in five of which he most grosly abuses him The first is That all Reformed Churches have Liturgies This I say follows not from any words of Capellus if Mr. Durell say it doth his Logick is his own let him make use of it The second is That the Liturgy of the Church of England is judged by this great man to be not onely pure and free from all Popish Superstition and Idolatry but also from all such things as were onerous and troublesome or which did contribute but little to the Edification of the Church as well as other Reformed Churches Twenty Cart-ropes will not pull this observation out of Capellus his words He onely speaks of the Liturgy made by the first Reformers of our Church which vastly differs from the present Liturgy that Mr. Durell takes upon him to defend The third Observation is of all most marvellous thus worded If these Liturgies ought to recede as little as possible from that of the Primitive Church as he doth intimate undoubtedly the Liturgy of the Church of England is the best and most perfect of them all If Mr. Durell will have this observed we will observe it as the issue of an over-confident fancy yet humbly praying that he would allow us to think that this observation hath no relation in the world to any words of Capellus If he may be judge our Liturgy differs more from the Primitive Liturgies then the Liturgy of any Reformed Churches for he sayes Primitive Liturgies were most brief and most simple consisting of a few prayers c. Now if we should grant our Liturgy to be very simple certainly it is not very brief nor does it consist of but a few Prayers let Mr. Durell officiate according to it Morning and Evening which I never knew any Conformist to do and I will be bold to say his Sermons afterwards shall not be over tedious The fourth Observation is That of all who call themselves Reformed the Presbyterians are the first that ever left off the use of set Forms of Prayer Capellus hath not the word Presbyterians in his work nor am I certain whom Mr. Durell understands by them perhaps he means the English Presbyterians but how came they to be Presbyterians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Capellus was too wise a man to say that they were the first that left off set Forms of Prayer he knew well enough unless he onely was a stranger in Israel that many years before the Assembly met at Westminster set Forms of Prayer had been laid aside and condemned as unlawful by huge multitudes who were angry with the old meer Nonconformist because he would not seperate from the English Church as well as endeavour a Reformation of some things The fifth Observation is That the many reasons for which the Presbyterians had rejected the Common-Prayer Book are very light and almost of no moment at all 'T is true that Capellus hath written something to this purpose but it is the same Capellus who hath written so many bug-bear words against our English Bishops in his Theses de descrimine Episcopi Presbyteri de vario Ecclesiae regimine the former Theses he concludes thus That there was no cause why the Bishops and their Patrons should so greatly insult and onely not grow insolent against those whom invidiously they called Puritans and Presbyterians And let it be observed that if the Presbyterians had onely reproved and not cashiered the Common-Prayer Book their Reasons might have been sufficient notwithstanding any thing Capellus saith to the contrary Sixthly Mr. Durell would have it observed That the Presbyterians themselves who are the known Authors of the Directory are in Capellus his Judgment a froward peevish and superstitous Generation of men Capellus does indeed call the Composers of the Directory morose and froward but seems unwilling to call them superstitious and the same Capellus had commended them for shaking off the Yoke of Episcopacy in his Theses de Vario Ecclesiae regimine Sect. 24. Let Mr. Durell when he puts out next English these words for they seem framed according to the Heart of the Presbyterians and let him then also tell us why he calls the Presbyterians the known Authors of the Directory That Assembly that presented the Directory to the two Houses was as to most of its Members when first called Hierarchical and under an Oath of Canonical obedience there are not very many of them living at present of them diverse conform and are as deeply engaged to use Liturgical worship as Mr. Durell himself let him therefore when he has opportunity enquire of them whether they consented to have the Liturgy cashiered and how they came to fall in love with it again and what made them so fearful least the old subscription should choak us when as they themselves can swallow these new ones that are far bigger and more bulky By this time I hope it is come to my turn to make some observations upon the Theses of Capellus and my Observations may be the fewer because I have already suggested so many and the first thing I observe is That the men against whom Capellus was so not could not be the English Presbyterians unless they were falsly represented to him for these are his words pag. 710 711. They with whom we have to do bewray a manifest enough hatred against Formula's of Symbols or Confessions of Faith and of Catechism and the both antient and recent use and custome of them received in the Christian Church If these are