est uno verho non est noster Beneficâ—um tanti per annum valoris Orthodoxum aliquem conostris non dedecebit At super hacâ—re aliiisque pluribus Tilenus adeundus Unum autem exemplum addam quo tandem finiam Quidam haud it a pridem vir doctu partium Episcopalium venit in hanc â—u iam examinandus Illum inquisitorum antesignanus adoritur Inter alia consimilis farinae problemiata proposuit istud Quo sensu Deus author peccati dici potest Cui alter quo ait sensu Certe nullo nisi non-sensu Hominem praefidum impudentem perfrictae frontis Eo ventum audasiae uti quis Inquisitori eique primario ica responset Râ—icitur homo merito scilicet quippe qui Graâ—ia destitutus nempe non Dei sed Inquisitorum qualis ille Johan 9. a Phariseis pro responsatione haud absimili excommunicatus Quid ille Ad Patronum rem defert Quid Patronus Dicam impegit Inquifitori Quare impedit vocant Quid Inquisitor quid ille Ad Protectorem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 festinat asylum iniquitatis Queritur apud ipsum contemni Commissionem examinatorum Nihil illam deinceps valituram si legi communi subâ—iciatur Hanc adveertite vos expostulationens Anglicanae libertatis reique publicae Assertores Quanta olim cura cautum est nequando Episcopi vim legibus inferrent Eccos Presbyteros eccos Indepentes superbum nomen qui a nulla omnino lege pendent exemptos volunt a communi lege se suosque Quod utique documento est fore uti si quando ipsirerum potiantur abrogaturos communilege suamque disciplinam pro lege secundum conscientiae sue dictamon imposituros Quod autem sititulis ac nominibus honorificis homines intumescant at an Metropolâ—â—â—â—orum Primatum Archiepiscoporum Episcoporum c. an alienereipublicae consimilibus Illi sunt Diocesani Presbyteri Archidiocesani c. qui sunt ad illum modum At hi conficti olim a Presbyteris asque in illorum locum sufficiendi Hoc ego certissime novi statutum a primariis Presbyterianarum partium neu quid ex immutata forma regiminis honorum titulorunave deperderetur Caeterum ex his quae conmemorata sunt haud arduum est consicere homunciones etiam sine titulis honorumque decoramentis opprimere alies ambitiose gerere se posse insolescere ac superbire As the Presbyters except against Titles of honor so likewise against Forms of Godliness and those of two sorts either Forms of Prayer or forms and modes of ceremonies which consist either in gesture or vesture As for the form of Prayer let us first enquire what that is against which their exceptions lie and then we shall endeavour to satisfie those exceptions The Liturgy or Common prayer so called is a System of select Scriptures Prayers and Praises proportioned according to the necessaries and spiritual proficiencies of all Gods people 1. To those under the fear of God in the entrance of the Liturgy certain sentences out of Scripture are premised shewing the necessity of Confessing our sins and raysing our hope of pardon and forgiveness of them Then followes a Form of Confession and after it Absolution from sins and the Lords-Prayer in special for the Remission of sins And because confession is either of sins or of prayse after the confession of sins followes the confession of prayse Which yet cannot rightly be performed unless the Lord enable us so to do And therefore we pray that the Lord would open our lips c. Accordingly we give glory to the holy and blessed Trinity And we exhort one another to sing unto the Lord and heartily to rejoyce in the strength of our salvation c. Psalm 95. In which Psalm after the declaration of Gods power David prevents an objection sutable to their state under fear and like unto those in Kadesh-barnea in the mutable and unsetled holyness of the childe-hood The objection may be framed thus we are not able through the power of God to subdue our sins and to perform acceptable service unto God and therefore we shall perish in our sins and never enter into the Heavenly rest The Psalmist therefore dehorts us from hardening our hearts lest we should be like those farthers of the Hebrewes whose carkasses fell in the Wilderness c. To which purpose the Apostle applies that part of the Psalm to the Hebrewes in the same spiritual estate Heb. 3. and 4. 2. To those under faith in Christ Christ is propounded in the Psalms as some of the Antients have interpreted all the Psalms of Christ and our Lord points us unto them as giving testimony of himself Luke 24. also as foreshewen in types and figures of the Law and storied of and prophesied of in others books of the Old Testament In regard of all which Christ is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yesterday Heb. 13. When these have some way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 discovered Christ unto us we break out into the praise of God saying or singing We praise thee O God c. After that Christ is discovered in types histories and prophesies more obscurely He is more clearly manifested in the flesh and expressed in one or other of the Evanglists or Acts of the Apostles After which the Church acknowledges and blesseth the Lord for exhibiting His Son according to the promises and his fore-runner John the Baptist Or which concerns all Nations Psalm 100. Oberoyful in the Lord all ye lands Then followes the confession of Faith in the Father Son and Spirit Out of this faith the Minister and People pray mutually one for other Which done the Minister prayes for those things which the Epistle or Gospel holds forth in the Collect gathered out of them then prayes for Peace and thirdly for Grace That we may fall into no sin nor run into any kind of danger but that all our doings may be ordered by his Governance to do always that which is righteous in his sight through Jesus Christ our Lord. In these prayers the Petitions are more general therefore the Litany is added containing more particular Petitions according to the several temporal or spiritual wants of Gods people Wherein and afterward prayers are made for the King the Royal issue and spiritual Governors according to 1 Tim. 2. 