Indisposition in the Body Natural would prove worse than the Disease For as Plato was wont to say To multiply Laws upon every light occasion seeming useful is to cut off Hydra's Head in place of which many will suddainly Spring up Which by the way were to be wished would be duly considered by our States-men who presently finding the Subject in the least Incommoded must make a Law to cut off that Grievance not foreseeing greater Evils ready to break out upon that Law But to return The Case is much different in the Service at the Lords Table and in the Desk when as the first by many is never heard and the Second sometimes not heard by some few Another Objection may be That as for the better hearing the former Part of the Com. Service was brought into the Desk so by the like Reason ought the other Consecrating Part be there also fixed To which my reply is that First this by the Rubrick of that Office was and is left to the Discretion of the Ordinary who hath Power to bring the Com. Table into the Church I suppose when he Sees the Chancel uncapable of so great a Company as is to Communicate Ordinarly Next I Answer That there is a great Disparity in the Cases For when People actually Communicate they are not only Permitted but invited to leave their Remoter Places and Humbly to Present themselves in the Chancel at a Competent distance so that they may heighten their Meditation by beholding and Inflame their Devotions more fully by hearing the Liturgist Officiate But in the first Part this is not Permitted nor would be liked Will you Please to hear the Judgment of Martyn Bucer in his first Chapter of his Censure of the English Service concerning this Point It is very Harsh for one that was much more Gentle then his Fellow Reformers of that time His Words are these Vt enim chorus sit tam procul sejunctus a reliquo Templo in eo tantum Sacra represententur quae tamen ad omnem pertinent Populum Clerumque hoc Antichristianum est I English nothing to you For you know this to be severe And little less is that of Merick Causabon Son of Isaac and Late Prebend of Canterbury in his Treatise of Preaching Pag. 21. If I mistake not Speaking thus However this Occasion being given me I cannot but profess my Great Dislike that the Service and Sermon should be Parted any where the one in one Place and the other in another if it may possibly be avoided Especially at such a distance as it is here with us in the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ in Canterbury I Conceive it one Reason that so few are acquainted and by Consequent not more in Love with the Service I leave this to Consideration But I gather from St. Aug. words in his first Book Contra Epistolam Permeniani Ch. 7. That tho the Priest minister'd in the Chancel yet the People both heard and understood and said Amen to the Prayers as these words Testifie Populus autem cujus ille Sacerdos est adhuc foris gemit Nam cum Episcopus solus intus est Populus orat cum illo quasi subscribens ad ejus Verba Respondet Amen This being within of the Bishop and this foris or without of the People who answered Amen to his Prayers was much different from our Church and Chancel For indeed they seem to be divided not much otherwise than that Place within the Rails from the rest of the Chancel or as myself have seen in some Greek Churches as a Skreen with two Doors divides one Part of an Hall from another which hindered not the People from partaking of what was there within done by the Bishop or Priest But when Zeal toward the most Sacred Place as they judged that wherein the Service of God was specially performed caused men to build Ample Chancels distinct from the Body of the Church to Speak the Plain truth they fell into a Pious Errour and brought great Inconvenience into the Publick Service of God in the Judgment of all those who look upon unknown or unheard of Worship as contrary to true Christian Communion Of the Number of which seeing our Church hath ever Professed it self how can we fairly suppose she should contradict her own Doctrine by her Practice And thus far of my Second Proposition My third and last Proposition for 't is more than time that this Discourse were ended is this That upon Supposition that once it was the real Intention of our Church that no Part of the Second Service even when there was no Communion should be said any where but at the Communion-Table Custom hath both weakned that Law and Interpreted the meaning of the Church so far otherwise that it cannot deserve that odious Name of Conventicling to Read one Part of it in the Desk This I purposely set down thus and directly oppose to the main Column of this Gentlemans Discourse built on the contrary which he farther Buttresseth as I may so Speak with many Inferior Reasons As the unreasonableness of Custom to overthrow a Law For tho saith he well Pag. 6. a Custom not prevented by a Law maketh a Law yet where a Law goeth before inconsistent with the Custom Custom cannot and ought not to Null that Law being not orderly Rescinded Again I give his meaning not sticking to his words it is a Grievous Affront to the Kings Majesty and Authority thus by Custom to be Baffled It is a Great Breach upon the Churches Authority to have her Canons and Orders thus slighted It is an Intolerable Presumption for Private Priests of their own Heads without good Authority to judge of what is Convenient or Inconvenient what is Decent or Indecent what Superstitious or not Superstitious contrary to Publick Decrees and I may add it is the Pest and Ruin of this and all other Established Churches the Pretended Charitable Complyance with pretended tender Consciences of Private Men against