pray against Lightning is as good as to pray against Rain Snow and the like by thine Agony too much like an Oath The Word gracious meaned of King or Queen is not proper in a Prayer to God who knoweth whom we mean without such Titles in Prayer the Attribute most gracious which is a superlative Degree is not well applied to Princes we can say no more to God and as good to call most holy King there ought to be a Difference in Titles given to God and those given to Princes specially in Church at the Worship of God In God's Sight they are but Men and the Lord is jealous of his Honour and Glory which he declared he will not communicate to any one Let Men keep flattering Titles when they speak to Princes though I think none but due ones were better but in Prayers to God let Names of Blasphemy be avoided which we all condemn in the Pope of Rome Farther it were well to forbear the often unnecessary Repetitions of the same thing which in this Litany and other Parts of the Book are frequent and those broken Parts of Scripture which have no relation one to another all might be made up into one Prayer and not be divided into so many Then in one of the Prayers 't is said Turn from us all those Evils that we most righteously have deserved We think the Word justly is more proper the other being ambiguous Justice and Righteousness do differ Now for the Collects there are many for several Sundays in Advent and so many after Epiphany and Trinity an odd Way of reckoning the Lord's Days by in that on St. Stephen's Day God is prayed to grant us to learn by the Example of St. Stephen The Name of the Lord Jesus is a strong Argument and sufficient to prevail with God if any can so that of any Man is not necessary but there is a Day appointed to be kept for that Martyr and upon it something of him must be said but we take a great deal of Pains more than the Believers in his Time who appointed no Day for him Who gave the Name of Innocents to the Children killed by Herod's Order They confessed not with speaking but with dying and because they were put to Death to satisfie Herod's Policy and State Jealousie it doth not follow they died either Confessors or Martyrs they did not lay down their Lives for the Testimony of the Lord Jesus for they were not able to know and discern Why to observe the Day of Christ's Circumcision and not of his Baptism No Man as I observed before can say for certain the Day of any such Feasts they keep why to keep Epiphany or Twelft Day so much turned to Excess in Popery and amongst us too None of these produceth Decency nor Edification I think amongst Christians in our publick Devotion book as the Liturgy is The Words Lord's Day or Sabbath were more proper than Sunday Rev. 1.10 having as we have a Warrant out of Scripture This is the Way of reckoning after Popery I pray God we be not called to an Account for too much following after them As to observing Days for the Apostles I know of no Warrant we have to believe God is pleased with it on the contrary nor of the Purification of the blessed Virgin which is but a Continuation of a Jewish Ceremony all which are or ought to be abolished under the Gospel As to the Collect wherein it is said thine only begotten Son was this Day presented in the Temple it containeth either a Lie which no Man can disapprove or at least an uncertain and doubtful thing there being no Certainty of the Day If by Michael the Archangel or Prince of Angels be meaned our Lord and Saviour for the Name Michael signifying who is like unto thee O strong God is appliable to him then he hath his Day called the Lord's Day if Michael be an Angel then he is a Creature so not to be joined with the Creator and no Days to be kept for Angels there being no Warrant for it in Scripture Honour the Angel would receive none Rev. 19.10 and Chap. 22 9. Psal 16.4 As for all Saints Days 't is a Shame a Day for all Popish Saints with David we should say I will not take up their Names into my Lips As for the Apostles whilst alive they never thought nor desired to have Days kept for them after their Death St. Paul the zealous Asserter of Mercy and sworn Enemy to any thing of Merit in Man would never have approved that a Day should be kept for his Conversion he sufficiently declares against observerving of Days Months and Times and Years which makes him say Gal. 4.10 11. 