the men he had to deal with then had he nothing to do with the English Presbyterians no men having more contended for Confessions of Faith and Catechisms in set words than they Secondly I observe that he represents himself and his fellow Professors as not condemning or inhibiting a free use of Prayers composed by Ministers themselves Nay these are his words pag. 713. We plainly think it both lawful and consentaneous that they who can do it should discover their gift and industry in praying as in preaching this onely we will that the use of such prayers ought not to hinder the Liturgy constituted by publick Authority and to take away and abrogate all use of it out of the Church And a little after he adds We deservedly condemn the rigour of those who under pretext of a praescript Form of Liturgy do study to eliminate out of the Church all use of Prayers conceived by Ministers themselves Let Mr. Durell consider whether this Damnatory sentence do not fall upon many of his own Patrons and Abettours Thirdly I observe that when the Professor comes to contract what he had said he determines concerning Formula's as if Smectymnuus had too much influenced him for he saith first That they are not absolutely in every time and place and with all men necessary because the Christian Church wanted them for some time and it does not appear from sacred or exotick History whether the Jewish Church did not want them before Christ and
John Rogers a very rigid Nonconformist did greatly animate Bishop Ridly as he himself acknowledges I please not my self in these comparisons should not have made them had not Mr. Durell's pen dropt somwhat a foul blot upon the name of Bishop Hooper's friend Peter Martyr whom he will needs represent to be so simple as to scruple the Cap because of its Mathematicalness But he was too wise to scruple the Cap on any such account And hath better deserved of the English Church than that he should so many years after his death be so flouted at as also Bishop Hooper should have had more reverence shew'd him than to be charged as he is pag. 239. with a strange weakness for sticking at our Ceremonies Let us now see how well Mr. Durell hath acquitted himself about forms of Prayer It must be acknowledg'd he hath sufficiently prov'd from the Testimonies of Reformed Divines that forms of Prayer of humane composition are not unlawful but the same thing had been long ago proved to his hand by a Nonconformist Minister Mr. John Ball in his Discourse against Separation as also by Dr. John Hoornbek in his Epistle touching Independency so that I cannot wel tel what it was that made Mr. Durell so copious on this subject unless he thought it wisdom to drive that nail which would go I do assure him I never yet met with a Presbyterian that thought forms of Prayer unlawful or that thought it simply unlawful for a Church to agree upon forms of Prayer to be used by Ministers in the Publick Congregation But if he can either prove that it is lawful for the Church to allow her Ministers no Liberty to use their own gifts for Prayer in the Publick or prove that our English Church hath left her Ministers any such Liberty then shall he do Knight-service In the first undertaking he will have the Presbyterians his adversaries In the second he will have Dr. Heylin and many others as Canonical as himself to cope with I have heard a Presbyterian disputing against sundry Passages in the Common-Prayer Book and wondring why the Convocation should tye all Colledges and Halls to make use thereof without any omission or alteration when as there is not in the whole Book any one Petition for the Universities and I was heartily troubled that I had not wherewith to remove my Friends admiration But had I ever heard him say that a Form of Prayer was a breach of the second Commandment I should have pittied his Ignoranc as I unfeignedly do the Ignorance of all those who account it any glory to a Reformation to leave in it no helps for some Ministers Infirmities In this number cannot be placed either the Assembly of Divines or the two Houses of Parliament that convened them They both intended the Directory that Ministers might if need were have some help and furniture in their Administrations and truly it was so sufficient an help and furniture that he who needed other could scarce be thought worthy to be a servant of our Lord Jesus Christ in the work of the Ministry Here I must be pardon'd if I reprove the presumption of Mr. Durell who trembles not pag. 3. to lay to the charge of Lords and Commons and Assembly of Divines the delivering of manifest untruths The untruths are there said to be First That the Common Prayer Book had prov'd an offence to the Reformed Churches abroad Secondly That it was abolish'd to answer the expectations of other Reformed Churches I say those are no untruths The Common-Prayer Book had proved an offence to the Reformed Churches abroad Apollonius hath signified so much in reference to the Walachrian Churches and others as famous as Apollonius have given us to understand as much in relation to the Churches of which they were Ministers as the Latine Apologist hath too plainly proved and can any one imagine that some Ceremonies prescribed in the Liturgy were not an offence to Martyr and Zanchy Perhaps those learned men did not count them simply unlawful