called Apocrypha What Preaching it is that the Scripture commendeth There may be Preaching without Sermons and Sermons without Preaching The difference between the second Service in the Ancient Church and our Communion Service The general Preface and the Prayers of the Church at the Eucharist The Prayer of Oblation instituted by S. Paul and the matter of it The Lords Prayer at the Eucharist The Place for the Common Prayers THat ground upon which the form of our Service is to bee The ground that determines the Form of ouâ— Service determined is to determine all that remains to bee determined in matter of Religion by Law of this Kingdom The true sense of the Scripture is not to bee had but out of the Records of Antiquity especially of Gods ancient people fâ—â—st and then of the Christian Church The obligation of that sense upon the Church at this time is not to bee measured against the primitive practice of the Whole Church The Reformation of the Church is nothing but the restoring of that which may appear to have been in force especially since Christianity hath been protected by the Lawes of the Empire Because the greatest difference between the primitive time of Christianity and this is the difference between the state of Persecution and of Protection by the Law of this Kingdom It is therefore necessary that both sides professing the Reformation should agree upon the true ground of Reformation and so upon the Rule which that ground will maintain and evidence that is to submit all that is in question to the visible practise of the primitive times before those abuses were brought in which the Reformation pretendeth to restore For if God have founded a Visible Church which all this supposes then cannot the Pope bee Antichrist nor the Church of Rome Idolaters for any thing which the practise of the Primitive Church justifieth And seeing the Church is Visible by the Lawes of it there can no Church bee visibly one with that which was from the beginning but by ruling it self by the same Lawes so far as the state of the Bodies for which they are made is the same That which shall bee said concerning the form of our Service is an instance hereof The sense of the Scriptures which have been alleged shall appear to agree with the primitive order of Gods Church The reviving of the order is the point of Reformation in this particular allowing for avoiding just offense in altering the Law of the Kingdom without necessary cause as the wisdom of Superiours shall find requisite I must now suppose that the Offices of Gods Service for The Offices of which the Service is to consist which the Church of God assembleth ordinarily and solemnly are the praises of God the instruction of the people in the duties of their Christianity whether by reading the Scriptures or by handling the same And lastly the Common Prayers of the Church especially those which the Eucharist is to bee celebrated with And this Order which I put them in here is that which the Church from the beginning hath always observed The Psalter of David in the first place hath been so generally Oâ— the use of the Psalms frequented by the Whole Church for the Instrument to make the Praises of God sound forth that it ought not now to bee questioned as questioned it is visibly enough by any that would pretend to bee of Gods Church The order of reading the Psalms which the Law of this Kingdom requires is admitted because they are part of the Scripture But all endeavours used that no devotion of the people bee exercised by it The Psalms in Rhime must engross that Wee have seen a Civil War in the time whereof these Psalms in Rhime being crowded into the Church by meer sufferance and so used without order of Law have been employed on both sides to brand the adverse party with the marks which the Psalms set upon the enemies of David and of Gods People that is of Christ and of Christians More freely by them who sang them at the head of their Armies to that purpose I hope those ways do not please at present And therefore say freely that the disorder ought not to continue Some of our Fanaticks I know have torn them out of their Bibles They thought themselves not concerned in them though David were The Jewes though they allow many of them to belong to the Messias would not have them belong to our Lord Christ But the Church uses them supposing them all fulfilled in Christ and Christians whether particular souls or the body of his Church Upon this Account they are the exercise of Christian Devotions But not the Psalms in Rhime The musick of them hath proved too hard for the people to learn in an hundred years And yet no way more commendable then the Rhimes themselves are And repeating a little in much time The tunes used in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches are easie to learn and serve that Order which Law setleth for Devotion not for reading