3. To those under the love of God and their neighbour is propounded a prayer out of largeness of heart unto God Unto whom all hearts are open all desires known unto whom no secrets are hâ—d that he will cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of his holy spirit that we may perfectly love him and worthily magnifie His holy name through Christ our Lord. This cannot be done unless the Lord be pleased to write his laws in our heart which we pray for which done we return to our prayer in special for the King and the royal issue c. Then such Scriptures are propounded for Epistles and Gospels as befit that eminent estate And because
they who are in such a condition have a more explicit knowledge of God the Father Son and Spirit and other Articles of the Faith the Nicene Creed is added And because prayer is to be accompanied with alms-giving certain sentences are then propounded stirring us up thereunto And so that Service concludes with a prayer for the whole state of Christs Church c. The like reason there is of Evening-prayer The explication of these and other particular services would require a just Tractate Against this form of prayer the Presbyters except For why should any form of prayer be imposed upon the people of God Or if any why so long Why that which is clogg'd with so many repetitions Why not a prayer more spiritual Must one and the same fit all ages of the Church Why are Godly men thereby hindred from the exercise of their gifts Why must they use such a form of prayer as is taken out of the Mass-book Yea why are many Canonical Scriptures left out of the Kalendar and Apocryphal placed in the room Episcopal men alleadge for themselves that there is no Church in the world no not that which the Presbyters account the best reformed but it hath a form of prayer Because not onely they who are grown up in religion but the young ones also who are not able to pray of themselves may thereby be instructed and taught how to pray such were Johns disciples and such were Christs whom therefore they both taught to pray But if exception be against a form because a form every conceived prayer is a form unto those who hear it which is well to be considered by them who except against a form of prayer because a form But if a form of prayer be needful they ask why so long a form of prayer Why hath it so many repetitions It 's true the Liturgy hath repetitions in it Yet are not all repetitions vain or Heathenish such as our Lord forbiddeth nor for that end but to express the fervency and ardour of affection And therefore we read many iterations of the same petition or thanksgiving which will amount to the same exception used by David as else where so especially Psalm 136. For his mercy endures for ever twenty six times used in that one psalm Yea and our Lord himself is said in his prayer to have used the same words But although this blame were justly laid upon the Common-prayer yet do not many of them who except against it much mend the matter in their conceived prayers wherein they use most what many repetitions especially when they are at a loss and know not what else to say which is not seldom And as for length of prayer The whole Liturgy Litany and all is not so long as many of their conceived prayers And if their prayers be so long surely it is their own fault if all that time they do not exercise their gifts What they say of spiritual prayers are there any more spiritual in all the Latine or Greek Liturgies How much less in these mens conceived prayers And if there bâ— some of all Dispensations in all Ages of the Church why may not this form of prayer composed as I have shewn fit all Ages of the Church Nor do Episcopal men deny but that many of the Church-prayers are extant in the Mass-book And is it not for the credit of the Roman Missal that so excellent prayers are found in it What though all the Epistles and Gospels or the most of them may be read in that Book Are they therefore one jote the worse Or is the Scripture any whit the less true because it hath been cited by the father of lies Feign the Mass as abominable as any man can make it will any reasonable man refuse what is unquestionably good because it hath been ill used May not the Sun shine upon a dunghil and yet loose nothing of its purity It is true that some Canonical Scriptures are omitted in the Kalendar and Apocryphal set in their place as the two Books of Chronicles the Book of Canticles the latter part of Ezekiels prophesie much of the Revelation and some others And why not For although all