you call us But to the chief of them I say 1. The Presbyterians in their Reply to the Bishops in the Grand Debate tell the Bishops Moreover there is no Rubrick requiring this Service at the Table when there is no Communion pag. 45. And so they were as blind as we 2. Mr. Hooker saith Those Parts of the Liturgy are at the Table of the Lord commonly read he saith not enjoined to be read 3. Arch-Bishop Laud leaves out part of the Rubrick which makes against you and him out of his Page and saith In many Places in his own memory it was read pag. 41. but not so much as naming one parish-Parish-Church in which it was so read Pag. 19. saith he And now it remains that I should produce some unquestionable Authorities to back my Reasons that it may appear to all unbiassed Persons that the Judgment of all the great Worthies of our Church who have either occasionally or on set purpose treated of this Matter is unanimous One would have expected to have seen an Army of Worthies and they all great Worthies to have enforced his Reasons but when we come to look upon them they are but seven in all and how ominous is it that a perfect Number of Seven should be found to perfect his Victory The first of these is the most judicious Hooker nay if most judicious he might have served alone and what saith he Book 5. § 30. That the Prayers being devised at first for the Communion are when there is no Communion at the Table of the Lord for that Cause also commonly read All he saith is that they are commonly read but whether in few Places or many Places they are commonly read he doth not say and doth not name any one Place in either College or Hall Cathedral Church or Chappel in which the Communion-Service was always read And so many Things are done commonly for which there is no Rubrick The second Authority produced is of great Arch-bishop Laud in his Speech in Star-Chamber I 'll quote the Page for him Pag. 41. Indeed that great Man clears himself from the Eleventh Innovation which was reading the second Service at the Communion-Table or Altar by leaving the Matter very dark and doubtful To this first I can truly say that since my own Memory this was in use in very many Places 1. He speaks of what was in the Compass of his own Memory 2. What was in use in very many Places in which he had been and so he speaks of what he saw and therefore sell within his own Memory how doth this prove it was no Innovation If it was customary in many Places it was a Custom that had no Force in many if not most Places in which it was not in use 3. The Arch-bishop confirms this by the Rubricks which I have recited before and takes out of the last Rubrick before the Communion this part of the Rubrick only The Priest standing at the North-side of the Holy Table shall say the Lord's Prayer with that which follows leaving out that other part of the Rubrick The Table at the Communion-time having a fair white Linnen Cloth upon it which shews that that Rubrick doth only refer to the Communion-Time whence he infers the second Service is to be read at the Communion-Table an Inference that no Man that regards not his Grace above Truth and Reason would ever yield to The third Testimony is of the Right-Reverend Bishop of Norwich Dr. Sperrow in his Rationale of the Common-Prayer pag. 239. And because this Finder of new Conventicles doth wish or exhort his Reader to mark the Reason of this famous Triumvirate and then read the second Service hereafter in the Desk if you can I will take the more notice of the Rationale And first the Rationale is neither the Law nor a legal authorised Expositor of the Law And to do the Rationale Right and Respect this Author or the Printer hath made the Passage to be neither Sence nor Reason The Words of the Rationale are Private and solitary Communions of the Priest alone she the Church allows not and therefore when other cannot be had she appoint's only so much of the Service as relates not of necessity to a present this Writer hath it to a private Communion and that to be said at the Holy Table and upon good Reason the Church thereby keeping as it were be◠Ground visibly minding us of what she desires and labours towards our more frequent Access to the Holy Table And in the mean while that part of the Service which she useth may perhaps more fuly be called the Second Service Now weak Understandings cannot see a convincing Reason for reading of the second Service at the Communion-Table in all this 1. Not in those Words When other Communion cannot be had Other than what what 's the Substantive to other Sure not private and solitary which goes before and is not allowed by the Church 2. Or when other Communion cannot be had than in Prayers only without the Sacrament she appoints so much of the Service as relates not to a present Communion How as relates not of necessity to a present Communion and that to be said at the Lord's Table Here the Thing in Controversy is positively said without any Proof the first part of the Rubrick clearly speaking of a Table covered c. which is at no other time than of a present Communion or a Sacrament And upon a good Reason and with reverence to the Author here 's as bad a Reason as can be given Doth the Church mind us of a Duty which she requires not