demonstration enough against such an odious Supposition of our believing Christ corporally present there We do not then give them this great Suspicion 't is not a Scandal given but causelessly taken So for any thing he has done upon this point I may conclude it as he does 't is done with little or no Reason and with a great deal of Superstition He proceeds to that grand debated Ceremony as he calls it and therefore we must dwell the longer upon it of kneeling at the Lord's Supper And first he honestly grants that we are to perform this act of Devotion with all possible Reverence I ask no more But he quickly nulls his grant Is this says he to be exprest altogether in the outward posture of the Body No certainly nor altogether in the inward posture and frame of the Soul but in Soul and Body both together or else I trow there is not all possible Reverence Well If outward Humility be the thing we contend for we ought to shew it to our God in the humblest way and that is by prostrating rather than kneeling Pray let them voucsafe to kneel with us before they talk of falling lower Kneeling is a posture of greatest Reverence in these Western parts of the World where Prostrating is not much in use and 't is a Gesture most convenient for the Devout Receiver who as he kneels may abase himself to the Dust and again with the Royal Votary may lift up his hands to God and may look up But he runs away with it for certain that our Lord Christ administred the Sacrament and that the Disciples receiv'd it sitting And sure he remembers our Saviour best who doth every thing as he did both in Substance and Ceremony and so we find the Primitive Christians did c. In answer to this I demand how does it appear that the Apostles receiv'd it sitting because they sate down to supper But it appears from the Text the posture they us'd at Supper was alter'd before they communicated St. John's words are express that Supper was ended and that Jesus rose from Supper and then washt the Disciples feet Now the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alone without 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where does it ever signifie the Lord's Supper it seems that followed after it So this Author can never bring the least good proof from Scripture that they sate at the first Eucharist Now for any one to fasten that upon Divine Revelation which he has no ground to infer either from the written Rule or the Church's Testimony what is it but adding to the Word of God And then let me ask him his own Question p. 3. How they will avoid that curse in the last of the Revelations if they add to the words there written Sure I am that in whatever Posture the Apostles were first admitted which is uncertain yet it was such as wise and sober men and the custom of the Country allow'd as a Posture expressing Reverence because as this Author himself has set it down Sure Christ would not have allow'd any unfitting posture In the mean time the Dissenter cannot deny but that the words of Administration The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy Body and Soul to everlasting Life are an excellent good Prayer Now if they will not give us a reason why it is unlawful to kneel I will give them a reason why it is simply unlawful except in case of necessity as for those that lye on their Sick-beds or the like c. to sit and pray solemnly for I speak not of sudden short ejaculatory Prayers but I say 't is simply unlawful to pray thus solemnly to the most high God in a sitting posture because it is simply unlawful to pray most solemnly in an unpraying posture if I may use such a word Therefore this Author is too liberal of that which is none of his own in allowing that a man may receive sitting without any Irreverence But he tells us so we find the Primitive Christians did What does he mean for here he is somewhat obscure that the primitive Christians receiv'd it sitting or that they did not alwaies receive it kneeling 'T is true the Ancient Church many times receive it standing as all the fifty daies between Easter and Whitsontide and on some other Festivals There 's a fair difference sure between sitting and standing Standing we find is a Posture for Solemn Prayer in the Scripture so is not sitting But let him shew if he can that the primitive Saints on other daies working or fasting daies for St. Augustin and St. Basil both agree in witnessing that sometimes there were Communions on Wednesdaies and Fridaies let them prove I say or else they prove little to the purpose that on those daies when they kneeled at the other Prayers they ever rose to receive the Communion standing For the Fathers tell us plainly they forbore kneeling then merely out of an Excess of Joy Most plainly Tertullian renders a general account why they intermitted all their strictness that is all that might infeeble the Knees or weary the Flesh at this season Quid impedit nisi necessitas gaudii What hinders saies he but the necessity of Joy or Exultation But 't is certain the primitive Christians were very far from sitting at the Holy Eucharist which this Author rashly concludes they did for they did not at any of their Prayers or Religious Offices much less at this the most solemn of all their Services For Tertullian upon that Supposition which was generally receiv'd that the Holy Angels were invisibly