the Congregation could neither hear nor see the Minister what I say but meer Superstition 14thly Page 42. He falls again to the abusing of Presbyterians saying That they ought to have as bad an Opinion of the Trine aspersion of the Cross in Baptisme adding towards the end of that Page his confidence That if the Trine aspersion were used in our Church or if she had retained the Trine immersion as at the beginning of King Edward rhe Sixth's Reign it would be counted a great Superstition This is a great slander no Presbyterians that ever I heard of have any such Principles from which they can charge Superstition upon Trine immersion or upon Trine aspersion they say it is the command of God that water should be applied to the Baptized had he commanded that this application should be by dipping or sprinkling once or twice his command must have been observed seeing there is no such Command they say that Superiours are at liberty to appoint which they please provided nothing be appointed that is imprudent or uncharitable and now that we are fallen upon this point I would gladly know what it is that our Church hath appointed by the Liturgy I see the Minister is appointed to dipp the Child in the water if the Sponsors certifie that the Babe can well endure it but if they certifie that the Child is weak it shall suffice to pour water upon it so that here is no allowance of any Rite but Dipping unless there be a Certificate of the Childs weakness But when I wonder did any Baptist demand such a Certificate as for the Quoties no meaner a man than Bishop Mountague in his Articles of Visitation positively asserted that the Child is thrice to be aspersed with water on the face So that the Act of Uniformity notwithstanding it seems the Doctors of the Church were not agreed and for ought I can observe notwithstanding any Rubrick or Canon now in force Ministers are at their Liberty to apply the water once or thrice though I think Bishop Mountague was much mistaken when he said that the Child was thrice to be aspersed the Church hath not commanded Trine aspersion but there is no constat that she hath forbidden it Nor is this the only thing in our Administration of Baptisme about which I am at a loss Immersion I do hugely approve yea I cannot see how it can be forborn unless charity or modesty on something of that nature do forbid it But what may be the Reason that our Church allows not pouring water upon Infants without a Certificate that they are weak and yet in the form of Baptism appointed for adult persons leaves it wholly at the Ministers discretion either to dip them into the water or to pour water upon them There is another thing in which aqua mihi haeret I am marvellously also perplext about the Administrator or Administratrix of Baptism In the Hampton-Court Conference K. James stumbled something at some expressions in our Liturgy which seemed to give Liberty to women and Maids to Administer Baptisme in case of extreme necessity and he was then answer'd by Archbishop Whitgift that Baptism by Women and Lay-persons was not allow'd in the practise of the Church but was enquired of and censur'd in the Bishops Visitations and that the words in the Book inferred no such meaning But Bishop Bancroft declared that the Church by those words did intend in case of necessity a permission of private persons to Baptize and that this permission was agreeable to the practise of the ancient Churches Withal opening the absurdities and impieties of their Opinion who think there is no necessity of Baptisme I confess I could not but wonder that they who had so strongly pleaded for the Liturgy and pleas'd themselves in silencing those who could not conform unto it should be as contrary as North and South in expounding a material passage of it But however for the credit of the Ordinance I rejoyced greatly to find that at the motion of the King it was ordred that the words A Lawful Minister should be put into the Rubrick for by this means I thought us sufficiently secured against any female Baptizers But he who doth not love to conceal any thing Dr. P. H. in his necessary Introduction to the History of Bishop Laud pag. 27. hath quite took away the cause of my rejoycing for he saith The alteration was greater in sound than sense it being the Opinion of many great Clerks that any man in cases of extreme necessity who can pronounce the words of Baptism may pass in the notion of account of a lawful Minister By any man I suppose he means any one that is de humano genere and by consequence either a Child or a Natural but I hope some one will give check to this extravagant Notion that so a stop may be put to the Licentiousness of those unto whom God hath no more given a power to Baptize than to Ordain Ministers And therefore I wish that to stop this gap instead of the Minister of the Parish or any other lawful Minister it had been said the lawful Minister of any other Parish and then I should have thought it impossible for any man to be so impudent as to opine that our Church had not restrained Baptisme to the Clergy But they who made our new Liturgy were wiser then I and some that have subscrib'd it it seems had got some such way of Interpretation as no Logick ever led me into 15thly Pag. 103. He makes bold with the whole Church of England For of her these are his words She holdeth subordination of Ministers in the Christian Church to be of Apostolical nay of Divine Institution having as she conceiveth for Grounds of this her Judgment besides Scripture the Practise of the Holy Apostles in their time of the Universal Church ever since until this later Age and which is more of Christ himself who ordained the Apostles and the Seventy Disciples in an imparity as two distinct Orders of Ministers in his Church I suppose this Reverend Praedicant doth not pretend to any faculty of discerning the secret thoughts and inward conceptions of our Churches heart farther then when she discov'rs them by some words or other signification let him therefore tell us where the Church hath declared her self thus to hold thus to conceive as in the fore-quoted words is represented That the Church holds subordination of Ministers to be an Apostolical Institution is plain enough and therefore Mr. D. beats the Air as oft as he brings any Testimonies for Episcopacie which do not place it among Apostolical Institutions but I cannot finde that the Church any where distinguisheth Apostolical and Divine much less doth she say that she hath besides Scripture the practice of the Apostles and of Christ himself The Practice of the Apostles and Christ himself are recorded in Scripture and be a part of Scripture and therefore it is not sense to say that she
to be accounted the same thing not to be and not to appear and if they had appeared their appearance might perhaps make those Presbyters who gave orders without them Schismaticks it could not possible make their orders null for as formerly where our Church thought that Baptisme administred by a Midwife was valid and allowed and enjoyned her in Case of necessity to baptize the Midwife had offended if she had baptized where there was no true necessity yet this offence notwithstanding her baptisme would have been reputed valid so here if our Presbyters could confer a valid Ordination when Bishops were not at hand their Ordination must needs be valid though Bishops were at hand therefore all the dust that is raised by Mr. D. to shew some difference between the Presbyters of our own and other Churches could be designed to no other end but to blind his own and his Readers Eyes that so no notice might be taken how he got off this controversie it may be he may come nearer the mark in the point of Episcopacy it self but of that also we shall find that his Arrows fall Heavenly wide For the Non-Conformist has again and again professed in conference and writing that he can and would for peace-sake receive a Bishop that should have as great a superintendence over Presbyters as ever Cyprian had over his but they say that by assenting and consenting to the present Book of Ordination they must acknowledge a Bishop to be by divine Institution of a superiour order to a Presbyter and for this they say they can find no Foundation in Scripture and less then none in any writings of modern reformed Divines If they are mistaken either in setting our Bishops higher then they have set themselves or in making a Bishop when set to such a heighth to be an Officer unknown to Primitive or Modern Churches Mr. Durell had done a very Christian work if he had taken pains in the Spirit of meekness to shew them their mistake but he cannot sure think that he hath endeavoured any such thing He tells us page 4th and the 5th that all the Lutheran Churches have a subordination of Pastours and that those who are in them called Superintendents or Bishops have the power of Ordination as the Bishops of the Church of England have But does he believe what he himself writes does he not know that they all found their Superintendency on a human and not on a divine institution does he not know that some Lutheran Divines of eminent note do with full mouth declaim against us here in England because we so much appropriate the power of Ordination unto Bishops Tobias Major I am sure on this very score calls us Angli Papizantes let all Scholars consult Chemnitius Gerard Brockmand or any other Lutheran that writes common places or if they be too many to consult let them consult Hunnius's demonstration of the Lutheran Ministry in which they shall find him though himself a Superintendent making a Bishop in Ordination to act only as the Churches instrument and averring that if the Church should delegate her power to a Presbyter or to a Layman the Ordination would be as valid as if performed by a Bishop The Non-Conformists have no quarrel against the name either of Superintendent or Bishop nor will it be any satisfaction to them to shew them Ecclesiastical Persons in the Lutheran Churches dignified by the name of Superintendents or Episcopi unless it could also be shewed that they claim that dignity by divine right and are received by the Elders as an Order of men superiour to them the which will never be shewed nay it will easily be proved that meer Presbyters have ordained those who in Germany and Denmark go by the name of Bishops and Super-intendents Nicholas Amsdorft as appears in his Life written by Melchior Adam was created Bishop but by whom was he created by Martin Luther the Pastour of the place where the Ordination was solemnized and two Pastours more Now did these set this Bishop into an order superiour to their own if they did who gave them authority so to do if they did not then his Title notwithstanding he was still of the Order of Presbyters and those that were afterwards ordained by him were ordained but by a Presbyter Likewise in Denmark when Reformation there first began seven Bishops of the Kingdome being cast out there were seven Super-intendents ordained who were to do the work of the expelled Bishops and to be Executors of the whole Ecclesiastical Ordination but by whom were these seven ordained even by John Bugenhagh who was but a Presbyter as may be seen in his Life written by the forementioned Author so that such Episcopacy as is scrupled by the English Non-Conformist has no place in any Lutheran Churches and if not in the Lutheran I am sure not in the reformed Churches Yet Mr. Durell in many places of his Book makes shew as if the Episcopacy quarrelled against here in England had place in some reformed Churches and that those very Churches among whose Ministers there is an equality do not condemn Episcopal Government the French Churches he is certain page 13. are so far from averseness to it that they rather wish they were in a condition to enjoy that sacred order Now what means he by that sacred Order if he do not mean an Order by Divine appointment superiour to the order of Presbytery he doth most egregiously trifle If he do mean such an Order I say that as many French Divines as do desire such an Order are manifestly fallen off from the confession exhibited to Charles 9th 1561. the 30th Article whereof is this We believe that all true Pastours in what place so ever they are set are all endued with the same and equal power among themselves under that one head and chief and sole universal Bishop Jesus Christ And if any Ministers of the Belgick Churches do either desire or could approve of the English Hierarchy they also must fall off from the Belgick Confession which in the Synod of Dort was reviewed and approved for if that Confession had no inimicous aspect upon the Church Government in Britain why did our Divines of England approve only that part of it which related to Doctrine not that which related to Discipline Our Prelates and their Friends in England do very much build their Hierarchy upon Ignatius his Epistles If the French Churches did not dislike the building why do the most Learned of them take so much pains to ruine and pull up the Foundation why have Blondel Salmasius Dally so long employed their Pens to prove the Epistles even in the best Edition to be spurious I know Mr. Durell tells a story concerning Blondel that in his Apology for the opinion of Hierom he had inserted a passage which some Scotch Ministers prevailed with him to blot out in which he declares himself to be no Enemy unto Primitive Episcopacy if that be true he did not sure