1 Cor. 1.12 and Chap. 3.5 2 Cor. 4.7 Rom. 9.21 I am afraid of you least I have bestowed upon you Labour in vain he would have said Who is Paul Who is Apollo Who is Cephas But Ministers or Servants Earthen Vessels And a Lump of Clay in the Potter's Hand whilest alive when Instruments in God's Hand but much less are they after their Death he would have said what are they that Days should be kept for them and for himself Which once was a Persecutor a Blasphemer and the chief of Sinners After this followeth the Order for the Administration of the Communion there in the Beginning of the Rubrick we read of the Curate and in other Places of Vicars and such inferior Limbs of Hierarchy whereof not the least Step in Scripture If Prayers be appointed to be read in the Chancel for Conveniency of Reader and Hearers it 's well but if upon any Opinion of Holiness or other Privilege of the Place then 't is ill for that Place is no better than any other in the Church but why the Minister should stand on the North Side of the Table except for Conveniency I see no Cause for the Temple of Jerusalem stood on the North Side of the City but now we ought not to stand upon such Points of the Compass The People saying after every Precept Lord have mercy upon us c. is superfluous specially with a loud Voice once after the last as we humbly conceive might be enough Matth. 6.7 Christ forbiddeth to use vain and unnecessary Repetitions for Men are not heard for their much speaking It may be observed that the two Prayers for the King are improper upon that Occasion it supposeth a Communion without a Sermon before instead of which an Homily to be read which is better than nothing but there ought to be a Preparatory Sermon except in Case of Accident or else the Ministers are encouraged to Laziness and Neglect and used to read rather than to preach After Sermon or Homily the Minister or Curate is to declare unto the People Popish Custom still whether there be any Holy-Days the Week following and if there be what To shut their Shops and give over working for the Day By a Moral Commandment of God the
A DISCOURSE ABOUT CEREMONIES Church-Government AND LITURGY Humbly offered to the Consideration of the Convocation By J. G. G. But in vain do they worship me teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men Matth. 15.9 See that thou make all things according to the Pattern shewed thee in the Mount Heb. 8.5 LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Richard Baldwin at the Oxford Arms in Warwick Lane MDCXCVI TO THE READER SOme time ago came out a Pamphlet called A fair Character of the Presbyterian Reformlings just and sober Vindication of his Observations upon the 30th of January and 29th of May c. wherein the Author who cannot deny himself instead of arguing in a fair way doth after his usual manner continue in his Nonsence and giving ill Language We looking upon that barren Soul of his to be like the Earth spoken of in Scripture Heb. 6.8 which beareth Thorns and Briers and nothing else to condescend to that Narrowness of his do now afford him ample matter and a large Field which we never intended to have done if in his scribbling he had given but an indifferent Satisfaction but in case hereafter he doth mend we ingage fairly to reply to any reasonable Answer he happeneth to give the following Papers and therein also to take notice of the forementioned Pamphlet though it be not worth it in the least which to demonstrate I now by the by shall produce three or four Instances upon several Heads to the end that they which know not his way may be informed of the Nature of the Tree by his Fruit. The first thing obvious is out of his Preface and that 's his fantastical Notions and like Expressions about Ray the Mad-man for Men of the same Kidney are well acquainted one with another to haire it about Town without his Cravat on or the Court Baux to air in the Park without a Steinkirk twisted Post Neckcloth and this attended with a Just so perhaps for the Compleat Attorney c. Who can forbear applauding unto and admiring at these high and noble Notions fit and proper Expressions for a Divine and in matters of this Nature so well compacted and handsomly coherent one with another Surely the Man must need be in love with his own Wit and a great Admirer of himself so let him be for me who have not been at School with him at Bedlam nor pretend to such an unexhaustible Stock of Nonsence as we find him to be possessed of as his whole Pamphlet doth evince and demonstrate after reading whereof no Doctor though but of indifferent Skill can deny such an one to want a pretty strong Dose of Hellebore Alas Poor Man he is much to be pitied but not at all to be envied like a weak silly Knat sticks at a slight Cobweb What a foolish ado is there with him about a Mistake in the Printer for misquoting a Text of Scripture in the Title Page where John is put for Ezekiel which if he had pleased he might have found rectified in the Margin of my Page 44. One that insists so much upon such things as about it to bestow the greatest Part of his Page 3. must needs have little else to say But a drowning Man lays hold on and catches at any thing in his way The Bottom of that Man's Spirit against Reformers and Reformation from Popery doth more and more appear for concerning it he hath spoken not only against Calvin pag. 25 26. but also falls upon Luther whose Reformation he calls a Combustion in Germany about Religion pag. 27. and to be ingenuous saith he was set on foot through Interest and a Pique c. and the loss of a