as often as the Communion-Service is said She invites Guests to this Feast only when a Communion is appointed and the Table prepared 3. The Reason is not square to argue from a constant reading of the Service at the Table to a only frequent Access The Access should be as frequent as the Invitation or the Invitation is vain when there is no provision The other four Dr. Heylin Mr. Elborow Mr. Ham. L'Estrange Dr. Comber are too few to drive us all to the North-side of the Table there are more for us of all degrees than ever were against us If all will not do he brings upon us a Reason which hath convinced and converted the Obstinate pag. 21. Let us search all the Forms of Prayer upon special Occasions since the King 's happy Restoration or since the Blessed Reformation and we shall find even when there is no Communion intended that it is said expresly The Priest shall stand at the North-side of the Table 1. To this I answer Grant it to be in all are those Forms and Rubricks enjoined by Act of Parliament If not they are not a Law I question not at all his Majesty's Power to appoint Fasts and Thanksgivings but nothing is to us a Law but what is by Act of Parliament And I believe his Majesty never gave him encouragement to say as he doth pag. 13. ☞ That
and Place the very initial Letters of whose Name would be as much as to name him to desire to know if a Friend of his might not subscribe in a large Sence No said the Chaplain with vehemency we have too many such in the Church already Nay Sir mistake me not said the Person I mean as to the Doctrines as for the Ceremonies he can subscribe to them in the strictest Sence bow cringe c. O said the Doctor he can subscribe no way to the Doctrines but as Articles of Peace Sir said the Person one Mr. D. in his Book of Conformity saith We must subscribe to the Articles in a Grammatical Sence and gives an Instance of a Minister in Queen Elizabeth's Time who because he would not subscribe them so but as Articles of Peace lost his Living D. said the Doctor is a Coxc and will ere long be suspended This Doctor may be supposed to have known the Sence of some of the greatest Men as intimately as any Man and hath not a little presumed upon it If they make use of Meanings in the greatest Matters it is too unkind a partiality to allow no Latitude in the mutable and lesser Matters To be short we have conformed and if there be not Nonconformists too many already made and ejected they may take counsel and contrive to make many more but what will the End of these Things be We are sure that the Enemies of Moderation are the Enemies of our Government and Peace which is built upon it and kept together by it If Moderation had presided over all our Parties we had never been thus broken it is that little that is left of it that keeps us from tottering into a sudden Ruin and when other hands have made deeper Wounds the moderate Samaritan is the Man and Moderation the Oil that must heal us What hurt did Gamaliel in the Council Acts 5. Or Peter and James in the first Council of the Apostles chap. 15. Or the Apostle Paul in becoming all Things to all If our displeased Brethren should prevail to strike us out as long as the New Testament obtains the place of a Rule there will be a Teacher of Moderation or a Witness and Judg to condemn the Immoderate If they cannot draw together with us but kick and fight and run at us when they should labour and tread down the Corn they will not endure the easy Yoke of Christ upon their Necks It is the evil Spirit that makes Men rage and run mad that casts into the Fire and Water and makes poor possest Creatures to foam The very Children of this World that are wise in their Generation are wise for their being moderate in their Exactions The Children of Wisdom that are led by the Spirit of God are to be known to be the Disciples of our Lord Jesus by loving one another and by shewing their Moderation to all Men and by that to shew what they are and that the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in them Let us labour to excell in this Grace which is both our Character and our Glory our Duty and our Reward in its sweet Fruit of Contentment Patience and Peace And by what odious Names soever we are branded and distinguished from others let us approve our selves as true Christians in the extent of Christianity and we are sure that if ever decayed and languishing Christianity revive recover strength and be in health it must be by Moderation What a lamentable sadning Object is Religion in some Parts of the World a very Skeleton drest up in Ceremonies In other Parts of the World it dares hardly shew its face except it puts on the Harlot's Dress in other Places languishing and exhausted in other Places torn and persecuted suppress'd and in Bondage in too many Places disputed and controverted into next to nothing but Faction and Names of Opposition How it is at home at this time you cannot but see and be affected with it And be it known to our Censors that that Soundness Life Zeal and Answerableness to our holy and heavenly Calling which remains as a holy Seed in the Land is to be found among the Moderate of every Denomination that holds the Head and is built upon the Foundation And if some among us will