Caluminator Bishop Carleton hath written an examination of Mountagues appeal And pag. 111. gives us to understand That instead of yielding his consent to that strange conceit of the parity of Ministers to be instituted by Christ which was inserted into the Belgick Confession he openly protested his dissent thereunto And I believe that such protestation was by him made in his own name and the name of those sent out of England with him But I would willingly be satisfied why the Divines of other Churches did not make such protestation also Did they think the parity of Ministers a strange conceit If they did not down falls the whole structure of Mr. Durells Book if they did why did they enter no dissent to this strange conceit And I would also be satisfied what might move our Reverend and Learned Carleton to say That the cause of all the troubles in the Belgick Church was this That they had not Bishops amongst them who by their Authority might repress those who brought in novelties Sure I am that not long after the sitting of that Synod the Arminian novelties were broached to purpose in England and yet we who wanted not Bishops either would not or could not repress the broachers of them This Reverend Prelate was Diocesan to Mr. Mountague who made it his business to infect us with Arminianism If his Episcopal power were so soveraign an Antidote against the spreading of this infection why did he never make use of it or how came it to have so little success Oh that it were not too manifest that errours may grow in a Reformed Church where Hierarchy is established I have one thing more to add which it may not be amiss here to relate The Ministers of the Palatinate being brought into a great deal of distress his late Majesty thought meet under the Broad Seal to grant them a Collection here in England for their Relief The Letters Patents being Sealed Archbishop Laud thought meet to have an Alteration made in the form of the Letters and obtained of the King to have it made It had been said that the Ministers extream miseries fell upon them for their sincerity and constancy in the true Religion which we together with them profess and because they would not submit themselves to the Antichristian yoke our most Reverend Primate thought not meet to have Popery call'd the Antichristian Yoke though it had been so called here in England by Persons as great as himself Nor did it relish with him that the Religion of the Palatinate Churches should be called the same with ours Dr. Heylin in the History of his Life pag. 306. gives the reason Because by the Religion of those Churches the Calvinian rigors about Predestination c. are received as Orthodox and because they maintain a parity of Ministers directly contrary both to the Doctrine and Government of the Church of England Either therefore what Mr. Durell saith from the Palatinate Ministers in favour of our English Hierarchy is a meer falsity or else there is some such Alteration made in the Judgment of those men of late as the world formerly knew not of or else the Archbishop and his Second laid to the charge of the Palatinate Ministers what they were not truly to be charged with I have insisted too long on this point and shall conclude it with a profession of my perswasion that if a Synod should be called made up of the most sober forreign Divines they would advise his Majesty to establish a moderated limited Episcopacy as more suited to the Generality of our English tempers than that Presbytery which the two Houses to satisfie the importunities of the Sects rather made a shew they would establish then did establish but I can as soon believe they would publish to the whole world their own Hypocrisie as advise to settle a Government by Bishops pretending to be Jure Divino superiour to the Presbyters claiming sole power of Order and Jurisdiction and exercising their Jurisdiction by Lay-Chancellors and if they would not advise this much less would they advise to silence every one that should not assent to and approve of such a Government If you can think that Mr. Durells Testimonies prove they would I beseech you then make use of your Logick reduce his Testimonies into the form of a Syllogism and if the conclusion follow from every one of his premises or from any one of them I will then humbly beg your pardon and his too Indeed some of his Testimonies are such as I much doubt whether he brought them in jest or in earnest Peter Martyr and Bogerman are made to approve the English Hierarchy pag. 252 268. Because the one did write the other speak to English Bishops by those names and titles by which they are commonly notified here in England But is not this to affront us as if we were quite void of Learning may we not as well argue from Mr. Prynn's un-Bishoping of Timothy and Titus that he also approved the English Hierarchy because he dedicates a Book with that name to the two Arch-Bishops by the Titles of Right Reverend Fathers in God Primates and Metropolitanes of all England Is not this to lay a stumbling block in the way of the blind Quakers and to make that silly Generation yet more averse from giving men those names by which they are dignified in the places where they live To suggest that a man cannot call one by the name commonly given him but he must be interpreted to approve his office and the way of coming to his office and the claim he makes to his office But it is also said of Peter Martyr that he submitted to the Bishops whilst he was in England pag. 252. Did he so In what I wonder Had they any power over the Kings Professor Could they either visit him or silence him And what if he had submitted to them must he needs submit to them as to an order of men superior by Divine Law to that Order of which he himself was Cranmer most familiar with Martyr never claim'd to be of such an Order as his Manuscript kept by Dr. Stillingfleet will witness much less did he desire Martyr or Bucer or Fagius to be reordain'd by him that they might be capable of Ecclesiastical preferments so as submission then was quite another thing to what it is now Yet even the Non-Conformists of that age thought they had wherewith to justifie their Non-Conformity and to speak as softly as is possible they did as much credit the cause of the Protestants by suffering as did any of the Conformists And if I might make comparisons none of them ever recanted for a time as Cranmer did none of them during the time of imprisonment went to Mass as Ridley had begun to do and probably had continued so to do had he not been recalled from that abomination by the Letter of his Nonconforming Friend Mr. Bradford And the exemplary courage and constancy of our Protomartyr
liberty to speak all he had to speak I must therefore out of the Reverence I have for his gray haires and the respect that all Christian Churches bear to him for his Learning and Piety doe him so much right as to let him speak farther about the Controversies agitated among us he hath a Paraeness to the Churches and by name the English Church in that page 146. he tells us what he would have taken from Episcopacy Secular Dominion Terrene Riches or Wealth and the Pompe of Ceremonies and in the next page brings in the Papists laughing and jearing at us for the Ceremonies that we retained here in England since our Reformation so that I may well conclude that it had been more for the interest of the Church to have passed over the Bohemian Churches in silence and it had been well also if the Consensus Poloniae had never been mentioned for in that we shall find a Synod at Cracovia anno 1573. disputing de Choreis and when some had alledged that there were honest as well as dishonest dancings it was at last concluded by the suffrage of all as well Seculars as Clergy that they were to be condemned according to the Scripture and to be forbidden unto all that profess true Piety Will it much please some of our Governours that young Students are by Mr. Durell directed to read the Determinations of this Synod but this is one of the least of the mischiefs that he doth us pag. 93. being surprised with a pang of vain glory and designing to acquaint us with his own Sufferings he doth not stick to deliver that which involves the farre greater part of his present Conforming Brethren under the guilt of Rebellion and Schisme for these are his words pag. 93. It is known how great the Persecution was against all Ministers who adhered to the King and Church of England during the late troubles those who were more gently dealt with were onely plundered turned out of their Livings or imprisoned there were others whom it was thought fitter to cast out of the Land c. Out of these words supposing what is manifest that they who adhered not to the King and to the Church are Traytors and Schismaticks thus I argue All that adhered to King and Church suffered either to Deprivation or Banishment most of the present Conformists neither suffered to Deprivation nor Banishment therefore most of the present Conformists neither adhered to King nor Church and by Consequence were Traytors and Schismaticks The Major is Mr. Durells own The Minor is known to all the Nation most of the present Conformists either enjoyed their own Livings during the late troubles or were put into new Livings If Mr. Durell had enquired of him who Licensed his Book he would have told him that he enjoyed a very good Fellowship in All-Souls during the late confusions but it is usual with Mr. Durell where he thinks any Presbyterian is within his reach to lay about him though he must needs strike through the love of most of his own Friends So pag. 44 〈◊〉 telâ—â— us That those who profess themselves to be Orthodox had either altogether neglected the Sacrament in most Parishes of these three Kingdomes or else had ministred it onely to some few choice persons Which is to throw dirt into the faces of his Epispopal Brethren for they possessed most of the Parishes in this Kingdome to be sure and as for the Kingdome of Scotland there war no neglect of the Sacrament untill that our English Armies had made it impossible for them to exercise their Discipline But Aquilla non capit muscas it is a small thing with Mr. Durell thus to scratch our English Clergy unless he also wound the whole English Nation and that we find him doing for after he had told us that he would set down out of Monsieur Le Moyne's Letter as much as fitted his purpose he sets down this pag. 136. The English have a Natural fierceness and withall a natural inclination to Superstition Doth this Character of our Nation fit Mr. Durell's purpose then certainly it is a wicked purpose which cannot be managed but by the causless aspersion of a whole Nation Usually Superstition dwells in the timerous and dastardly Nature We unhappy Mortalls that we be are naturally fierce and yet naturally Superstitious he that had observed this concerning us should have been so friendly as to tell us what kind of Superstition it is that we are so naturally inclined to that so we might have known how to have watched and prepared Antidotes against it if there be any Antidotes strong enough to expell that which is naturall The Author of this Letter whom Mr. Durell calls one of the ordinary Preachers to the Reformed Congregation of Roan which certainly is a Phrase of disparagement to English ears thinkes that upon account of our Natural fierceness and superstition We stand in need of a Government somewhat Despoticall that is of a Government by Bishops but I would query what kind of Bishops we must have Nature teacheth us to desire some of our own Nation and if they be of our own Nation are not they Naturally Fierce and Superstitious too if they be what Despoticall power shall we have to cure them if they be not then it seems the Episcopal Character expells the Natural Fierceness and Superstition that dwells in English Natures but we never yet had any experience that a mans being made a Bishop in England did work any cure of his Natural Fierceness and Superstition Some men have thought that divers after they were advanced to Episcopal Dignity grew more fierce and more superstitious but this I neither affirm nor deny In the same Letter pag. 134. it is said That it cannot enter into a Rational Mans Imagination that a great Kingdome should come by custome to be content to see its Bishops no more having honoured and reverenced them for the space of one thousand four hundred years This is good news to the Bishops and if they can believe it they may in utramque aurem indormire for Episcopacy it seems as well as Superstition is grafted into the Natures of the members of this great Kingdome and they can neither suddenly nor by custome be brought so much as to a contentedness to want their Hierarchy The Author of this Epistle is famed to be a great Historian and I doubt not but he is so but methinks he is mistaken in his Chronology whilest he makes this great Kingdome to have reverenced and honoured Bishops for one thousand four hundred years I find not any good evidence that there were any Bishops among us till Augustine the Monk was sent to us from Rome and it is not one thousand four hundred years since Augustine came hither I say there is no good evidence of Bishops till then for Venerable Bede the onely Author to be regarded concerning matters Ecclesiastical preceding Augustins mission from the Pope tells us indeed of Brittish Bishops but after
