Prophaneness by a strict Presentation of them the Court which hath more hotly pursued the Dissenters than the Scandalous and Vicious would like enough have put them upon Presentment of Dissenters without any favour or difference between the weak and the wilful which because of the ill Consequence which too often followed Excommunication and Imprisonment many Ministers and Church-Wardens were more backward and averse unto Their Consciences would not suffer them to work such ill and trouble to their Christian Brethren Fellow Protestants Loving Neighbours for some small difference in lesser matters not destructive of their Salvation And no doubt but the Wisdom of our Governours saw the Evil and Inconvenience of those severities When they took away the Penal Laws that made the Common Prayer and Act for Vniformity so terrible to the contrary-minded Arg. 3. For Proof that the Common Prayer according to the Acts for Uniformity is inconvenient in some respect and may admit of Alteration because of the great disgusts and almost invincible prejudices of People especially in the Country against this Worship or at least some things therein Cars Peaceable Moderator or Plain Considerations for satisfaction to the disaffected to our Common-Prayers In the Preface many stumble much at our Book of Common Prayers and some of them I take to be good Christians honest moderate well-meaning People and have found by experience much of their disaffection to it doth lye upon their mistake through Ignorance not peevish wilfulness After all our Preaching and instruction and Exhortations in behalf of the Common Prayer we do not find that success which we use to have in other matters and which we might expect if their prejudice were not so deeply rooted in them and too mighty for us The difficulty is great because the guilt of People is great Where People have often sinned any Sin the harder it is to repent And how often have may been present at these Prayers Yet I fear scarce ever prayed heartily and acceptably Again Sins descending from Parents to their Children are harder to be worked out of them but prejudices against this Worship have been transmitted down from Parents and as it were entailed upon some Families So that there is as little hopes of gaining them over as for bringing Men off from the Religion of their Ancestours which commonly proves unsuccessful Again the Commonness of this Guilt were it but two or three in a Congregation that were prejudiced against it there were the more hopes that by the Examples of others they might be recovered But when it is a great if not the greater part of the Congregation that is not heartily reconciled to this Worship as I fear it is in too many Parishes It is the greater difficulty when the Disease is so general when the Infection hath spread it self so much to cure it effectually There is too much proof of Peoples prejudices in that the number is so small so few that come to the Prayers upon the Holy Dayes and yet the Church is so exceedingly full at a Funeral Sermon or any other preaching time when People are not much longer at Church than on some Holy Dayes And on the Lord's Day there are few that will come to the Prayers to be present at the whole Service many hard Speeches against them some reviling them as the mass-Mass-Book Popish Superstitious will Worship Prayers of course a cold dead piece of Formality There are so many Objections Scruples and Cavils against it as dull and tedious for the length of it as a Form of others making and not the Ministers own as Book-Prayers slighted by the vulgar upon that account who say they can read the Common Prayer as well as the Parson against the Responses though used among the Jews and Primitive Christians against the short Prayers and Hymns read and not sung disused both in our other Devotions more commonly but one continued Prayer without ony intermixture against some things censured as vain Repetitions and against the Ceremonies used in the Worship As to particular exceptions you may find enough if not more than enough in the Grand Debate between the Conformists and Nonconformists How these prejudices may be in a great measure abated and taken away I shall show as the benefit of Union That a Comprehension of the more sober and moderate Dissenters might do it in time Evils of this Prejudice First It is the cause of the scandalous abuse and profanation of Holy Dayes If People were unprejudiced an Hour spent in devout Prayer and Praises due Attention unto the Word of God and sometime in good instruction of Youth and Explication upon the Church-Catechisme or Exposition of the Epistle and Gospel of the Day would turn to some good account and the Evening Service used to as appointed on Holy Dayes but prejudice mars and hinders all this from taking effect and makes our Holy-Dayes useless in many Parishes a loss and hindrance rather than advantage to Religion Secondly It hath occasioned much dishonour to God on the Lord's Day First By a great neglect of this Worship several absenting from it and