the Conscience and maturer Counsels of Superiours All this I acknowledge to be very important and deserving due Consideration Which I shall endeavour to give to it by opening briefly the Power and Nature of Custom not only when there is no Written Law to the contrary but where there is And this I shall do by running through and giving Instances in all sorts of Laws as Civil Common Law with us Canon Law with other Churches as well as ours in all which it will appear what Great Influence and Efficacy Custom hath over them and so no such new notorious or Intolerable thing is said or committed in Custom here predominating over the General Rule here supposed by that worthy Gentleman I shall begin with the Judgment of that Learned Dr. Eaden late Master of Trinity-Hall in Cambridge Inferiour to few of his Time and none of this Nation in knowledge of the Civil Law as I am assured by those that knew him better than I did It being
them but an overruling Power and Providence causing us to let go our hold and vomit up that sweet Morsel we had once swallowed we now address our selves to the Church of England that they would Fairly and Peaceably and Charitably give all again for the asking for and if not all at once by Degrees First granting one thing then another and then a third and so on our Arguments and Reasons being always as valid for what remains as for what shall be yielded to us and we continuing as unquiet and restless until we be possessed of all as we were before any thing was granted to us and this Motive being always obliging Peace and Unity which we promise to keep with them of the Church of England when they shall in this manner become of our Religion O Singular Charity and Divine Moderation I must confess our Author of Moderation a Vertue makes an offer Pag. 23 24. as if he would unriddle this Abstruse Notion and tell us what is Moderation But finding as it should seem the task too hard and dangerous and so hot that it would burn his Fingers and cause him to let go his Pen Writing for it after a flourishing promise he falls quite off from the true Question and Difficulty and leaves it to shift and plead for it self and betakes himself to the Commendation of the great vertue or habit of a Temperate or Moderate Mind and Disposition Which is very fine and laudable but nothing at all to his purpose which was to declare unto us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mediocrity of the thing as the Philosopher speaks He should have told us which was the true Mean in Religion which was the Moderate Worship of God between two vicious Extreams but this he either considered not or more wisely than faithfully avoided For I doubt not whatever he doth but a Papist a Quaker a Presbyterian a Jew a Mahometan may be a very Moderate and well Temper'd Man of mind and Modest but what is this to our choice of our Religion from the Equity of the same and Moderateness And yet this Moderator himself was but little acquainted with this Vertue he commends as may appear by his taking into such rude and ridiculous Consideration a Sermon laying forth the iniquity of Pretenders to such Moderation as he fancies But that I meddle not with as quite from my purpose Yet is it not so Impertinent as his extremities in wringing the Nose of all Canons and Rubricks of the Church which he stomachs with so much and strange violence of interpretation that he forces blood from them According to which Practice we shall never be able to understand one another any longer than we talk together nor then neither our Backs being a little turned and such canvassing used But we supposing that the Constitutions and Canons of the Church tho as in such Cases it must necessarily happen some few may admit of various Constructions were much more clear and intelligible before and without his Scholy than with it we earnestly demand of these Reformers of Reformation and Moderators of Mederation before they so apertly presume to modellize the Church according to their Scantling to give us the true Notion of Moderation in more General Terms than hitherto that we may know better how to accommodate our selves to their Expectations And Secondly that they would set about the work to purpose and prove by good Rules and Authority not their own the worst and weakest of all men that the Church of England as now constituted in all it's Habiliments Rites and Ceremonies is not the most Moderate Church can be produced or instanced in by them Nay I will venture to add one Challenge more If we cannot make it appear upon better Ground that more might be added than any of them shall bring that more should be taken away than is then we will lose our Cause and they shall Triumph with Cause who have hitherto without Cause This we would not have said but that we are perswaded we can do it and that upon this our unquiet and querulous Brethren would cease their Complaints and rest satisfied with the present State of things lest a worse thing happen unto them For tho I approve not that saying which Mr. Baxter notes as most dangerous to them and Notorious nor can I tell but by his Reports ever any such thing was said of Dissenters That if they would not be quiet they should have more things to trouble them Yet I say this according to all indifferent Rules of Judgment it is altogether as reasonable that the Ceremonies of the Church should be more Numerous as they can make it that those we have should be abolished or fewer Lastly we demand of these men if they cannot give us the true and genuine Definition of Moderation they would at least draw up such a Scheme of Religion as shall be accounted by their own Adherents moderate and not extream