but certainly they were offended with them and wisht them remov'd Was it no offence to any Reformed Churches that so many Legends out of the Apocrypha were appointed to be read in our Temples No offence to Reformed Churches that Infants Baptized were affirmed to to be undoubtedly saved Less colour is there to say there was a manifest untruth in asserting that the Common-Prayer Book was taken away to answer the expectation of other Reformed Churches For it is notorious that the Churches of Scotland and New-England did expect from the Parliament the abolition of the Liturgy and certainly they might with propriety enough be called other Reformed Churches if none besides them had expected the said abolition as we can prove some others did I must also crave leave to censure the Manifesto of Mr. Durell publisht with a Noverint universi Let all the world know that there never was nor is yet any Reformed Church that hath onely a Directory and not a Book of Common-Prayer for the publick worship of God I ask were there no Reformed Churches in the times of the Apostles or men Apostolical I trow there were Yet it is certain saith Capellus that then there was no Prescript Form of Liturgy nor doth that Author give us any notice of any Prescript Liturgies untill Leaders and Doctors grew idle were there when his Manifesto was published no Reformed Churches in New-England or had these Churches Books of Common-Prayer and why I strange are Directory and Book of Common-Prayer made opposit were there not in some Reformed Churches Books of Common-Prayer that were appointed to be used but as Directories it being left free to the Ministers either to use those Printed Prayers or any other agreeable to them this freedome I am sure sundry eminent and worthy Divines in Holland have all along used Mr. Durell indeed saith that there is not one Minister in all Franoe but hath made unto himself a set Form which he useth alwaies and no other pag. 18. which is certainly a bold assertion and supposeth him to have had conference with every Minister in France or to have received Letters from every one or at least to have employ'd Agents that had made enquiry concerning every one which if true would argue him a man of wonderful intelligence Did never any one Minister in all France make unto himself above one set Form of Prayer Did and doth every one of them precisely keep himself to those very words which he put together when he first entred into his Ministry Did never any one after God had restored him to his Congregation from some eminent sickness put in any one word to express his sense of Divine Goodness I will here suspend my belief till I have received some farther Information or can better tell in what sense Mr. Durell would have his words taken for it may be he would have his own Phrases expounded as he himself pag. 17. expounds some Phrases in one of
hath these Arguments besides Scripture unless she thinks that these are not Scriptural Arguments Besides where doth our Church say Christ ordained the Apostles and Seventy Disciples in an imparity as two distinct Orders of Ministers in his Church possibly some Writers of our Church may so say our Church I believe will never be found to have said any such thing if she have the Speech hath given her Adversaries too much advantage for they will ask in what order Christ placed the Seventy If in the Order of Presbyters how came some of them afterwards to be made Deacons as it is generally held that some of them were in the Acts of the Apostles 16thly Pag. 144. He leaves upon record 4 great Untruths and yet makes them or 3 of them to be Truths known to all the three Kingdoms they all relate to the Presbyterians the first is That they had no set Forms nor indeed would admit of any whether for Common-Prayer or Administration of the Sacraments Matrimony c. How doth he know they had no set Forms for these or some of these I believe sundry of them had Forms or quasi-forms for all these and I am confident the Major part of them would if need required swear that they never declared that they would not receive any set Forms for these But Secondly he saith That for a long time many of them had left off using that very Form our Lord hath taught us Pag. 37. he had said That most if not all the Directorians had for a long time here in England left it out of their Service But wisely then adds It will be hard to make Transmarine Brethren believe that there were any such men among us And certainly it will be impossible to make our own Nation believe that this had any truth in it for it is known all the Nation over that those whom he must mean by the Presbyterians did many if not most of them and that very often use the Lords Prayer though they did not think it their Duty to use it every time they officiated in publick I my self for some years attended upon a Lecture in this Nation carried on by thirteen persons asâ— of them used the Lords Prayer and usually concluded their Prayers with it I should wrong the English Presbyterian Nonconformists should I not here acknowledg that they have very wel deserv'd of the Church of Christ by their Pious and Learned Discourses and Sermons upon the Lords Prayer I believe no Church can shew a more full and profitable Treatise of it than that composed by Mr. John Ball and published by his loving Friend