declared that Mr. Durell hath much abused him in leaving out sundry passages in his Letter wherin he did moderate and regulate the Episcopal power which if they had been inserted the Letter would not at all have fitted his design Lastly it plainly appears that Mr. Durell is no observer of the Act of Uniformity for he over and over confesseth that he hath suffered those to preach in his Church who had no Episcopal Ordination which is a Crime severely to be punished by the Act. And I much doubt whether Mr. Durell himself be qualified to be a Preacher in England for though he make shift to tell us that he was Ordained by a Scotch Bishop yet it is probable enough that that Bishop was Ordained Presbyter by Presbyters or at least by those who never had themselves any Ordination to be Presbyters but by Presbyters and if so there was an error in the first Concoction and we know that is not to be corrected Our Bishops lately took care to prevent this scruple and consecrated Mr. Sharp first Deacon then Priest then Bishop c. But we are sure from History that the first Bishops who came over hither to receive Ordination were not so dealt with and therefore Mr. Durell may do well to consider upon what ground he stands and whether according to the Principle now prevailing he be not still a Laick I have one Catalogue more to give you still and that will consist of things which Country men call Whiskers you may if you please more civilly call them Durellisme I shall not reckon up all but yet I must be allowed to mention some The first occurs page 31. I know none that did ever so much as move the question in what place and which way the Communinion Table ought to stand so it be seated where the people may hear and see except the new Scotch and English Presbyterians A man must have a large measure of Charity that can think him ignorant that there were great questions moved among our Bishops themseves concerning the placing of the Communion Table and some did urge Ministers to read Service there though it was demonstrated that the one halfe of the people could neither see nor hear them A second I find page 32. In all Reformed Churches men use to enter into the places of Publick Worship with their Hats off This is a most notorious nothing being more usual in some Reformed Churches than to pass through and through the places of Worship never stirring their Hats But if he would have the saying understood of mens putting off their Hats when they enter into the place of Publick Worship whilst the Congregation is Worshipping then must this speech be placed where it is already placed among the Gentlemans impertinencies Thirdly page 44. he averrs That those who profess themselves to be Orthodox either altogether neglected the Lords Supper for many years in both Vniversities that of Oxford having had no Communion for above 12 years or only admitted some few choice persons to the same refusing it to all others though their outward carriage were sober honest and religious There are hundreds of Scholars and Citizens know this to be an untruth no Presbyterian in the University of Oxford that had a Pastoral Charge or any thing like it neglected to administer the Sacrament for many years or for any one year or refused any whose conversation was sober honest and religious Some of them were blamed for admitting such whose conversation was not so sober and religious as all Rules of good Discipline do require in Church-members The phrase That of Oxford having had no Communion for above 12 years perhaps was intended only to bear this sence That the University did not for above 12 years meet together to receive the Sacrament in St. Maries before the Terms If this be any fault the Presbyterian is not concerned in it In those 12 years time there were but four Vice-Chancellors all of them right-worthy persons but not one of them professing himself a Presbyterian But indeed it may be question'd whether it was veri nominis crimen not to keep up that Sacrament For I wonder who made the University as the University a Church or who is the Pastour of that Church what Bishop hath Jurisdiction over it or who shall Excommunicate those Members that come not to the Ordinance I never heard that ever the hundred part of the University was at that Sacrament when administred or that any one man was ever censured for being absent from it nay I believe the Statute injoyning this Sacrament in that Church will be found a spick and span new Statute coyned on purpose to inure the Scholars to Bowing towards the Altar Fourthly In the same page and the very next words we have an Assertion as void of all Truth viz. That all the Reformed world over no man that is not a notorious ill Liver is debarred from that Comfort which Christ hath left to his Church for the sick and weak as a Medicine against their Diseases Had it been said that all the Reformed World over no one is to be debarred from the Sacrament by the Rules of Discipline but a notorious ill Liver the Assertion had had some modesty but what intolerable impudence is it for any man to arrogate so much to himself as to adventure to say no man is debarred indeed in all Reformed Churches others are to be debarred besides notorious ill Livers namely the ignorant and those that have any heretical opinions which they make known yea and all those who cannot satisfie themselves to conform to all the Rites and Ceremonies used in the Churches if we may believe Mr. Durell himself Yet I trow there 's no necessity such should be notorious evil Livers Fifthly Pag. 61. He finds a forehead to leave these words on Record It is said that the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas take those things in which they differ from the Reformed Church of England to be sinful and that therefore they would have her to conform to them By whom was this ever said either in so many words or in any expressions tantamount and how would Mr. Durell have this uncouth affirmation to be understood universally or particularly It should be understood universally or else Mr. Durell's going about to prove the Negative is very needless and if it be so understood he might as well have charged us to say that the Reformed Churches count it a sin in the English Church to use her own Native Language The French Ministers preach with their Hats on did ever Nonconformist say that they count it sinful in us to preach with our hats off or did ever Nonconformist go about to bring the French mode into his Church Sixthly Pag. 85. he acquaints us That the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas are told that the Convocations of the Church of England consist onely of Archbishops and Bishops and that the inferiour Clergy are not admitted to sit and vote in them Till
that he should make a Liturgy differing from the Liturgies of Q. Eliz. and K. James and K. Charles I. I must needs say that is no false accusation Mounsieur Chabret in his Letter recorded pag. 82. Doth not say that it was reported Archbishop Laud had compiled a new Liturgy for the Church of England but onely that a new one was compilled by him which had occasioned much clamour and been the ground of fears and jealousies Now I beseech Mr. Durell to tell me Did not Arch-bishop Laud compile a Liturgy for the Scotch Nation if he did not let those who have charged him so to do in allowed writings be confuted If he did compile that Liturgy or which is all one direct those who compiled it I am sure it did differ from ours and occasioned much clamour raised many fears and jealousies which at last ended in a war betwixt the two Nations Yea there were some few alterations made by the said Archbish or some of his Creatures in the Liturgy for our own Church which were not very well relished by those that never were enemies to the legally established Government what those alterations were may be seen in the Dedicatory of Mr. Prynn's Quench Coal But I must give check to my running pen and take notice of some â—â—ner failures against truth p. 8. Mr. Durell thus Pâ—â—â—sifieth Oecolampadius who reformed the City of Basil is stiled Bishop of that Church upon his Tomb of which Bellarmine himself was an eye witnes in his time much against his will for this we are referred to Bellar. de notis Eecles l. 4 c. 8. where Bellarm. indeed does tell us That he was at Basil and there saw the inscription on Oecolampadius his Tomb and read it not without laughter Now it is hard to conceive that he should see that much against his will the sight whereof caused laughter in him but the truth is Bellar. laughter was ridiculous for the words upon the Tomb are not Primus hujus urbis Episcopus as Bellarm. quotes them but Author Evangelicae doctrinae in hac urbe primus Episcopus indeed he is called but how Hujus Templi verus Episcopus and if such an Episcopus will do Mr. Durell any pleasure he most be a very humoursome man that will envy him such a pleasure Ninthly Page 13. He fears not to affirme That all understanding men among the French Churches say plainly that if God Almighty were pleased that all France should embrace the Reformed Religion as England hath the Episcopal Government must of necessity be established in their Churches That all understanding men should say this and say it plainly is certainly a all understanding men were never heard to speak about this matter and should they be called together to speak they would not utter any such speech as is here fathered on them it is scarce sence to say if all France should embrace the Reformed Religion as England hath for certainly all England hath not embraced the Reformed Religion the more the pity and what necessity could there be if France should generally embrace the Reformed Religion that Episcopal Government should be established in it I am not more certain that ever I saw the Sun than I am certain that many understanding Frenchmen will never be brought to say that Episcopal Government must necessarily be established Tenthly Page 27. Having told us the Helvetick Confession does vehemently approve of the observation of some Holy-days he dreads not to tell us That the Ministers of the Church of Scotland subscribed that Confession An. 1566. the Ministers of that Church being then of another Judgment and of a temper far different from that their Successors have shewed of latter years Whereas the Scotch Ministers who subscribed the Helvetick Confession subscribed it with express exception of that part of it which concerns the observation of the Holy-days and so as to that matter plainly shewed themselves to be of the same temper and Judgment with their Successors as plainly appears from the Records of that Church Let the World judge what credit is to be given to Mr. Durell concerning remote Churches who relates things so contrary to truth about a neigbour Church Eleventhly Page 28. He would perswade us That the Crosses have not been pulled down from the top of Churches unless perhaps in som popular Storm but we can tell him of Crosses that have been taken from the top of Churches by the Magistrates appointment and with the Ministers aprobation which things are not to be found in a popular Storm Twelfthly P. 29. He bears us in hand That the Bohemians have solemn dedication of Churches which Ceremony is to be performed with them by the Bishop in the same manner as with us here in England Which words I know not how to reconcile to truth For what Law is there among us enjoyning Churches to be Consecrated by a Bishop or where may a man find the form and manner of Consecraring a Church here in England or read the Prayers with the which the Consecration is to be performed how shall I be able to convince Parishoners that they are bound to desire the Consecration of their newly built or newly inlarged Churches or the Bishop that he is bound to undertake this Consecra .. I though he be not desired and must the Diocesan bear the charges of his journey or have them born by the people sundry such questions as these need resolution which is a sign that the Laws and Canons now in force concern not themselves at all in this business of Consecraition 13thly Pag. 30. Mr. D. bears witness against the Directorians which is either non-sense or a falsity for these are his words At Bazil in the Cathedral Church they have their Fonts of Stone and use them for the baptism of Infants as we do here they have use them alike in the City of Breme and so in other places by which we see they are not of the same judgment with the Directorians who find Popery and Superstition in the very placing of them If the meaning of these words be that the Directorians find Popery and Superstition in placing of Fonts as they are placed at Bazil and Breme it is a perfect calumny if the meaning be that the Directorians find Popery and Superstition in some kind of placing of the Fonts how can a man thence gather that they of Breme and Bazil are not of the same judgment with the Directorians all that the Directory orders is that Baptisme be administred in the face of the Congregation where the people may most conveniently see and hear and not in the places where Fonts in the time of Popery were unfitly and superstitiously placed Here is no finding of Popery and Superstition in the very placing of Fonts but onely a prohibiting the administration of Baptisme in the places where Fonts in the time of Popery were unfitly and superstitiously placed and what I wonder could move the Papists to place their Fonts where