never appear I grant that there were miraculous Graces under the Apostles Apostolical Graces subject to Order which St. Paul directs the use of in ministring the prayers of the Church But that all Ministers had them they who require an ordinary Gift in all Ministers to that purpose cannot prove Much less that this ordinary Gift is to succeed those miraculous graces in all Ministers For even then St. Paul saith that the Spirits of the Prophets were to bee subject to the Prephets because God is not the God of confusion but of order And therefore charges all that pretended to such graces to acknowledg the Grace of an Apostle in him and to bee subject to the Orders which there hee gives out If the immediate inspirations of Gods Spirit were so dispensed that inferiors could presume nothing to the prejudice of Order against Superiors upon that pretense Much more now that Christianity is setled and the Unity of the Church a part of it are the Gifts of inferiors to bee ruled by the gifts of Superiors that Order in which Unity consisteth may bee preserved Of the Graces of the Spirit in St. Paul and the Original of Litanies St. Paul saith that the Spirit maketh intercession for the Saints with groans unutterable And St. Chrysostome saith thereupon that they who had these Miraculous Graces being imployed to minister the prayers of the Church did offer them to God with those deep sighs and groans which could hardly express what the Spirit suggested But addeth that the Deacon did the same in his time And this is visibly true by all that remains of the Liturgy in the Records of the Church It is evident that though the Bishop or Priest celebrating the Eucharist did offer the Common Prayers which I have described yet the Deacon also indited the same to the people from point to point as you have it to this day in our English Litanies the people answering from point to point Lord have mercy or some such acclamation as our Litanies do direct So far is the Catholique Church from the Maxime now pretended that the Priest alone is the mouth of the people in their prayers And the sighs and groans of that deep devotion which St. Paul saith the Spirit then moved and St. Chrysostome that the people answering the Deacon then expressed the form of our Litanies now containeth and expresseth And indeed those prayers which the Deacon indited are called Litanies in divers of the antient Liturgies Shewing that our Litanies are but a Transcript of them for the use of other occasions besides the Celebration of the Eucharist And Smectymnuus may remember how much they mistook Justine Martyr thinking hee had said that the Minister prayed thus according to his Gift Who saith indeed that hee prayed with all his might to wit with all the Devotion he could use Which devotion as it is not to bee found in their Pulpit Prayers pretending to apply the Gift to the present occasion so it visibly breathes in the Litanies through all occasions of Gods Church When miraculous Graces failed the prayers of the Church The Prayers of the Eucharist how prescribed by the Apostles were not to fail And the Apostles having delivered that which I have said to the Church whosoever was authorized to celebrate the Eucharist both must bee and easily might bee instructed how hee should discharge that Office There is so much agreement both for mater and manner in that which remains of it in the Records of the Church as to justifie those that affirm it to bee received by Tradition from the Apopostles Thus was the Forme prescribed from the beginning In time abuses might come For what Rule can there bee in humane business that shall not bee subject to abuse Therefore the African Canon which I spake of Orders that Bishops should confer the Forms which they used to wit through their Dioceses with their fellow Bishops Other Canons succeeding that the same Form should bee used throughout every Province In time the Church of Rome obtained that the Form thereof should bee received all over the West Wee see in the mean time what this pretense of Gifts tends Prayers of the Reformed Churches in the Pulpit but by a form to Even to shut the Eucharist out of doors or to confine it to thrice a year in case there bee company which case may bee so managed that a man need not bee tied to celebrate the Eucharist all his life time This is the satisfaction the Church hath for their withholding the Eucharist so many years from those that could not indure the ignorance malice and insolence of their Buckram Triers I grant that Calvins Reformation brings the Common Prayers from the Altar into the Pulpit And by that means confines the Communion to four times a year But are wee to follow Calvin in that wherein the whole Church of God is against Calvin Wherein the Rule of this Church and the Law of the Kingdom agrees with the whole Church against Calvin Was it the way to reform the abuse of private Masses to shut out the Communion excepting four times a year It must bee said that it was not the Reforming but the Deforming of the Church And the reforming thereof consists in restoring the Eucharist into the place that it ought to hold among the Offices of the Church So that the Communion thereof may bee most generally and continually frequented by Christians most prepared But Calvin dreamed of no Gifts all the while The Form of Common Prayer is as much prescribed according to Calvin as according to the Church of England though it bee read in the Pulpit It is the new Gospel of the Long Parliament that setup the The effect of the Long Parliament Prayers by the Spirit pretense of praying by the Spirit the Gift whereof is now claimed for every Ministers privilege in bar to Gods Church Though it bee manifest that the greatest part have no such gift so to minister the Offices of the Church