little Interest more than a Religious Dislike moved him to quarrel with Indulgences About this he fills up almost two of his Pages from the latter end of Pag. 23. till the Middle of pag. 25. Where he useth these Expressions which in my sence smells something of Interest This he borrowed from Papists who said it long before him But what can be expected from a Man who seems to make no Difference between John of Leyden and that worthy Martyr Jerome of Prague whom in his first Page he puts together and in the same Category or Predicament How pitifully doth he come off in his page 25. about what I said concerning bowing at or towards the Altar in my pag. 49 50 c. wherein he gives a strong Proof of his Learning as page 27. he doth of his great Judgment when he saith the Reformer is angry that I do not prove every thing out of Scripture what will become of the Parliament and Westminster Hall if we cannot find them in the Bible The Question is about matters of Divine Worship which I suppose he will own to be a Point of Religion whereof Scripture is the Rule how then doth he bring in over Head and Shoulders the Parliament and Westminster Hall One would think he hath chiefly consulted how to promote the Bookseller's and may be his own Interest with turning the half of his Pamphlet into a kind of silly Play not to instruct but if possible to delight the Reader to make it sell the better for generally now is a better Market for comical than for serious things But he must needs find himself much mistaken for his Jests are insipid and if ever he thereby aimed at Gain or Credit he is fallen very short of his Expectation but I find the Fool of the Play is the Part he hath taken upon him to act on this Stage as his Enter Observator pag. 17. and Exit with Enter Reformling pag. 22. do declare Out of these few Instances the Reader may judge I deal against no dangerous Antagonist and so it will be no hard Work for me upon Occasion to answer his Libel or Pamphlet it will be much easier for me to do 't than for him to excuse or vindicate the seditious nay blasphemous Expressions in some of the Sermons preached on these Aniversary Days such as on the last 30th of January we beard in the Chapel of Chelsey College where one having in the Pulpit quoted Milton and screwed Passive Obedience to the Height said The Sin of putting King Charles to death is in some respect worse than that of the Jews for crucifying our Saviour for the Jews never owned Jesus Christ to be their King such Comparisons are odious and very unbecoming for they run not only between the Acts but also between the Sufferers 'T is to be wished these matters were laid aside specially now when there is an Act of Indulgence and every one should be satisfied to enjoy his own way but 't is sad to see these things to be revived every Year or almost every Day and this in a bitter and uncharitable way But indeed being thâ—s provoked we can't and must not forsake our Cause and be mute when called Factions Schismaticks Enemies to all Order in Church and State 't is but reasonable and necessary for
instead of adorning them as pretended broken Unity under the Notion of settling Uniformity All which mischiefs might easily be prevented if they would be prevailed to lay them aside They are inconvenient conveniency is esteemed when a thing after the consideration of all circumstances is found at least to bring with it more Good than Evil but our Ceremonies by Experience have brought more Evil than Good They can do hurt saith Beza but no good God knows saith Foxe they be the cause of much blindness and strife amongst Men they have been and still are notoriously abused unto Superstition The sum of the second Commandment is that in the Worship of God or Ceremonies thereabouts we are to devise nothing of our own head or borrow any thing of Heathenish or Idolatrous Rites our Ceremonies have an aptness to provoke to Superstition and Idolatry in Popish Countreys the Cross is an Idol Now as God hath forbidden to sowe the Field with mingled Seed Levit. 19.19 so in the Church there ought to be no mixture of Humane Inventions with God's Institutions Ceremonies borrowed from Idolaters such are Papists are vicious and superstitious Worship therefore not to be borrowed of them The Jews by God's Command Levit. 18.3 were not to live according to the Laws and Examples of other Nations The words of Pelicanus upon the place are remarkable God saith he by this one Law would have them cast away and abhor whatsoever in Worship had pleased the Gentiles much more care ought Christians to have of this who being taught to Worship God in Spirit and in Truth ought first and last to have abhorred the idle unreasonable and deceitful Forms and Rites of Idolaters which if the ancient Bishops had well considered the Church had never been pestered with so many prophane Rites and base Ceremonies by which it came to pass that some Christians differ little from Gentiles save in the Names of their Idols This is home and to the purpose this was commanded for detestation of Idolatry because Idolaters did so the Israelites may not do so In Ceremonies we must strictly hold to the Word of God least we transgress either in number or in form And the like Command is given in two several places of the New Testament 2 Cor. 6 14. Rev. 18.4 to shew we are bound to the same under the Gospel as they were under the Law nay God therein looks narrowly into the things that seems the least only that they should not be like the Heathens Ye shall not round the Corners of your Head Levit. 