present at the devout Prayers of the Church or of good Christians in private to offer them up to God not that he supposes those Angels had any Prayers offered to themselves for all they were suppos'd to be so nigh at hand as the Prophet Elijah when he knew God's Army of Angels actually incompass't him round yet praies to God and not to the Angels or any of the Captains of that heavenly Host that his affrighted Servant might have the Grace to see them Lord open his eyes And Abraham's Steward the good Eliazar though the Prophet his Master had told him that God's Angel should go along with him in his way yet all the way he praies to none but to the Lord God of his Master Abraham yet upon this supposition that an Angel alwaies stood by whilst men were devoutly praying Tertullian in his Book de Oratione cap. 12. is highly displeased with those that offer to sit down immediately after their Prayers are done and how much less is that than to sit at their very Sacramental Prayers But I do not alledge Tertullian for this or that zealous Opinion of his but as a Reporter of the Church's practice and there where he is plain and full as he is here he may be allowed for a Demonstrator in matter of Fact And thus he declares himself in this place which is not so commonly noted
a kind of Chest that was fram'd for the purpose and plac'd them so that their Tayls should be gently screwed up through certain holes in a board and so they should be fastned all along in a row and Needles under their Tayls so dispos'd or plac'd that as the Musician struck the Keys the Needles prickt their Tayls which so nickt the Cats when the Organist came to play a lesson upon them that still as they were toucht they set up their Notes some high some low according to their several Capacities which made such harmony saies he as made the Rats dance and the men ready to burst with laughing Just such a Machine of a Church would this Author make us as this Musical Instrument if instead of our Screwing up the Non-conformists which we do not or their Screwing us up which once they did sufficiently he could screw them into the Church without more ado by this Project of his for Universal Toleration at least of all or very many Sects except the Papists for by what he delivers not only concerning the Ceremonies but also concerning Articles of Faith we may well conclude that he would not only have the Presbyterians who seem to stand out only upon Punctilio's of Ceremonies but also Independents Anabaptists and I know not how many more Sects if they call themselves Protestants taken into the Church or rather into the Drag-net as Bishop Laney calls it in his Sermon about Comprehension large and capacious enough to hold the Leviathan himself whom this Author follows a great way in his Notions of Sufficient or Insufficient Means for Peoples Conviction And when all such are received into the Church what will they do but set up their Cries and make their rude Noises in it if any thing in it afterward happens to pinch them Then instead of any Harmony or Concord I doubt there would be nothing in the Church but such a Discord as would make us only ridiculous to all that come near us Animadversions upon his Chapter concerning Church-Service HIS next discourse concerning Church-Service is all of a piece with the foregoing one about Ceremonies but one comfort is 't is not of so great length and every whit as remarkable for shortness of Reason Yet here as he makes his entrance he is a pretender to Reason for he slights and passes by some with whom he has no Reason to expect that reasonable Arguments should prevail Is he then for Reasonable Arguments But he should have added this Caution Provided they be not deduc'd from Scripture for you have seen he thinks it unsafe to make Deductions that is to Reason from thence Well he Supposes there is nothing in our Common-Prayer-book that is directly contrary to the Word of God and I may justly suppose till the contrary be proved that there is nothing in it contrary to the Word of God either directly or indirectly and p. 29. He also Conceives it absolutely necessary to have some Form prescribed to be used by all c. But now In Christ he humbly beseeches the Governours of the Church calmly to consider Were it not better to have such a form of Service as would satisfie most It is to be doubted or rather 't is out of doubt that most who are so unsatisfied with this are disgusted with all Sett Forms or would not be satisfied with any other Therefore we must be excus'd from trying his trick till he or some other Undertaker have corrected Magnisicat and the People the People whom he would have so caress'd have declared themselves satisfied with it or else have subscribed a Blank to be satisfied with whatever the New Projectors shall introduce His next Pique is at our saying the Second Service at the Altar which he saies was retain'd by the Fathers and first Reformers from Popery as carrying some resemblance with the Mass the Peoples delight which being now become the Peoples hate should for the same Resemblance by the same Reason be taken away For our Reading the Second Service at the Altar any one that can but read and is not a mere stranger in the Old Liturgicks knows that the Prayers were at the Altar many whole Ages before Popery either Name or Thing was heard of