staying till the Prayers are over before they come and losing the benefit of this Worship wholly which is commonly the bigger half of God's Worship on the Forenoons and the whole Service of God in many Parishes in the Afternoon there being no Sermon nor Catechising nor at least no Explication of Catechisme And is it nothing for so many People in many Parishes to lose the benefit of half God's solemn Worship No doubt but they are highly guilty before God and will be found so at that day when Sins which the World counts light of shall appear in their just weight of Guilt according to the Word of God Again Secondly It occasions much dishonour to God on his own day by reason of Peoples great unprofitableness in this Duty many present at it manifesting such a careless Spirit as if they were not worshipping God doing any thing rather than that Some waiting with great impatience until the Prayers be at an end as if there were no good to be gotten by them How is it to be expected that it should be done to edifying until Peoples prejudices be removed That their Hearts should be right and devout in a Worship which their minds are not reconcil'd unto They must be brought to some good liking of it as a true and sound Worship of God such as God will own before they will serve God with the Internal Acts of Devotion be Spiritual and acceptable with him in his Worship And if it be little to you to neglect this Worship or lose the benefit of it when you do perform it heartlesly praying as if you pray'd not and so you may expect that God should hear as if he heard not and give you a cold Answer to such cold and faint Requests And it is to be feared that the lukewarmness and indiffe rency of many not the worst of Christians in this
c. Yet they drew up the principal matters in a short Letter to the most Reverend Arch-Bishop and Bishops c. mention'd p. 30 31 32. of the Grand Debate 2. It may justly be supposed that among those Objections and Exceptions against several things therein when his Majesties Commission gave them that liberty to make such Reasonable and necessary Alterations Corrections and Amendments as should be agreed upon at that Conference to be needful and expedient there were some things which were judged by them to be inconvenient other things to be unlawful If they had been put to it to declare what they held to be sinful and unlawful to be submitted to I doubt not but they would have cut off many things as only inconvenient and not necessarily or unavoidably evil and so have been satisfied as to the matter of Conformity with less Another Answer Judge Hales with the Lord Keeper Bridgeman and Bishop Wilkins drew up a Model of Abatements and Condescentions for a Comprehension of the more moderate Dissenters and a limited Indulgence towards such as could not be brought within the Comprehension and when after several Conferences with two of the Eminentest Presbyterian Divines heads were agreed on and some abatements to be made and some explanations were to be accepted of they put them into the form of a Bill to be Presented to the next Session of Parliament In the Life of Sir Matthew Hale by Dr. Burnet Bishop of Salisbury p. 41 42. He gives us the Reasons that prevailed at that time against it p. 70 71 72 73. The Councils and Reasons against it being more acceptable to some concealed Papists then in power as has since appeared too evidently the whole project for Comprehension was let fall and those who had set it a foot came to be looked on with an evil eye as secret favourers of Dissenters underminers of the Church and every thing else that jealousie and distaste could cast on them A fourth Answer shall be given you out of the Conformists Plea for the Nonconformists Part 4. p. 26 27. In Answer to that Objection should we yield to any one of these we are far from gaining the rest 1. Gain any of them and we shall be the more and stronger by that addition 2. Except the Presbyterians the most of the other Dissenters agree in their Modes of Government So that what you grant to one Party is granted to more 3. Is it Reason and Charity that those who would unite shall not because all will not upon some abatements 4. Gain some and they will help to draw in others 5. The more are United the fewer remain to be Tolerated by which Toleration I mean no more but a forbearing one another in Love with the use of Gospel means to convince and gain them if possible and by the Civil Sword to restrain and suppress them when it shall be necessary and dangerous to the State and not before Thus that Excellent Person has given a most solid Answer with a most Christian Spirit I shall add what I had from one of his Majesties Chaplains by way of Answer to the same Objection If there be but room or way made for them the fault will be their own if they will not come in If the Mother will receive her Children and entertertain them as her own in love they must bear the blame if they will not return home I might add that they will shew themselves unworthy of that favour given them in the Act of