I confess I have met with a late Pamphlet which seems to aim at such an end bearing this Title The Woe of Scandal shewing the evil of imposing things on mens Consciences Acknowledged to be indifferent This Title imports a closer State of Matters than others but how he manages his Cause I cannot say having not read two Leaves if Pages in it And in truth I saw no Reason why I should had I but little else to do considering how his clearer State of matters is a perverting the whole Controversie This being the truer State of our Differences viz. The Woe of Scandal belonging to all such as refuse to submit to all such things as are acknowledged to be indifferent Lawful Authority and Judges of such matters requiring them But leaving that I return to Moderation a Vertue who in his Appendix against Mr. Hart or T. A. as he calls him would fortifie his loose Sense of Moderation Page 78 79. by a number of eminent and Learned Divines of the Church of England some of them but others professed Enemies thereof until Lucre and Ambition opened their Eyes to dissemble their Nonconformity and who these are I leave the Reader to judge as is very easie and therefore unfit to sway in this matter Others I acknowledge were truly of the Church and yet commended highly Moderation But what kind of Moderation The Vertue not the new Model And that is not at all to his purpose but against the bitter Spirits and strange groundless Animosities of Dissenters who had they their Wills would tear Kings from their Thrones as very lately they have endeavoured and Bishops from their Sees for to put down Ceremonies and think their own Blood and the Blood of others well shed to accomplish these ends as Mr. Jenkins for one hath said Lastly I grant that some Learned and Good men of our Church were much disposed to a Remission of some things Established But I pray upon what Grounds Any taken from the things themselves appointed very rarely do we meet with
knew not before I learnt so much from his Title Page And might have well doubted whether this lover of Moderation that is he knows not what be Resident upon his Cure as he there also professes to avoid the Suspition of the Leader of a Conventicle But in truth he doth not attain this end there being so many ways of Equivocation invented now adaies to seem what men are not and not to seem what they are that 't is not incredible that his Cure may be a gathered Church tho I knowing nothing of that affirm no more than I know But now I apply my self more particularly to O. V. and his Letter to his Friend N. D. both true Sons of the Church of England as they Write themselves But I think they should have added to that Character this Supplement For ought they know For there is great Suspicion that O. V. hath taken some of his Instructions from the Conference of Worcester-House as Printed and Published by the Dissenters where this Sentence of Socrates in his Ecclesiastical History Lib. 5. 23. is made great use of to the same end that is as little purpose as here viz. Those of the same Faith differ as to Custom from one another Can this reach Mr. Hart's Case think we Or so much as prove any such Moderation of Rites and Ceremonies our Church requires This the Conferrers and surely this our Present Vindicator imagined deceived by them in all Probability But they are all much mistaken For Socrates meant nothing less than to countenance or so much as to say that any Church in the Christian World in those or Ancienter Days did ever allow any of their Subordinate Members to differ from the Rules of their Respective Churches or to differ from them in Rites and Ceremonies and least of all in such things which were prescribed them in the Service of God But this is the plain and certain Case between the Church of England and the Dissenters and their Advocates pleading for Moderation and Liberty in things standing determined by their Superiours But Socrates tells us how several Churches of several Nations and Provinces under Coordinate Governours did use their known Liberty in forming the external part of Gods Publick Worship somewhat diversly And doth the Church of England or any of it's Defenders speak write or act otherwise This were indeed blame-worthy but no such thing appears and therefore Mr. Hales of Eaton famous for his Learning might have shewn his Judgement as well as his Reading if he had made no such use of such Instances as these and taught others so to do To this stumble in the very Threshold I might add another Errour charged upon Mr. Hart in the Title Page which pretends Mr. Hart defames the Church of England contrary to the 11th Canon of those 1603. But I find no such Defamation chargeable upon Mr. Hart nor proved by him as is attempted Page 3. The Canon even as quoted by him speaks thus To affirm and maintain that there are within this Realm other Meetings Assemblies or Congregations of the Kings born Subjects than such as by the Laws of this Land are held and allowed which may rightly challenge to themselves the Name of true and Lawful Churches This is all with him but scarce sense without that which follows in the Canon Let him be Excommunicated c. Now the matter is how to bring to this any thing that Mr. Hart says in any place of his Book The most and worst that he hath in all his Book is the Title Parish Churches turned into Conventicles c. Does this at all contradict the Canon mentioned which flatly denies all Assemblies in opposition to our Church to be any true Churches The Canon does not so much as say that the Church of England is the true Church therefore he that should say it is no true Church doth not defame it upon the account of that Canon tho