Therefore unless this Author knew the Reformers thoughts he can have no reason to put it upon them not at all for their honour though he would fain have it so that they prescribed this as carrying some resemblance to the Mass the peoples delight Why should he dream they did it to follow the Multitude in the Novelties of Popery and not rather to follow the Primitive Church I suppose the Reformers meaning in prescribing the Priest's going up to the Altar still was to declare and testifie to the Christian World that the Church of England highly approves Communion upon all High Daies as the Christian Sacrifice of Commemoration and the most Sacred Office in our Publick Worship and as it was constantly used in the Ancient Church upon every Lord's Day and every Solemn Festival They would no longer allow the Priest to receive the Sacrament alone because there was no ground either in the Scripture or the Fathers for such a Solitary Communion The very terms sound like a Contradiction But for all that the Reforâ—ers from Popery kept up the Communion Service at the Communion Table and so the Rubrick orders it still where the Place will bear it for it must be confess'd many of our Parish Churches are so built that the Second Service cannot be audibly read from the East end But where it can there it ought to be for a very sufficient reason that the memâ—ry at least of Weekly if not Daily Sacraments might not be lost and that if the Peoples Devotion could be raised again which the Monkery of those times had turned into the Formality of Communicating once a year as the Roman Church requires no more of Lay persons then the Priest should be in his station to shew himself ready to Administer not only thrice a year which is all our Church has thought fit to exact hitherto but every Sunday and Holy-day It were better then that we fell to our prayers and endeavours that the People may be so well fitted and prepared to Receive as the Primitive frequency of Sacraments may be restor'd than to sit and make wishes that Reading the Second Service at the Altar may be taken away How consistent he is with himself in that which follows in the same page requiring Uniformity and Conformity after such and such Amendments I have already discoursed and shew'd it unpracticable even upon his own Principles As for his varying the Phrase and saying that again p. 24. which he had said over and over that Certainly his Religion is vain that would abandon the substance for want of the Ceremonies which he acknowledges to be no way necessary I answer that certainly his Religion is as vain if not vainer that would abandon the Substance as they do
that are guilty of Schism for the Ceremonies which he must acknowledge to be no way Unlawful But his next Figure is a rare one Surely a very uncharitable mind that would not leave ninety and nine unnecessary Ceremonies to bring one sinful stray'd Sheep into the Congregation An admirable Metamorphosis Ninety Sheep in the Text turn'd into Ceremonies by this Commentator And would the Author of Naked Truth have all these poor Innocent Lambs otherwise call'd Ceremonies to be left naked and shivering in the Wilderness But as one reply'd upon the like Exposition of another Text Nonne sunt decem Mundi English'd by one Are there not ten Worlds Sed ubi sunt Novem Where are the Nine much less Ninety nine Ceremonies Sure he must take in all the Ceremonies at Court and the Inns of Court the Serjeants Coifes and their Mens party-colour'd Coats and all our University Ceremonies for we shall see anon he is no great admirer of Universities all these put together will hardly make up Ninety nine Ceremonies though we take in the Batchelor's Hoods and Lambskins and why must these be exposed to be devoured by Wolves And yet we will go as far as he to bring one sinful stray'd Sheep into the Congregation and convert him from the error of his Non-conforming waies and therefore he does ill to reflect upon us thus Yet these men will most passionately and pardon me if I say most uncharitably and irreligiously cry Away with these Idiot-Sectaries and Phanaticks let them wander and perish in their own wild Imagination We will not leave one Ceremony nor any one line of our Common prayer-book to gain Thousands of them No if you alter that we will rather leave the Church and go the Papists Mass Whose words are these but his own Which of us ever said so therefore to retort him part of his own Censure this is said Passionately I will not say as he speaks Uncharitably and Irreligiously After he has Complemented both Parties calling us too zealous Ceremonists Them blind and wilful Separatists He takes his leave assuring us that after our charitable Condescention their Populous I suppose he means Popular pretences will be so confuted their mouths so stopt or open'd to ask the more but that 's all one as for mere Shame if not for Reason or Religion they must come into the Church and their Pastors coming in the Sheep will follow Alas it is rather the custom of these Shepherds to follow the Sheep whatever Toy they take So the Shop-prating Weavers will soon be deserted seeing their own Naked Folly somewhat akin to this Author 's NAKED TRUTH Animadversions upon his Chapters concerning Preaching Confirmation and Church-Government I Knew a Scholar a man of Wit but no very hard Student that