think our Episcopacy to be Primitive for Doctor Hammond in his Answer to Blondel complains of him as if he were so far from being touched with any care of our Church or sense of our miseries that he thought meet contrarily more sharply to prick those that were already oppressed and endeavoured to triumph over our Church when it was sick and staggering and ready by reason of inward troubles to give up the Ghost let Mr. Durell now consider whether he will make his Countryman Blondell an Enemy to our Hierarchy or make our Countryman Dr. Hammond a Calumniatour one of the two he must unavoidably do And for the future let him bethink himself how to wipe off that great and black blot which he hath let fall upon some of the best and most obedient of the Sons of the Church of England page 2. viz. that they weakly suffered themselves to be brought into a bad and false opinion of the Transmarine reformed Churches meeâ—ly by the reports given them by the new Presbyterians For certainly it is little to their credit when they had the Confessions and Symbolical Books of the reformed Churches in their Libraries never to consult them but to take up reports concerning their Neighbours from Men whose interest did lead them to make the world believe that they had a many Friends abroad though but few at home Doubtless our Episcopal Divines knew well enough that the Hierarchy they aimed at was not countenanced by Sister-Churches and long before Smectymnuus was heard of or ever such a creature as an Ordinance of Lords and Commons saw the light one among us had said publickly perfecto odio odi Calvinum and Bishop Laud had inured his tongue to say Ecclesia Romana and Turba Genevensis he had also told Bishop Hall that though he did well to put a difference betwixt the Scottish and other Churches yet he had written more favourably even of other Churches than their cause would then bare and the good cause then in hand did work so powerfully even upon the Holy and Learned Bishop Hall himself that he adventured as Mr. Prin tells us to reordain Mr. John Dury though he had been before ordained in some Reformed Church Such an Episcopacy as was claimed by Arch-bishop Cranmer the far greater part at least of present Non-Conformists could admit but such an Episcopacy as Arch-bishop Laud was introducing they cannot yet digest and that is the Episcopacy that the present book of Ordination if assented and consented unto would engage us in and let it not seem strange that the present Non-Conformists startle at it when as Dr. Holland the Kings professour of Divinity in Oxford was so much offended with Dr. Laud for asserting it that he did not stick to affirm he was a Schismatick and went about to make a Division betwixt the English and other Reformed Churches yet though the Non-Conformists do not like such a kind of Hierarchy they will if they consult the peace of their Consciences use no such incivil language against it as some of Mr. Durells Countrymen have done they will not be so uncivil as to call Dr. Hammond Knave which is the English to Salmasius his Nebulo they will not say as Maresius does in his Examen of Dr. Prideaux his four Questions pag. 1. That Dr. Hammond as proceeded to such a degree of fury as professedly to propugne the cause of the Pope Much less will they say that the English Bishops had better consulted their eminence if they had acted more moderately in it and had rather with the rest of Protestants made it to be of humane institution than so stifly to assert the jus divinum of it for as a bow by too much bending of it is broken so they too much stretching their Authority and dignity fell quite from it like the Camel in the Fable who because he affected horns lost his ears pag. 68. least of all will they say as the same Author says pag. 71. which I tremble to English Praesules Angli ex parte collimarunt ad Papismi restitutionem jure postliminii and pag. 111. Vt dicam quod res est haec defensio temporalis Jurisdictionis pro Ecclesiae Ministris portio aliqua est illius fermenti Papistici quo Hierarchiae Anglicanae massa paulatim se infici passa fuit dum magis ambit Typhum Seculi quam humilitatem Crucis meditatur To conclude all when the Learned Gataker was most bitterly railed upon by Lilly for being a Presbyterian he answers in his Apology pag. 24. A duly bounded and well regulated Prelacy joyned with a Presbytery wherein one as President Superintendent Moderator term him what you please whether Annual or Occasional or more constant and continual either in regard of years or parts or both jointly hath some preheminence above the rest yet so as that he do nothing without joint consent of the rest Such a Prelacy I never durst nor yet dare condemn The like he says for divers others if not the greater part of the Assembly pag. 26. And the same dare I adventure to say in reference to the far greater part of the present suffering Ministers nay I may further undertake for them that if any one should publish in print that the difference betwixt a Bishop and Presbyter is by divine institution they would not think themselves any way concerned to have such a one suspended from his Ministry yet if my memory greatly fail me not Mounsieur Peter Moulin in his first Epistle to Bishop Andrews making Apology for some passages in his Tract of the Vocation of Pastors excepted against by K. James useth these or the like words That if he had made the difference betwixt a Bishop and Presbyter to be founded on a divine Law his own Churches would have inflicted Ecclesiastical censures upon him It will concern Mr. Durell highly either to prove that Moulin wronged his own Churches or that they have abated of their zeal against Episcopy for if he prove neither of these he will lose that which is better then all his Ecclesiastical revenues a good name and when his hand is in at this work he may also do well to take Bishop Mountague to task who in his appeal to Caesar by his Majesties special direction and command perused by Dr. White and approved as fit to be Printed says p. 70. That the Discipline of the Church of England in the Synod of Dort and other Dutch Synods is held unlawful If it be held unlawful in the Synod of Dort it may be presumed it was held unlawful by almost all other Reformed Churches for almost all sent thither their Delegates and these Delegates approved the confession of Faith in which onely the Discipline of our Church can be thought to be condemned Now let Mr. Durell bid his zeal awake for certainly Hannibal est ad portas either he or Bishop Mountague will be found false witnesses against the Reformed Churches I will not determine whither must be branded for a
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-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-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
the French Rubricks upon Sundays in the morning the following Form is commonly used The meaning whereof he tells us there is That it is to be alway used and no other A gloss that sounds marvellous strange to our English ears which have been accustomed to distinguish betwixt Commonly and Always and will not easily unlearn that distinction and so when we hear out of the Harmony of the Belgick Synods a Minister shall pray either by a certain Form proposed to himself or else the Spirit shall dictate we are wont to imagine that the meaning is not that a Minister shall never pray but by a Form it may be Mr. Durell is of another mind if he be he may do well to communicate to the world the grounds of so singular an opinion and when he shall so do he may do well also to give us his thoughts concerning the practice of the Bohemian Churches where it seems the Ritual Books or Formula's are delivered onely to the Pastors the Reason whereof Comenius in his Annot. pag. 101. saith is That the Auditors might be more attent and more profoundly admire the grace of God for says he if onely prescribed things are alwaies recited what is there that may stir up attention Curiosity rather will be stirred up whilst this and the other man attends whether the Minister reads exactly the same things which they behold in their own books nor addeth he must we think that the Ministers are tyed to the very words and syllables of the books delivered to them it is free according to variety of occasions to use any thing drawn out of the Treasures of mystical wisdome which makes for the exciting of zeal whence it eomes to pass that pious Auditors are scarcely ever present at holy Mysteries without a new motion of heart My imagination on the reading of these words is that Comenius was not hugely fond of prescribed Formula's in which the people were as well versed as the Minister he seems rather to be of opinion that if words flow from the mouth of the Minister which the People had not seen before hand they will be heard with the more Devotion whether Mr. Durell's imaginations agree with mine time may discover mean while I may have leave to guess what it was that moved Mr. Durell's pen to run into such excess of riot against the two Houses and Assembly and I conceive it was the extravagance of his Country-man Ludovicus Capellus in his discourse about Liturgies unhappily inserted into the Theses Dalmurienses for his words Mr. Durell has punctually transcribed and done into English a Scholler may find them in the third part of those Theses p. 707. I shall follow Mr. Durell's own Translation pag. 15. One hundred forty years ago when the separation was made from the Church of Rome and that the Christian people coming out of Babylon did cast off the Popes Tyranny the sacred Liturgy was purged of all that Popish Superstition and Idolatry and all such things as were overburdensom or which did contribute but little or nothing to the edification of the Church And so were framed and prescribed in several places divers set forms of holy Liturgies by the several Authors of the Reformation that then was and those simple and pure in Germany France England Scotland the Netherlands c. differing as little as possible from the antient set Forms of the Primitive Church which set Forms the Reformed have used hitherto with happiness and profit each of them in their several Nations and districts till at last of very late there did arise in England a froward scrupulous and over nice that I say not altogether superstitious Generation of men unto whom it hath seemed good for many Reasons but those very light and almost of no moment at all not onely to blame but to cashier and abolish wholly the Liturgy used hitherto in their Church together with the whole Hierarchical Government of their Bishops instead of which Liturgy they have brought in their Directory as they call it On the words thus translated I adventure to say First That I am not much in love with the Professors Chronology He gratifies the Papists too much to say or but to intimate that no secession was made from their Church till an hundred and forty Years before he put forth those Theses some Churches had gone out of Babylon much sooner some not so soon Secondly I am less in love with his jumbling together of the Liturgies of Germany France England Scotland Belgia for if the Germans did purge their Liturgie of every thing that was over-burdensom and troublesome or which did contribute but little or nothing to the edification of the Church let a reason be given me why we leave any thing out of our Liturgies which they retain did this Professor of Divinity think that nothing is retained in the Lutheran Liturgies that is burdensom and operosous or that makes little to edification or did he conceit that none of the Lutheran Churches are German do the Lutherans Latine Songs contribute much to edification are their Images apt to teach the soul did ever any one get much good by having the bread put into his mouth instead of having it broken and delivered into his hand what is I wonder the advantage of Exorcism certainly if the Lutheran Liturgies recede as little as may be from the Forms of the Primitive Church other Churches have receded very much from them Thirdly It was a great misadventure to affirm that the Reformed had with profit and happiness each of them in their several Nations and Districts used set Forms till lately the Liturgy was Cashired in England Had not Calderwood told the world long since that for many years he had not used set Forms whilst he was Minister in Scotland was not the Liturgy laid aside in Scotland before in England Fourthly It is a sign of no great humility for one Professor so severely to censure the actings of a whole Assembly of Divines in which were many Superiour to himself in Learning but let not Episcopal Divines much glory to find the Assemblies Reasons so vilified they will find the Reason of Mr. Hooker their Oracle as much vilified in this Censor's Thesis de Festis Fifthly It is very Probable the good Professor had never read the Directory else he would not have left it on Record that the Directory contains onely the Arguments of things to be said and done in the Administration of the Sacraments for in the Directory the words for Administration of Baptism are prescribed so are the words for the Administration of the Lords Supper Mr. Durell therefore by translating Capellus into English hath but uncovered his nakedness exposing him to contempt who was before become too contemptible by decrying the Hebrew points and Scripture Chronology so opening a door to down-right infidelity Yet as if he had not done him spight enough He not only gives us his Text but also draws six Observations from it pag. 15 16.
