neither hath it in these but such as fight with their weapons and sharpen their instruments against it at their forge And if the Queens Highness would grant thereunto prove against all that will say the contrary that all that is contained in the Holy Communion set out by the most innocent and godly King Edward VI. in his high Court of Parliament is conformable to that order which our Saviour Christ did both observe and command to be observed and which the Apostles and primitive Church used many years And that if he might be permitted to take to himself Peter Martyr and four or five others whom he should chuse they would by God's Grace take upon them to defend not onely the Common-prayers of the Church the ministration of the Sacraments and other the rites and ceremonies but also all the Doctrine and Religion set out by the said King Edward VI. to be more pure and according to God's word than any other that have been used in England these thousand years so that God's word may be judge And that the Order of the Church set out at that present in the Realm by Act of Parliament is the same that was in the Church fifteen hundred years past Neither saith he it alone but we have the several testimonies of particular Learned and judicious Saints of that and the following generation touching the excellency and worth of that Book such as Saunders Taylor Ridley Iewel c. We have a Noble Army of Martyrs standing together in vindication of the purity of it The whole blessed company of persecuted Preachers in Prison at the beginning of Queen Mary's Reign in a petition of theirs to the King Queen and Parliament say thus If your said Subjects be not able by the Testimony of Christ his Prophets Apostles and Godly Fathers of his Church to prove that the Doctrine of the Church Homilies and Service-book taught and set forth in the time of our late most godly Prince King Edward VI. is the true Doctrine of Christ's Catholick Church and most agreeable with the Articles of the Christian faith your said subjects offer themselves then to the most heavy punishment that it shall please your Majesty to appoint Should but one Nonconformist have said so much for the antiquity and purity of this Book it would sooner have been believed by the people of our age than from the mouths of so many learned and holy Fathers Take therefore the testimony of one of that way and a learned one Mr. Iohn Ball who having spent great pains in quitting it from the objections of Separatists lays down this conclusion Our Service-book is not a Translation of the Mass but a restitution of the ancient Liturgy wherein sundry Prayers are inserted used by the Fathers agreeable to the Scriptures And in the same Chapter in a few pages after he hath these words To the praise of God be it spoken our Liturgy for purity and soundness may compare with any Liturgy used in the third and fourth Ages of the Church Which was long before Popery came into the World Neither hath any of the several emendations that it hath admitted since its first composure been of that nature or moment as to give an occasion to charge it in the least with any thing that is or was sinfull or Superstitious However thus much I suppose may unquestionably be concluded from the abovesaid acknowledgment that if it were an excellent and worthy work then it is not sinfull now but the use of it being enjoyned by Authority may be conformed to with a good Conscience Especially considering that it is farther acknowledged by the Divines first named That what things soever are offensive to them in it and desired to be removed are not of the foundation of Religion nor the essentials of publick Worship and must therefore be but circumstantials Which ought to be the more easily born with in complyance with Lawfull Authority by all such as mind their own duty or tender the peace of the Church it being a good and safe rule which St. Augustine gives in such a case Quod neque contra Fidem neque contra bonos more 's injungitur indifferenter est habendum pro eorum inter quos vivitur societate servandum est Whatsoever is enjoined that is not contrary to Faith or Holiness ought to be observed for peace-sake with them among whom we live Yet how is this Book called to the stake by the upholders and frequenters of Conventicles and made to fill up what was behind of the sufferings of those holy Fathers that compiled it How often have I heard it call'd by some of them Popery Idolatry Superstition and what not How are they accounted the onely Virtuoso's in these days and to have attained to a very high pitch of Piety when they have onely arrived at such a measure of profaneness as to rail at it and carefully to shun their joining with us in the Worship of God by it and think that they have then done him a very acceptable service when they have done him none at all but onely afforded their presence at the Preaching of a Sermon And to the end that malice may leave nothing unattempted to render it contemptible I have observed that these sinfull Assemblies are studiously continued till the end of Common Prayer in the Church at least if not during the Sermon also Could it ever have been thought that men who pretend Religion and Conscience could have proceeded to such a monstrous extremity of wickedness as to prefer their own private humours and fancies before