as may bee to the discharge of the people the honour of God and of Christianity yet the Law of the Land must bee changed as supposing that which wee see is not The weaknesses and Imperfections the Falshoods the Blasphemies the Slanders the Sedition the Schisme that wee have known vented in such prayers oblige us to conclude that there is no such Gift in all Ministers At least not of Gods Spirit And therefore that wee must not forsake Gods Church changing the Form that is ruled by the Patern thereof and the Eucharist to boot for the Arbitrary prayers that every Ministers Gift shall vent in the Pulpit CHAP. XVII The Lords Day observed by the Authority of the Church Therefore other Festivals and times of Fasting are to bee observed How places and persons become qualified for Gods Service Preaching not convertible with Ministring the Sacraments Times places persons and things consecrated to Gods Service under the Gospel Ceremonies signifying by institution
necessary in Gods Service What kinde of signification requisite Not enough for the Presbyterians to allow Ceremonies THe determining of times and places and persons by The Lords Day observed by the authority of the Church which and at which of the Circumstances and Ceremonies of the Form and order according to which the service of God is to be celebrated is the Office and therefore is within the power of the Church The substance of Christianity wherein salvation consisteth was determined by our Lord in person to his Apostles That which hee trusted them with was the regulating of his Church supposing the same Christianity that God might bee served by the Assemblies of such as might appear to profess it That which he trusted the Apostles with the Church remains of necessity trusted with by the Apostles saving the personal Gift of the Holy Ghost in the Apostles rendring their Acts blameless in that estate for which they were made though not sufficient for all estates of the Church Otherwise the power of the whole Church is the power of the Apostles and obligeth the parts of the Church not to transgress the Acts of it Because the Unity of the Church is equally concerned in them and the substance of Christianity in neither of both This discovereth the Superstition of that Imposture which is pretended by deriving the Obligation of the Lords Day from the Jewish Sabbath For what reason can endure that the Church should bee bound to keep the first day of the week by that Precept which tyed the Synagogue to keep the last day of the week Seeing then the Obligation of it is to bee derived from the Act of the Apostles that is from the power of the Church For being once received by the whole Church it is for ever received to the same effect if the premises bee true it is the same Obligation that tyes all to observe the times appointed for the service of God by the Church whether Fasting days or Festivals The Example of the Primitive Christians at Jerusalem justifieth St. Hierome and others of the Fathers affirming that the Church should and would serve God continually in publick could the business of the world stand with it And therefore that order is to bee accounted most Christian that provides most opportunity for frequenting the publick service of God If this were considered it would appear a meer Imposture Therefore other Festivals and times of Fasting are to bee observed to demand that the Lords day bee celebrated with Sermons morning and evening and arbitrary prayers to usher them in and out treading underfeet all other times set apart by the whole Church for the service of God by such Offices as it enjoyneth If wee weigh by our own Weights and mete by our own Measures not only the mysteries of our Lords dispensatiâ—n in the Flesh but the memories of his Apostles and Saints not only the time of Lenâ— and the Wednesdays and Fridays But the time of Advent the Evens of Festivals the Ember and Râ—gation dayes once appointed to that purpose must still bee solemnized for the Festivals and Fasts of Gods Church To set a peculiar mark upon the Lords Day as if the time of it were more obliging then other time that is appointed to the same purpose is to change the day but to retain the Jews Superstition as Calvin most truely hath told them who in other things commit Idolatry to his Opinion But wherein he follows the whole Church in this point and in the state of souls before the Resurrection bid him farewell The Case is the same in the qualities of places as well as of How places and persons become qualified for Gods Service Preaching not convertible with ministring the Sacraments persons For the exercise of Christianity by the Law of this Kingdom there must bee places where all must meet they must bee limitted by the authority of the Church they must not bee balked for other places of mens private choise but by those that are willing to bee charged with Schisme for doing it They that quarrel the Bishops power in all other things must call this also in question when they mean to weigh by their own Weights and mete by their own Measures They are very studious to confound the difference between Priests and Deacons by having all called Ministers being a Term that may serve all Orders ministring those Offices which the Church enableth them to minister But they who would impose this sense upon the stile of Ministers