Toleration if they grow more obstinate and averse and utter enemies to an accommodation and may provoke Authority to take it away Another Objection Why should there be any Concessions or Alterations when the present terms of Conformity are Lawful I Answer They may be unlawful to them for to him that esteemeth any thing to be unlawful to him it is unlawful according to that Rom. 14.14 but not ex natura rerum per se and so they may be Lawful to us and our Consciences or may be Lawful to one and not another in point of Practice and Conformity so that yielding to their Consciences and their Scruples may consist with the uprightness and integrity of our own and a Conformity upon just grounds of conviction and satisfaction A second Answer The yielding to the Dissenters may be such as not utterly to take away any thing but to leave some things at liberty as the Ceremonies especially the Sign of the Cross And as the great Dean of St. Pauls motioned whether those expressions which suppose the strict exercise of Discipline in Burying the Dead were not better left at liberty in our present case there being a confessed want and neglect of Discipline And whether requiring only an use of the Liturgy and approbation of that use and subscription to it leaving the subscription according to the Canon and the Assent and Consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed according as persons Consciences are satisfied or unsatisfied therein It is certain that the Uniformity in Worship and the end of that Act for Vniformity is answered by an use of the Prayers as by Law Established No doubt but many would Conform upon such a Liberty granted who cannot satisfie their Consciences in the present terms of Conformity But the leaving things thus at Liberty were no Argument that they are Unlawful Further Such yielding as this would make no such Alteration but that our present Common-Prayer Books would serve which they might do if several Repetitions were left out as of the Lords Prayer which we used so often at first and continued since because received at first that the people might learn it in their English Tongue even those many that could not read and used before to say it in Latin Pater noster c. Other Repetitions as of the Gloria Patri after every Psalm yielded to be left out by those who met at the Bishop of Lincolns House in King Charles I. time and the one of the Creeds using the Nicene Creed upon some certain days only Which were the better way of lessening the length of the Prayers by taking away some Repetitions which our Dissenting Brethren do not pretend to be unlawful but only to be inconvenient as some Conformists acknowledge also Third Answer Further The Preface to the Common-Prayer acknowledgeth that the particular Forms of Worship and the Ceremonies appointed to be used being things in their own nature indifferent and alterable it is but reasonable such changes and alterations should be made therein c. It saith further That in the Reigns of several Princes of Blessed Memory since the Reformation the Church upon just and weighty Considerations hath yielded to make such Alterations as in their respective times were thought convenient But when the Church did yield in those matters she did not yield them up as utterly unlawful but inconvenient or less suitable to those times pro conditione temporum some things are more some less
of the People in point of Religion and one cannot there press an Vnion too much For there is never like to be an effectual Reformation of Peoples unreformed Lives without an Union when Conforming and Nonconforming Ministers may joyn together encourage and assist each other in that blessed work And as to an Union Mr. Baxter in his Life and Death of Sir Matthew Hale saith p. 19 20. that the said Judge told him the only means to heal us was a new Act of Uniformity Therefore I shall apply my self to the Governours of the Church that are Lawfully called and have Authority to appoint and alter matters of this nature respecting the Service and Worship of God I shall in all Humility recommend to the Governours Consideration some Arguments for Concessions and Alterations in the Common Prayer and then in the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England And to show that I am not alone and that it is not a project of my own which hath no countenance or encouragement from others I shall mention greater Names in favour of the same Argument and urge their concurrence and that shall be my first Plea First Plea For some Concessions and Alterations in this Worship because there are some things which in the judgment of several eminent Conformists may be altered without any detriment or dishonour to the Church Divers Reverend Bishops and Doctors in a Paper in Print before the unhappy Wars in King Charles I. Reign yielded to the laying aside of the Cross and the making many material Alterations as the Archbishop of Armagh the Bishop of Lincoln Dr. Prideaux Dr. Ward Dr. Brownrigg Dr. Featly met together by Order of the Lords at the Bishop of