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
Ezra and from the time of Moses Secondly That they are not commonly necessary but for order and Decorum Thirdly Where and when there cannot be had learned Pastours who are able to teach the people by their Sermons and proper Prayers that there Formula's are plainly necessary Fourthly Where there are learned and skilful Pastors a publick Form of Liturgy is very profitable and necessary to the Common Edification of the Church in the same Communion of Divine worship Fifthly That the use of such Forms cannot justly be condemned or disaproved nor ought it seeing it may be alwaies and every where profitable and most convenient and has obtained in the whole Christian Church all the world over for above 1300 years and does every where now obtain but with those Independant Novices Let Mr. Durell after this take heed how he commends Liturgies by the pen of his most applauded forreign Divines and let him know that all the pains he takes to make the French and Dutch Liturgies the same or near a kin with and to ours doth indeed tend to the reproach of Archbishop Laud. For if there were no difference or but small betwixt them why was he so zealous as his Historian represents him in prosecuting and pressing the French and Dutch Churches to have our Liturgy translated into their Language and used by them in all their Churches granted them in England however let me warn Mr. Durell to take heed that he do not go on with that designe he hath so oft acquainted us with I mean the design of Printing together the Formula's and Agenda's of all the Reformed Churches in Christendome for though this design might perhaps please himself as who is not pleased with the issue of his own Brain yet I much question whether it would be any way pleasing to the most Reverend and Right Reverend Prelates of our Church Certain I am that it is not many years since some of our greatest Ecclesiasticks plainly enough declared that such a designe would not much rellish with them for when the Prince Elector Palatine came over to visit his Unckle King Charles I. in England which was about 34 years ago some busie heads as Dr. Heylin calls them published a book intituled A Declaration of the Faith and Ceremonies of the Palsgraves Churches What was the effect of the Publication a course was forthwith taken to call it in for the same cause and on the same prudential grounds adds Dr. Heylin on which the alteration I before mentioned was made in the Letters Patents But I needed not so long to have insisted upon Liturgies having before told you what he must do that hopes to bring the Nonconformist to subscription he must prove that the Church of England hath left Ministers any power to make use of their gifts in prayer for if that be not proved they will shrewdly argue against the lawfulness of promises to bury their gift in a napkin but whether this be proved or no the Nonconformists that I speak with will be but Nonconformists not forsaking the publick Assemblies but rejoyceing to hear Christ Preached though not without some bitter reflections upon themselves I come to Ceremonies and the first of them that occurres is the Surplice concerning which my Nonconformists Friends say That if they used it as enjoyned by the Liturgy they must receive it as a vestment apt by some notable signification it hath to stir up the dull mind Now that I might satisfie their Scruple I have gone to some Conformists and enquired of them whether ever they experimented any such aptness in it to stir up their dull minds they most of them wondred at my Question telling me that by assenting and consenting they meant no more but onely to promise that they would not openly contradict any thing in the Liturgy you may easily imagine what motion this reply stirred up in my dull mind onely one answered that though he would not boast of his own experiences yet he doubted not but the holy Vestment had a fitness in it to stir up the dull mind but I asking him further whether it was apt to stir him up as a man or as an English man he gave me to understand that he was not willing to be pressed further I comforted my self however in this that Mr. Durell would tell me some stories of some great liveliness put into men by the wearing of the white Garment but he quite deceived me onely giving me to understand pag. 24 25. Of some of other Reformed Churches that to comply with the Lutherans do somtimes wear Surplices This is but cold kindness and that I may not be in debt to him for it I give him to understand That no Lutherans in the Low Countries do wear Surplices and they forbear to wear them not because the Magistrate would not give them leave to wear them but because they want a will to wear them which makes me think that they have no high opinion concerning the usefulness of them nor can I think that our own Ministers have any huge apprehensions of this exciting vertue of the Surplice for whereas they are enjoined to wear it as oft as they officiate I find few of them so to do many of them never wear it but when a Sacrament is to be Administred Perhaps I shall be able to afford my Nonconformists more help and assistance against his Scruples about the Cross in Baptisme His Scruples are founded upon this bottom That the Cross is made asign of the Childs Dedication to God and also a sign of his perseverance in Grace and such a sign they say is Sacramental which kind of sign the Church has no Commission from God to institute I have taken some pains that I might be able from the writings of Conformists to assoile this Objection Mr. Durell tells us Serm. pag. 29. That the Cross is indeed a visible sign but there is no invisible Grace answering to it and so no Sacrament I could not acquiesce in this for I thought Dedication to God and Perseverance were graces and if they be Graces I am sure they are invisible Graces I have also somtimes wondred seeing Baptism it self was instituted as a Dedicating sign and seeing by it we engage our selves to perseverance and God also engages to give unto Believers the Grace of Perseverance what might move our Church to institute the Cross as a new sign of any of these things especially seeing yet I never had the hap to meet with any who could from their experience averre unto me that the sign of the Cross with which they were signed at Baptisme had added to them any degree of manfulness nor by comparing several Baptized persons could I ever observe that persons Crossed at Baptisme were less inclined to be ashamed of Christ Crucified than those that were Baptized not being Crossed Indeed this sign of the Cross hath Ministred more matter of Scruple to the Nonconformists then any other Ceremony besides and therefore Mr. Durell
Hypocrite first c. A Second of Mr. Durell's Impertinencies is his Quotation pag. 40. of the Bohemian Churches for the peoples saying Amen at theend of Prayers Did the Presbyterians ever say the People might not say Amen at the end of Prayers are they not rather judged by their Adversaries to erre by affirming that it were meet for the people to say nothing else but Amen Thirdly What made him pag. 43. Waste paper to prove that Confirmation is used in most Reformed Churches Did not Mr. Hanmer and Mr. Baxter write whole books in the commendation of Confirmation Did the Presbyterians ever more heartily desire any thing than that adult persons might before they were admitted to the Lords Supper he ordered to make a Confession of Faith and to declare their Resolution to own that Faith and to walk according to it Did they not alway with grief of heart complain that Confirmation had never been practised here in England or else had been turned into a meer form Fourthly Wherefore are we told page 37 38. That the Lords Prayer and Ten Commandments and Creeds are sung in some Reformed Churches as also the Magnificat the Benedictus and the Nunc dimittis Do the Presbyterians question the lawfulness of singing any of these or do they require any more than that they should be put into Meeter and set into such tunes as ordinary people might follow I my self have heare an eminent Presbyterian Divine on a day of Humiliation read and sing the Lords Prayer as it is Translated and Printed at the end of our Psalm books Yea where as Mr. Durell tells us That the French Church does not sing the Lords Prayer and the Creed of the Apostles because both the Rhyme and Language were somthing course and old Presbyterians never left off to sing according to the Vulgar Translation its oldness and coursness notwithstanding and if hymns should be made out of other places of Scripture by men wise and skilful who is there that would blame them Fifthly Who ever quarrelled with the French Churches for having great silver Chalices for the Communion as he tells us they have pag. 32. Or who would be offended if richer Churches had the ten Commandments in Letters of Gold and the Creed and the Lords Prayer in the same form I have heard one of the chief Presbyterian Ministers did rejoice that the Lords Prayer was by the Painter drawn in very visible Characters upon a wall just over against his Pulpit for by that means if at any time he happened to be as much out in repeating of that form as Mr. Durell lately was in the repeating of the Belief he might help himself and not put himself and others to shame as Mr. Durell did Sixthly He tells us pag. 32. That in all Reformed Churches men used to enter into the place of publick worship with their hats off which is as great an untruth as ever dropped from writers pen unless it be understood of places of publick worship whilst publick worship is actually performed in them and if it may be so understood then the Presbyterians would hugely approve of it By the Directory it was enjoined that all enter the Assembly not irreverently but in a grave and seemly manner gravity and seemliness do include putting off the hat which yet would be a ridiculous action if a man should use it as too many now a days do as oft as they go through the Church though none be met for worship and though they themselves intended no worship nor does the Directory any where condemn the manner which Mr. Durell tells us hath obtained among the French Ladies viz. to unmask themselves when they come into the Temple provided they do not unmask themselves out of a vain or wanton design if they should do so they know by whom they are condemned I but saith Mr. Durell the devoutest sort both of men and women use to kneel and make a Prayer for Gods blessing before they sit down and this the Directory prohibites Had he said that the devouter sort use a short Prayer when they took no seats and came to perform no service to God then he had said something to excuse the actings of some among us The peoples making a secret Prayer before they sit down in their seats is not forbidden by the Directory unto all or unto any but these who come into the Church the publick worship being begun and whether it be more meet for such to betake themselves to their private devotions or to join with the Assembly in that ordinance that is in hand let the learned judge for they are wise Seventhly All might have been spared that is brought pag. 33. Of Peoples standing bare in time of Divine Service and at the Administration of Sacraments In the very Church of Scotland all are uncovered at the Administration of the Sacraments here in England men had left off to put on their hats in time of Sermon which Mr. Durell seems to distinguish from Service had Mr. Calamy and others been hearkened to Eighthly Above all what need we be told pag. 22. That Calvin wore a Gown and a Cap Were not Presbyterians accustomed so to do in the Universities Those sent down by the two Houses to Cambridge did all of them preach in the University Church in their Gowns and in their Hoods and I never heard of any but Brownists that questioned the using of the very same Churches that the Papists had used yet we have fine stories of that pag. 28. As also of the Ring in Marriage as if there were some odde Nonconformists that did scruple being Married with a Ring He tells us also of Matrimony in the publick Congregation pag. 47. celebrated also by a Minister just according as the Directory orders but if he would have gratified us here in England he should have told us that all Reformed Churches do count Marriages valid though made without and against the consent of Parents as also that they have Officers whom they allow to give Licenses for Marriages though there have been no Banes published nor any thing equivolent thereunto but to affirm this had been somewhat too gross Pag. 48 and 49. He minds us that in most Reformed Churches the dead are buried with great solemnity singing of Psalms and Funeral Sermons as if Presbyterians had scrupled the Preaching of Funeral Sermons or had not been wont when desired to Preach them I believe if Comparison were made Presbyterians formerly preached more Funeral Sermons then Prelatical men do now and that very many of those for whom Sermons are now Preached are addicted to Presbytery Mr. Durell should have called to remembrance that our Church hath appointed no Funeral Sermons nor required any more of her Ministers save only to meet the Corps at the Church Stile and so go either into the Church or towards the Grave to say or sing some versicles out of Holy Writ I do not find that by the old Liturgy it was required
