form so exactly couch't and fore-thought on as may be fit in an humble manner to be offered up unto the God of Order therefore when we prepare for the House of God we must also prepare in a fitted readiness what we shall have to say unto God when we come before him If for pardon of sin and begging of supplies if for giving of thanks for blessings and mercies received deliverances obtained why all this and whatever we shall or may have need of to put up to God must be seriously and devoutly forethought of to which intent there hath been and is at this very day fitted for our occasional wants holy and profitable Supplies the Divine-Service of the Church planted for a stable Worship and Service to God for ever So that none might rush into his sacred presence and there pour out before the God of Order and Holiness a long and tedious oration the most None-sence These were the common effusions of Olivers Saints Blasphemy and Rebellion with hum's and haw's coughs and impertinent fetches Now God of old to prevent this strange and irregular boldness prescribed a Set-form of Worship that men might not take up that boldness to speak any thing before him rashly especially the Guiders and Pastors of his People And the Lord spake unto Moses saying Speak unto Aaron and his Sons Thus shall they bless the people 1 The Lord bless thee and keep thee Numb 6.24 25 26. 2 The Lord make his face shine upon thee God himself did frame to his Priests the very speech wherewith they were charged to bless his people and be merciful unto thee 3. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace Not leaving the blessing to their own extemporary effusions 't is plain enough known and that beyond the reach of contradiction that the ancient People of God the Jews had a particular Liturgy a Form of Divine-Service extracted out of the Holy Scripture as a constant Service for their approach to God upon all occasions their Benedictions being pen'd by the Masters of their Synagogues See Dr. Hamonds Practic Catech. Now this their Form of Worship as it was ordained for an exact Service to God so was it also intended to prevent the true Religion from all corruption in Doctrine that God might be served in all places with one and the same Order and Form of Divine Worship And as the Jews had their Forms of Divine Service so had and have the Christians also Luke 11.1 John the Baptist taught his Disciples to pray by Form and our blessed Saviour himself left us a Form of Prayer to signifie his allowance of that way of Worship and to prevent all temeritious effusions as also to take off all quarrels that might arise by the spirits of contradictions Our Saviour doth as it were stand up and speak to his Disciples to whom he was to leave the government of his Church after his Ascension my friends to take away all disputes that may be amongst you what kinde of worship my Church shall be served withal when ye pray say Our Father c. Luke 11.2 And as the Christians had their Set-forms of Prayer so had they also their Psalms and Hymns 1 Cor. 14.26 and all to make up a compleat Liturgy Matth. 26.3 For when they had sung a Psalm they went up into the Mountain and as the Jews had their Songs of Moses and Daniel Luke 1.46 so have the Christians the Songs of the Virgin Mary Luke 1.68 Zacharias and Old-Simeon Luke 2.29 And these are those which the Apostles doth so often say 1 Cor. 14 15. I will pray and sing with the Spirit And again Eph. 5.19 in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs making melody to the Lord with my whole heart Now we know that Hymns and Psalms and such kinde of Prayer and Praises are not to be canvised on the sudden but to be premeditated and framed aforehand I but will some say all that St. Paul performed in this kinde he did it by the Spirit he prayed and sung by the Spirit All this we own God forbid else for know he that ventures upon any Form of Prayer or Hymn Psalm or Benediction without a devout and holy Spirit prepared for the work doth rather prattle than pray howl than sing Psalms All Gods Prayers must be prayed with the Spirit or else they fall under the scandal with those that the Apostle so long ago corrects That they use a Form of Godliness but deny the power thereof They therefore do very ill and uncharitable to the sacred Prayers of Gods Church to stigmatize it with that infamy crying of it down that it is barely carried on by Form without any power as if all Service and Devotion dwelt onely upon external performances but they that speak it without book they know not what they say for indeed how dare any take up that boldness to themselves to judge the heart of man when none knows it but God If our Worship be onely formal and hypocritical as many say it is I ask the Question how they know it Our words in our Service are Gods words our gestures and carriages with our habits are decent and comely when we perform our Worship Now what is within us none but God knows for let the worst of our enemies stand and behold our Order they must if they will speak truth When our service is performed with musical voyces devout hearts according to the old Latine verse Non von sed votum non chordula musica sed cor Non clamor sed amor cantat in aure Dei say that surely this is the place where God dwells I must confess we cannot free our Church altogether from sinful Pastors as well as refractory