God's publick Worship And thus endeavour to undermine and destroy so godly and legal an Establishment If confession of Sin profession of Faith reading of the Scriptures Prayers and Praise to God which is the substance of this whole Book be any part of God's Ordinance or Worship then surely the practice of these men is contrary not onely to Gospel order and commands but even to those Rules of Worship which the principal men of their own way and perswasion have given For in the Directory composed by the late Assembly of Divines the first direction for publick Worship which they give is this When the Congregation is to meet for publick Worship the people having before prepared their hearts thereunto ought all to come and join therein not absenting themselves from the publick Ordinances through negligence or upon pretence of Private meetings How are the mouths of Papists hereby opened against us to justifie their own Recusancy and to condemn our Church as false and adulterate seeing that our own members do revile it as they of the Romish Church also do calling it an abominable Book very pestiâ—erous c. the service of Baal plain Idolatry separate themselves from it join hands with them to destroy it and are contented to hazard their Estates and fortunes rather than to conform to it Doth not this harden them in their
God offendeth against the Common order of the Church hurteth the Authority of the Magistrate and woundeth the Conscience of the weak Brethren Where by traditions I suppose is meant the Laws and Canons of the Church as the words following do intimate which speak of the Common order of the Church and Authority of the Magistrate Thus much of the Laws of the Church Neither are such meetings onely against the Laws of the Church but against sundry statute Laws of the Kingdom also in that behalf made and provided In the Statute of 35 Eliz. 1. It is provided that if any person or persons above 16 years old shall refuse to repair to some Church Chapel or usual place of Common-prayer to hear divine Service and receive the Communion or come to and be present at any Assemblies Conventicles or Meetings under Colour or pretence of any Exercise of Religion contrary to the Laws and Statutes And if any person shall obstinately refuse to repair to some Church Chapel or usual place of Common-prayer or by any motion persuasion inticement or allurement of any other willingly joyn in or be present at any such Assemblies Conventicles or Meetings under Colour or pretence of any such Exercise of Religion contrary to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm as is aforesaid which refers to other Statutes formerly made and yet of force against Conventicles as well as this one shall be committed to prison and there remain without bail untill be conform and untill he make an open Submission in the words set down in the Statute viz. I. A. B. do humbly acknowledge and confess that I have grievously offended God in contemning her Majesties Godly and lawfull Government and Authority by absenting my self from Church and from hearing divine Service contrary to the godly Laws and Statutes of this Realm and in using and frequenting unlawfull and disorderly Conventicles and Assemblies under Colour and pretence of Exercise of Religion And I am heartily sorry for the same c. And I do promise and protest without any dissimulation that from henceforth I will from time to time obey and perform her Majesties Laws and Statutes in repairing to Church and hearing divine Service and doe my utmost endeavour to maintain and defend the same Neither can it be pretended as it is by some that this Statute was made or stands in force against any other sort of People than those in question viz. against Popish recusants onely and not against Protestant dissenters as they call themselves The answer is easie out of the words of the said Statute For in the beginning of the Statute the Persons that are concerned in obedience to it are expressed in these general and large words Any person or persons whatsoever above the Age of 16 which shall refuse to repair to Church and willingly join in and be present at any Conventicle or Meeting c. Which words comprehend and take in Persons of all Religions Sects and Persuasions whatsoever And whereas the penalty of the Statute to all that shall refuse Obedience and Conformity to it is abjuration of the Realm or to be proceeded against as Felons There is a Proviso toward the End of the Statute that sixeth the penalty altogether upon Protestant recusants and not on Popish In these words Provided that no Popish recusant or feme Covert shall be compelled or bound to abjure by virtue of this Act. And lest the Popish recusants should be the onely Persons therein meant or intended the Conventiclers of our Age make themselves more perfect Recusants than that Statute supposeth For whereas that makes absence from the Prayers of the Church for one Month together a Crime sufficient to render them obnoxious to the penalties of that Act these men for the most part withdraw themselves for many Years together and for ought I see if they are let alone resolve so to doe all the days of their lives In Anno 22. Caroli 2di Regis there was a Statute made to prevent and suppress seditious Conventicles as the Title of that Statute truly calls them wherein