Lincolns in Westminster besides some Innovations in Discipline given in hinted their desire of the Alteration of many things in the Book of Common-Prayer as the Reading of the Psalms according to the New Translations Lessons of Canonical Scripture instead of the Apocrypha leaving out the Hymn of Benedicite and the saying Gloria Patri after every Psalm changing with my Body I thee Worship into these I give thee Power over my Body I Absolve thee in the Visitation of the Sick into these I pronounce thee Absolved c. Grand Debate p. 31. Again the Bishop of Armagh p. 130 131. from Dr. Barnard to this effect That for the healing of those distractions and divisions among Ministers and others and the moderating of each extream in relation to the use of the Liturgy whereby there might be a return of that wished for Peace and Unity which of late years we have been strangers to he conceived some prudent and moderate accommodation might be thought of by wise men in order to the continuance of the substantial part each side yielding somewhat after the example of St. Paul Rom. 14. Idem Directions about the Liturgy After his Vindication of the Liturgy yet it cannot be denied but that there are naevi in pulchro corpore and as it were to be wished that these were altered so it were to be done without much noise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Upon the Ordinance against the Common Prayer Sect. 4. Our publick Liturgy or Forms of constant Prayers must be abolished and not amended in what upon free and publick advice might seem to sober men inconvenient for matter or manner to which I should easily consent Idem To the Prince of Wales In this Church I charge you to persevere as coming nearest to Gods Word with some little amendment c. King Charles the Seconds Declaration from Breda 1660. Since we find some exceptions made against several things in the Liturgy we will appoint an equal number of Divines of both perswasions to review the same and to make such alterations as shall be thought most necessary and some additional Forms and it shall be left to the Minister to chuse one or other In the mean time we desire that Ministers would read those parts against which there lie no exceptions yet in compassion to those that scruple it our will and pleasure is that none be punished or troubled for not using it until it be effectually Reformed as aforesaid The Bishop of Corks Protestant Peacemaker p. 29. What most of the Dissenters would be at no Liturgy no Episcopacy may not be cannot be without Schism we are ready to sacrifice all we can otherwise to the publick peace and safety Idem p. 33. But notwithstanding what I have said of the excellency both of the Common-Prayers and of Cathedral Performances I do not conceive the alteration of an Expression or here and there of a whole Prayer or two by Law or dispensing with some Ceremonies I do not conceive such relaxation as this would break the Harmony and Beauty of our Worship or disturb the Union and Peace of our Church There are some Collects and perhaps Rubricks too which with all duty and submission I humbly conceive might be altered for the better Page 118 119. Mr. Hales in his Tract of Schism p. 215. Propounds it as a remedy to prevent Schism to have all Liturgies and publick Forms of Service so framed as that they admit not of particular and private fancies but contain only such things in which all Christians do agree Prayer Confession Thanksgiving Reading of Scriptures in the most plain and simple manner were matter enough to furnish out a sufficient Liturgy though nothing either of private Opinion or of Church Pomp of Garments or prescribed Gestures of Imagery or Musick of matter concerning the Dead of many superfluities which creep into the Church under the names of Order and Decency did interpose it self The great Dean of St. Pauls in the Vnreasonableness of Separation Pref. About the Book of Common-Prayer it ought to be considered whether for satisfaction of the scrupulous some more doubtful and obscure passages may not yet be explained or amended Whether the new Translation of the Psalms were not fitter to be used especially in Parochial Churches Whether portions of Canonical Scripture were not better put instead of Apocrypha Lessons Whether the Rubrick about the Salvation of Infants might not be restored to its former place in the Office of Confirmation and so the present exceptions against it be removed Whether those Expressions which suppose the strict exercise of Discipline in Burying the Dead were not better left at Liberty in our present case Such a review made by Wise and Peaceable Men not given to wrath and disputing may be so far from being a dishonour to this Church that it may add to the glory of it And whether using the Liturgy and Approbation and Promise of the use of it may not be sufficient instead of the late Form of declaring their Assent and Consent which hath been so much scrupled by our Brethren True state of the Primitive Church p. 23. Now in Christ I humbly beseech the Governours of the Church calmly to consider were it not better to have such a Form of Service as
