Apostles be called Epistles and read as such 15. That whereas throughout the several offices the phrase is such as presumes all persons within the Communion of the Church to bee regenerated converted and in an actual state of Grace which had Ecclesiastical Discipline been truly and vigorously executed in the exclusion of scandalous and obstinate sinners might bee better supposed But there having been and still being a confessed want of that as in the Liturgy is acknowledged it cannot bee rationally admitted in the utmost latitude of Charity Wee desire that this may bee reformed 16. That whereas orderly connection of Prayers and of particular Petitions and Expressions together with a competent length of the forms used are tending much to Edification and to gain the reverence of people to them There appears to us too great a neglect of both of this order and of other just Laws of Method Particularly 1. The Collects are generally short many of them consisting but of one or at most two sentences of Petition and these generally ushered in with a repeated mention of the Name and Attributes of God and presently concluding with the Name and Merits of Christ whence are caused many unnecessary intercisions and abruptions which when many Petitions are to bee offered at the same time are neither agreeable to Scriptural Examples nor suited to the gravity and seriousness of that holy duty 2. The Prefaces of many Collects have not any clear and special respect to the following Petitions and particular Petitions are put together which have not any due order nor evident connection one with another nor suitableness with the occasions upon which they are used but seem to have fallen in rather casually than from an orderly contrivance It is desired that instead of those various Collects there may bee one Methodical and intire form of Prayer composed out of many of them 17. That whereas the Publick Liturgy of a Church should in reason comprehend the sum of all such sins as are ordinarily to bee confessed in prayer by the Church and of such petitions and thanksgivings as are ordinarily by the Church to bee put up to God and the Publick Catechisms or Systems of Doctrine should summarily comprehend all such Doctrines as are necessary to be beleeved and these explicitly set down The present Liturgy as to all these seems very defective Particularly 1. There is no preparatory Prayer in our addresse to God for Assistance or Acceptance yet many Collects in the midst of the Worship have little or nothing else 2. The Confession is very defective not clearly expressing original sin nor sufficiently enumerating actual sins with their aggravations but consisting only of generals Whereas Confession being the exercise of Repentance ought to bee more particular 3 There is also a great defect as to such forms of publick praise and Thanksgiving as are suitable to Gospel-worship 4 The whole body of the Common-prayer also consisteth very much of meer generals as To have our prayers heard To bee kept from all evil and from all enemies and all adversity that wee may do Gods will without any mention of the particulars in which these generals exist 5 The Catechisme is defective as to many necessary Doctrines of our Religion some even of the essentials of Christianity not mentioned except in the Creed and there not so explicite as ought to bee in a Catechisme 18 Because this Liturgie containeth the imposition of divers Ceremonies which from the first Reformation have by sundry Learned and Pious men been judged unwarrantable as 1 That Publick Worship may not bee celebrated by any Minister that dare not wear a Surpless 2 That none may Baptize nor bee Baptized without the transient image of the Cross which hath at least the semblance of a Sacrament of Humane Institution being used as an ingageing signe in our first and solemne Covenanting with Christ and the duties whereunto wee are really obliged by Baptisme being more expresly fixed to that airy sign than to this holy Sacrament 3 That none may receive the Lords Supper that dare not kneel in the act of receiving but the Minister must exclude all such from the Communion although such kneeling not only differs from the practice of Christ and of his Apostles but at least on the Lords day is contrary to the practice of the Catholick Church for many hundred years after and forbidden by the most Venerable Councils that ever were in the Christian world All which Impositions are made yet more grievous by that subscription to their lawfulness which the Canon exacts and by the heavy punishment upon the non-observance of them which the Act of Uniformity inflicts And it being doubtful whether God hath given power unto men to institute in his Worship such mystical Teaching signs which not being necessary in genere fall not under the Rule of doing all things decently orderly and to edification and which once granted will upon the same reason open a door to the Arbitrary Imposition of Numerous Ceremonies of which St. Augustine complained in his daies and the things in controversie being in