19.27 neither shalt thou mar the Corners of thy Beard We are commanded to keep our selves from Idols 1 John 5.21 and from Idolatry and Appearances of it or to have any thing to do with what hath been or is abused to Idolatry Such as I said before are our Ceremonies and so because unprofitable unnecessary dangerous hurtful and inconvenient ought to be abolished But this is not all they are unlawful because Will-Worship which is so expresly forbidden in the Word of God Deut. 4.2 which we must never add to nor diminish from God commanded Moses Heb. 8.5 See that thou make all things according to the Pattern shewed to thee in the Mount The true Worship is that appointed by God and the false is that not appointed by God for there is but two kinds of Worship First True and Good Secondly False and Evil That is the same which he hath commanded This is that which he hath not commanded and certainly Man's Inventions he hath not commanded but forbidden Tertullian saith That is forbidden which is not permitted That is we must account that not to be permitted by the Word against which any reasons out of the Word may be given though there be no particular Word against it Though there were free-will Offerings whence they would set up Will-Worship yet they were to be of such things as were manifestly known to be prescribed by God's revealed Will and so not the Offering but the undertaking of it at such a time or in such a measure was left unto the free Choice of Men according to occasion 'T is no Will-Worship to pray thrice or seven times a day to Preach once twice or thrice on Sabbath-day to Pray and Preach are necessary Duties but how often that comes under the necessary Circumstances of God's Worship as to Time and Place Prayer is expressly allowed by God's Word and the determination of it as to this or that time is to be ruled by Reason and these are the things which fall under that 1 Cor. 14. Such things are allowed as accessary parts of outward Worship but not such as Cross or Surplice Now all Humane Ceremonies imposed and observed as parts of God's Worship are unlawful and this is the true question We must Ceremonise saith Pelicanus only according to God's Word and Vrsin all feigned Worship is forbidden all Worship which is not of God but is set up by Men when Worship or Honour is feigned to be done to the true God in some work which he hath not enjoyned And Zanchi saith We may not Worship God with any other Worship though it be in the kind of External and Ceremonial than that which he hath required in the Holy Scripture to be worshipped by us These Ceremonies are Superstitious and this makes them also unlawful Now saith Vrsin Superstition is that which addeth Humane Inventions to Divine Precept 'T is a Will-Worship which is more than is appointed by the Law of God On Acts 17.4 saith Dr. Fulk And Perkins saith On the second Command Superstition is Worship of God without his Commandment they cannot wipe off the imputation of Superstition seeing they judge them necessary in their use though indifferent in their nature Thus a Minister may not read without a Surplice nor Baptise without the Sign of the Cross but their Superstition appeareth the more in that they make them to be significant Ceremonies which we shall have farther occasion to speak of They divide their Ceremonies into single and double and threefold the former are those whose use is only for Decency and Order the others serve also for Edification by some profitable signification but if all circumstances belonging to Time Place Persons Instruments of sacred Actions be sacred significant Ceremonies then not only the Clock but the leaden Weights of it not only the Ground which they do stand upon but also the Rushes by occasion strewed upon it the Besom the Minister's Black Cap or Perriwig his Beard c. shall be holy significant dumb and speaking Ceremonies dumb because unprofitable speaking idly in such a place When an Image of the blessed Virgin spake to Bernard in the Church Good morrow Bernard good morrow he answered O Madam you forget your Sex it is not lawful for a Woman to speak in the Church Just so should be silenced our idle significant Ceremonies the more because the Gospel is the