would satisfie most The Fathers of our Church when they Reformed this Nation from Popery were desirous to fetch off as many as they could retaining for this cause all the Ceremonies and Forms of Prayer they could with a good rectified Conscience Some other things I could mention in the Book of Common-Prayer though not ill in themselves yet fit to be altered and would obviously appear to every wise man once resolved to compose such a Form as to take in most of this Nation which I humbly conceive Governours should in Conscience endeavour becoming all things to all men to gain some though not all yet happily gain all in process of time Principles and Practises of Moderate Divines c. They would be very glad if some things that most offend were taken out of the way particularly that there might be no expressions in our Forms of Prayer that contain disputable and uncertain Doctrines p. 335. Vid. Mr. Wakes Sermon on Rom. 15.5 6 7. p. 23. And that no such weight be laid on lesser things as that they should be inlisted on to the endangering those of an higher nature and hazarding the Churches Prosperity and Peace Serious and Compassionate Enquiry into the causes c. That it will be no Hypocritical tergiversation no wrong either to our Religion or our Consciences if when the case so requires it we change any phrase of Speech how fit soever in our apprehension for one less fit but more acceptable and currant or any Rite or Ceremony that we have great kindness for for one that is more grateful unto others and that according to the saying of the Lord Bacon we learn of the elder times what is lawful and of the present what is fittest Mr. De L' Angles Letter to his Lordship the present B. of London I am sure that if there were nothing wanting to cure your Divisions but the abstaining from some Expressions the quitting some Ceremonies and the changing of the colour of some Habits you would resolve to do that and something more difficult than that with great pleasure Conformists Plea for the Nonconformists Part 3. Pref. It is clear there must be a Liturgy and very many even to Dr. Sherlock mention some Alterations in the several parts of it as desirable and advisable Without any positive arrogance in a matter of this nature I do offer my observation Some that expect much profit by Preaching do think first and second Service too long and tiresome Others that care less for Preaching are very busie in the Interlocutory parts of the Service grow careless and too often prate and stare about and whisper in the Lessons and sleep under our Sermons both are too long for them also All that I will suggest in the last case is First That the second Service or Communion-Service may be then only read when there is a Communion or when there is no Sermon upon Holy-days Secondly That only one of the three Creeds be used at one time in the same Service Thirdly That the so often Repetitions of the Lords Prayer in the same Service may be limited All cannot most do not keep Curats The work of Reading the ordinary first and second Service besides incidental Offices as Baptism Churchings c. make it very expensive to most mens Strength and Spirits and wearisome to the People and the constant necessary work of Preaching and Catechising is hardly endured by the young and healthful but impossible to be performed by the infirm and aged And therefore in King Edward VI. days some Ministers were dispensed with in not Reading the whole as Grand Debate mentions p. 5. It is true indeed if a mans Conscience will bear it a Minister may be both short and seldom in the Pulpit but then it is with two great hazards First Of losing his Auditory or of his Auditories great loss to their Souls This humble Proposal for omitting the second Service hath a fair Countenance from the Rubricks Rubrick the last immediately before the Lords Prayer hath a supposition that the Communion is Celebrated every Lords day c. I mean to conclude with an excellent Citation from Bishop Taylor Duct Dubit p. 375. In Rituals and Ceremonies and little circumstances of Ecclesiastical Offices and Forms of Worship in the punctualities of Rubricks in the order of Collects in the number of Prayers and fulness of the Office upon a reasonable cause or inducement to the omission or alteration these things are so little and fit to be entrusted to the conduct of those sober obedient and grave persons who are thought fit to be entrusted with the Cure of Souls And things of such little concernment are so apt to yield to any wise mans reasons and sudden occasions and accidents and little and great Causes that these were the fittest instances of this Rule i. e. of Latitude if Superiours would not make too much of little things All just Governments give the largest interpretation to Churches Orders in these things to persons of a peaceable Mind and obedient Spirit that such circumstances may not pass into a solemn Religion and the Zeal of good Men their Caution and Curiosity may