people for there hath always been Mixtura Ecclesiae from the beginning and will so continue Kain and Abel are the Churches Representatives who shows a mixt temper and composition of the Church from the beginning substantial and false-hearted attenders on the Altar of God Aug Ep. 145. Ad huc arca continet corvum columbam Clean and unclean birds the Dove and the Raven are both in the Ark and House of God And this hath been of old and will continue until the great Shepheard shall come and separate the good from the bad till then they feed together in the same pasture But however though there be and must be a mixture of good and bad Ministers and People yet the pure Worship and Service it self is unspotted Prayer and Praises have no errours Humanum est errare but Gods Service hath none And moreover in reference to the foregoing relation it hath been and is always the industrious care of the Fathers of the Church that none should be admitted to holy Orders to attend upon Gods Altar without they did seem and appear to be as well grounded in Grace as Learning that their offerings
least ought so to do to make our confession of what sins we have committed against him 't is but fit considering the foulness of our offences to prostrate our selves upon our knees before the throne of his grace and there acknowledg with tears the pollution of our souls saying we have erred and strayed from thy wayes c. upon which articular acknowledgment the Minister for comfort and consolation doth pronounce Gods proneness to forgive and have mercy upon Submission which being performed and the soul eased by Prayer then to rise with a reverend posture from the Knees with Praises O come let us sing unto the Lord c. upon the ending of those Praises then to place your self decently as in the House of God waiting and receiving with an open Soul those holy instructions from Gods Word that shall be read unto you and first the Psalms of David Gloria Patri being ended then a Lesson out of the old Testament most commonly relating to the antient promises and kindnesses of God to his Church in consideration 't is but meet to give him praise singing or saying that sacred Hymn Te Deum Laudamus We Praise thée O God c. then after a Lesson out of the New Testament declaring the performance of his promised mercy to his Church to sing another Hymn Blessed be the Lord God of Israel c. then stoutly to stand with a direct body as well as an even soul like a true heroick Soldier of God and make a confession of thy Faith speaking with an audible voice I believe in God c. then to bow your self in Prayer before God for divers necessities of humane Nature The Lords Prayer and other invocations with the Letany not onely for your self but for others the King and the whole Kingdom yea even for the converting of your enemies then after a special prayer for Grace and Sanctification the ten Commandements with the Epistles and Gospels being distinctly deliverd unto us the one containing our duty both to God and man the other having aspeciall relation to the work of our redemption See a Peice Printed at Cambridge 1642 called the Protestant Account all and what ever remains of the service of the Church else being in order and due manner plac't for the Glory of Gods Worship and the convenient advantage of his Peoples Souls must needs be approved of from God and all good and Religious men But I know some others wil be apt to say for all this That though the words may be good and the Order plausible yet the length and tediousness of them keeps them longer out of the Church than they would be Oh say some they stop us an unreasonable while from hearing of the Sermon and were it not for this fault we would hear them oftner Why these are strange expressions and too often us'd in this sinful Nation that Prayer and Praises unto God should be counted tedious and irksome this is quite contrary to the Apostles saying Pray continually Now whereas 't is objected that the Prayers of the Church keeps people from the Sermon too long 't is a folly beyond wonder to consider it that ever people should be so ignorant of the excellency of Divine Prayer and Praises which are the golden Keys that open and shut the gates of Heaven that wrestle with God and command his mercy down as it were that this Sacred Worship should be jostled out of the Church or at least so little set by that Preaching a thing that hath been more commoner in our age to savour of wit and humour than any true devotion should be prefer'd before it I must confess I have been always God forbid I should deny the Ordinance of sound Preaching but the abuse of it I abhor from my heart when Sermons leds people to Heaven Oh then they are good but when they direct for Hell when murder and Rebellion is the Theame of the Pulpit and confused Extravagancy the whole matter that 's raised from it then to hate such Preaching is commendable why this was the preaching of the late times and too many I am afraid use it still this was the vomits of the Pulpit when that wretch Peters assum'd the Chair of Canterbury and am still a Lover of true Preaching but not at all of that which many call and would have pass for preaching to name a text and then to talk any thing that comes uppermost from it either to run so far from the text as never to come near it after once nam'd or to crow'd so close to it as to screw