not slack the Fire which they kindle and blow for others as they think a Wind from Rome may blow it upon themselves and when they suffer in it they will have cause to say the Fire was too hot and raging and will be glad to save a little by the helping hand of Moderation But whatever others do our Duty lies plain before us Let us shew our Moderation towards all Men as knowing the Lord to be at hand to whose Protection I desire to be commended by you and in whom I rest Your unworthy Fellow-Servant and of all that serve him and love him in Sincerity POST-SCRIPT BEfore I had quite finished this Vindication there came to my hand a Pamphlet pretending to prove that all our Parish-Churches are Conventicles where the Communion-Service is not read at the North Side of the Lord's Table If I have not sufficiertly answered him it would do well if some of you would maintain your Legal Title to your Churches and recover from that Error those whom his Arguments have convinced and converted as he vainly boasts We see whether Mens Heads run round or not Controversies run round The Appendix also is humbly submitted to your Judgment A VINDICATION OF Moderate Church-men SUpposing Moderation to be a Duty Every Christian ought to be zealous for this Grace and against all such Persons and Things as are Enemies of it said the Reverend and Worthy Bishop Wilkins answering an Objection in his Sermon of Moderation pag. 416. Our Archers that handle the Bow shoot at three Marks 1. The Pope and his Legion 2. The Dissenter and his Divisions 3. The Moderate Conformist They have shot through the Triple-Crown pull'd out his Eye disarmed him of his two Swords spoil'd him of his Keys and Pontificals in a word as good as killed him and buried him with White-bread and the Popish Plot Yet from an old Antipathy against him we make an historical Remembrance of him and that which remains of him alive is confin'd to his own Territories or so obnoxious to the Penalties of the Law that he will keep away for his own Safety or use a Temper out of a sense of his Impotence and Interest He cannot do us a Mischief with any safety to himself 2. The Danger is greatest from the Dissenter Because 1. An Enemy in our own Bowels 2. By a long Indulgence grown numerous and head-strong 3. By subtil Insinuations got the repute to be a Protestant 4. Hath so great a share in the Vessel of Trade that he can remove the Mart where almost he pleaseth And by this 't is thought necessary to forbear him lest we lose by breaking him and this makes him proud and insolent until he be grown intolerable
as lawfully hold Communion with Orthodox profitable Preachers from whom he hath perhaps tasted the good Word of God and by whom his Heart hath been opened and Christians in undoubted pious Evangelical Exercises as in Trade or Civil Converse in eating and drinking Object But you say they are unlawful Meetings Then the honest moderate Christian thinks with himself 1. I never heard either Treason or Sedition as much as couched in any of their Sermons or Exercises 2. It is not sinful to hold actual Communion with sound and pious Christians antecedent to the temporal Law therefore it is not sinful in it self 3. He cannot think so hardly of his Christian Governours as that they would make a Law to forbid any pious Exercise but only such as are evil in themselves or have tendency to Destruction or harm to the Government 4. He remembers the moderate Judgment of every part of the Legislative Power concerning Dissenters for several Years last past 5. He considers the Law is a Penal Law and is ready to bear that Penalty with Peace and Quietness And if you think them unlawful Assemblies of that sort as are not safe to be tolerated then he that now frequents the publick Churches will then frequent them when those Meetings are disperst or suppressed But then what becomes of your own Doctrine of misplacing Zeal about Circumstances Rites and Appendages of Religion which a moderate Man should not do Pag. 24. If you leave the Moderation of Penalties to Governous it had been beseeming a moderate Divine preaching of Moderation to have forborn to give Magistrates to whom you preach'd Alarms to beware of Men that design against the Government commonly called Moderate Men the softer Phrase for Knaves but in proper Language Knaves and Vipers If you know any such designing Men inform against them they are Strangers to us that are moderate indeed I have staid Iong enough to view this Picture of a Lay-moderate Church-man I will walk into the next Room and view the moderate Church-Clergy Man who as he is drawn by this Hand stands out with his Legs as the more crooked Knave of the two Pag. 40 42. Upon him I observe 1. That this free and open Preacher saith He cannot accuse any Minister upon his own Knowledg so depainted and therefore this is not a Creature of his own Fancy neither but of some other Men's Fancy sure come to his Knowledg it seems by Report or Tradition But if he had not believed it why would he preach and print it To this we have two things to say 1. We deny the Accusation as it stands we disown the Picture it is not ours we know no such Church-men or to speak plainly such a pretended Conformist as is here represented 2. If there be any