that the Corps should be brought into the Church though now I find one or two Psalms appointed to be read after the Minister and people are come into the Church and by Comparing the old and new Liturgy together I find where in the old was the word Minister in the new there is constantly the word Priest so that whereas a Deacon may preach to us and Baptize our Children he may not bury our dead which seems to be a Mystery worthy Mr. Durells unridling Our Clergy men themselves seem Strangers to this mystery for nothing is more usual among them than to set Deacons to bury their dead nor can I in that old Liturgy which I follow find any notice given that the office for the burial of the dead is not to be used at the burial of such as die unbaptized in the new Liturgy such notice is given the reason whereof I am not so happy at present as to know why should Infants that die unbaptized through no fault of their Parents be denied such a burial as Baptized Infants have Mr. Durell is a knowing man and can satisfie us about these matters and brings us no question many Reformed Churches where the same usage obtains but why did he bring in his Friend Mr. Drelincourt saying pag. 49. That he should account the Custome of the Ministers of the Reformed Churches in France being silent at dead mens burial unsufferable were it not for their present condition That learned worthy Divine knows that the Reformed Churches in Holland are under no such condition as the French Churches and yet their Ministers are perpetually silent at the burials of dead men Is their Custome unsufferable I believe he will not so pronounce and therefore will scarce think himself civilly dealt with to have a Fragment of a private Epistle thus published especially seeing it reflects disgrace upon the Ministers of his own nation who are Pastors in Holland I have been too tedious in examining this impertinence The Communion also he tells us pag. 44. Is constantly celebrated at certain set times in all Reformed Churches And is there any thing in the Directory against the celebrating of it at certain set times Does it not say that it is frequently to be celebrated And take order that notice shall be given before hand of its celebration nor does the Directory any where forbid the Administring of the Communion unto those that are sick in private houses though if it had so done it might have justified it self by the Example of many of the best Reformed Churches Let Mr. Durell when he is at leisure enquire whether one of the Assembly of Divines did not Administer the Sacrament to Captain Hotham when he was just going to be Beheaded or whether he was ever censured for so doing I will enlarge my Catalogue no farther by the instances already produced it appears that Mr. Durell may well be called Mr. Impertinent But I shall now by sundry instances make it evident also that he hath thrust sundry things into his book that are like enough if they fall into the hands of a weak Reader to be prejudicial and pernicious and to alienate him from our Church He tells us page 8. the Hungarian and Transilvanian Churches are as Pure and Reformed as any whatsoever but page 10 11. he spoils all and takes a great deal of pains so to do borrowing a book very rare and scarce and out of it acquainting us That in those Churches Ministers swear obedience Canonical unto Presbyters as well as Bishops and That Ministers are to be governed by certain Laws by an eminent sort of Presbyters called Elders as well as by Bishops Then which what can be more derogatory to the Episcopal Power Place Juriisdiction and Ordination in Presbyters as well as Bishops and what Eminence will there then be left for Bishops what will there be left to a Bishop more than what the Presbyterians have a thousand times over acknowledged themselves ready to yield him It may be he thought he should heal his wound by saying as he does page 8. That these Elders are indeed Bishops and the Bishops Archbishops But I say they are indeed but a more Eminent sort of Presbyters so they are expresly called and they can be no other because they were never by Ordination put into an Office or Order superior to that of Presbyters and observable it is vid. pag. praedict That the Minister acknowledgeth himself in his Oath to receive the function of the sacred Ministry from the there present Ministers of God and most Faithful dispensers of his Mysteries Which are Phrases agreeing unto all that are entrusted with the word of Reconciliation So that this Testimony looks with a very evil eye upon Episcopacy and so does much more the Testimony of the Bohemian Churches related pag. 11 12 13. for in that we have Presbyters Ordaining Bohemian Bishops a thing that sounds dreadful to an Episcopal ear This story will strengthen the Presbyterians and be a second unto that with which they are wont so much to confirme themselves I mean the History of Pelagius Bishop of Rome being ordained by two Bishops and one Presbyter These Histories do at least prove that Presbyters and Bishops were of the same Order and that Presbyters as well as Bishops may lay hands upon Bishops and confer the power of making Ministers Indeed the man makes himself ridiculous who goes about to look for any Bishop properly so called among the Waldenses and he does gratifie the Presbyterians not a little page 38. whilst he tells them That the French Churches sing at the end of the Commandments these four verses which answer to our Lord have mercy upon us and incline c. for this is the very thing that Presbyterians desire that these words might be uttered at the end of the Commandments and not at the end of every particular Commandment pag. 45 46. he takes Mr. Calvins pen and drops a very foul blot upon our Church for the custome of Receiving thrice a year which is known to be our custome for no man is bound to Receive oftner is by him the called vitiosus mos i. e. a vitious custome at least if not a custome full of vice But page 53. he calls us all Fools by Craft for these are his words That every National Church ought to have Vniformity within it self hath alwaies been the judgment of all sober and wise Christians and is at this day the good example of all the Reformed Churches in the world I assume that there ought to be Uniformity in every National Church hath not alwaies been nor yet is the Judgment of the Church of England what Conclusion hence arises every one seeth but the Conclusion is so horrid that I will not form it My Assumption I prove from the Canons of 1640. which are so far from determining that there ought to be an Uniformity that they expresly allow a Difformity desiring in reference to the Rite of doing
Reverence and Obeysance towards the East at our coming in or going out of the Church that the Rule of Charity prescribed by the Apostle may be observed i. e. That they which use this Rite despise not them who use it not and that they who use it not condemn not those that use it And how will the Presbyterians rejoyce to read those high commendations of the Bohemian Churches 'T is said page 64. That they are the first that Reformed Religion from Popery to True and Primitive Christianity and page 99. 't is said Happy had been all the Christian word if as the said Churches were the first that Reformed themselves from Popery the way of their Reformation had been followed by all others who Reformed after them This his high Opinion he confirms by the Testimony of Learned Zaâ—chy and might also have confirmed it by the Testimony of Luther Well! this being supposed must not the Presbyterians carry the day they think they must and therefore one of them not many years since Translated Comenius into English as making very much for that Plat-form they aimed at Indeed in the Order of those Churches I find Lay-Presbyters and which is more Lay-Presbytresses and Eleemosynaries answering to the Presbyterians Deacons Officers I know they have called by the name of Antistites which may be rendered Bishops but every one of them to submit himself to the judgment not only of his Colleagues but also of the Conseniours and to admit admonition Counsels and reproof from them and these Conseniours are together with their Antistites to exercise Discipline upon Ministers The Lords day those Churches keep as strictly as the Presbyterians contend to have them kept Baptisme they administer without the sign of the Cross with them none are thought to belong to the Pastoral Cure of Ministers but those who do with good will submit themselves to that Unity and Order whereas among us every one must be a Church Member or else go to the Common Goal and that which answers unto Confirmation amongst them is performed only by the Minister and before every Sacrament the Master of a Family and his Household come to the Minister and are by him examined some few Holy-dayes indeed are kept in these Churches but so that when Divine Service is ended people go to their work as upon other dayes There is no order among them to abstain from the works of their Calling on the Saints day or to keep the Evening before Fast so that these Churches are as Presbyterian as Presbyterians themselves can desire what was it then that moved Mr. Durell so transcendently to extol them page 46. He tells us That those Churches that first Reformed from Popery receive the Communion kneeling and it is true they do so but they did not do so from the beginning In the year 1494. they received the Communion standing but were forced to leave off that gesture because their Persecutors were the more bitter upon that account and would not this be a goodly Argument think you the Bohemian Church to avoid persecution receives the Sacrament kneeling therefore it is conformable with the English Church that persecutes all who do not receive the Sacrament kneeling I but when these Churches did joyn with those of Major Polonia and Lithuania it was unanimously forbidden to receive that blessed Sacrament sitting because among other Reasons that unmannerly and irreverent gesture was peculiar to those Miscreants the Arrians amongst