not be spent in that which doth not profit In many cases a Latitude according to Equity may be presumed but if it be expresly denied it may not be used Which is the case of our Conformists as to those things wherein a Latitude might be taken according to the Law of Equity when they carry some considerable inconvenience along with them and reason for the contrary yet we being strictly bound up by the Church it must bring a guilt upon the persons disturb their peace of Conscience and prove vexatious and troublesome to them that way if they often offend in these matters And this I presume to be the case of those who in their common practice do not come up to the strictness of their bounden and promised Conformity though in some cases when extra casum scandali contemptus they may do otherwise than the express Letter of the Law requires and be guiltless as our Casuists affirm I beg the favour with all Humility and with Submission to the Will and Wisdom of our Governours to offer to their Consideration whether it were not desirable to have a Prayer for particular Graces in the Evening Service the Petitioning part being less perfect then and at such times when the Letany is not used We have such a Prayer in the Whole Duty of Man called a Prayer for Grace comprehensive of particular Graces And then no doubt the use of it would be more acceptable in Families than it is now when it runs out so much in Intercessions and so little in Petition Again I offer to their Consideration whether the Hymns and Offices of Praise after the Lessons especially in the Evening Service are not become less edifying in their present use where those Spiritual Songs are barely Read as in Parish Churches and not Sung there being one way
unbecoming a Minister of the Gospel who may wear certainly White as lawfully as Black without placing Holyness or Unholyness in any Garment If we see not so great reason for the imposition or continuance yet we may see sufficient reason for the submission It is not used by us as by the Papists who must have it hallowed or consecrated by Praying over it that it may defend him that wears it from the Devil They use it indeed with a Superstitious opinion of Holyness but we have no Consecrating Surplices nor any such opinion that it is a fence against the Devil or preservative from his assaults and temptations Several Nonconformists have said they would be content to Preach the Gospel in a Fools coat rather than be silent as the Famous Mr. Daille of France being asked his judgment by some Nonconformists of England said as I am told by a French Minister and that he had seen it mentioned in a Book wrote by one of our Bishops That our Ceremonies were good and before he would make a rent in the Church for such things as the Surplice c. If the King of France would give him leave to Preach at Paris which the King forbid him he would Preach though it were in a Fools coat As to the Lawfulness of the Sign of the Cross at Baptism It is I Baptize I Baptize thee in the Name of the Father c. which is all that is Essential to Baptism or the Substance of that Ordinance Then it follows We receive this Baptized Child into the Congregation of Christs Flock as the Priviledge Baptism makes him a Member of the Catholick Church and particularly of that Church into which he is Baptized But the owning and receiving into Communion is the Churches Act. Then follows and sign him with the Sign of the Cross in token c. as significative and with the words declarative of that Duty which he is obliged and bound unto by Baptism to own the Faith of Christ Crucified c. And though the Words are In token that he shall not be ashamed to own c. It is only in the Judgment of Charity what the Church hopeth and expecteth from him hereafter when he is come to years to know Good and Evil his Faith Profession and Obedience to the Trinity according to his Baptism And thus Dr. Bourges in his Subscription with Explication of his meaning allowed by King James the First and the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and declared to be the sense of the Church of England Where the Book saith And do sign him with the Sign of the Cross in token c. I understand saith he that Book not to mean That the Sign of the Cross hath any Vertue in it to effect or further this Duty but only to intimate and express by that Ceremony by which the Ancients did avow their profession of Christ Crucified what the Congregation hopeth and expecteth hereafter from that Infant And therefore also when the Twentieth Canon saith That the Infant is by that Sign Dedicated unto the Service of Christ I understand that Dedication to import not a real Consecration of the Child which was done in Baptism it self but only a Ceremonial Declaration of that Dedication like as the Priest is said to make clean the Leper whose being clean he only declared There was undoubtedly a lawful use of the Cross in some Primitive Christians while they lived among professed Jews and Heathens Enemies of the Cross of Christ as Phil. 3.18 upbraiding the Christians that their God dyed upon a Cross It began at his Crucifixion Matth. 