Scriptures were written for our edifying yet all Scriptures do not edifie alike As for those Canonical omitted the Episcopal man dares appeal to the Presbyter whether Adam Seth Enosh and the rest of the Genealogy edifie so much as the Scripture Canonical or Apocryphal appointed to be read in place of it Yea whether the History of Judith may not edifie as well as the History of Jael Yea why he though with much study he hath hardly attained to the true meaning of the latter chapter of Ezekiel and the Book of Canticles and the Revelation yet should desire that the same Scriptures should be propounded to the understanding of the rude multitude ex tempore and hope that thereby they should be edified The Learned Jews were not thought to envy the people the Holy Scriptures when they forbade the novices the reading of the three first chapters of Genesis and some other Scriptures lest they should frame ill interpretations of them Many other exceptions are taken by the Presbyterians and others against the Book of Common-prayer which are so frivolous that its apparent their Palmarium their main Reason against it is Stat pro ratione voluntas They would not have it But the Presbyterians take great exceptions against the Forms of Godliness expressed in Ceremonies in Gesture as Bowing Standing Kneeling enjoyned at the performance of divers parts of the Divine Service with which the Church of God should not be burthened Concerning such Ceremonies Episcopal men say That a reason may be given of them according to the different parts of the Service where they are commanded to be used Divers of Episcopal perswasion have written particularly of these and therefore I refer the Reader to them for satisfaction I shall onely adde a Rule out of Ticonius cited by St. Austin When any thing in Scripture is prescribed to be done without the circumstances when where how c. it should be done which yet cannot be done without such circumstances that duty to be done must be circumstantiated out of the word elswhere mentioned or according to the ancient custom of the Church As when the Apostle saith Preach the word yet adds not when or where or how a due circumstance of place and maner may be taken from the practice of Ezra Nehem. 8.4 or of Solomon 2 Chr. 6.13 where the word turn'd a Scaffold signifies rather a Pulpit So when our Lord saith Baptize all Nations And touching that other Sacrament Do this as often as ye do it in remembrance of me The mode or way of administring and receiving these Sacraments is no where commanded and therefore it s left to be directed by the Fathers of the Church But whereas Forms of Godliness are either in gesture or vesture 1. In vesture as the Surplice At this some take most
ante conquiescant quam ipsi rerum potiantur Irrisores turbulenti factiosi disputaces ingrati arrogantes supra quam dici aut credi potest hostes Catholicorum juratissimi quique non tantum ipsi nihil conferunt ad repellendam imminentem Christianorum cervicibus Turcarum vim sed etiam motis intestinis dissidiis bellisque impediuâ—t alios Reges id conantes quin opes viresque ipsorum à communi hoste aversas in mutuam Christianoâ—um perniciem concitant Atque hoc ipsis est reformare Ecclesiam I shall leave this upon your spirits sadly to be thought upon and speak a word unto my Brethren of Episcopal perswasion I know many of you beloved Brethren and I believe here are far many more in this and our neighbor Nation of Ireland eminent in wisdom and piety men of profound learning sober grave just prudent c. who have been refined and purified in the furnace of humiliation and are come forth as vessels of honor fit for their Masters use These are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 persons who hae far transcended the envy of their persecuters And having been turned into strange Countreys have declar'd evidently what difference there is between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one unlearned and learned Unto these I say onely Macti estote proceed and shine forth as lights of the Church To you I speak who have been Sufferers also but if report not onely of your enemies but even of your friends also wrong you not some of you have not improved your sufferings to the advantage of your own souls or the Church of God so that you cannot truly and experimentally say It is good for us that we have been afflicted Are not many of you returned the very same men you were onely worse as being more heightned with pride more embittered with envy more enflamed with wrath more enlarged with desire of revenge Atqui cum peccata carnalia plus habeant infamiae spiritualia plus de natura peccati quod sanctus Gregorius ait Ut fama vestrae parcam Latine vos pacciis alloquar Aiunt è vobis esse at spero eos admodum paucos esse qui ventri nimium indulgent mutuo se poculis provecant invitant se plusculum c. An non hoc idem ipsum vitium est quod pientissimus Rex haud feret in eajulo haud feret in tressi agasone Anidem ipsum tulerit in Ministro Dei An non etiam vos illi feciales qui contra haec flagitia moresque vitioses prudentissimi Regis inimicitias indicitis Qua fronte utcunque caperata inhibetis illud quod vita licentiori comprobatis Pudet haec opprobria vobis Et dici potuisse non potuisse refelli Are ye they who are come out of