great weight and there say they will use but few words And I believe indeed that such Objections or Arguments as they will bring forth for themselves to answer shall have no great weight in them lest they should take upon them such a burden as they are neither able to bear nor to cast down agâ—in handsomely after they have once taken it up Briefly therefore running over the Arguments here brought and their answers to them I shall at last use some Arguments my self for the continuance of our Liturgy among us as well as they have done for the abolishing of it but first to their Objections The first they bring from the antiquity of it to which they tell us Smectymnuus hath answered whom I never saw and so know not what his answer is and so can say nothing to him But whereas they answer here That antiquity without truth is nothing I grant that but tell them withal this is nothing to their purpose because what is most ancient must be supposed most true till the contrary be proved Therefore their answer to the antiquity of this Book is nothing against it till they have proved the unlawfulness of it a little better then yet they have done Secondly They sâ—y Many good men have liked it To which they answer That their approbation is not sufficient To this I rejoyn nor is their misliking and railing at it enough to condemn it For though they brag of more light then our forefathers this new light is the common argument in these days for all things done against the old light of Gods Word yet all their lâ—ght hath not shewed them how to frame such a Liturgy as we have received from our forefathers and till they have made a better they might be content with this Thirdly They say Our Book hath many good things in it but answer So hath the Alcoran and the Talmud But we reply that those Books if they have some good things in them which they are pleased to call many yet they are not many in respect of the evil with which they abound but our Book abunds with good if not free from some defaults The denomination then being to be taken from the greater part our Book and so the Apochrypha which here they also gird at are to be called good and the other two evil Fourthly It is better to amend then to cashiere To this first They suppose an impossibility of amending Secondly They say It is contrary to Gods course who commands the Altars to be thrown down c To this we say It is a vain and groundless supposition that every thing amiss in our Liturgy might not easily be amended Neither is it to be doubted but that they whom it concerns would sooner amend what is distastful to any quiet and moderate men if the violent opposition of troublesome and factious spirits not hinder it by the unreasonableness of their demands whom when nothing in that kinde done can satisfie it is to no purpose in respect of them to do any thing To the second we answer concerning Gods command to cut down the Altars burn the Groves c. the case is very far different from ours here Those Groves and Altars were directly against the express command of God for worshipping onely in the place by himself chosen namely the Temple at Jerusalem And again there is great difference between that Idolatrous worship and some defects and imperfections in the right worship of the true God Lastly It is not Gods course always in correcting abuses rather to abolish the thing then to take away the abuse for we know our Saviour speaking against the abuses in Fasting Prayer and Alms does not take them away or forbid any of them but shews how to amend the abuses And to make their answer good here they must plead against our Churches as well as our Liturgy To the fifth This Book they say hath Acts of Parliament to confirm it To which they answer first That this Book is not established by Act of Parliament Secondly That the thing it self being simply evil no Act can make it good To these we say again The Act before the Book is plain but they tell us The Books we now use have been altered since the Act and so the Act is not for them To this we answer If there be any such alterations in the Books that by the strictness of Law or tricks of Lawyers the Act cannot take such hold of Non-conformists as to make them liable to the penalties there appointed yet in conscience whatsoever is not altered in the Book is by vertue of that Act obediently to be observed and yielded to the intention of the Law-giver being as much or more to be regarded then the Letter of the Law And again those alterations being made according to Law that is by a Commission given forth by His Majesty then being King James of Blessed memory under the Broad Seal of England to the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and others according to the form which the Laws of this Realm prescribe to be used as we see in His Majesties Proclamation before the Book of Common Prayer all are as much bound to observe the Book so altered as if no alteration at all had been made in it To the second answer we say That the supposition there made of the evilness of the Book hath been by my answer so taken away that the ground of this answer fails And so I have at last done with their Five undeniable Arguments as they call them and their three Motives for the taking off our