the judgement of the Imposers confessedly indifferent who do not so much as pretend any real goodness in them of themselves otherwise than what is derived from their being imposed and consequently the Imposition ceasing that will cease also and the Worship of God not become indecent without them Whereas on the other hand in the judgement of the Opposers they are by some held sinful and unlawful in themselves by others very inconvenient and unsuitable to the simplicity of Gospel-Worship and by all of them very grievous and burthensome and therefore not at all fit to bee put in ballance with the Peace of the Church which is more likely to be promoted by their removal than continuance Considering also how tender our Lord and Saviour himself is of weak Brethren declaring it much better for a man to have a mill-stone hanged about his neck and bee cast into the depth of the Sea than to offend one of his little ones And how the Apostle Paul who had as great a Legislative Power in the Church as any under Christ held himself obliged by that Common Rule of Charity not to lay a stumbling block or an occasion of offence before a weak Brother chusing rather not to eat flesh whiles the world stands though in it self a thing lawful then offend his Brother for whom Christ died Wee cannot but desire that these Ceremonies may not be imposed on them who judge such Impositions a Violation of the Royalty of Christ and an impeachment of his Laws as in insufficient and are under the holy awe of that which is written Deut. 12. 32. What thing soever I command you observe to do it Thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it but that there may bee either a total abolition of them or at least such a liberty that those who are unsatisfied concerning their lawfulness or expediency may not bee compelled to the
justly except against it but that de facto the Romanists never charged it with any positive Errours is an Assertion that maketh them reformed and reconcileable to us beyond all belief Is not the very using it in our own Tongue a positive Errour in their account Is it no positive Errour in the Papists account that we profess To receive these Creatures of Bread and Wine Do they think we have no positive Errour in our Catechism about the Sacrament that affirmeth it to be Bread and Wine a ter the Consecration and makes but two Sacraments necessary c. 2. And unless we were nearlier agreed then we are it seemeth to us no Commendation of a Liturgie that the Papists charge it with no positive Errour 3. That no Divines or private men at home or of forraign Churches that ever found fault with the Liturgie are such to whom the name of Protestant properly belongeth is an Assertion that proveth not what authority of Judging your Brethren you have but what you assume and commendeth your Charity no more then it commendeth the Papists that they deny us to be Catholicks Calvin and Bucer subscribed the Augustine Consession and so have others that have found fault with our Liturgie 4. If any of us have blamed it to the people it is but with such a sort of blame as we have here exprest against it to your selves and whether it be unlawful and sinful the impartial comparing of your words with ours will help the willing Reader to discern But if we prove indeed that it is defective and faulty that you bring for an Offering to God when you or your Neighbours have a better which you will not bring nor suffer them that would Mal. 1. 13. and that you call evil good in justifying its blemishes which in humble modesty we besought you to amend or excuse us from offering then God will better judge of the unlawful act then you have done But you have not proved that all or most of us have caused the people at all to dislike it if any of us have yet weigh our Argument though from the present state of Affairs or if you will not hear us we beseech you hear the many Ministers in England that never medled against the Liturgy and the many moderate Episcopal Divines that have used it and can do still and yet would earnestly intreat you to alter it partly because of what in it needs alteration and partly in respect to the Commodity of others Or at least we beseech you recant and obliterate such passages as would hinder all your selves from any Act of Reformation hereabout that if any man among you would find fault with some of the grosser things which we laid open to you tenderly and sparingly and would â—eform them he may not presently forfeit the reputation of being a Protestant And astly we beseech you deny not again the name of Protestants to the Priâ—ate of Ireland the Archbishop of York and the many others that had divers meetings for the Reformation of the Liturgie and who drew up that Catalogue of faults or points that needed mending which is yet to beseen in print they took not advantage of their own unwarrantable Acts for the attempting of that alteration The third and fourth Proposals may go together the demand in both being against Respensals and alternate Readings in Hymnes and Psams and Lâ—tâ—â—y c. And that upon