of Gods Word and Sacraments that all and no other but they who are ordained to Preach are ordained also to Baptize and celebrate the Eucharist must bee told that this is an Imposture till they shew better reason for it then hitherto hath been shewed For I conceive I have shewed sufficient reason that the power of celebrating the Eucharist is convertible with the power of the Keys qualifying all Christians for the Eucharist which in the Bishop onely extendeth to publick causes concerning his whole Church or Diocese But in all Presbyters to private Causes wherein it may bee questionable between God and the Conscience whether a Christian bee qualified for the Eucharist or not As for the Sacrament of Baptisme that as the Bishop only allows it in any case that may bee questionable so the ministring of it may come to a Deacon in the Priests absence nay to a Lay-man rather then that any Child should dye unbaptized Neither is the Office of preaching restrained either to Priests or Deacons alone by any other authority then that of Gods whole Church Which being once passed in the Case by the general Custom and Practice of it it must bee the greatest Sacrilege in the World that is the Sacrilege of Schisme to transgress it The respect due to the memories of the Apostles and other Times places persons and things consecrated to Gods Service under the Gospel Saints and Martyrs of Christ is a reason sufficient to determine the time and place for the service of God To question that they are not just occasions for the consecrating of Festivals and of Churches to the service of God in honour of their memories is a just presumption that men seek to bee saved by some other Christianity then that which their Doctrine and their Blood planted But their names and the Festivals and the Churches that bear their names are but circumstances determining that service to bee acceptable to God which is performed in the Unity of his Church the authority whereof assigneth them to that purpose No more are the Utensils and Ornaments of Churches the Vessels in which the Sacraments are celebrated But they who think it Superstition that these things should bee set apart from Vulgar use and reserved only for Gods service plainly commit Idolatry to their own Imaginations in it For it is manifest that Consecration was in force not only by the Law of Moses but before it under the Law of nature as the
have not received the Order of Priesthood shall pretend to celebrate it For the Scripture interpreted by the un-interrupted practice of the Church allows no man under the Order of a Priest to celebrate the Eucharist Not as if those who call themselves Ministers did commit this Sacrilege in consecrating the Eucharist For though the name of Ministers signifies no more then Deacons and that it is truly Sacrilege for Deacons to celebrate the Eucharist Yet they whom they call Ministers if Ordained were Ordained Priests with power to celebrate the Eucharist For they call them Ministers to impose upon the World an opinion which they cannot prove by the Scripture That they are the only Ministers of the Word and Sacraments The second because they know not nor acknowledge the Consecration that is requisite to the celebration and being of this Sacrament by the same Scriptures understood according to the un-interrupted custome and practice of the Church For the whole Church of God allowing the elements consecrated to bee the Body and Bloud of Christ mystically or in the Sacrament alloweth this change to bee made by the consecration before which they were only Bread and Wine Not as if after the Consecration they were not so but because they are then become that which they were not afore to wit the Sacrament of Christs Body and Bloud or the Body and Bloud of Christ spiritually and mystically that is in the Sacrament This Consecration being exactly maintained by the Church of England they that presume to celebrate the Eucharist without acknowledging the same and pretending to destroy the Law by which it is exercised must bee presumed not to acknowledge the necessity thereof to the being of this Sacrament And therefore they and their complices in the Communion thereof to bee guilty of the Body and Bloud of Christ as not distinguishing a sign of mans institution from a Sacrament of Gods appointment and Ordinance As for the Office of Preaching and Praying which they pretend to in behalf of the Church I will mark you out two monstrous Impostures in all the Sects of this time The first is this ground of the now pretended Reformation of Religion in England That the Church is not to assemble for the Service of God but when there is Preaching This seems to stand upon a very gross mistake of those passages of the Apostles writings which declare the necessary means of salvation to consist in hearing the Gospel preached As if they were meant of Sermons in the Pulpit which are onely made to those that are already Christians not of publishing the Gospel to those that knew it not afore convincing them that it is true and instructing them wherein it consists Or as if those that are already Christians wanted any thing necessary to salvation supposing them to persevere in the Christianity which they have professed Not as if their Christianity did not oblige them to hear Sermons when the authority of the Church