such it is not just to fasten that upon more than are faulty 3. Yet supposing or granting most of the things to be true and they as material as any we offer to the Judgment of our Censors some Considerations if not to vindicate the accused yet certainly to alleviate the Charge and take the Charge by parts First The Moderate Church-man is one that upon occasion will marry without a Ring We answer 1. This Ceremony doth more concern the Persons to be married than the Minister that marrieth them for the Rubrick saith Then shall they again loose their Hands and the Man shall give unto the Woman a Ring laying the same upon the Book c. And the Priest taking the Ring shall deliver it unto the Man It concerns the Man to bring and provide the Ring and the Woman to receive it because of what is conveyed to her by it 2. What Rubrick or Canon doth enjoyn the Minister to provide one Or what is his punishment if he do not marry with it We know the Wisdom of the Church looks to greater matters in Can. 62. censuring the Minister if he marry without asking Banes Certificate or Consent of Parents or out of the Canonical Hours from which no Men are more free than they who are called Moderate Church-Men 3. Is there no occasion upon which this may either be justified or excused As if 1. The Minister and the Persons be not worth a Ring 2. If the Man cannot buy and the Woman resolve if they may not be married with a Ring of her Husbund's Gift they will be married without 3. Or in case the Ring be forgotten and the place where they are to be married cannot afford one and the time be so near out that they cannot fetch one Shall an Ordinance be denied for want of a Ceremony Or what if the Man must take his Bride in the Humour Or there will be loss to both if they put it off to another day Or lastly suppose the Parties scruple the Ceremony shall we refuse to execute a Law of Nature for want of an Arbitrary Local Ceremony Secondly A moderate Church-man is one who will christen without the Cross So he will and so he may baptize all that are baptized out of the Church The Rubrick lays no Injuction upon any to bring the Child to Church it only saith It is expedient that it be brought and who in this tender Age will bring a Child to Church seeing another Rubrick saith Saving at the dipping of the Child the Child whose Baptism is doubted of must be dipt and it belongs not to him to see that the Child so baptized shall be brought to the Congregation afterwards and by what Rule do they walk that see good cause to baptize in private because of Weather and distance of Place and yet will not omit the Cross in private Now whether a Minister may not upon some occasions and for some great Reasons omit the Cross is submitted to Moderate Thoughts and to a right Judgment And 1. If the Parent who is a Man of Reading and Sense may have read some Arguments against it which neither he nor the Curat can answer Nay suppose he have but a strong Prejudice or Fear upon him what if the Curat say in good civil Language Except you bring your Child to Church or have it crost at home I will not baptize it Why then saith the Parent you shall not baptize my Child What if the child dy unbaptized You say it was the Parents fault for scrupling He saith no for it was against his Conscience and Judgment But which is rather to be omitted by the Minister Baptism which is an Ordinance of Christ or the Cross which is an Ordinance of Man Especially in a Church which as it requires the use of the sign of the Cross so it punisheth with Suspension a Minister that shall refuse to baptize Can. 68. What if a Parent shall take or demand his Child as soon as it is baptized from the Minister By what Law or Reason can he refuse to give him the Child Or if a God-Mother or Midwife be so zealous call it furious against the Cross as to take the Child out of the
upon them than if he were an ambulatory Preacher and People have the great Convenience of Access to him in all Cases for Instruction and spiritual Good if they were disposed yea far more than if he did as some Physicians and Lawyers do that keep Markets and Market-Days which would be liker an occasional or necessary Visit than a careful Inspection of a Watchman 3. He that resides upon his Charge hath the advantage of quiet and constant Studies continual Employment and may know the State of the Flock and what manner of Preaching and what Subjects are most like to do them good to do them the most and the greatest Good and by a personal knowledg of the Congregation Discipline may be more duly administred 4 And not to multiply Arguments in so plain a Case if we take a view of the great Diversity of People in the Land Divisions would multiply Prophaneness and Barbarity Tares and wild Grapes would in a short time over-run the Field and Vineyard if there were not able and faithful Parochial Pastors Let us observe 1. The great Numbers of those who are persuaded of this Way of Worship that it is not only lawful but acceptable to God and safe and profitable to them why should not care be taken of them that they may enjoy the Liberty of their Judgment and be provided for 2. Here are those who are educated in this Way to whom it is become familiar and who are prejudiced against other Ways