Common Book and the Answers to the Objections which they were pleased to bring against themselves There remains now onely to take a view of their opinion concerning any Liturgy at all or any set form of Prayer for if these two be unlawful it is a sufficient Argument against the Common Prayer Book In delivering their opinion herein they say They will answer these two questions First Whether they do allow of any set Prayers in a more private way Secondly Whether of any set Liturgy To which two questions they might very well have spared their pains in answering we not much caring for their opinions herein yet seeing they would thus express themselves we will see what they say and deliver our mindes thereto First They say They allow the ignorant onely set forms of Prayer in private To which if by these set forms they mean set prayers made by others we are willing with them to allow them onely to such as cannot make better themselves but in general to use set forms for the very best of men is not onely lawful but very good and most carefully to be done that we may observe that of the wisest of men Eccles 5. 1. For the second A set Liturgy they say they allow in general but come to the particular use of any particular Liturgy they flee off again and will have their set Liturgy onely a pattern for a
Liturgy made it seems ex tempore every time because the words they tell us must follow the affections and not the affections the words In this they do but dally with us making our Liturgy no Liturgy and turn publick Prayers into private every one by this means as their affections are different so praying differently whereas in publick Prayers all must pray at the same time the same prayer or else there is not one common and joynt prayer of all but several prayers as several persons And for their Argument that the words should follow the affections that may as well be in a set prayer as in an ex tempore one For the heart does first conceive the prayer and then frames words to express it by Now such prayers being made and read and known to all so that all have them by heart they do thereunto first conform their affections and praying with the Minister their words inwardly conceived if they speak not or also outwardly uttered if they speak do follow the affections of their hearts If they say this is not enough but every mans private affections should be the rule or guide of his words and prayer I answer then that if there be never so many praying at the same time in the same place they differing in their affections and so in their inward or outward words viz. their several forms of prayer there are but so many several private prayers made and not one joynt publick prayer by all And there is no more efficacy in the prayers of them in the Church then in so many particular prayers elswhere For these prayers want the condition by our Saviour expounded Matth 18. 19. and so cannot truly claim the promise there made Thus I have done with their Book in respect of the sum or substance which I have fully answered their extravagancies and railings lightly passed by I will adde no more to all they say but this If any man desire to be contentious we have no such custom nor the Churches of Christ 1 Cor. 11. 16. CHAP. XII Arguments for our Common Prayer Book HAving hitherto answered what hath been said against our Liturgy and now desirous to say somewhat more for it I have thought it best briefly to draw some Arguments for it from the same heads whence the Unmaskers have fetched all the matter they have brought against it namely from the name of it the original of it the matter contained in it the manner of using it and the effects of it upon our whole Land By all which I hope they whom it may concern will correcting what they see cause not totally destroy but continue our Liturgy and Church Government First then I will begin with the name not the ignominious name of Mass which they would cast upon it but the name which it owns and we all call it by And that 's the name of The Common Prayer Book a name challenging all liking and acceptation considering the excellency and efficacy of the common and publick prayers of all above the particular and private prayers of any one how holy or pious soever he be If Christ promise as we know he does Matth. 18. 19 20. That where two or three be gathered together c. how much more will he be present with a whole congregation or a whole Land publickly with the same desires words and affections calling upon him and praising his name If then the nick-name of a Mass odiously by our enemies cast upon our Liturgy make it seem to some distasteful yet let its own proper name rightly belonging to it cause us in that respect that it is a Book of Common Prayer for us all cause us in that respect to love and esteem it and to desire the continued use of it among us Secondly for the original This Book had its first rise and original from the ancient fathers of the Church in the Primitive times long before Popery was known or thought of and its immediate original here as it is now with us from the very beginning of that blessed Reformation which we still by the mercy of God enjoy and except the interruption of some few years in the days of Queen Mary and in the