27.41 42 The Chief Priests mocking him with the Scribes and Elders said If he be the King of Israel let him now come down from the Cross and we will believe him The more others scoffed at the Christians for their Crucified Saviour with the greater Courage Resolution and Constancy did the Christians own and make profession of him And this was a sign professing Christ which at the sight of Jews and Infidels in the Markets and any where else was of common use among the Christians used at their Meals many times and Translated to Baptism When the Empire became Christian Constantine used it and others in their Ensigns of War to signifie Christ Crucified was the God they owned and expected Victory in Battel from him In their Coats of Arms in their Coynes at this day it is used as of Old to shew the Religion of the Persons or the Countries that they were Christians If any Object that was a Civil use of it and not Religious I say it was of Religious signification there Yet indeed with Peter Martyr for mine own part I wish that all things may be done simplicissime most free from Humane mixtures in the Worship of God Again Its signification and use is ad hominem and not ad Deum For first If it were permanent and imprinted on the Forhead which in Scripture is used to signifie boldness and confidence in a good and in all ill sense as Ezek. 3.8 Jer. 3.3 And so the sign of the Cross made there signifieth of the Child boldness Christian Courage and Confidence that he shall not be ashamed c. it would signifie to Men and not to God unto Christians that he was one of their number Secondly The use of it among the Primitive Christians was to signifie to Christians among themselves or more especially to Jews and Heathens their Christian Profession Thirdly The Dissenters call them significant teaching signs and bring that as an Argument against them but do we teach God or Man surely Man is fit for Instruction And as to Addition the Curse is equally against diminishing as adding But the Love-kiss Signaculum reconciliationis Washing the Disciples Feet a token of Humility The Feasts of Charity mention'd at the Sacrament by St. Jude the Community of Goods the Deaconesses c. Things of this Nature are not of the substance of the Word or the Ordinances but are Circumstantials and may be changed added or taken away safely I could cite too an Eminent Nonconformist where he saith it cannot be called an Addition in Scripture sense unless the Governours stamp Holyness upon it or Necessity as a necessary Duty Doctrinal Necessity he means Or unless by adding they mean giving the same Efficacy to Humane Institutions as God doth to his by making them to confer Grace upon the rightly disposed and by diminishing that the Service is not compleat without it I shall conclude with a saying of Mr. Calvin Let not any think me so austere or bound up as to forbid a Christian to accommodate himself to the Papists in any Ceremony or Observance For it is not my purpose to condemn any thing but what is clearly Evil and openly Vitious I have said thus much lest some that are uncharitable to our Church should think I wrote Because I was pinched and could not tell how to satisfie my Conscience in Conformity Doctor More 's Mystery of Godliness Pref.
drew too hard to an uniform complyance in things where Christ hath left us free True state of the Primitive Church p 20. Let us be men of understanding men in Devotion be zealous and hold fast the substantial parts of Religion and let us leave it to Women and Children to contend about Ceremonies Let it be indifferent to us whether this or that or no Ceremony whether Kneel or not Kneel Bow or not Bow Surplice or no Surplice Cross or no Cross Ring or no Ring Let us give Glory to God in all and no offence to our Brethren in any thing Doctor Stillingfleets Irenicum p. 65. He must be a great stranger in the Primitive Church that takes not notice of the great diversity of Rites and Customs used in particular Churches without censuring of those that differ'd from them or if any by inconsiderate Zeal did proceed so far how ill it was represented by other Christians And he concludes with that Divine Aphorism of St. Austin Indignum est ut propter ea quae nos Deo neque digniores c. It is an unworthy thing for Christians to condemn and judge one another for those things which do not commend us unto God To the same purpose in Vnreasonableness of Separation That the Cross be left at liberty as the Parents desire it or wholly taken away Pref. p. 83. Edit 3. King Charles II. Declaration at Breda Agreed to leave the Ceremonies at liberty Dr. Rudde Bishop of St. Davids Speech in the Convocation 1604. In the life time of the late Archbishop then Whitgift these things were not so extreamly urged but that many Learned Preachers enjoyed their Liberty therein conditionally that they did not by word nor deed disgrace or disturb the State established King Charles II. Declaration from Breda None shall be denied the