and he addeth Austin would have us to be content with those very few Ceremonies which are contained in the Canonical Scriptures Another saith Dr. Fulk in his Rejoinder to mart The Gates of Hell in idle Ceremonies did assault the Church the Fathers in them declined from the Simplicity of the Gospel Again Every idle Ceremony that prevailed had the Prelates of the Church either for Authors or Approvers Christ committed his Church to them to be fed with his Word and not with dumb Signs and dead Images which things he hath forbidden The Prelates of our Church have continued in the same Temper as those he speaks of out of what hath been said it appears how the Church hath no Authority to institute such Ceremonies as have no warrant in the word of God such are ours But they are not content to assume and usurp that Power to themselves but also to impose such Constitutions of theirs upon the Church and God's People thus arrogating to themselves a legislative and executive Authority but we are perswaded they may do no such things nor Men in Conscience obey and practise them yet 't is a strange Opinion of theirs as if observing or not these Ceremonies could make Men good or evil honest or dishonest they who would require and six our Practice of such Constitutions must first as much as in them lies fix our Judgments which all the Convocations can never do so as to settle other Peoples Judgment concerning things lawful or unlawful according to the Notions they themselves have of them or else to impose it whether one will or not is no less than Tyranny All Casuists amongst Papists do hold it for a Wrong done to Monks Fryars Seculars and Regulars of any Order if their Priors Abbots Generals or other Superiors should impose upon them the Observance of any thing besides the Vow they have made to observe the Rules and Rites instituted by their Founder and we Christians are we not as much by our Vow tied unto the Lord Jesus as they are or can be to Francis Dominick Benedictus Bruno c. Or are we more subject to our Prelates than they to their Superiours by Vow of Obedience Christ hath purchased his Church a Christian Liberty which she ought not to be deprived of and 't is a presumptuous Attempt in any Man or Society of men to go about it and to institute any Religious Ceremonies to be used in God's Worship 't is unlawful for men to add unto God's Institution in Worship and to say this is true as to the doctrinal not as to the ritual Part is as good as to say Man may not add unto God's Institutions any of God's Institutions but mans only which is a Piece of Nonsence And as the Church hath no Authority to add to Divine Institutions or to make new ones upon a religious Account so it may not by its Institution make a thing good or bad true or false only it may declare it so to be according to the Rule of God's Word except we would give it the same Power which some Doctors of the Church of Rome give the Pope namely to alter the Nature of things as to make that to be Sin which is not Sin and that not to be Sin which is Sin I hope we do not entail Infallibility upon our Church nor stretch her Power so as to transubstantiate things a Prayer made in the House of Lords or Commons doth not cease from being a religious Duty to become a civil one Such an Application doth not alter the Nature of it To prove the Churches Authority to institute their unnecessary Ceremonies which we deny after they have screwed up their Wits with Endeavours to prove it out of Scripture of the New Testament they can find but one place which they stretch as far as they can and under the Notion of Decency and Order they think they may bring into the Church what they please not only all Papists but also all Jewish and Heathenish Ceremonies if the Convocation and Rulers of the Church think them to be decent and for Order The Place is let all things be done decently and in order 1 Cor. 14.40 Elsewhere the Objection I answered but thus much I shall add for all their going about to inlarge the Commission there is a Restriction to be admitted V. 26. Let all things be done to edifying That which is granted is to have things done decently and in order for Edification Edification is the end Decency and Order the means or as we may call it a decent Order tending to Edification thus an holy Sacrament must be decently and orderly or in a decent order administred This Decency and Order relate to Place Time Manner Persons Number as how many Psalms sung Sermons preached Chapters read and the like Circumstances the Apostle leaves no more to the Churches Liberty than to order God's Ordinances to be performed in a decent manner Any Constitution beyond ordering that which before was enjoyned is properly a Law now Christ is the only Lawgiver of his Church which receiveth no other Laws but his and any Laws added to God's Laws are contrary to them which are really perfect in themselves in their Reason and Manner and those of the Church are but Directions for better observing of Divine Laws according to the Diversity of Times Places and Persons which are occasional Circumstances