late rebellions and distractions amongst us we have still blessed be God retained and flourished under it Out of the respect then to our blessed Ancestors of former times and our Predecessors here that first established this Book and for the happy continuance of it from the very beginning and first setling of the true Protestant Religion in England let us love this Book and with thankfulness for it diligently use and constantly retain it Thirdly for the matter of it that ought to be a more prevalent argument for it then both the former for had it never so good a name if that name were dissonant from its nature I could not urge it or had it never so good a beginning in the respects forementioned yet were the matter of it nought the good efficient cause would not sufficiently make amends for the evil material cause but if that be as or more excellent then the other sure then may it well move us to regard it What then is the matter of this Book wholly prayers made onely to God himself through the mediation of no Saints or Angels but onely through Jesus Christ whom Gotappointed the sole and absolute Mediator between him and us Secondly We have the Word of God read in it to instruct and teach us in the knowledge and service of God which he is pleased to impart to us and require of us Thirdly Songs and Hymnes of praise and thanks to God either Divine and Canonical parts of the Scripture it self or made by holy men altogether consonant to the Word of God in he Scripture Fourthly Confessions of Faith briefly comprising the main chief and principal points which a Christian is bound to believe and to profess to salvation This is generally the matter of our Common Prayer Book which matter is so and in such order and manner set down and so disposed of and every thing in the Book appointed to be used in such admirable manner and order that from thence we have another strong argument for the maintenance and retaining of the Book Fourthly Therefore I come to the excellent manner and order of using this book and used in this book concerning which I must take a brief view of the order appointed and so deliver it unto you First when we are come into the house of God for his publike worship and service how can we better begin this sacred work then with some words out of the Word of God himself This is without controversie but with what words we should begin or what piece of Gods word is fittest to be the first word that should be spoken in his house is perhaps more difficult to be absolutely determined that therefore is not absolutely appointed and to all enjoyned but in this kind some liberty left
Piety Let them take heed that the want of these four which they abundantly discover in their Book do not out of their own mouth condemn the pretended Purity of their Religion for more then ordinary defects in these shall this answer abundantly shew in their Book But they will not be large as they say here in this theme no more will I But I hasten with them to the pâ—rticular â—â—tter viz. The Common Prayer Book the Principal Subject of their discourse but in which they aim and strike at the Bishops â—s they presently confess upon this supposal that one of these two cannot stand without the other for so they tell us saying As it is true That no Ceremony no Bishop so it is as true That no Service-Book no Ceremony This they do very well bring in with this As and So for one of these is just as true as the other there being no truth at all in the one or the other For the Bishops might still have their Authority Dignity and Estates which they now have though all the Ceremonies we have were abolished and we might also have more Ceremonies then now we have though we had another Common Prayer Book or none at all which is too clear to have any place left for proof The next Page of this Chapter is an inveighing against Superstition in general Concerning which I will meddle no more with them then they do therein with our Common Prayer Book for I am as much against Superstition as they But nothing said against Superstition can be against the Book till the Book be proved Superstitious Which that it is they attempt to prove in these words very couragiously If our Liturgy be not a mass of Superstition 〈◊〉 superstitious Ceremonies we know not what Superstition is To which Proposition if they will let me assume rightly thus But our Liturgy is not a mass of Superstitions c. I grant all and for their Information will tell them a little That it is Superstition to make that a matter of Conscience which they need not or to make that a part of Gods worship and service which is not simply so but a thing of it self indifferent Whether then it be Superstition to use our Book and Ceremonies because commanded or to reject them upon a pretence of their being not indifferent but simply unlawful when God hath not forbidden them and the Church hath commanded them let Reason judge But to proceed with them they endeavor to prove the Common Prayer to be superstitious because it appoints kneeling at the Communion thus The grand ceremony of adoration or kneeling at the Communion hath it not been the staffe and strength of that abominable Idole the breaden God In which words with the rest there following they