Lords Supper for not Kneeling none compelled to use the Cross it shall be Lawful to him that desires to use the Cross to have such Ministers as will use it and if the proper Minister refuse to get another None compell'd to bow at the name of Jesus The Surplice left to liberty except in the Royal Chappel Cathedrals and Universities Another Argument The mischief to the Church hath been very great from these Ceremonies especially from the Cross First as to the Imposition though the present Fathers of the Church have signified their consent unto a due liberty to Dissenters and some Indulgence to them beyond their Predecessors yet several Ministers in Queen Elizabeths and King James I. Reign and that of King Charles I. and at King Charles II. Return have been turned out of their Benefices and silenced for Nonconformity to these Ceremonies although the Church of England confesseth them to be but things indifferent And it were hard for refusing upon a Conscientious account to submit to things indifferent to have one of the greatest punishments inflicted on a man Suspension and Deprivation even as Conformists would many of them think it hard to be Silenced for not assenting to the Perseverance of the Saints or any other of the five points according to the common sense or notion of our Dissenting Brethren Secondly These Ceremonies have been as it were a bone of Contention thrown in between Conformists and Nonconformists Zanchies Letter to Queen Elizabeth 1571. tells her This Counsel about strict Imposition of Ceremonies will trouble the publick Peace of the Church by causing contentions among men and cause them to write Books one against another about things indifferent which are the Golden Apples of Contention Many an hot Dispute and Conference there hath been and Books wrote for and against them with bitterness of Spirit some contending as earnestly about these indifferent things as about matters of Faith as if the very Life and Soul of Religion lay in them and as if the cause of Christ and our Protestant Reformation were to stand or fall with them The Ceremony of the Cross hath been as vexatious to our Church as ever the difference about the Jewish Ceremonies of Days and Meats was in the time of the Apostles which occasioned a Council at Jerusalem Acts. 15. so many Chapters in St. Pauls Epistle and such contention among them Thirdly Much time hath been spent to little purpose or profit in Reading or Studying these matters Oh the many that have wrote for and against No little time doth it cost men in Writing as Bishop Mourton Dr. Bourges for Dr. Ames against them and others nay every Book for or against Conformity as God knows there are abundance of them upon these fruitless Controversies makes the Ceremonies materiam contentionis matter of the Controversie and it calleth for a part and a considerable share in the Book Time also spent in Reading and Studying the point and there must be Prayer to be led by the Spirit to find out the Truth for satisfaction The time also which is spent in Preaching on this point for it is commanded in the Canons I say this time would be much better spent in reading the Bible with Comments or Treatises of Divinity and so be Redeemed for Eternity which now men are necessitated to spend for satisfaction herein All this a great deal or a considerable portion of time may be better improved if this Ceremony be taken away And then as my Lord Bacons Essays p. 13. Speaking of Peace in the Church It turneth the labours of Writing and Reading Controversies into Treatises of Mortification and Devotion Again The strict exaction of these Ceremonies hath occasioned some to cry them up as if a considerable part of Ministers Conformity to the Laws of God and Man lay therein when in truth it is a very inconsiderable part And some have sought to get into favour with greater Persons and attain Preferment by a niceness and strict observance of every Punctilio about the Ceremonies exacting perhaps a more strict Obedience to these than to the Laws of God And he shall pass for an obedient and very good Son of the Church with some that is a zealous stickler for these though he be loose in his Life formal in his Religion and uncharitable to those that differ from him Again Some have declared that they cannot joyn with us in Baptism suffering their Children to be Baptized by Conforming Ministers because of the Sign of the Cross which they in their Consciences cannot allow of nor joyn in the Lords Supper because of Kneeling which seems to them though through great weakness and a more unreasonable prejudice when the Rubrick is so expresly against the Idolatry and Adoration of the Sacramental Bread a symbolizing with Idolaters which things have bred no small perplexity of mind and outward trouble to some Godly Persons said Mr. Sprint in his days Cass Anglic. I shall conclude this with Dr. Preston on the Lords Prayer p. 89. Thy Kingdom come We intreat the Lord that he would curse and cross all Antichristian Plots and Practices and we are to Pray against all lets and