quickly after the Church was restor'd would needs become an Author upon this Subject How necessary all the parts of University Learning are for a Divine One of his Books he presented to an Eminent Person who told him pleasantly that he was extreme happy in the choice of his Subject for he could not fail to demonstrate effectually whether he writ upon it Learnedly or Unlearnedly what need a Divine had of University Learning Our Author in his Chapter upon Preaching has very sufficiently prov'd the same thing even where he makes it his business to prove the contrary Little did we think at this time of day to hear of a Second part of Mr. Dell against Universities The two Authors have many Expressions in them so exactly parallel if it were worth our while to set them in two Columns over-right one another one would suspect the Junior of the two for a Plagiary Yet have I no quarrel to him for his blaming that way of Preaching upon this or that nice Speculation or that way of keeping alwaies in Universals and never coming to Particulars the Duty between Man and Wife Parents and Children c. or that way of Dividing and Subdividing into Generals and Particulars the Quid the Quale the Quantum though he will find if he looks abroad that this is at a very low ebb and the Tide runs now another and a better way We care as little as he for a witty Rhetorical Harangue or a cunning Syllogistical discourse in the Pulpit and 't is almost as ill a Character as can be given of a Sermon or a Catechizing to be ridiculously Learned yet to talk as this Author does as if University-Learning were unnecessary to a Preacher is to be ridiculously Ignorant of the use or rather the necessity of it as matters stand He beseeches us to tell him Did not Christ and his Apostles preach the best way and are not we to follow their example And I beseech him to tell me Do not many good Divines preach the same way as far as it ought to be followed by those that only sit at the Apostles feet that is Do they not with all plainness prove from Scripture all that they deliver as God's Word This is our Unapostolick way of Preaching as he calls it the vain unedisying practice we now are in Indeed we have no Miracles at command to prove what we say as the Apostles had and therefore must do it by Reason which serves us to prove the Apostles did such Miracles and that again rationally demonstrates the Scriptures to be God's Word and then by the Testimony of the Church in several Ages besides the understanding we must have of all the Internal Arguments for it we must be able to shew that these are the Books of Scripture and after all this the same Reason must be employed to establish the true sense and meaning of them In order to these great Ends Reason must be improved by the studying of Arts Sciences and Languages unless we had all these infus'd as we needed them we must acquire them Therefore his Argument is so far from holding good God thought the gift of Tongues needless after the Gospel was once spread over the World I pray let us be no wiser than God and his Christ that is Let us think the study of the Languages needless for that he means or nothing Yea raâ—her the study of Tongues is therefore necessary because the Gift is ceast and they cannot be had without study For the certainty of the Christian Religion and the verity of the Original Scriptures cannot be defended without a goâ—d measure of skill in the Languages Arts and Sciences which every one that is not unworthy to wear the Name of a Divine should be competently able to do Thus much the Apostle St. Peter 1 Pet. 3. 15. requires even of the Laity in their degree that they be ready alwaies to give an Answer to every man that asketh them a reason of the Hope that is in them Now to sum up the Argument where is it almost possible for these Acquisitions to be made except in Universities Therefore we are still in that vulgar Error which he taxes as the General Opinion p.
27. that except some very few extraordinary Instances to the contrary none are fit to be admitted into Holy Orders but such as have studied in the University But I beseech you saies he in the same page what have these Sciences falsly so call'd to do with the Gospel and he instances presently in the Mathematicks as a Science it seems falsly so called His quarrel at the Jesuites in China I must needs say is an idle one for recommending themselves to the King and his Courtiers by the Skill some of the Society whom they sent for had in the Mathematicks Whereas their Errand thither was to preach the Gospel What of all that are these so Heathen-Studies that they are not to be tolerated even then when they help to introduce Christianity But he seems to have the same compass of understanding in these Arts and Sciences falsly so call'd you must think that a certain old Head of a House had who coming one day by chance into the Colledge-Library and finding there an ingenious young man reading Christoph Clavius the Jesuite upon Euclid Now a shame take thee said he why dost thou not get thee some Protestant Mathematicks But sincence his greatest Pique is at Logick and he can never leave inveighing against Syllogisms and Human Deductions and still he is rating off his Preachers from Plato Aristotle Euclid Scotus Aquinas so he puts them together p. 28. very Chronologically and then