with which they are unacquainted If respect were not had to these they would suffer Loss and be in danger of Temptation and Seduction 3. Here are O how many grosly ignorant prophane stupid negligent and these would yet degenerate into a worse kind of Men than now they are as bad as they are if there were not a Face Profession and Exercise of Religion maintained among them Fear Shame Custom Conscience Conformity to others do sometimes bring these to sit under God's Ordinances which may be successful upon them to work them to some Knowledg of God and Eternal Life by Christ and to keep them in Awe of God from running out into Paganism or brutish Atheism But if there were no Inspection or Care taken of them they would grow more careless of God and themselves and plead the Negligence of Ministers for their gross Negligence of themselves and the Things of God They little care what becomes of them already and retain but a little sense of God and Godliness now but they would quickly throw off all if they were left out of the Ministerial Care 4. Here are many young and aged weak impotent lame sickly that cannot go abroad to seek the Bread of Life if it were not brought to them they would also perish 5. Here are many tho alas too few sober awakened careful diligent and holy Souls both weak and confirmed in this Way that would suffer great Loss make less proficiency decay and languish and be in danger of Temptations peculiar to them if the Lord's Day were not constantly spent and each part of it filled up with Ordinances at a convenient distance from them or nearness to them And to make this Distribution and Distinction of Persons within these Bounds argumentative and conclusive I must add That if wise Orthodox able skilful diligent painful Ministers which I take the moderate Divines of this Church to be had not and did not conform in what a broken divided confused State had we been many Years ago For in the dark mistaking and divided Condition of the Nation Men that study and maintain the Doctrines according to Godliness that preach the Truth as it is in Jesus that distinguish between Essentials and Accidentals between Fundamentals and Ornamentals that lay the greatest weight upon Foundations and Necessaries that press the weighty Matters of the great Commandments with greatest urgency and hang the Garnish upon their proper Pins provide solid Food for hungry and sound Hearts and keep the Family best together these are the Men that draw others in and keep them in that are brought in Extremes would never stand so nigh as they do if Moderation did not come between them There are no Men so fit to state our Controversies none so fit to give every Truth it s own place as Men of Inquisitiveness and Temper None can better take in or cast out try and weigh Gold and make Allowances than they They give to God the Things that are God's to Caesar the Things that are Caesar's to Pastors the Things that are Pastors and to People and Flocks the Things that are theirs They can distinguish between Enemies and Friends maintain a Christian necessary Opposition against the Enemies that they may not spoil us and take from us what we are entrusted to maintain and keep and make Accommodation between mistaking and suspicious Friends All kind of good Qualities and Graces meet in the most considerable degree in the truly moderate They follow not Copies but Originals look into Things themselves and gaze not upon Images till they dote upon them form a Judgment upon the disquisitions of Reason take the true Measures as far as they can attain of Things and Persons and keep the Rule of right-judging Their Wisdom and Experience procures a candid Respect to their Judgment and Example yea even to their tolerable and by them unavoidable Mistakes They who walk in the Way of God chuse to follow them because they lead by a double Light the one of sound Doctrine the other of holy Example And if any Men in the World can allure and draw convince and satisfy Men of other Minds they are the Men who are endued with that Gift for they move upon the weight of Reason and persuade with Affection All that are truly pious are drawn and allied to them by their Piety or comprehended in their Charity They can keep pace with the Strong and yet are careful not to leave the Weak behind The moderate Man accommodates and suits himself to all not by a servile Flattery or affectation of Popularity but by an imitation of God who doth good to all and an equal distribution of just proportion of Honour and Duty of Kindness and Charity to every Man In a word his Aims are high to bring Glory to God his Endeavours are constant his Submissions to God's Teaching and Will are humble and subordinate he takes and follows one Rule for himself and others he labours to bring the Irregular to that Rule and to keep them to it that desire to walk by it He values what and whom others disesteem he keeps what others throw away and regains what others lose He is neither too hot for others to touch nor too high for others to reach but the Servant of all to gain the more He is the fittest Man in the World to set Things right that are amiss and to keep Things right that are so No Man can sooner see an Error nor pardon it no Man studies more to