upon others he doth But I cannot think it was ever in Mr. Hart's mind to deny the Church of England to be a true Church but to affirm that such Parish Churches as did deviate from such Prescriptions as he conceived all were obliged to in that particular did Symbolize with Conventicles in which acceptation his meaning is more just and sincere than to be confuted either by your or my Labours And this probably you found by Experience and therefore you more wisely than justly relinquish the true State of the Case and all along fall upon his Person and Qualifications with greatest Scurrilities and Reproaches becoming rather the Son of a Conventicle than a Son of the Church of England which manner of Confutation I have chosen chiefly to except against First you acknowledge him to be a Gentleman you had in my opinion done much more advisedly and peradventure more successfully if you had shewn your self to have been such too by Civil Usage and especially if you be of the Clergy which I neither know nor have enquired after to your Civility you should have added a Degree of Modesty more It may be remembred how above Forty Years ago a Bishop's unadvisedly casting out a word which was drawn to imply a Contempt of Gentlemen it gave such Alarm to many Gentlemen and so Incensed them against that Order if not the Clergy in General that it contributed not a little to their Sufferings It had been Prudence therefore to have been more sparing of your Spittle in that respect And so Secondly as a Barister and Lawyer a Friend and Well-willer to the Church would have omitted the many Taunts and Revilings you have cast upon him as such Do you not consider how much it becomes the Clergy to mitigate the Prejudices that Order are too Subject to against the Church and how powerful they are to strengthen or weaken the Interest of the Church and it's Prosperity Another man not inferiour to you would have found occasion of Gratitude and Praise from whence you raise your reproaches viz. that with honest and sincere mind and good Ingenuity he zealously undertook the Asserting of the Rights and Rites of the Church Wherein if he failed as I my self am of opinion he did tho I cannot say that either I or you have Demonstrated so much it was a laudable intention tending to it's Vindication from private Interpreters of it's Laws and Corrupters too as he judged His severity in drawing such Conclusions from such a supposed Sense gave me occasion to imagine he might be a Lawyer whose property it is to condemn a whole Deed for a Rasure committed in it he conceiving that this omission of the due Performance of the second Service was of that nature But do you think it requisite or tolerable that every ordinary Minister should so modifie his Worship as the Presbyterians in their Books speak or so use their Discretion as in truth rather to follow the Discretion of the Multitude and Common People than their own or the Churches There is not any thing
more unworthy a wise or humble Minister than this knowing that to be true which Seneca saith de Vita Beata Cap. 2. Vulgus veritatis pessimus Interpres The Common sort are the worst Interpreters of truth of all Men yea taking in what there presently followeth Vulgus autem tam Chlamydatum quam Coronam voco I mean saith he by the Vulgar some Robed or Gowned Persons as well as the Rabble and so we Ministers may be in danger to be of the Number and so we are indeed compared with our Governours Once more Seneca in the same Place against Courters of the Common People Argumentum Pessimi Turba est 'T is an Argument the thing is very bad which the Rout approves very much Did you never hear of the Expert Master of Musick who gave his Scholar a Box of the Ear when he took him playing to the Admiration of the Vulgar Presuming he must needs be out and play amiss or the Common Sort would never have liked him so well Which it were to be wished were not too often to be found in Popular Preachers who the worse they Preach the more they are applauded by such People whom Chaucer in his Squires Tale thus describes but too truely As People deemeth commonly Of things that been more Subtilly Then they can in their leudness Comprehend They deemen gladly to the badder end And such are the Judges we commonly choose to be directed by But I pass that and come to a worse reproach than the former by far an Argument of a very mean Understanding and low Spirit in the Accuser viz. That he was once a Papist and tho Converted still looking towards Rome an Imprudent and Unchristian Aspersion 'T is true as I am informed in his greener and younger Days he fell into the Snares of Rome And 't is no less true and more to the honour of our Religion that in his Maturer Judgment and Years returning to himself he returned to the Church of England also and preferring it above all other Faiths or Factions desires nothing more than an exact Observation of her Rules and Manner of divine Worship And this Last it seems so troubles you as it does a great many more such true Protestants which the selate times have produced or rather brought to light to the disgrace of all Reformation that you take Liberty to mock and rail him out of that Conscientious design suspecting the Invalidity of your Argumentations to that end For as we see it to be the crafty Practice of Pilferers and Thieves having stole any thing from their Neighbours the first thing they do is to pull off or deface the Mark that it may not be known to whom it belongs so Phanatically disposed Persons make it their business to tear away the Rites and Ceremonies belonging to and Characterizing the Worship of the Church of England from the Will-Worship of Sectaries