them and they made this observation That the custome of sitting at the Lords Table was first brought into some of their Churches by those who most miserably falling from their Communion did renounce the Lord who redeemed them wherefore they intreat and exhort all their Company and Bretheren that they would change sitting into standing or kneeling For this Mr. Durell refers us to a general Synod celebrated 1583. But every one that looks into the Harmony of Confessions will see that Mr. Durell hath not dealt fairly for first He leaves out a Parenthesis of the Synod in the which it is expresly said That that gesture of Session with others is free Secondly Whereas the Synod saies that Session was brought in potissimum malo Auspicio This Mr. Durell Translates was first brought in I grant indeed that in another Synod to which this Synod doth refer celebrated 1578. it is expresly said That they who fell off to Arrianisme were the first Authors of sitting in their Churches but that Synods words Mr. Durell does not Translate and therefore has Translated either ignorantly or dishonestly Let it also be observed that this Synod does pray and beseech people to leave off sitting not command them under the pain of Excommunication yea this Synod by allowing what was done in the former Synod does determine That it is unlawful to smite Godly men with Ecclesiastical Descipline because of external Rites Let me also add that the Fathers of this Synod were under a mistake when they said That no Church in Europe anno 1583. did use sitting at the Lords Table and Mr. Durell is much more mistaken if he thinks that any Socinians first brought up the custome of sitting amongst us here in England for what if Dr. Owen said truly when he confuted the Socinians That Socinianisme had generally spread it self into the Nation yet sitting had been used before Socinianisme so spread it self I never heard that there was a Socinian either in the Assembly or in the two Houses untill that one Mr. Free got among the Commons who for his Blasphemies was cashiered that House as I have somewhere read Had Mr. Durell pleased he might have consulted a Catechisme made by Thomas Beacon Prebend of Canterbury and Printed cum Privilegio 1563. in which Catechisme the Learned Divine and Godly Confessour saith That if sitting at the Lords Table which was then used in certain Reformed Churches were recived by publick Authority and common Consent and might be conveniently used in our Churches he could allow that gesture best And Mr. Robert Nicholls in a Discourse of kneeling in the act of Receiving long since presented to Bishop Morton but not printed till 1660 would have informed him That in the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Raign standing was Ordained at Coventry and Northampton by her Majesties Commission and kneeling abolished But there was another thing perhaps that might move Mr. Durell to be so superlative in the commendation of the Bohemian Churches namely a Crotchet got into his head of calling an Assembly of forreign Divines that should all give their suffrage for the Discipline and Rites of the English Church which Crotchet did so please him that he begins to call that Assembly page 200 and Comenius the only surviving Bishop of the Bohemian Churches he will give the Honour to speak first and accordingly doth bring him in pag. 202 203 204 205. with a long Harangue of words in the commendation of Unity or Order but is so uncivil to the aged Bishop as not to allow him
he hath said Episcopi he adds seu Doctores which renders it very uncertain what kind of men he means by Bishops And Mr. Petoy a late Historian hath adventured to say That our Church as well as the Scottish Church was at first planted and Governed without Bishops till Bishops were sent to us from Rome But be this as it will certain I am our great Kingdome could not be said to honour and reverence Bishops till by the Preaching of Augustine and his Associates the Nation ceased to be Pagan since which time Bishops have not alwaies been so reverenced and honoured as the Reverend Author of this Epistle pretends Their disloyalty and pride rendred them so odious in the Reigns of many Kings that had it been put to the Vote whether there should have been Bishops or no Bishops it is easy enough to see how it would have been carried Nor is it truly said page 133. That we owe our Reformation to the Care and Zeal of our Bishops who did so wonderfully well repurge the Church of England an hundred years ago The first dawnings of Reformation we owe under God to Wickliff who was no Bishop nor friend to Bishops as Bishops signifie men of a superior Order to Presbyters those who sealed the Truth with their Bloud in King Henry the eighths dayes were none of them Bishops We can prove from the writings they have left behind them that they were against Bishops Seeing this Letter is so well penned Mr. Durells anger will not wax hot if I dwell upon it a little longer The Author of it tells us page 139 That he fears not to say if the French had kept Bishops and as many Ceremonies as would serve to fix the attention of the people without Superstition they should have seen for certain far greater progresses of Reformation and the resistance of a great many persons overcome who are frighttd from their Communion by the irregularity of their Government and the bareness of their Service I design not to put this Reverend Pastor into any fright because of any thing that he hath said but really I do not understand what he means by the Reformed French keeping their Bishops for I never heard that they had any Bishops of their Religion to part with much less do I understand upon what he founds his certain asseverations that more Papists would have come over to them if they had had Bishops and more Ceremonies We had before the Wars Bishops in our Nation and Ceremonies enough yet did we not find any great additions made to our Churches by the coming in of Recusants I hope they in France can reckon up more Converts from Popery than we can here in England or else Conversions have been but rare I also hope that so many have not apostatized among them as have apostatized among us If they have Rome hath more to boast of than I could wish But there is one thing more marvellous than all this The Author of the Letter thinks That if the English Dissentors have any Charity they would consent to the Re-establishment of the Episcopal Government though there were something in it they could not approve of if it were but for the sake of those that follow the Confession of Aspurg For can this learned man think that Hierarchy as an Order superiour to Presbytery and as founded upon a Divine Institution would be an Offering well pleasing to the Lutheran Divines he is not so unacquainted with their Writings as that he can so think If Episcopacy upholds the Lutheran Churches as he tells us page 138. I am sure it is not such an Episcopacy as we have here in England for such an Episcopacy hath no place among them And oh that it could be said That they in Denmarke Norway Sweden and Germany were very quiet under the Episcopal Government seldom seen to slander and tear one another We know they have their differences and that none are more molested than the moderate party among them so far was Episcopal Government from keeping us quiet in England that the Divisions and Animosities did arise and grow to a great height among the Bishops themselves Some were told that nothing but their Bishopricks kept them from being Puritans Others were told that nothing but their Wives kept them from being Papists Sundry Parliaments complained to the King of the growth of Arminianisme and what did the Church do to prevent or take away the ground and cause such Complaints truly Dr. Heylin in his History of Laud tells us that there was a Consultation whether it were meet to bring the thing to a Convocation but it was concluded that it was not safe so to do because there were too many Members of the Convocation inclined to Calvinisme though there were some that were as strangly inclined to Arminianisme our Pulpits had not failed to ring with Declamations against Pelagianisme in some places and against Stoicall Fatality in others had not the King by a Proclamation put some stop to those Controversies so that the quietness which the Church enjoyed was rather due to Monarchy than Epispacy Now of late indeeed Arnold Polenberg in his preface to the second Tome of Episcopius his works gives us to understand that he designed to dedicate that great Folio to our English Clergy and particularly to both our Universities promising himself that almost all the Bishops of our Churches do defend that Opinion concerning Predestination which was condemned in the Synod of Dort Whether he be out in his account 't is not for me to enquire who have work enough to do at home but it seems even in this Gentlemans account all our Bishops are not become Episcopian and therfore preserve Unity among themselves by having their knowledge in those matters unto themselves Now if it be found necessary to tolerate difference of Judgment among the Bishops themselves in Doctrines of so high concernment it may be worth the Consideration of those who are in Authority whether they also may not be suffered to enjoy Ecclesiastical preferment who differ from their Bretheren only in some few points of Discipline I say in a few points of Discipline for as to the essentials of Discipline I am not so quick-sighted as to find that we disagree The things that breed discord among us are said by those who are the chief causes of their imposition to be Adiaphorous i. e. such things as are therefore good because imposed rather than imposed because good On the other hand those who suffer for not yeilding to the Impositions do judge there is some evil in the things imposed and desire they may be indulged not to Practise them A Bookish man who is not much versed in the Intrigues of Ecclesiasticall Pollicy would think no bigger a breach than this might easily be stopped up I shall dismiss this Letter only adding That I would not have Mounsieur Le-Moyn estimated by it having certain knowledge that he hath both with his tongue and pen