that great tribulation Rev. 7.14 should not then your garments be made white in the blood of the Lamb Should not you be planted in the likeness of his death and so be made also like unto him in his pure innocent and spotless life and resurrection So should you be fit to say in way of thankfulness with that Heavenly Quire Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be unto our God for ever and ever Amen This is an heaventy Doxology when the heavenly life speaks it Otherwise an unholy debaucht and vicious life is the greatest ingratitude especially in a Priest For what honor what glory can be to God what profit is it unto you or to the Church of God that holy hands have been laid upon you and that you be made Priests if by a sinful life you dishonor â—od and that holy function and render your selves unfit for the discharge of it Flatter not your selves not please your selves in that honorable name of Priests and that thereby you have power to binde and loose so that whose sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose sins ye retain they are retained Do you consider what that worthy name imports Is not a Priest such an one as is growen up unto the old age of Christ Ephes 4. And dare you in your nonage while yet you are subject to the sins incident unto the spiritual child-hood and before you are so strong as to overcome the evil one dare you assume to your selves the power of binding and loosing even while you your selves are bound with the chaines of your own sins Can you think that such great works as are binding and loosing are annexed to your persons or to the due qualifications of the Priesthood and such as ought to be in you There is no doubt but as the Priest under the law had skill to put difference between holy and unholy and clean and unclean which he could not do if he drank wine or strong drink before he went into the Tabernacle of the congregation Lev. 10. so neither can the Gospel Priest discern between holy and unholy righteousness and unrighteousness pure and unpure so as to bind or loose if he be drunk with wine wherein is excess or drunk and not with wine Esay 29.9 as with the spirit of opinion O my beloved brethren the Gospel Priest must well understand the nature of sin and corruption and temptation unto sin and the devices of Satan and meanes and ways how to escape them He is the spiritual man who judgeth all things 1 Cor. 2.15 Who knowes the mind of the Lord Rom. 11.34 Who hath the mind of Christ 1 Cor. 2. ult Such a Priest is able and fit to binde and loose as having received the spirit of God and been endued with power from above Otherwise its great boldness and presumption for any man to assume such power unto himself And what my Brethren emboldens you here unto Because you say you are made Priests And therefore you presume to take the Apostles authority for your patern to whom the Lord Jesus said Those sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose sins ye retain they are retained John 20.23 O when shall we deal sincerely and impartially with the holy Scriptures How often do men cite the divine testimonies as the devil alledged part of Psalm 91.11 12. to our Saviour Math. 4.6 Where he leaves out what was most necessary to be understood And in this case of great moment men do the very same For where our Lord saith whose sins ye remit they are remitted c. he premiseth those words Receive the Holy Chost And then immediately follow chose other whose sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose sins ye retain they are retained They therefore who have received the Holy Spirit of God are the fit men for the discharge of the Gospel-Priesthood Wherefore my Brethren boast not of your power but rather pray unto the Lord for his Holy Spirit whereby you may be impowered For our Heavenly Father will not fail to give his Holy Spirit unto those his children who ask him Luke 11.13 and are obedient
unto him Acts 5.32 Nor can the Book of common-Common-prayer though full fraught with Divine Petitions and Praises of God nor your dayly reading of it render you divine or as ye are called Divines unless your selves have a share of what you pray for Do ye not pray that we may hereafter that is after the Confession of sins live a godly righteous and sober life to the glory of Gods holy Name And in the Communion-service do not you put up unto God this large Petition That we may ever hereafter serve and please him in newness of life to the honor and glory of his Name through Jesus Christ our Lord. Yea do you not pray every day that we may fall into no sin nor run into any kinde of danger but that all our doings may be ordered by his governance to do always that which is righteous in his sight through Jesus Christ our Lord Is your charity more fervent toward others than toward your selves Brethren Or is your endeavor less in behalf of your selves than in behalf of others Do you pray that they may live a godly righteous and sober life that they may ever serve and please God in newness of life that they may fall into no sin that they may do always that which is righteous in the Lords sight c. and do you not pray for all these things in behalf of your selves If so whence is the complaint that these things are not found in you that you have but a small part