very Logically contradistinguishes Mathematicks Logick Physick whether Medicine or Natural Philosophy to Gravity Sobriety Meekness Diligence and the like I should not sufficiently acquit my self in the Defence of Universities which I have undertaken for the Church of England no where looks more hopefully than in the Universities where the faculty of disputing is so well taught as it can hardly be learnt any where else if I should not vindicate this Faculty from being that with which he says p. 15. God will not endure to be fetter'd as with Philosophical Sophisms and Human Consequences but beyond his promise I suppose the very words of any Promise as he explains himself ipsissimis verbis he is not sure of any thing though it seems ever so rational It were in vain to produce St. Augustine's Testimony l. de Ordine c. 17. where he praises Logick for he was one of the Fathers who by this very means defaced and spoiled Christianity And I know not wheâ—her Bishop Davenant have any better Credit with him who in his Learned Commentary on the Colossians Chap. 2. falls into the same Heresie and bestows great Commendations on that Noble Art or Science Perhaps it will be to no purpose to put him in mind that our Blessed Saviour was pleas'd to be a kind of Quaestionist as our University Statutes call young Logicians when he disputed with the Doctors being himself but twelve years of age And if I should tell him of St. Stephen's disputing with certain of the Synagogue of the Libertines who were not able to resist the Wisdom as well as the Spirit by which he spake Or if I should urge the Example of Apollos an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures as well as fervent in spirit who mightily convinc't the Jews and that publickly shewing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ that is no doubt by deductions from Scripture Perhaps he would phancy still that they us'd some other Logick than what we study at Universities for which we are so much beholding to some Heathen Philosophers as if it were for the Honour of Christian Religion to have a Logick made on purpose to justifie its Doctrines and as if it were not much more for its Honour to be able to maintain those Doctrines by the same standing Rules which all the World even the Heathen World found out and establisht as immediately founded upon Natural Reason I will therefore shew him that Christ and his Apostles did many times Argue explicitly in Mood and Figure and sometimes only so implicitly that Men may be damn'd for not making such Deductions as they ought to make from Scripture As in St. John 8. 47. our Saviour tells the Multitude He that is of God heareth God's words ye therefore hear them not because ye are not of God 'T is a Syllogism in the fourth Mood of the Second Figure and runs thus Whosoever is of God hears God's words But ye do not hear God's words Therefore ye are not of God St. Paul Heb. 12. 7 8. Argues in the same Mood and Figure Every Son is chastned by the Father But ye are not chastned by the Father on supposition that they would not endure to be so Therefore ye are not Sons that is ye are Bastards In the 22th of St. Matthew Christ in his Dispute with the Sadduces calls that Siripture which was only a Rational deduction from Scripture and they are pronounc't by our Saviour to err and not to know the Scriptures which did not know how to collect a true Inference from Scripture though they knew the Words well enough And yet our Saviour's Argument cannot be explicated without two or three Syllogisms which may be these 1. God is the God of the Living God is the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob Therefore Abraham Isaac and Jacob live 2. They that live not now in their Persons but live unto God must be raised from the Dead But they viz. Abraham Isaac and Jacob that live unto God live not now in their Persons Therefore they viz. Abraham Isaac and Jacob must be raised from the Dead 3. They that now live only in their Souls live not now in their Persons But they viz. Abraham Isaac and Jacob now live only in their Souls Therefore they viz. Abraham Isaac and Jacob live not now in their Persons Now what if the propositions of such a Syllogisme happen to be disjoyn'd in the Scripture being about the same matter is it not lawful and safe to put them both together and make the Deduction For Example a great Divine who is now a Reverend Prelate the present Lord Bishop of Ely was arguing with a Person of Honour and Learning of the Romish Perswasion against Transubstantiation and in that Discourse the Doctor ask't him If the Substance of the Bread and Wine remain'd no longer but was done away then what did the wicked eat and drink that eat and drank unworthily nothing but Accidents The Nobleman answer'd That they eat the Body and drank the Blood of Christ Whereupon the Doctor urg'd him with this Syllogisme Whosoever eats the Flesh of Christ and drinks his Blood hath eternal life abiding in him Joh. 6. 54. 56. But no Murderer hath eternal life abiding in him 1 Joh. 3. 15. Therefore no murderer eats the Flesh of Christ and drinks his Blood The Major Proposition is Christ's own words the Minor is the Apostle St. John's words the Syllogism is true in the form as well as in the matter therefore the Conclusion is firm and certain But that Honourable Person smil'd