and no new things in God's Worship The Churches Authority as I already observed is but Ministerial to see those things observed which Christ hath appointed not to institute any new things Decency is when God's Worship is performed with those convenient Circumstances of Gesture and such as I already named agreeing not only with God's Service but also with any grave Assembly In this place Order is strictly taken in Opposition to Confusion so is Decency opposed to the Vice of Undecency hence it follows that Order doth require nothing but what is necessary to avoid Confusion and Decency to hinder Undecency Our Ceremonists must give me leave to make them take notice how they are guilty of the Breach of two things contained in that Chapter the first of Confusion for to speak all together aloud as they do in the use of the Common-Prayer-Book makes a confuse Noise and brings in a Confusion thus they interrupt one anothers Devotion Vers 28. The Apostle forbiddeth to speak all at once Cannot they follow the Minister when he reads Vers 34. and according to the Apostle's Order speak every one to himself and to God Another Breach they are guilty of is directly against Women keeping silence and not speaking in Churches yet commonly they speak the loudest So then if they will answer the Apostles end they must act to edifying which through Persecution they have not taken the Way to do he tells them the right Way Charity wherein they have been so wanting Cor. 8.1 edifyeth Our Ceremonies contribute nothing towards Order and Decency
Logicians are they all But if this was litterally to be taken I see no Reason but we may do so of all those Places where Bodily Members as Eye Hand Arm c. and Passions as Anger Fury Vengeance Jealousie c. are attributed to God and thus fall into the Heresies of Antropomorphites and Antropopathites I must not omit to say how Papists make use of this Place in the Philippians to the same Purpose as our Men do so that this Practice is not free from Superstition Of Holy-days NEXT comes the Point of Feasts by them called Holy-days but there is no other Holy-days besides the Sabbath which God blessed and sanctified and now the Christian Sabbath or the first Day of the Week which our Saviour sanctified by his Resurrection after which he at several times appeared unto his Apostles who constantly observed it so that in St. John's time it was called the Lord's Day Rev. 1.10 As for all other Days kept in Memory of Creatures we disallow Keeping of Days hath Relation to God's Worship which ought not to be communicated to Men We are not satisfied to keep Apostles Days but we must also keep All Saints Michael and his Angels the Innocents c. All idle and superstitious Fopperies for which we have neither Precept nor Example in the Word of God to what purpose they contribute neither to Decency to Order nor to Edification only are an Inlet to Superstition He that keeps a Day let him keep it unto the Lord and not to Man either dead or alive An African Council condemned certain Feasts used in Memory of Martyrs because they were drawn from the Errors of the Gentiles whose Abominations Christians must not meddle or have to do with 1 Cor. 10.20 for the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice it to Devils and I would not that ye should have Fellowship with Devils So that when a Man saith to us this is offered in Sacrifice to Idols we ought not to eat Upon this Consideration that Council resolved on this And this we are to seek of the Emperor that such Feasts as are in many Places contrary to the Word of God and from the Errors of the Gentiles be forbidden for indeed some Christians being too ready to draw such things from them they transmitted them to others Christians and their Guides and Pastors instead of fencing against these things such was their Frailty that they rather complied therewith For Proof of this De Origin fest In Tertul. de Cor. Mil. let us hear what Hospinianus saith after Beat. Renany The old Bishops saith he were used when they could not call Men from the Superstitions of the Heathens by the preaching of the Word to seek at least to do it by observing their Holy-days with their own Worship but this was to drive out one Nail with another no Way to take off Superstition Although at the Beginning these Solemnities seemed tolerable yet at last they grew to such a Heap of Superstitions that they became the Fountain and Beginning of most horrible things Thus far he and Austin who then was alive wished them abolished and he gives in a Counsel for a good End Hom. 6. de Verb. dom in Matth. If ye ask how the Pagans may be won enlightened called leave all their Solemnities and forsake their Toys So we may say at this time only changing the Word Pagans into those of Papists Now the great Reason in those Days used by their learned Men not to receive those Vanities or if received to abolish them was because they were derived from Heathens which made