it beyond its height making the true word of God to speak that which it never intended certainly such preaching as this must much abuse the word of God the Hearers and their owne souls that vent it when as a neat quaint and zealous exposition upon the words is commendable with allowance to Paraphrase with sincerity trueth neither wresting the word from its intended scope or drift nor assuming to be so bold as to think by your Comments you have outstript and gone beyond the word of God as well for worth of matter as excellency of stile this were an abominable arrogancy and yet this is a crime too frequently entertain'd abroad to esteem Calamy and Baxters prating before Gods word alas they conceive that these men have outdone Christ and his Apostles for preaching to the purpose the common consequence confirms this for many had rather go five miles to hear one of these fellows talk frightful whimsies from their own brains than to go one quarter of a mile to hear our Saviour Christs Sermon which he preacht on the Mount Matthew 5.1 Acts 2.37 Peters converting Sermon to the Jews with other of Christ's and his Apostles works The holy Testament which being read unto us with a pure heart and we receiving of it with the same undoubtedly it is the onely preaching of all preaching that doth most good for what can be safer to be preach't than Gods pure Word which is able to make us wise unto Salvation and though expositions have crept into esteem amongst some yet I think that Christ and his Apostles Sermons left for our instructions are to be approved on before all other works of those that love God And next to the holy Bible the Service of the Church pleads for preheminence before any thing that shall appear for Service before God for know that Prayer and Praises are the essentiall Worship of God it is the Coyne of Heaven it answereth all things it pleaseth God and pleaseth Man we have no other way to come unto God but by Prayer through our Lord Jesus Christ Prayer brings us into his presence and shews us the light of his countenance if God be angry with us Prayer pacifies him and makes all well again if we are in sorrow Prayer comforts us see this in Hannah a woman of a sorrowful Spirit Prayer maks her look Chearful If we are in
the Solemn Actions of Royalty and Justice ornaments to beautifie and set them forth and shall we only in actions of Religion account ornaments a stain and blemish did we make wearing the Surplice at Divine-Service a scruple in point of conscience that if we left it off and not use it it would incurre our damnation it might then prove a stumbling-block to many but since it is received into the Church worne and made use of as a thing indifferent yet by reason of the command of more necessity for comliness sake in Gods House to be used than not I hope then without any offence it being thus receiv'd into the Church it may still continue I know some will object We have no Scripture for the receiving of it into our Church 't is true we have no Scripture to warrant it in particular express words nor none to disallow it 't is of no great consequence whether we have or no for we use it not as an express command from Gods own mouth but as an indifferent Ceremony instituted by the Fathers of the Church for comeliness sake and not so strictly injoyned as it is imagined and indeed I suppose it is not necessary that we should have in Scripture express mention of these particular things we use in the Church for this general is enough to know by Faith that things indifferent cannot harm them that are of a pure heart But though we have not any Scripture that commends it to us or any Scripture that disallows it to us yet we may finde in Ecclesiastical Histories reasonable satisfaction that the Ministers of God since the Law as well as when the Law was in force have diversities of garments to distinguish them from the Laity as for their decency in their approach to God Saint John the Apostle at Ephesus wore a garment call'd Petalum Petalius Seu. Lamina St Chrysistom Tertullian Cyprian the Martin Pontius the Deacon testifieth that when he was within a while to suffer death gave his Barum to the Executioner his garment of Dalmatia unto the Deacons and stood in his linnen garment St Chrysistom Eusebius Tertullian and other ancient Writers makes mention of the white garments that the Ministers wore in the Church of old which doth plainly confirm that the Surplice hath been of ancient use in the House of God I and that too before the tyranny of Popedom though many say we fetch it from thence But say the Surplice or White Robe had been first invented by the Pope I cannot be perswaded if it had been so that the impiety of Popedom is such Peter Martâ—y in a letter to an English Bishop that whatever she touches she defiles and polutes whereby good men may not be allow'd to put into holy uses any thing that her fingers have toucht Now this were a burthen too intolerable for the Church of God to bear certainly without harm this garment may be us'd in the Church provided it be worn and made use of with that respect we allow to it and no other ways for order and decency sake and not with any superstitious and idolatrous intent It is easie to diserne how willingly men of itching ears and perverse mindes are drawn and kept back from Gods pure worship by the smallest of dislikes men stampt