of them For if you prayed for them so that your selves might be partakers of them there is no doubt but our good God would grant your requests because they are according to his will Now this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us And if we know that he hear us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the petitions which we desired of him 1 John 5.14 15. Yea and because you pray not for your selves it is much to be feared that your Prayers are not heard for others For in this sense the Proverb is good and true That Charity begins at home And this is the ground of another Complaint That the Common-prayer is resorted unto by many loose and debaucht persons and I believe it is as true that many close hypocrites resort unto conceived prayers And hence ariseth one of the Presbyterians Invectives against the Book of Common-prayer that like as St. Paul reasons against the weakness of the Ceremonial Law Heb. 10.1 it cannot make the comers thereunto perfect Not that they think it possible that any one should be perfect in this life by what ever power God gives a man their own words in their large Catechism though Christ and his Apostles enjoyn us to be perfect and Epaphras prayeth for the Colossians that they might stand perfect and compleat in all the will of God Colos 4.12 But this is the Presbyterians argumentum ad hominem Howbeit this cannot be imputed unto the Book of Common-prayer that it cannot render men perfect For the defect is not in the prayers which are in commensuration even to the highest perfection as elsewhere so especially where the Church prayeth that we may perfectly love God and worthyly magnifie his holy name But indeed the great defect is in the Comers thereunto or many of them who without due consideration of either prayers or praises turn them over their tongues carelesly and negligently as if the very hearing and reciting of these prayers were the onely true and perfect service of God and think he is pleased with such a performance of it and so they rest in it tanquam in opere operato Yea I have heard it alledged that the Common-prayer is that pure offering whereof the Lord speakes as to be fulfilled among the Gentiles Mal. 1.11 In every place incense shall be offered unto my name and a pure offering Surely by Incense Prayer is understood according to Psalus 141.2 But the pure offering is little understood and less practised even the dayly sacrifice of mortification which is taken away according to Daniels Prophesie Dan. 8.11 12 13. 11.31 Truly what is generally spoken may be applied more properly to the Book of Common-prayer Quaeneglecta vilescunt eadem si considerentur habentur admiratione The method of the Liturgy the Prayers and Praises of God in it because neglected by Presbyters yea and by many Episcopals themselves they are not esteemed but if according to their weight and moment they were duly considered some offences being removed they would provoke pious men of both parties even to admire them So that the principal thing that 's wanting to the Honor of God the good of his Church and the due estimation of the Book of Common-prayer is the Christian life which is required out of it This my brethren procures authority to your Priesthood veneration to your outward Divine Service and due respect unto your Persons Without which neither a Long Cassock nor a Broad Girdle nor affected Gravity of Deportment will avayl any thing at all among wise and good men Ad populum phaleras Not that these are despicable as some vain and ignorant men have thought them but indeed venerable if we consider what they import as we shall understand if we remember our vow in our Baptism which I fear the most of us forget viz. an abremutation of Satan and all his works c. which in the antient Church was expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I renounce Satan And belief of the Gospel and all the articles of the Christian faith and the keeping of Gods commandments all which were comprized in the opposite phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I enroll my self in Christs Matricula or Military Roll. So that the Christian Profession is a kind of warfare and the person baptized promiseth to continue Christs faithful Soldier and servant unto his lives end And this is that which the Priest holds forth in his Sagum or Cassock which was Vestimentum militare a military Garment and so used by the Germans saith Tacitus and it is the same which is in use among most Soldiers at this day Plutarch calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Soldiers garment which saith Nomius he wore above all his other apparel a figure of Charity which must be put on above other Col. 3.14 And because love must be sincere Rom. 12.9 the Christian Soldier must be girded with the girdle of Truth Eph. 4.15 6.14 For the Girdle was a part of the Roman Soldiers armour Cingulum militare the Soldiers Belt a quo arma dependent saith Isidor whereon his other weapons hung Yea when the Israelites came out of Egypt it 's said Exodus 13.18 they went up harnessed the woâ—d is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is properly accincti girded importing thus much That the Israel of God going up out of the Spiritual Egypt must be armed with the whole armour of God