Every Person of the Age of 16 years and upward that shall be present at any Assembly Conventicle or Meeting under Colour or pretence of any Exercise of Religion in other manner that according to the Liturgy and Practice of the Church of England in any place within the Kingdom of England Dominion of Wales and Town of Berwick upon Tweed at which Conventicle or meeting there shall be 5 persons or more assembled together is made liable to suffer the penalties of 5 s for his first fault and for his second 10 s and so onward the Preacher to suffer the penalty of 20 ll And the owner of the house or ground that shall wittingly and willingly suffer such Conventicle Meeting or unlawfull Assembly to be held to suffer the penalty of 20 ll In the late Act for Uniformity all Non-conformist Ministers and disabled and prohibited from preaching any Sermon or Lecture indefinitely either publick or private And for as much as the King's Majesty by the Law of God and the Land of right is and ought to be master of all the assemblings together of any of his Subjects therefore what Meetings soever are not allowed and authorized by the Laws of the Realm are adjudged by the Learned in the Laws to fall within the compass of those Statutes that forbid and punish Riots and unlawfull Assemblies and are or may justly be presumed to be in terrorem populi and in the Event it is to be feared will prove to be contrary to the peace of our Sovereign Lord the King And by the Law all the King's Liege-people are commanded to assist in the suppressing of them upon pain of imprisonment and to make fine and ransome to the King Notwithstanding all which good Laws this practice hath continued in the Church these several years and still doth notwithstanding His Majesties reinforcement of their execution by his late Proclamation in open defiance and contempt of all Authority as if the Laws of the Church and Realm were but fulmen inane a shadow of a Cloud that vanisheth as soon as it is made and as if obedience to Magistracy were no part of Christian duty Concerning these Laws of the Realm to silence clamour I will touch lightly at five things I. That the King being next under God within his Dominions supreme in the Church on Earth hath Power and Authority over the Persons of Ministers as well as of any other his Subjects He being Custos utriusque tabulae having both tables committed to him as well the first that concerns our religious duties to God as the other that concerns our civil duties to men may and ought to make such laws as conduce as well to the peace and order in the Church as as godliness and honesty Pertinet hoc ad reges seculi Christianos ut temporibus suis pacatam velint matrem suam Ecclesiam unde
opposition to that which themselves oppose Beza Interprets it thus prout hoc vel illud illis arriserit as this or that best pleafeth them The second is the itch of the ear 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a disease very common yet never so Epidemical as in these days And there are two things that very much stir and provoke this humour 1. Novelty If the thing either for the matter or the manner of it be new and strange our Athenâ—an dispositions will soon incline us to spend our whole time in it Let a Physician be never so learned honest experienced and successfull in his place yet if but an Empirick or Mounteâ—ank come into the Country and set up his Stage though he doeth nothing but put off deceitfull and Sophisticate Drugs and takes mens money yet he shall not want at all times a full resort to him because he is a new-corner and his pretended method and means of cure are new and unusual In Religion also people are naturally 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apt to be led away with insatiable desire of hearing new men and new things and listen rather to fables than to wholesome words that are according to godliness rather admire and adore the new conceits of every Novellist than receive the great mysteries of Salvation in love of the truth from him whom God hath set to watch over their Souls Mitte quod scio dic quod nescio is their Motto we have heard this man long enough our Ears itch now to attend to some other what we know is stale things fresh and unheard do better please us It is not the word but the man they desire to hear And therein they shew themselves to be the most observant disciples of the great Masters of errour and deceipt the Papists For this is a Doctrine taught by Stapleton in the tenth of his quodlibets non quid loquitur sed quis à bono Catholico attendendum est A good Catholick ought not to regard what is spoken but who it is that speaks And if the speaker prove a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and stuff up his discourse with idle and impertinent stories how fabulous soever he shall find more attention and applause from such humorous hearers than he that with greatest evidence of the spirit and power makes known the Oracles of God But certainly that man is under a very great distemper of body that grows weary of his good ordinary food The stomach is very sickly when it cannot take in any solid meat but the fancy is still working after rarities And if ever that person recover his former health he will find that his body will never hold to be in better temper than when he keeps to his ordinary