Tertullian so sharply dispute that a Christian might not wear a Lawrel Crown for no other Cause but that the Gentiles did so which makes him say elsewhere Those Ceremonies are superstitious and vain which we used without any Authority of Divine or Apostolical Command and are to be accounted superstitious and therefore be restrained because in some sort they make us like the Gentiles and we may say they in some kind make us like the Papists for certainly we have it from them as they had it from the corrupt Church and this had it from Pagans so that the Springs whence they came and the Pipes thorough which they were conveyed are corrupt if there was no other Fault but this that they are empty Observations to be justly upbraided with Vanity as being done without any Warrant out of the Word for such things serve not to Religion but to Superstition and are affected and forced and rather over curious than any wise rational at all and therefore to be restrained because they do some of them suit with the Gentiles and all with the Papists Why then should we practise Ceremonial Festivals of Man's making 't is well to take occasion of hearing the Word and praying upon any Day when 't is offered but 't is not the Day but the Word of God that puts us in mind of the Birth Resurrection and Ascension of Christ and with Bucer we may well say I would to God that every Holy-day whatsoever besides the Lord's Day In Matth. 12. were abolished that Zeal which at first brought them in was without all warrant from the Word and it meerly follured corrupt reason to drive out the Holy-days of the Pagans as one Nail drives out another Those Holy-days have been so tainted with Superstition that I wonder we tremble not at their very Names and yet these every Year upon certain Days are observed with Mention of him or her whose Day it is and with an Epistle Collect Gospel Of Fasts WHAT I say of Feasts may also be spoken of Fasts We own Fasts publick or private being kept out of a right Principle in a true manner and for a good End are commendable but it must be upon occasion either to prevent an imminent Danger to remove some Judgments or to be humbled for our Sins then it must be joyned with Prayer for 't is an Accessary and Help to it and to speak more generally there is a Fast from Sin and evil Works which we are constantly bound to observe 't is what Scripture calleth ceasing from Evil but here this is not the Question 't is of prescribed Fasts which ought not always to be upon certain Days of the Year which are a Yoke upon the Church but as I said only upon Occasion voluntary and not forced and they ought not to consist in the Abstinence of some Meats but of all sorts for a time the better to fit us for Prayer not to have them too frequent as in the Church of Rome which looks on it as meritorious The Heretick Montanus brought in and promoted the stinted Fasts which afterwards did superstitiously multiply and to this Day Papists are full of them from them we borrowed some as those by the Church ordered to be kept upon Eves of several Holy-days so called all to be returned to those whom we had it from as well as the Feasts of
Thus whilest with one Hand we are hugging and imbracing Papists and as it were courting them to own a Relation of our Bishops being by means of Ordination descended from theirs on the other Endeavours were used here to crush and destroy poor Brethren Some though Christians and Country men proved Wolves and Tygers against others Nonconformists as were and are submissive and obedient to Authority who are for Order and Ministry by way of Office in the Church not guilty in the least of any blasphemous Doctrine against the Person Offices or Grace of Christ nor of any Fundamental Errors yet meerly for Consciencce sake for nothing but Non-conformity was laid to their Charge they were vexed fined cast into Prison where some of them died and otherwise cruelly persecuted which ought to make those that have any thing of the Spirit of Christianity to blush and be ashamed Such Practices ought to be left for the Children of him who is a Murderer from the Beginning For cruel Tyrants and Heathen Emperors and for the Romish Anti-Christ who by any means goes about to compel Men to believe their Opinions to believe as they say as they and do as they do a thing never practised by the Lord Jesus nor by his Apostles nor by true Christians when they had the Power of the Sword For Christian Religion and the true Doctrines of the Gospel must not by Men be forced but perswaded nor promoted by any violent ways One Man may have a Power over the Body of another but no Right or Authority over the Souls one of another that 's God's own Right and Property and they are all Usurpers that do encroach upon it Reformation began first in Saxony under Luther but there they neither kept nor did set up any Bishops nor have any such Diocesian to this very Day but they have a Lay-man residing at the Elector's