Mr. Simeon Ash towards the end of a Book Entituled The Powwer of Godliness nor do I know that ever the use of the Lords Prayer was more fully Apologiz'd for against the Exceptions of the Brownists and others than by Mr. Paget and Mr. Thom. Hodges the one sundry years since dead in the Lord the other still in the Land of the Living Oh that I had so much reason to commend the Zeal of all the Episcopal Ministers of my Acquaintance But indeed I have not Sundry of them whose parts I greatly esteemed I have known to conclude their Prayers before Sermon without any use of the Lords Prayer as oft as they could conceive that there was any Great Person in the Congregation who would think the worse of them for using it To conclude this business I Question not but it is both lawful and expedient to use the Lords Prayer as a Prayer as well as a pattern but let not Mr. D. too severely censure those who cannot as yet obtain leave of themselves to use it as a Prayer especially at such times when they have before prayed largely both for themselves and others for where can he find a Law making it our duty to use those words commonly called the Lords Prayer any otherwise than as a pattern and example of our Prayers I know he somewhere produceth the words of St. Luke When ye pray say c. But were those words brought into the form of a Syllogism it would not to the Brownists themselves appear very formidable for they will ask what the words be that Christ there commands to use if it should be answered them the words that follow in St. Lukes Gospel then would they reply that all who tye themselves to the use of our English Liturgy would be transgressours of this Law for no where in all the Liturgy does the Lords Prayer occur as it is recorded in St. Lukes Gospel Indeed the Compilers of our Liturgy do neither follow St. Matthew nor St Luke but vary from them both as will appear to any that shall compare the Lords Prayer in the Liturgy with the Lords Prayer in the New Testament whether of the last or former Translation But if it should be said to them that the Commandment requires only that words be used to the same sense and purpose with those in St. Luke then is the Brownist at as great Liberty as he could wish They who lay it as a burden upon our Consciences to use the same words in English that the Evangelists used in Greek should do well clearly to satisfie us what words were used by the Evangelists for in no other matter do the Copies more vary I have enough to satisfie my self that the Doxology in Matthew was not added in later times as some think but if any one should differ from me in this Opinion I should be loath to tye my self neither to eat nor drink till I had convinced him Grotius tells me that it is in the Syriack and Arabick Translations yea and in the Latine too but I am sure it is not in that Arabick Translation exhibited to us in our late Polyglotts and it is in very few Latine Translations if any that are considerable Amen is wanting in the very Syriack Translation which all Scholars acknowledge to be ancient but how shall I be able to perswade a dissenter that this Syriack Translation which we follow is the Ancientest in that kind If it be the Ancientest then must I needs acknowledge that from thence may be fetched a very good Argument for the Antiquity of Holy-dayes But perhaps it is not the Ancientest that which Immanuel Tremelius followed having no such Inscriptions and various Titles by which is signified that these and the other things were done certain dayes in the Year How should I convince him that would say Our Father only and not Our Father which art in Heaven or him that would use fewer Petitions by two then we commonly use or him that would not say Amen at the end of the Prayer Above all things this makes me that I dare not too confidently assert that our Lord Jesus intended to make it the Duty of his Disciples after his departure to use those very words which he delivered to them because I do not find in those words any mention of his own most sweet precious Name whereas
when he comes to give them a standing Directory for Prayer he enjoyns them John 16. to ask in his Name assuring them that Prayers made in his Name should be answered but letting them know withal that at that time they had never asked any thing in his Name what shall we say to this If we should say that the Apostles Christs Directions notwithstanding had never used his Prayer the Brownists will make an advantage of such a Confession if we should say that though they used the Lords Prayer yet by using of it they had not prayed in the Name of Christ i. e. explicitely and so as they were to do after they had a more explicite knowledge of the Nature and Offices of Christ then though this prayer will still contain all needful matter to be prayed for yet it will admit of Dispute whether our prayers are not to be tendered unto God in such phrases and forms as do more distinctly mention the Death Resurrection and Intercession of our Blessed Mediator Granting the Doxology to be a part of the Lords Prayer as I am of a strong Opinion it is it is plain that is is not so distinct and particular as some others in the Epistles and Revelations be which offer and ascribe praise and Glory unto God by Christ as Eph. 3.21 or unto Christ as 1 Timothy 6.16 or to God and the Lamb