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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45474	A vindication of the ancient liturgie of the Church of England wherein the several pretended reasons for altering or abolishing the same, are answered and confuted / by Henry Hammond ... ; written by himself before his death.	Hammond, Henry, 1605-1660.	1660 (1660)	Wing H617; ESTC R21403	95,962	97

fully then in the Epistle to the Book entituled John Baptist first charging the Presbyteriant who formerly exclaimed against Episc●pacy for stinking the spirit that they began to take upon them to establish a Dagon in his throne in stinking the whole worship of the God of Heaven c. and in plain words without mi●cing or dissembling that they had rather the French King nay the great Turk should rule over them then these The onely use which I would now make of these experiments is this to admire that blessed excellent Christian grace of obedience and contentment with our present lot whatsoever it be that brings not any necessity of sinning on us I mean to commend to all in matters of indifference or where Scripture hath not given any immediate rule but left us to obey those who are set over us that happy choice of submitting rather then letting loose our appetites of obeying then prescribing A duty which besides the very great ease it brings withit hath much of vertue in it and will be abundant reward to it self here on Earth and yet have a mighty arrear remaining to be paid to it in Heaven hereafter which when it is heartily considered it will be a thing of some difficulty to invent or feign a heavier affliction to the meek quiet spirit a more ensuaring peice of treachery to the Christian Soul I am sure to his Estate and temporall prosperity then that of contrary irreconciliable commands which is now the case and must alwayes be when Ordinances undertake to supersede Laws when the inferior but over-swaying power adventures to check the Superiour Of which subject I have temptation to annex a full tyde of thoughts would it not prove too much a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and be most sure to be so esteemed by them to whom this addresse is now tendred The good Lord of Heaven and Earth encline our hearts to keep that Law of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 6. 2. which is a prime Commandment and that with a promise of secular Peace and abundance annext if not confined to it To conclude therefore and summe up all in a word we have discover'd by this brief survey the resonablenesse of this act of Gods providence in permitting our Liturgy to be thus defamed though in all reason the Liturgy it self deserve not that fate the no-inconveniences so much as pretended to arise from our Liturgy to which the Directory is not much more liable the no-objection from the Word of God against the whole or any part of it produced or offered by you the no-manner of the least or loosest kind of necessity to abolish it the perfect justifiablenesse and withall usefulnesse of set Forms above extemporary effusions the very many particulars of eminent benefit to the Church and of authority in it preserved in our Liturgy but in the Directory totally omitted and that in the despight of all Statutes both of K. Edward and Q. Elizabeth by which the Reformation of this Church is establisht among us and I trust shall still continue notwithstanding the opposition of those who pretended kindnesse but now run riot against this Reformation we have shew'd you also the true grounds of our ancestours rejoycing in our Liturgy instead of the partiall imperfect account given of that businesse by your Preface the wonderfull prosperity of this Church under it contrary to the pretended sad experience c. and withall we have made it clear that all the exceptions here proposed against the Liturgy are perfectly vain and causlesse as that it hath prov'd an offence c. the ordinary crime charg'd on those actions that are liable to no other and so that offence without a cause that this offence hath been by the length of the Service which will onely offend the prophane and withall is as observable in your Service by the many unprofitable burthensome Ceremonies which have been shewed neither to be many nor unprofitable nor burthensome by the disquieting of Consciences i. e. onely of the unquiet by depriving them of the Ordinance i. e. those who would rather loose the Sacrament then receive it kneeling or reverently that the offence was extended to the reformed Churches abroad also and yet for that no one proof offered nor Church named that was so offended and if there were yet still this supposed offensivenesse no just plea for any thing but Reformation So also that by means of the Liturgy many were debarred of the exercise of their Ministery the suggestion for the most part a meer calumny and that which was true in it ready to be retorted upon these Reformers that the Prelates have labour'd to raise the estimation of the Liturgy too high yet that no higher then you would the value of your Directory to have it the rule for the manner of publick worship or if they did this is the fault of those Prelates not of the Liturgy who yet were said but to have labour'd it neither not to have effected it and even that labour or desire of theirs to have amounted no higher then Calvin's letter to the Protectour would avow that this hath been to the justling out of Preaching which is rather a speciall help to it and prescribes it and allows it its proper place but hath oft the ill luck to be turn'd out by Preaching that it hath been made no better then an Idol which if it be a fault in the Liturgy is as farre more chargeable on the hearing of Sermons that the people please themselves in their presence and lip-labour in that service an uncharitable judging of mens hearts and a crime to which your Directory makes men as lyable as the Liturgy that our Liturgy is a compliance with Papists and so a means to confirm them in their Idolatry c. whereas it complies with them in nothing that is Idolatrous c. and by complying with them where they do with antiquity and truth it is more apt to convince them of their errors and by charity to invite then by defiance that it makes an idle Ministery which sure the Directory will not unmake being as fit for that turn either by forming and conning the Prayer there delineated or by depending on present conceptions as the Liturgie can be that it hinders the gift of Prayer which if it signifie the elocution or conception of words in Prayer is not peculiar to the Minister and for any thing else hindring it no more then the Directory doth that the continuance of it would be matter of endlesse strifes c. which sure 't is more reasonable to think of an introduction of a new way of Service then the retaining of the old that there be many other weighty considerations and many particulars in the book on which this condemnation is grounded and yet not one of these mention'd but kept to boil in their own breasts if there be any or which is more likely falsely here pretended to inflame the reckoning that they are not mov'd