Diet. 2. Prohibition by Authority Things denied are always most desired and the enjoyment of them is therefore the sweeter because restrained by Law Audax omnia perpeti Gens humana ruit per vetitum nefas Ever since our first parents transgressed in eating the forbidden fruit all the sinfull posterity of Adam are ready to run most dangerous adventures for a taste of that which they should not touch How just and reasonable soever the prohibition is yet it will allways be looked on with a jealous Eye by those that are concerned in it as if there were a more than ordinary excellency in the thing denyed and it were therefore kept from us by our Superiours though they mean us never so much good in it because they envy us the enjoyment of it Whence it comes to pass that as beasts though their own pasture be never so good yet if they are bounded in they cannot contain themselves but will adventure to leap the hedge that they may goe farther though they fare worse Were it so that the doors of our Churches were shut up by Authority People forbidden to resort thither or to attend the Ministry of their own Pastours any more and commanded to frequent the private meetings of strangers onely the would these People be soon weary of their restraint and pretend great zeal to God's house and the place where his honour dwells then would their Souls seem to long and even to faint within them for the Courts of the Lord to see his Power and his Glory so as they have seen it in his Sanctuary Then would they seem to account their own Ministers worthy of double honour to receive them in the Lord with all gladness and to hold them in reputation Oh the strange nature of the Sons of men to whom a Legal prohibition is a forcible invitation that know not the worth of Mercies but by the loss of them Fifthly it alienates the affections of People from the true worship of God established by Law in our Church shakes the minds of the weak and begets even in those who have professed they have not the least exception against it but suspect somewhat amiss in it onely upon this ground because they see others of whose judgments they have a good confidence withdraw from it and chuse rather to frequent private meetings than to serve God in the publick Congregations Who have not heard the railings and revilings that have proceeded out of the mouths of those who are the favourers and followers of these unlawfull Assemblies against the Book of Common-prayer And who may not observe their constant and studyed withdrawing from the use of it That book which 1. For the Authours and Compilers of it was composed by the most Learned and Holy Doctours Martyrs and Confessours that the Church of England ever had who spent their times studies and lives in opposing the Idolatry and Superstition of the Romish Church Set forth at first in the Reign and by the Authority of King Edward the Sixth who for his Piety Zeal Learning and Wisedom was accounted the miracle of nature Peter Martyr in an Oration of his at Argentine saith thus of his death Praeter omnem spem acerbâ luctuosâ morte sublatus est Edvardus Angliae Rex Monarcharum Christiani orbis candidum Lumen pietatis Legitimus alumnus Evangelii Christi propugnator acerrimus Besides all expectation Edward King of England is taken away by lamentable and cruel Death who was the clear light of all the Monarchs of the Christian World the true Son of Piety and the most zealous and earnest Defender and Maintainer of the Gospel of Christ. And in an Oration of his at Tigurum he gives this Testimony of him Obiit prohdolor obiit Edvardus ille sanctissimus Rex quo adolescente nescio an Sol doctiorem proâ—â—aetate sanctiorem atque prudentiorem usquam viderit The most Holy King Eward is dead and I know not whether the Sun ever saw a more Learned for his age and a more sanctified and wise Prince And again in an Epistle to Queen Elizabeth speaking of the zeal and care of several godly and religious Kings in reforming Religion and establishing the true Worship of God saith
Hoc frater tuus Edvardus Angliae Rex praeclarissimus pro viribus sane prae quam ejus aetas pateretur facere studuit cujus regnum diutius extrahi peccata nostra ingratitudo intolerabilis non siverâ—nt eximias illius adolescentis virtutes egregiam pietatem Deus orbi tantum ostendere voluit deinde ut nos quemadmodum mala nostra merita exigebant aliquantulum castigaret illum e terra citius ad se revocavit The same your brother Edward the most renowned King of England did study to the utmost of his Power and beyond what his age would permit to doe whose reign our sins and most intolerable ingratitude would not suffer to continue longer over us God onely would shew to the World the singular virtues and most excellent Piety of that young man and then to correct us as our evil deservings did require he soon recalled him from this World to himself Judicious Mr. Hooker calls him Edward the Saint in whom it pleased God righteous and just to let England see what a blessing sin and iniquity would not suffer it to enjoy This rare and most excellent person God raised up to see this Book composed to establish it by regal Authority and then he was taken to his Crown of Glory 2. For the matter contained in that Book Sober and Learned men have sufficiently vindicated it against the cavils and exceptions of