that it may become their own without Controul But are such reproaches as you give to one converted to our Religion the best Entertainment and welcome you can afford out of the Penury of your Civility or true Piety Have you a mind to drive him back again and turn him out of Doors by your ill usage Or is this the Encouragement you can give to others to return to us I will here tell you a true story to this purpose which some Seamen with whom some Years since I was embarked told me upon their own knowledge which may suffice to advertize you of your absurdity in reviling Converts for having been in Errour A Moor or Turk was of the Ships Company who had renounced Mahometanisme and became a Christian An ill nurtur'd and malicious Fellow among them bearing him a spite would often be reviling him for his Religion calling him Mahometan and worse To whom the Man answered Ingenuously and Soberly What means this Man to check and reproach me so for having been a Mahometan I was so indeed but now I am as good a Christian as himself It happened about the same time that these things thus passed that there was an occasion for the English Railer to go up to the main top whence he was suddenly hurried away by a Blast of Wind as was supposed being never seen or heard of more Which they told me as an Instance of Gods Judgment upon a Reviler of a Penitent and I tell you But you say He looks towards Rome again How know you that Have you turned his Face that way in Abhorrence of your base Treatment I might so judge but that I am perswaded neither your Evil nor your good Word is of any account with him you should seem rather to be one of the Modernest true Protestants or as the late expression of a dying Man is Sincere Protestant who make all Popishly affected not approving their Prophanations of Gods Service and Seditious Zeal But I suppose you ground your Suspitions from what you here charge him with Irreverence at the Ministers Prayer and Sermon which in one of our Statutes say you whether he knows it or no is called Divine Service by Reading some Book of his own c. And I also am one of those that know not any Statute or Canon where the Sermon is called Divine Service And whatever may be said in large acceptation of Words I am sure it is not so in it's nature and proper use of Divine Worship And I am sure also the Prayer of the Minister in his Pulpit before Sermon is no part of the Service enjoyned but a Will-worship of Mens Private Invention more like to that of Nadab and Abihu than that of the established Worship which Sectaries have been wont so to traduce And if the Gentleman so carried himself at Church at such Private Exercises he offends less against the Constitutions of the Church than they who shew their Gifts rather than their Grace in using them whose Original and Design was to bring the Worship of God appointed by the Church into disgrace and contempt which accordingly Succeeded in late Years And if you plead a Custom as my self do against the Obligation of ministring constantly at the Communion-Table I may answer First this Custom hath not the like Grounds or Reason which it seemeth to me the forbearance of that hath Again Custom may make it Tolerable to do so but not Intolerable or Criminal to let it alone So that if any tender Conscience shall be offended at such strange Fire offer'd to God such a one may notwithstanding Custom modestly declare it's dislike by doing somewhat else not Scandalous in it self And therefore tho the Prayer be beholden to him that shall joyn with him in that Superstitious if as Mr. Cawdry and others of his Strain suppose Superstitio be Supra Statutum and incommanded Worship yet no man can Legally censure him that refuses to hear such Exorbitances And the same may be said of the Psalms Sung in Meeter and Tunes of Private Inventions I confess I have Read lately in the Writings of two Reverend and Learned Divines that it is a Vulgar Errour to say that those Singing Psalms want Lawful Authority But very desirous to know where and what that Authority is I found my self Frustrated and am so small an Antiquary in such abstruse things that I cannot help my self herein But have been sometimes of opinion that if any such Authority there be as those Reverend Persons intimate but instance not in that it must rather belong to another Ancienter and in my Judgment more Pious and Elaborate as to Art and Sense tho no less uncouth in Language Translation in Verse which I have by me and seems to be the Work either of one Man or divers concurring to the same thing and not Patch'd up by several Authors as the Common Singing Psalms are possibly that Ancienter I speak of may be the same which the Author of the Troubles of Eranckford Speaks of who tells us After the Death of Queen Mary the Exiled prepare themselves to depart for England from Geneva save such as stayed to finish the Translation of the Bible and Psalms both in Meeter and Prose Which yet whether they were ever allowed by Authority Istill remain Ignorant And thus I have passed some General Animadversions on the Censurers of Mr. Hart's Book Not intending to call in Question their particular Examinations from which I might have drawn somewhat pertinent to mine own Method of the same Subject But I choose rather to let it pass rudely according to the first and only Draught by me Whereby I suppose that if Mediocrity or Moderation be such a Vertue as it is cryed up for I may in this particular claim that Praise and obstain the Approbation of these Commenders of it Submitting what I say not altogether to them but most of all to such as are over me in the Lord from whose Determination I shall hardly swerve FINIS