Christ Jesus as Rev. 5.13 Later Doxologies do make an acknowledgment of the Blessed Trinity as to every Person Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost and it seems but meet that the Doxologies of Christians properly so called should have something in them to distinguish them from the Doxologies and Supplications not only of Heathens but also of Jews There be some that say our Lord took this form of prayer out of the Jewish Liturgies and one undertakes to give us an account from the Jewish Liturgies of that variety and difference that is to be found in the recital of it in Mathew and Luke viz. he would have us think that the prayer as in Mathew was intended for the Disciples more publick use as in Luke for their more private use But in all this that Learned Man does need a credulous Reader who will not too strictly enquire into the grounds of his asseveration Most plain it is that our Savior made this Prayer for his Disciples whilest they were Members of the Jewish Church and before he had blotted out the Hand-writing of Ordinances or had sent the Spirit to lead them into all Truth let it therefore be considered whether we are not rather ordinarily to express our selves in a Dialect more sutable to the New Testament Dispensation than is used in the Lords Prayer yet using that prayer also as a prayer and making it the patern and example as to the things to be prayed for in all the prayers that we make and let men have a care how they adventure to conclude their own prayers thus we further pray unto thee in that very form of words which Christ himself hath taught us till they have made themselves certain what form of words Christ did use when he directed his Disciples 3dly he saith Most of them had likewise wholly neglected the use of the Lords Supper for many years He might with as much truth have said that most of them for many years had lived without eating and drinking The most of them ministred the Sacraments frequently and I know where they have been blamed for administring it too frequently if this Characterizer say this is not a truth he may chance in a short time by printed Testimonials to see himself confuted But he hath not done but for a Conclusion tells us There was a great irreverence at Prayer in their Congregations very few kneeling many not so much as putting off their Hats and of this he saith he was an Eye-witness I demand only whether he think it be irreverence for a man not to kneel in the publick Congregation in time of Prayer Whether standing be not a posture of Reverence Whether in the London Churches it be not morally impossible for the one half of the Congregation to kneel in time of Prayer Into how many Congregations he went where many did not so much as put off their Hats in the time of Prayer And whether he either saw or heard that the Ministers of those Churches did any way countenance that irreverence If he cannot answer these Questions roundly and readily oh what work hath he made for an accusing Conscience For ought I know those in whom he observed this irreverence might be Sectaries who did more bitterly inveigh against Presbyterians than against any other men whatever perhaps also they might be Episcopal-men who designed to put an affront upon the Presbyterians Prayers just as now some are observed to sit upon their Breech all the time of Pulpit-prayer unless when just the Lords Prayer is repeating because forsooth Pulpit-prayer is not allowed by the Church but onely bidding of Prayer I write it with grief but I must write it I never in any Congregations where I have been observed so much irreverence as I have observed in those in which there is the greatest abundance of such as alwayes pretended a love to the English Liturgy particular Stories I might relate and would relate did I not fear to set deluded people at a greater distance from our Assemblies but if Mr. D. will call for them he shal have them by the peck by the bushel I need not stay about these particulars the World I trust will not long want sufficient information how much the Presbyterians have been abus'd by Mercenary Pens I have only two Animadversions on this Authors Sermon and then your trouble will not be much longer continued Pag. 20. He tells us That those who have Devotion and leisure enough to come to Church and be present at Divine Service may hear the whole Bible read every year the Old Testament once and the new no less than thrice A man scarce knows where to be present at Divine Service every day morning evening unless at some Cathedral or Collegiate Church for though all Priests and Deacons are appointed to say daily the Morning and Evening Prayer either privately or openly not being let by Sickness or some other urgent cause and though Curats be appointed being at home and not otherwise reasonably hindred to say the Prayers in the Parish Church or Chappel and to toll the Bell that the people may come and hear the word and pray with them yet the Assenters and Consenters that do this are as rare as black Swans and if a man had health and Devotion so much as to inable him to attend upon the Cathedral Service Morning and Evening from the first of January to the last of December yet should he not by that means hear the whole Bible read either the Old Testament once or the New Testament thrice there being several