such reason as doth in truth enforce the necessity of continuing them as they are namely for edification They would take these away because they do not edifie and upon that very reason they shâ—uld continue because they do edifie if not by informing of our reasons and understandinâ—s the Prayers and Hymns were never made for a Catechism yet by quicâ—ning continuing and uniting our devotion which is apt to fâ—eeze or sleep â—r â—â—at in a lâ—ng continued Prayer or Fâ—rm it is necessary therefore for the edifying of us therein to be often called upon and awaâ—â—ned by frecuent Amens to be excited and stirred up by mutuâ—l exultations prâ—vocations petitions holy câ—ntentions and strivinâ—s which shall mâ—st shâ—w his â—wn and stir up others zeal to the Glory of God For this purpose alternate Reading Repetitions and Responsals are far better than a long tedious Prâ—yer Nor is this â—â—r opiniâ—â— onely but the Judgement of former ages as appears by the practise of antient Christian Churches and of the Jews also But it seems they say to be against the Scripture wherein the Minister is appointed for the people in publick Prayers the peoples part being to attend with sâ—lence and to declare their assent in the close by saying Amen if they mean that the people in publick Services must onely say this word Amen as they can no where prove it in the Scriptures so it doth certainly seem to them that it cannot be proved for they directly practise the contrary in one of their principal parts of Worship singing of Psalms where the people bear as great a part as the Minister If this may be done in Hopkins why not in Davids Psalms If in Metre why not in Prose if in a Psalm why not in a Letany What is most for edification is best known by experience and by the reason of the thing for the former you are not the Masters of all mens experience but of your own and others that have acquainted you with the same as theirs We also may warrantably profess in the name of our selves and many thousands of sober pious persons that we experience that these things are against our edification and we beseech you do not by us what you would not do by the the poor labouring servants of your family to measure them all their dyet for quality or quantity according to your own appetites which they think are diseased and would be better if you work'd us as hard as they and we gave you some of the Reasons of our Judgement 1. Though we have not said that the people may not in Psalms to God concur in voice we speak of Prayer which you should have observed and though we onely concluded it agreeable to the Scripture-practise for the people in prayer to say but their Amen yet knowing not from whom to understand the will of God and what is pleasing to him better then from himself we considered what the Scripture saith of the ordinary way of publick Worship and finding ordinarily that the people spoke no more in prayer as distinct from Psalms and Praise then their Amen or meer consent we desired to imitate the surest pattern 2. As we finde that the Minister is the mouth of the people to God in publick which Scripture and the necessity of order do require so we were loath to countenance the peoples invading of that sacred Office so far as they seem to us to do 1. By reading half the Psalms and Hymnes 2. By saying half the Prayers as the Minister doth the other half 2. By
to make Profession of known or suspected falshood as to put in practise unlawful or suspected actions 2. Further we humbly desire that it may be seriously considered that as our first Reformers out of their great wisdome did at that time so compose the Liturgy as to win upon the Papists and to draw them into their Church-Communion by varying as little as they well could from the Romish forms before in use so whether in the present constitution state of things amongst us wee should not according to the same Rule of Prudence and Charity have our Liturgy so composed as to gain upon the judgements and affection of all those who in the substantials of the Protestant Religion are of the same perswasions with our selves Inasmuch as a more firm union and consent of all such as well in Worship as in Doctrine would greatly strengthen the Protestant interest against all those dangers and temptations which our intestine Divisions and Animosities do expose us unto from the common Adversary 3. That the Repetitions and Responsals of the Clerk and People and the alternate reading of the Psalms and Hymns which cause a confused murmure in the Congregation whereby what is read is less intelligible and therefore unedifying may be omitted The Minister being appointed for the people in all publick services appertaining unto God and the Holy Scriptures both of the Old and New Testament intimating the peoples part in publick prayer to be only with silence and reverence to attend thereunto and to declare their consent in the cloze by saying Amen 4. That in regard the Letany though otherwise containing in it many holy petitions is so framed that the petitions for a great part are uttered