after the old Proverb that stumble at a straw and leap over a block that are so blinded by the Spirit of contradiction and aversness to that which is good they think no way straight but their crooked ways a sort of refractory people spawn'd by the seed of blasphemy and rebellion that had rather see Hewson in the Pulpit with a blew apron than Reverend Laud in the Desk with a Surplice an opinion as preposterous as the authors men guided and steer'd as ships in a dark night before the use of the Compass was found out by the rule of rambling and dangerous uncertainty for how many of poor ignorant souls that know little or nothing of true Religion that speak evil of matters out of their reach and capacity more from a common received prejudice from others opinion than any true experience of their own crying down most of those things that they do by the hear-say of others for I am perswaded that there is not one in ten of these people that are so inveterate against the Ceremonies of the Church especially this innocent Ceremony of the Surplice that have ever weighed their dislike against them or it in the scale of a moderate and discreet Reason but at random abhor that which for ought they know if they did but seriously examine the matters by charitable constructions they might like esteem and approve of those things which now they hate and abhor for this is too evident amongst many that they pin all their Religion like or dislike upon the monstrous productions of the giddy-headed multitudes taking their faith on trust from those that have either invented it themselves or borrowed it of they do not know whom not considering or consulting with truth whether it may be safe to adhere to or no which indeed is the evident cause of those miserable Shipwracks that Heresie and Schism involves men into daily Indeed did this Ceremony of wearing the Surplice by being received into the Church thrust or jostle out any of the Worship or lessen the pure Service of God or that it tended to any idolatrous use that the people were to worship it and to believe that without it no good could be done then it were matter of sufficient objection and denial but being onely ordained brought in and received into Gods House for matter of order and decency I think it should not appear so odious as it doth to many 'T was the advice of Diogenes the Tub Philosopher that when we heard a man speak evil of another before we gave credit to the words he spake we should consider whether he that spake them had a prejudice or no against the party he accused intimating that his word ought not to be credited that speaks out of prejudice therefore when we consider the enemies of the Church the little kindness they have to the Order thereof of which God is the Founder we know and are confidently certain that their inveterate venemous speeches against the Decency as well as the Absolute Worship is not out of any zealous consideration but from a hellish and willful uncharitable gainsaying being too common like the argument of some silly women that will be obstinate against truth and reason because they will be obstinate 't were happy for many that they did not make it their business as they do to cavil about the Ceremonies of the Church for while their whole time is taken up in speaking against the Garments of Christ it is to be feared they lose the Divinity of Christ for commonly envy and prejudice it fills the soul so full that it leaves little room for ought else besides take any of the haters of Gods Worship and Order they that spake most against it those forsooth will pretend that they are the most purely religious not considering that the Apostle James saith That he that bridleth not his tongue his Religion is in vain I could wish that all animosities taken up upon such grounds as these may die for it is a shame to Christianity and true protestant Religion that we that pretend to serve the Lord of meekness should delight in nothing better than quarrels and disturbances and that too commonly about matters against which can be given no substantial reason for shame leave off all childish and wilful perverseness and be instructed come into Gods House and imbrace the truth and with a charitable construction view these Ceremonies understandingly and you will finde them rather helps than hinderances rather Ornaments to beautifie the Church than polutions to stein or blemish her I am afraid there are some that when time was spoke so much against the Church and her orderly decencies when gain and rebellion prompt them on to what they did that they are now ashamed to read their lesson backward although in conscience they know they are wrong and ought so to do Oh what a wickedness it is to live wilfully in a known opposition to the truth to deny those things which they know are very truth indeed Come come for shame give no more occasion to Satans predominancy the Devil rejoyceth at the disorderly confusion that he sees amongst you Satan laughs and Babylon keeps holy-day both hoping and desiring the downfall of Protestant Religion and undoubtedly that which they desire will come upon you and us without a speedy unity according to that saying of Christ A house and City that is divided against it self cannot stand this is infallible and we must expect no other without an uniform assent to the â—â—uth published in our Liâ—urgy FINIS