charge us in kneeling to agree with the Lutherans and Papists in this point concerning the matter but leaving the manner We answer That we neither suppose Lutherane Consubstantiation nor Popish Transubstantiation hereby but we deny both and so does our book as by the words and form of Administration in the book is clear enough Neither is our kneeling any adoration of the creature as they would have it supposed but the most fit and convenient gesture that can be used in the time of Prayer which we are all in at the very receiving of that blessed Sacrament as is plain enough by the very words used at the delivering it Now if any particular man seem to these men to incline too much towards Popery in this point that is nothing to our Common Prayer Book the defence whereof is my onely task whatsoever therefore may be said in any particular mans defence I pass by Therefore also I omit the mentioning of the Liturgy which they talk of sent to Scotland with all the Chimerical conceits of their English brain concerning that which they call the Scottish Hydra Lastly Whereas they tell us The superstitions of this book are such and so many that if Paul were here and saw them as he saw that of Athens he would cry out undoubtedly ye are too superstitious Act. 17. 22. We say no more to this but if that we may presume to know St. Pauls minde as well as they we may better say That which he appointed to the Corinthians 14. 40 that have we observed in our Liturgy But that we may not stand too long upon these general extravagancies in their preface let us come to the particular charges against that Book to which they are such adversaries the first whereof is the Name in the next Chapter CHAP. II. To the Name THe scope of this Chapter is to prove our Common Prayer Book unlawful because it hath the same name with the Popish Mass book which that it hath they prove thus in the beginning of the Chapter The Service-book men and the Papists do mutually interchange the name of Liturgy and Mass the later calling their Mass by the name of Liturgy and our men owning the name of Mass to our Service Book witness Pocklington Cozens and Montague in the name then is an unaminous agreement If these men can be ashamed of any thing they may be ashamed of this ridiculous caviling with our Common Prayer Book in this kind If some men should call them schismaticks make-bates sowers of sedition rebels c. would they count this to be a sufficient argument to cause them to be banished out of our Land or cast out of our Church If they would think this hard measure against themselves where is their equity in dealing thus with others Here me thinks Dame equity the first of the Virgin daughters mentioned in their preface is fouly vitiated and so there is a sore blemish laid upon their unspotted piety the mother hereof Secondly if this were granted that the names were the same absolutely in both is the name enough to destroy the thing If they be offended as many we know are in the places of Gods worship among us as well as with the manner of our worshipping there they have the same argument for demolishing of them for Papists call their Churches as we do ours If they be angry with St. Jude for speaking against railers upon them that are in authority they may as well cry down all he saith by this argument of the name because he hath the same with Iscariot the traitor But being conscious to themselves I presume of the vanity of this argument though perhaps some simple one may be seduced by it they quickly flye from the name to the thing and tell us that for matter they are one What difference say they is there between our Liturgy and theirs but a pair of sheers and putting ours in a coat of another tongue ours having nothing to a word but out of theirs All which is very unseasonably stuffed into this present Chapter for this belongs to the next Chapter concerning the matter and the original and not to this of the name and therefore they promise to shew
to the Ministers discretion at every particular time and occasion If any man think it most fit to begin with some short prayer he may to this end we have these sentences Turn thy face away from our sins O Lord and correct us O Lord and yet in thy judgement c. If it be thought more fit to move the people a little to humility in respect of their sins that they more earnestly mind this sacred duty they are met about we have to that purpose Rent your hearts and not your garments c. If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves c. I will go to my father and say c. If thirdly some think it more needful first to propound comfort and consolation that the people may with the more faith call upon God and serve him with the more heart and spirit we have to that end At what time soever a sinner doth repent c. So that beginning the service of God with the word of God in the house of God we have several sentences for several times and several occasions to be used as is most convenient at any time Then follows most fitly a brief but grave and serious exhortation to put the people in mind of and stir them to that duty which they are come together about After which immediately they make a most excellent short and pithy confession of their sins humbly kneeling upon their knees After confession we know follows absolution according to that of Solomon Prov. 28. 