Gods to which Christ opposes your heavenly Father knoweth what you have need of and so needs not your Tautologies to explain them to him Much more might be said for the explaining of that mistaken place but that it would seem unnecessary to this matter the exception being so causlesse that the Vindication would passe for an extravagance Sect. 35 Of the Prayers for the King the account will not be much unlike S. Paul commands that prayers supplications and intercessions thanksgivings be made for Kings c. 1. Tim. 2. 1 2. where though the mention of those severall sorts of prayers signified by those foure words might be matter of apology for the making severall addresses to God for Kings in one service supposing them proportioned to those sorts in that text yet have we distributed the frequent prayers for him into the severall services one solemn prayer for him in the ordinary daily service and onely a versicle before as it were prooemiall to it another in the Letany another after the Commandments on which though our book hath two forms together yet both the Rubrick and Custome gives us authority to interpret it was not meant that both should be said at once but either of the two chosen by the Minister another before the Communion where the necessity of the matter being designed for the Church militant makes it more then seasonable to descend to our particular Church and the King the supream of it just as Herodotus relates the custome of the Persians l. 1. p. 52. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they pray for all the Persians particularly for the King To this practice of ours so grounded in the Apostle we shall adde 1. the reward promised by the Apostles intimation to such Prayers if not as I conceive by those words that we may live a peaceable and quiet life c. that peaceable and quiet life of all blessings the greatest seeming to be a benefit or donative promised to the faithfull discharge of that duty of praying and supplicating and interceding and giving thanks for Kings yet certainly somewhat else in that high Declaration made concerning it in the next words for this is good and acceptable before God our Saviour whose acceptation is reward sufficient to any action and yet who never accept● but rewards also 2. The practise of the ancient Christians set down by Tertull. Sacrificamus pro salute Imperatoris purâ prece our prayers are sent up a pure sacrifice for the prosperity of the Emperour And that quoties conveniebant in another place at every meeting or service of the Church precantes semper pro omnibus Imperatoribus vitam prolixam Imperium securum domum tutam exercitus fortes Senatum fidelem populum probum Orbem quietum quaecunque hominis Caesaris vot● sunt praying alwayes for the Emperours and begging of God for them long life secure Reign the safety of his house couragious Armies a faithfull Senate a good people a quiet world all those severals which would make up more prayers then our book hath assigned all that either a Man or King they can stand in need of and so Athen●goras and others to the same purpose especially when they have occasion to justifie the fidelity of Christians to their unchristian Emperours having no surer evidence to give of that then the frequency of their prayers for them which they which think necessary to abridge or supersede must give us leave by that indication to judge of somewhat else by occasion of that topick to observe their other demonstrations of disloyalty to those that are set over them by God And to any that are not guilty of that crime nor yet of another of thinking all length of the publick service unsupportable I shall referre it to be judged whether it be necessary that the King be prayed for in the Church no oftner then there is a Sermon there Sect. 36 6. The Communion of Saints which if it were no Article in our Creed ought yet to be laid up as one of the Christians tasks or duties consists in that mutuall exchange of charitie and all seasonable effects of it between all parts of the Church that triumphant in heaven Christ and the Saints there and this on earth militant which he that disclaims by that one act of insolence casts off one of the noblest priviledges of which this earth is capable to be a fellow citizen with the Saints and a fellow member with Christ himself The effects of this charity on their parts is in Christs intercession and in the Saints suffrages and dayly prayers to God for us but on our part thanksgivings and commemorations which 't is apparent the Primitive Christians used very early solemnizing the day of Christs resurrection c. and rehearsing the names of the Saints out of their Diptycks in time of the offertory before the Sacrament besides this so solemn a Christian duty another act of charity there is which the Church ows to her living sonnes the educating of them in the presence of good examples and setting a remark of honour on all which have lived Christianly especially have died in testimony of the truth of that profession and again a great part of the New Testament being story of the lives of Christ and his Apostles and the rest but doctrine agreeable to what those lives expressed it must needs be an excellent compendium of that book and a most usefull way of infusing it into the understanding and preserving it in the memory of the people to assigne proper portions of Scripture in Lessons Epistles and Gospels to every day every Sunday every Festivall in the yeare which are none in our Church but for the remembrance of Christ and the Scripture-Saints to infuse by those degrees all necessary Christian knowledge and duties into us the use of which to the ignorant is so great that it may well be feared that when the Festivals and solemnities for the birth of Christ and his other famous passages of life and death and resurrection and ascension mission of the holy Ghost and the Lessons Gospels and Collects and Sermons upon them be turn'd out of the Church together with the Creeds also 't will not be in the power of weekly Sermons on some head of Religion to keep up the knowledge of Christ in mens hearts a thing it seems observ'd by the Casuists who use to make the number of those things that are necessariò credenda necessary to be believed no more then the Festivals of Christ make known to men and sure by the ancient Fathers whose Preaching was generally on the Gospels for the day as apears by their Sermons de tempore and their postils To all these ends are all these Festivals and these Services designed by the Church and to no other that is capable of any the least brand of novell or superstitious and till all this antidote shall be demonstrated to be turned poyson all these wholesome designes to be