those who thought it a part of Piety to make what prophane objections they could against it especially for Popery and Superstition Whereas no doubt the Liturgy was exactly conformed to the Doctrine of the Church of England and this by all reformed Churches is confessed to be most found and orthodox It casts out all false Doctrine and Worship and is of it self sufficient to confute a Papist and other the Enemies of the Protestant Religion It is fitted for all occasions and uses of the Church and comprehends the whole Duty of a Christian both for the credendis contained in the Confessions of Faith the faciendis in the ten Commandments and the petendis in the Lord's Prayer and others framed thereby 3. For the Confirmation of it it stands ratified and enjoined by the Laws Statutes and Sovereign Authority of five most prudent and pious Persons immediately Queen Mary a Papist onely interposing succeeding one the other on the English Throne sealed and confirmed by the bloud of so many Martyrs that suffered in those Marian days shortly after the composure of it and so written in the bloud of those that compiled it 4. For the approbation of it it is commended and allowed by the best Divines of the reformed Churches both at home and abroad Such as Cranmer Tayler Ridley Iewel Calvin Bucer and many others 5. Touching God's acceptance and owning of it the History of ages past and the strange providence of God in relation to the framing preserving blessing and restoring it do so evidently declare this that he seems to be very much darkned in his mind with prejudice that can deny or gainsay it Which grace and favour of Divine assistence having not in one thing or two shewed it self nor for some few days or years appeared but in such sort so long continued our manifold sins and transgressions striving to the contrary what can we less thereupon conclude than that God would at leastwise by tract of time teach the World that the thing which he blesseth defendeth keepeth so strongly cannot chuse but be of him Wherefore if any refuse to believe us disputing for it let him believe God himself thus miraculously working for it What I have said in commendation of this book amounts to no more than what the reverend Divines of the Presbyterian perswasion have been constrained to say of it even then when they were to make all the exceptions they could against it They say We have an high an honourable esteem of those Godly and Learned Bishops and others who were the Compilers of the publick Liturgy and do look on it as an excellent and worthy work 'T is true they add for that time But these words seem to me no way to abate or detract from the acknowledged excellency and worth of it For if it were an excellent and worthy work then what hinders but that it is so now Wherein doth the excellency and worthiness of any form of God's worship at any time consist but in its Conformity to the Scriptures which is the rule and measure of Divine worship at all times It could never be excellent and worthy that was at any time unlawfull and it could have been no otherwise had it been contrary to God's word And they that shall impartially reade the History and seriously consider the profound Learning clear Light admirable Piety incomparable Zeal Purity Patience Loyalty and all other Christian Graces and Virtues which did shine forth in those renowned Fathers and Martyrs the Compilers of that book cannot without blushing arrogate to themselves greaterâ— and higher attainments than they had Are the men of this age the onely Children of the light and were those Worthies one of whom prophetically said to his fellow-sufferer at the stake We shall this day light such a Candle by God's Grace in England as I trust shall never be put out but in the mist of Popish ignorance and superstition in comparison of us now Rather I think they ought to be acknowledged men extraordinarily filled with the Spirit of God Light and understanding and sound wisedom was found in them and in nothing did they come behind the very chiefest Servants of God in this generation We allow and confess them to have been men not onely profound in Learning but sound in the faith Orthodox in judgment yea the great assertours of the Protestant Religion and glorious instruments in the hands of God of causing that light of truth to break out of darkness by which we now walk and which we all profess How is it then that they who spent all their time studies and strength in opposing the Idolatry and Superstition of the Romish Church and loved not their lives unto death but were slain for the word of God and testimony which they hold should be thought to retain any thing of Popish superstition in worship What is this but to condemn the generation of God's Children which cannot be well pleasing to their Father But what if it should be proved that the Liturgy of our Church was for the substance of it in use in the very first and purest times of the Church of Christ before ever Popish Superstition came into the World Then I hope it will be acknowledged to be free from that whereof it is secretly and most ignorantly charged But Godly and Learned Cranmer in Queen Mary's days who knew well what he said and was well able to make his words good offers to enter the lists with any Papist living for it had no other Enemy in those days