13. and of David So then proceeds our Liturgy to a Declaration of Gods pardoning the penitent by which we are Psal 32. 3. all the more heartned and encouraged with faith to pray to God for all things necessary to soul or body we do this therefore presently in that form of Prayer which our Saviour himself taught us Having thus faithfully prayed and not doubting but what we have faithfully asked shall effectually be obtained we are bound in the next place as reason as well as Religion will teach us to praise God for this his mercy toward us which we being not able to do without Gods assistance we do first desire him to open our lips that our mouth may shew forth his praise and through our earnest desire presently to perform this holy duty we desire God to make speed and haste to help us in this kind and then with a short doxology expressing our faith in and of the Trinity we proceed to Psalms of praise First we have one set Psalm every day being a Psalm of speciall note to stir up to this holy duty and then every day several Psalms in such order that the whole Psalter is read through once every moneth Having thus far proceeded in this excellent manner and order we must not yet leave thus but because he that goes not forward in Religion daily will quickly go backward we must endeavor daily to increase in the knowledge of God which will be by reading and hearing the word of God and that chiefly in the house of God therefore in the next place we have two Lessons read to us one out of the old Testament another out of the new and between those Lessons and after them excellent Hymns of praise and thanksgiving to God in sending our Saviour especially and also for all his mercies and favours spiritual or temporal to our souls or bodyes let any man of reason and judgement now say if our book do not orderly lead us all this way yet here I confess is not enough as we do diligently and daily learn somewhat out of the Word of God in the house of God so it is most fit we should there also shew what we have learned and make some profession and confession next therefore most fitly follows a solemn and publike confession of our Christian faith comprised in the Creed which we are all to say with the Minister and that standing which gesture is most convenient in these two respects First to declare our readiness and willingness to make that confession and that we do all joyn in it which if we sat still could not so easily be perceived it being an easie thing to observe who stand and who sit but hard to see who speaks and who do not Secondly to testifie by this gesture of standing up that this faith we are not afraid or ashamed publikely to stand to but that this we are ready to maintain and defend against all opposition whatsoever as that fâ—ith we will live and dye in Lastly after all this thus devoutly decently and reverently performed how can we better conclude this holy work then with prayer altogether unto God to confirm settle strengthen and establish us in that holy Faith which we do profess and have now made confession of and to 〈…〉 ase our knowledge and to grant us all mercies and favours 〈…〉 ful for souls and bodies and to keep us from evils to the one or to the other In which prayers first we begin with a mutual short prayer of the Minister and people each for other to testifie each to other their perfect love and charity one to another that so they may the more cheerfully and unanimously joyn as one in the ensuing prayers in which after a brief praying for Gods mercy in general we begin again First with the Lords prayer the most absolute and perfect pattern for all our prayers Then after some few short ejaculations of the Minister and the people answering which is an especial means to rouse and stir up the dull affections of the people subject to be weary and faint in holy duties we proceed to the set and solemn prayers ensuing The first of which is varied every day almost and upon the most solemn and great days fitted to the day as the present occasion requires and so on every particular holy day The other prayers for peace grace encrease of knowledge and protection against perills and dangers and so the prayers for the King c. being most necessary at all times are every day to be used and after all the blessing pronounced to all Thus I have briefly touched upon you see our excellent way and manner of serving God according to our Common Prayer book appointed daily It would be no difficult matter to run through all the other matters in that book as the administration of the Sacraments solemnization of Matrimony with all the other Rites and Ceremonies I desiring brevity this may suffice for this my fourth argument for the Liturgy the excellent order and manner of using it I come now to the fifth and last argument for it the blessed and happy effects of this our worshipping and serving God in this sort from the beginning of the Reign of that never enough praised and admired Queen Elizabeth of blessed and eternal memory How wonderfully did the Lord bless and preserve her with a long happy and prosperous Raign that did establish and settle this Liturgy in her Kingdoms