assures them to bee without offense But because the Offices of publick Prayers and the Praises of God especially in celebrating the blessed Eucharist are the end of all that instruction in Christianity which Christians receive from the Church and therefore all Preaching subordinate to the same as the means to the End And because they may bee daily so frequented without offense and to the increase of the reverence due to Christianity as the experience of our time shows that Preaching cannot bee The second is that the first day of the week called Sunday is the Sabbath by force of the fourth Commandment A mistake so gross that it may well serve for an instance what Faction can do with men that are sober otherwise That God by commanding the Jews to keep the seventh day of the week to wit that day on which hee ended the Creation of the world and for that very reason commanding it should bee thought to command Christians to keep the first day of the week on which hee began the Creation and our Lord Christ arose from the dead That is that the same words of the same Commandment in writing should oblige Jews to rest on the Saturday which oblige Christians to rest on the Sunday is a thing which when this fit of frenzie shall bee past us will scarse bee believed that ever any man would believe True it is this first day hath been observed in and ever since the Apostles time but not by virtue of that Law which their Office was to declare expired and out of date but by the Act of their own authority whereby they gave Laws to Christs Church Let us now only compare the daily morning and evening Sacrifice of Prayer and the Praises of God established by the Order of the Church of England together with the more solemn service of Lords days and Festivals with a bare Sermon upon Sundays ushered in and out with a Prayer of every mans own conceit setting aside the Haeresie and false Doctrine the Faction and Schism the Blasphemy and Slander the ridiculous Follies which this Sermon and Prayer may and which wee have known them contain I say comparing these together the Reformation pretended is and ought to bee accounted the abomination of desolation in comparison of that Order which it destroyeth And therefore upon this account alone those who not being invested with that ordinary Power by which the Church is inabled to correct abuses in the Church shall usurp the Power of the Church to introduce this disorder are thereby Schismaticks themselves and those that acknowledge them for their Pastors complices of Schismaticks It will bee said that these Laws will bee amended as it was many times said awhile since that the Parliament would settle a Ministery To this I say that those who shall bee sent you by virtue of these Laws have every way as good authority as any the Power that made these Laws joyned with a Parliament can give to them that are not otherwise qualified by the authority of the Church That is that this Power and the power of a Parliament together though advising with Divines can do no more then this Power with advise of those Divines which it useth hath done Because both are Secular and able to make men their Ministers to maintain the Interest of that Government which their Power constituteth but not Ministers of the Church to maintain the Interest of that Faith and Service of God which it is trusted with If it bee said that in most parts of the Reformation those from whom the Ministery is propagated had not received by their Ordination Power to ordain others For answer I suppose That the abuses crept into the Church were so great that particular Churches that is part of the whole might and ought to reform themselves without consent or concurrence of the whole I suppose that though there bee in the Church a succession of persons indued with authority in behalf of it as well as of Faith and of Rules or Laws Yet the
it though not so like a Christian as had hee been at the celebrating of the Eucharist The Communion Service might serve as it is for the second Assembly provided that it bee for the reasons premised at the Communion Table The Homily or Sermon after the Gospel comprising that Instruction or Exhortation which is necessary for all Christians would easily come within one quarter of an hour were Curates by the wisdom and diligence of their Ordinaries restrained from impertinencies and held to their duties The Common Prayers of the Church which are perfectly summed up in the Litanies if they were used at this Assembly also they would make the Service of God as compleat as the absence of the Eucharist would allow being the principal Office of it And this is no more then is required by the eighteenth of Queen Elizabeths Injunctions For as the Litanies being used after the Consecration as that Injunction requireth would bee the compleat Prayer of Oblation according to that which hath been said So when the Eucharist is not celebrated the Common Prayers of the Church for all necessities of all estates of Christs Church would bee as compleatly offered to God by the Litanies as they ought to bee offered when the Eucharist is not celebrated And this course would take away some appearances of inconvenience arising from the change of time and the difference which it hath produced in the use of those Services of which our Office consisteth which because common