to be found and had not this man then well read and studied the Book to which he so solemnly gave assent and consent I profess where-ever I come I make it my business to reconcile people to the publick Assemblies my Conscience would fly in my face if I should do otherwise but I find my self unable to prevail with them through the prejudice they have taken up against the Liturgy and their prejudices are grounded for the most part upon the wicked lives of those that are the most constant Readers and frequenters of it I shall never upon this account cease to joyn in prayers and to hear Sermons but yet I rejoyce that a great Prelate lately in his Visitation openly declared in his Speech his resolution to proceed and deal more severely against those who should be found loose and profane than against those that differed from him only in Ceremonies The Lord give hearts to those whom it concerns to think immorality worthy of presentment and to set a mark upon all whose feet run into all excess of Riot and whose Tongues are set on fire from Hell that so we may have wherewith to stop the mouths of those who are bent upon Separation and employ their Rhetorick in nothing more than in perswading the people that God is departed from us It would be a small trouble to me to find the Non-conformists disarmed did I find the Weapons of their Warfare put into the hands of those who would use them more to the disadvantage of the World Flesh and Devil I have mentioned one thing that makes Mr. D. not the fittest person in the World to manage this Controversie that is his not being free from at least the suspicion of Covetousness I will suggest one or two more He seems to be very injudicious and therefore puts into his Book such cold Commendations of Church and Liturgy as do only not dispraise it I instance only in Monsieur Vauqueline whom he brings in Pag. 189. thus extolling our Liturgy The Book of Common Prayer is very far from any Idolatry and there is not in it any formal Superstition Is not this a rare Elogium But above all he disparages himself by giving flattering Titles unto men Pag. 87. he tells us that Monsieur Goyen is as versed in Antiquity as possible a Commendation too high to be given to any man and such as that Reverend persons worth will never suffer him to accept of or so much as to commend the love of him who gave it let any one read the Epistle Dedicatory to his Book he will find the Lord Chancellour so highly commended that any one may see the Commendations were rather given to his Place than to his Virtues all the Authority of the Nation hath lately sentenced him to Banishment and yet Mr. D. could not find so much humility as either to bewail his fault or his unhappiness who had bestowed such praises in a printed letter upon him whom the Kingdom has declared to have deserved ill of it and of the Church too I may well think you will begin to say what is all this to the Latine Book that I sent you Or how can I by all you have hitherto writ perceive your Judgment about it Surely Sir the things I have noted out of the English Book are sufficient to let you see that his 2d Book is not worth your reading Scarcely can you find more words put together to less purpose The very Title-Page sufficiently exposes him either to the scorn or pity of those whom he chose for his Adversaries Vindiciae Sacrae Ecclesiae Anglicanae What is this Holy English Church Does he mean that Company of men and women in England who exercise themselves therein that they may be holy as God is holy Quis Lacedaemoniorum vituperat Why is this Church vindicated that no sober man ever went about to accuse If by the Holy Church of England he mean the late Convocation then he hath written as our Episcopal men are wont to write and by the Canons of 1603. it is made a very dangerous point to deny that a Convocation is the Church of England by Repraesentation and I have no mind to try how near I can come to that danger without incurring it Seeing Mr. D. has professed with thankfulness that he learned Divinity under Amyraldus he may do well to try whether he can confute his Master in his Theses de Ecclesia nomine ac definitione and de ratione convocandorum Conciliorum which do not look very smilingly upon that form of Speech which we use in England or upon the way of constituting our Convocations Mr. Jeanes a man of a very Scholastical Head had called the Convocation The Church of England but in the Second part of his Divinity he wonders upon what account he or any one else could think it to be the Church of England he instances in his own Diocess in which there was one Dean one Prebend three Arch-Deacons whereas the whole Clergy of the Diocess chose but two so that he thinks our Convocations may be rather called Repraesentatives of the Bishops and Cathedrals than of the Church of en-En-England And he asks whether if the King should chuse two hundred into the House of Commons and the people one that Meeting could be called the Representative of the People of England Mr. D. who has used this Title should have done well to give satisfaction to such kind of Questions is these and to have shewed us Synods in other Churches the Major part of the Members whereof are neither chosen by the people nor by the Clergy instead of doing so he hath left it doubtful what he means by the Church And it is much more doubtful to me whom he means by his Schismaticks against whose vociferations he pretends to defend his Church When you have called a man Schismatick you have call'd him every thing but I believe no man in the world thinks that all those against whom he vents his spleen in this Book deserve to be called Schismaticks I am sure according to the definition of Schisme that is given by Dr. Hammond they are not Schismaticks Mr. D. seems to thrust out his sharpest sting against Mr. Baxter Now it is notoriously known that he constantly went to the publick Congregation it s known also that he has in the publick Congregation received the Sacrament of the Lords Supper according to the form that is by Law established he has Communion with the Church of England in all Ordinances takes a great deal of pains to resolve the doubts of those who scruple Communion with her and yet is in Mr. D's account one of the Heads of the Schismaticks Let him take heed that he do not throw this dirt into such mens faces if he do it will fly back into his own The Case of hundreds of Non-conformists stands thus When they were School-boyes or Under-graduates in the University the King called the so much talked of Long-Parliament in which
both the High-Commission Court and Star-Chamber were taken downa nd the High-Commission Court was taken down in words so general as were interpreted to reach all other Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and coercive power of Church Consistories by these two Statutes Dr. Heylin sayes That the two great Bulwarks of the Church were beaten down In the same Parliament also passed an Act disabling the Bishops to sit as Members in the House of Peers in this condition stood things until an unhappy War was begun betwixt the King and the two Houses during the beat of which War the two Houses Voted away the Episcopal Government established in the Nation and Bishops in the places where their Forces prevailed either were not at all or shewed not themselves Divine Providence so ord'red it that the Kings Forces were at last quite overcome and with them Bishops also were overcome so as they no where publickly and solemnly own'd either their Power of order or Jurisdiction so stood affairs until that his Majesty was restored but in the mean time young men that had applied themselves to the study of Divinity were under necessity either by the Statutes of Colledges or by accepting of Livings to enter into Holy Orders and to receive those Holy Orders from meer Presbyters by which Orders they acted for many Years the Lord accompanying their Ministry with great success the people every where receiving the Eucharist at their hands and bringing their Children also to be baptized by them the Parliament which had the happiness to bring in the King confirming them in their Livings but the present Parliament hath thought meet to en-act that all should be uncapable of Cure of Souls that had not Episcopal Ordination so as they finding themselves under this Dilemma that either they must nullifie their former Orders by Re-ordination or else quit their Livings chose to relinquish their Benefices so made way to the preferment of many every way of Mr. Ds own mind He himself perhaps he had not had so many Ecclesiastical Benefices and Dignities could they have satisfied themselves to keep their stations this is the Schisme of a great many of those with whom he is so angry And can be not forgive them such a Schism which proved so beneficial to himself and others It will be more difficult to forgive Mr. D. the Schisme that he himself endeavours to make contrary to the Intent of the Act of Indemnity and Oblivion by which we are commanded to bury the Actings of those that were indemnified in the Grave so as not to mention them to the disparagement of any but leave them wholly to the Judgment of the Great day but this bitter man as if he envied Church and State the Peace and Quietness they both enjoy will needs open the Grave of Oblivion rake into the dust and bring all old Stories and Transactions upon the Stage again Would any man be like minded how easie were it to recriminate Who knows not that a Primate of England and Metropolitan took up Arms in the Cause of the two Houses and had Money Voted him for his good Service Was not the Author of Politica Sacra Civilia an Episcopal Divine Doth he not at present Conform Is he out of his Living who writ the Jus Divinum Regiminis Ecclesiastici If we should make search into our Bishops Deans Prebends Priests might we not finde such as took the Covenant themselves and perswaded others to take it Nay might we not among them even among them find those that took the Engagement and came into the Livings of those that were outed for not taking the Engagement Nay if a man would make enquiry for Bradshaw's Chaplains are they not among the the Conformists Be they not also among them who justified the Murthering of the King And if it were allowable to Glory how many Non-conformists had suffered deeply in the Kings Cause before Mr. D. in the Isle of Jersy was either banished or molested but these are things wholly Heterogeneous to Conformity and Non-conformity So is also the whole series of the late War It hath been my hap as yet to know but of four meer Non-conformists that were aged experienced Divines at the beginning of the Warrs and they four so far as I can learn were all in their Judgments unsatisfied in the Parliament War It is like enough that there were many others that were satisfied in their Cause and acted for it But what need Mr. D. or I be sollicitous about this Does not the King understand his Supremacie Has not the Parlialiament declared it unlawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against him After such Declaration who is he that will dare to call the thing in Question I do not know that since his Majesties Return any Book has been printed asserting the Lawfulness of Subjects taking up Arms against a King unless that which was published as Mr. Hookers by Dr. Gawden dedicated to the King himselfe nor do I find any English Divine whose testimony the Writers for the Parliaments Cause did more build upon than Bishop Bilson the Great Propugner of Hierarchy whose words it would be Treason now to transcribe Mr. D. knows where to find them let him take them into his consideration and see how he can qualifie them for my part I do not love to exercise my self in things too high for me this I must take leave to say That Mr. D. hath manifested himself very grosly to be a respecter of persons for whereas he pours out contempt upon some now alive for expressions that fell from them in a time of trouble and confusion there is scarce one of his beyond-Sea Divines whom he does not quote with much Honour and Respect though they did in their Systems of Divinity and Comments on Scripture lay down the same Doctrine quarrell'd at in Mr. Baxter Doth he not know what pains David Owen hath taken to make his honest Calvin and his Learned Beza and Danaeus c. as guilty of delivering Trayterous Doctrine as the Jesuites themselves At least he knows that Paraeus his Book was appointed to be burnt at Oxford and yet him he makes use of Pag. 8th and pag. 337. c. Andrew Rivet also he chooseth as a man fit to be of the Synod and yet this Rivet in his Exposition on the 68 Psal determines very peremptorily for the lawfulness of defensive Arms and to the Ephori he allowes a liberty to take up offensive Arms. Peter Du Moylin and Spanhemius he would also have Chieftains in his Synod And yet these two the one in his Anatomy of Arminianisme the other in his Dubia Evangelica on Matthew 5th do make the Right of Civil things to belong only to the Godly or to the Elect then which nothing could be said more dangerous to greater or lesser Societies I know they both distinguish of a Right in respect of men and of a Right in respect of God denying onely the later unto the wicked