only by the people which wee think not to be so consonant to Scripture which makes the Minister the mouth of the people to God in prayer the particulars thereof may be composed into one solemn prayer to be offered by the Minister unto God for the people 5. That there be nothing in the Liturgy which may seem to countenance the Observation of Lent as a Religious Fast the example of Christs fasting forty daies and nights being no more imitable nor intended for the imitation of a Christian than any other of his miraculous works were or than Moses his forty daies fast was for the Jews And the Act of Parliament 5. Eliz. forbidding abstinence from flesh to bee observed upon any other than a politick consideration and punishing all those who by preaching teaching writing or open speeches shall notifie that the forbearing of flesh is of any necessity for the saving of the soul or that it is the service of God otherwise than as other politick Laws are 6. That the Religious Observation of Saints-daies appointed to be kept as Holy-daies and the Vigils thereof without any foundation as wee conceive in Scripture may be omitted That if any be retained they may be called Festivals and not Holy-Daies nor made equal with the Lords-day nor have any peculiar service appointed for them nor the people bee upon such daies forced wholly to abstain from work And that the names of all others now inserted in the Calender which are not in the first and second books of Edward the sixth may be left out 7. That the gift of Prayer being one special Qualification for the work of the Ministry bestowed by Christ in order to the Edification of his Church and to bee exercised for the profit and benefit thereof according to its various and emergent necessity It is desired that there may bee no such imposition of the Liturgy as that the exercise of that gift bee thereby totally excluded in any part of publick worship And further considering the great age of some Ministers and infirmities of others and the variety of several services oft-times concurring upon the same day whereby it may bee inexpedient to require every Minister at all times to read the whole It may bee left to the discretion of the Minister to omit part of it as occasion shall require which liberty wee finde to bee allowed even in the first Common Prayer-Book of Edward 6. 8. That in regard of the many defects which have been observed in that version of the Scriptures which is used throughout the Liturgy manifold instances whereof may bee produâ—ed as in the Epistle for the first Sunday after Epiphany taken out of Romans 12. 1. Bee yee changed in your shape And the Epistle for the Sunday next before Easter taken out of Philippians 2. 5. Found in his Apparel as a man as also the Epistle for the fourth Sunday in Lent taken out of the fourth of the Galathians Mount Sinai is Agar in Arabia and bordereth upon the City which is now called Jerusalem The Epistle for St. Matthews day taken out of the second Epistle of Corinth and the 4th Wee go not out of kind The Gospel for the second Sunday after Epiphany taken out of the second of John When men bee drunk The Gospel for the third Sunday in Lent taken out of the 11th of Luke One house doth fall upon another The Gospel for the Annunciation taken out of the first of Luke This is the sixth month which was called barren and many other places wee therefore desire instead thereof the New Translation allowed by Authority may alone bee used 9. That inasmuch as the holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation to furnish us thorougly unto all good works and contain in them all things necessary either in Doctrine to be beleeved or in Duty to bee practised whereas divers chapters of the Apocryphal Books appointed to bee read are charged to bee in both respects of dubious and uncertain credit It is therefore desired that nothing bee read in the Church for Lessons but the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament 10. That the Minister bee not required to rehearse any part of the Liturgy at the Communion-Table save only those parts which properly belong to the Lords Supper and that at such times only when the said holy Supper is administred 11. That as the word Minister and not Priest or Curate is used in the absolution and in divers other places it may throughout the whole Book bee so used instead of those two words and that instead of the word Sunday the word Lords-Day may bee every where used 12. Because singing of Psalms is a considerable part of publick worship wee desire that the Version set forth and allowed to bee sung in Churches may bee amended or that wee may have leave to make use of a purer Version 13. That all obsolete words in the Common-Prayer and such whose use is changed from their first significancy as Aread used in the Gospel for the Monday and Wednesday before Easter Then opened hee their wits used in the Gospel for Easter Tuesday c. may bee altered unto other words generally received and better understood 14. That no portions of the Old Testament or of the Acts of the