reason understands not therefore the people may check at And yet Superiours may not perhaps find sufficient cause to make any change for the removing of them The extream length of the Office as now it is used is to bee counted in the number of these Besides in that case there would bee no necessity of a Prayer before the Sermon which now bringeth this visible inconvenience that the Prayer for all states of Christs Church which is to follow next after the Sermon goeth before the Sermon also For that Prayer which the LV. Canon enjoyneth is to the very same effect with that which is to follow after the Sermon for the whole state of Christs Church As for other arbitrary prayers before or after Sermons wee are all witnesses what a Trumpet they were of the late Civil War what a means to prepare the minds of people to it And therefore if after so fresh experience the State shall suffer the Church to leave any room for them in the Order of Gods Service the State as well as the Church must bee felo de se in doing it And they that shall insist upon such demands do neither more nor less then ask leave to do the same again Indeed it is easie to foresee an appearance of inconvenience that An Objection in it answered might be objected if this course should bee put in practise For when the Eucharist is not celebrated the Litanies then must follow next after the Prayer for the whole state of Christs Church The substance whereof is the same that is repeated again in the Litanies as containing more briefly the sum of that which in them is branched out into more particulars The practise of the ancient Church furnishes the answer The XIX Canon of Laodicea ancienter without doubt then any form of Liturgy extant prescribes two Prayers to bee made just before the Consecration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is to say The Deacon bidding the people pray for the necessities of the Church which hee did name to them from point to point That this is the meaning of the Canon wee understand by all the Eastern Liturgies For there is none of them in which the same Prayer is not repeated again and again the Deacon inditing to the people the particulars which they are to pray for sometimes more briefly sometimes more at large And in one of them namely the Latine Copy of S. Basils Liturgy they are expresly called the first the second and the third Litanees Thus ancient is the Custome of bidding Prayer in the Church For S. Austine also for the Latine Church remembers it when hee says Cum Communis Oratio vâ—ce Diaconi indicitur When Common Prayer is bidden by the Deacons voice Epist CVI. And hereby it appeareth that it was then thought no inconvenience that those Common Prayers of the Church should bee repeated more then once For being the chief act of their Assemblies and the end for which the Eucharist was celebrated To wit that by the memory of Christs Sacrifice upon the Cross all the necessities of his Church might be rendred recommendable to God It is no marvel that they insisted upon them more then once And therefore if in this decay of Christianity the continual Celebration of the Eucharist cannot bee revived in the next place it remains that these Common Prayers bee maintained and frequented with as much devotion as in so wretched times as wee see can bee obtained I have said nothing of that which is commonly called Preaching or of any provision for it Because I say nothing of the First Service and of the use of it at other times besides Sunday and Holiday Mornings But it is easie for mee to say that there will bee as much opportunity for it in the afternoons as the abilities of the generality of Preachers can bee thought competent to imploy with that which shall bee fit to entertain the people I know the general opinion inclines to imploy that time with the Exposition of the Catechisme But the Doctrine of the Catechisme is the work of that time when mens wits are at the best And if the Exposition bee not prescribed as well as the Catechisme more inconvenience may soone bee found in that course then in the Pulpit CHAP. XXIII How the Law distinguishes Moral Precepts from Positive How the spiritual sense of the Decalogue concerns Christians The meaning of the First Commandment in this sense The extent of the Second Commandment Of the Third Commandment What the sanctifying of the Sabbath signifieth The meaning of the Fifth as to Christians The meaning of the five last according to Christianity NOw since this secondary Proposition leaves the Decalogue Hâ—w the Law distinguishes Moral Precâ—pts from Positive and Prayers of it in the place which now it holds in our Service I will not leave this point without expounding the Decalogue in that sense which the Principle upon which I maintain the agreement of the Old Testament with the New requires For upon that Exposition depends the true meaning and intent of that Prayer whereby the Church enjoyns the people to ask pardon of God for their transgressing of the several Precepts the mis-understanding whereof hath occasioned the Errour of the Sabbath which only England of all â—â—ristendome is disquieted with Most Divines do so reason of the Decalogue because the most of the Precepts thereof are Moral as if the difference between Ceremonial Judicial and Moral and much more between Moral and Positive were expresly