Court commonly a privy-Counsellor called the President of the Presbytery and in those Parts of Germany they have secularized several Bishopricks as Bremen Minden Halberstad c. Now to the third and last general Part about the Liturgy Of the Common-prayer-book ONE thing more I must speak of though already this Discourse be longer than at first I thought it would be and that is the Liturgy which I shall do as briefly as possibly I can In order to it 't will not be amiss to take notice how much that Space of Time namely Queen Mary's Reign between King Edward's and Queen Elizabeth's had altered that Spirit which appeared in the Reformation under that pious young Prince the Josiah of his time That bloody Persecution had destroyed the Lives of several of those Godly and Learned Instruments of Reformation under the former Reign who in that great and good Work proposed unto themselves no Humane By-Ends but only the Glory of God according to his Word and though in the Beginning of Queen Elizabeth's Days there were several worthy Instruments yet the Spirit they were acted by was somewhat altered if not in the whole yet in part as it will appear if we compare the Articles as they were set forth in King Edward's Days in the Year 1552 with the Edition which the Convocation under Queen Elizabeth in 1571 hath left us There are some considerable Alterations in the Articles as also in the Common-prayer-book what they are for Brevity sake I shall not set down yet I shall say they are about the Articles of Grace of Justification of Sacraments of the Lord's Supper and of Traditions The Expressions left out of them hath proved some Detriment to the Truth for they were strong against some Errors that appeared since and to confirm the Truths therein contained But this in general may be observed about the Prayer-Book how the Common-prayers are taken out of the Breviary the Administration of Sacraments Burial Marriage Visitation of the Sick out of the Ritual the Consecration of the Lord's Supper Collects Gospels and Epistles out of the Missal and for the Book of Ordination of Archbishops Bishops Ministers c. out of the Romish Pontifical Two Popes Pius 4th and Gregory 13th would have approved of it if Queen Elizabeth had been content to have taken it from their Hands and as to matter and manner they are such as that when the Devonshire Papists understood it was no other but the Mass-book in English they were pacified about it A ranck Papist Dr. Carrier said the Common-prayer-book and the Catechism contained in it hold no Point of Doctrine expresly contrary to Antiquity that is the Romish Service only it hath not enough in it Considerat pag. 45. sect 8 9. It is observable how Secretary Walsingham hearing there was a Bull of Excommunication to come out against Queen Elizabeth used a politick Trick to prevent it He caused two of the Pope's Intelligencers at the Pope's own Choice to be as it were in secret brought over and to them he appointed a Guide to shew them in Canterbury and London Service solemnly sung and said with all its Pomp which Order the Popish Intelligencers seeing and admiring they wondered their Master would be so unadvised as to interdict a Prince or State whose Service and Ceremonies did so well agree with his own so returning to the Pope they shewed him his Oversight affirming how they saw no Service or Ceremonies in England but what might very well have been performed in Rome whereupon the Bull was presently called in The Prayer-book is the Beads of our high Church-People for as Papists think all is well with them if they do but tell their Beads so many times a Day hence it is that they look upon it as their great Work when they go to their Churches where they mutter so many Pater Nosters or so many times the Lord's Prayer and Avemarias or the Angel's Salutation to the Virgin So we have amongst us those who think to have performed the whole Christian Duty if they do but go to the Service as they call it and hear the Prayer-book read Out of the Common-prayer-book in that Part of the Litany where it is said from Sedition and privy Conspiracy the following Words are left out From the Tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and from his detestable Enormities I think after the bloody Tragedy acted under Queen Mary we had no more reason to leave out that important Truth than they had before to have it in But to speak something more in general upon this Subject though within as narrow a Compass as I can because by others much hath been said to the Purpose We declare we are not against Liturgies other Reformed Churches have them and we own they are Help upon Occasion wherefore we be wronged when traduced for Enemies to Liturgies we love them full comprehensive and to the purpose but not clogged with superfluous Repetitions 'T is good to have a Form for Administration of Baptism of the Lord's Supper and blessing of Marriages but they must not be too long nor too many