instruct them in his Worship and Service I mean the faithful able and learned Ministers of the Gospel But this Nail hath already been hammered sufficiently 3. As for those Spiritual Senators mentioned in the Argument by the name of Lord Bishops without whose advice the Commission granted to Kings and Magistrates as is pretended to umpire the Worship of God is it seems superseded the Scripture is so far from authorizing or appointing them to be Assistants or Advisers unto Kings and Magistrates in or about the execution of such a Commission that it taketh no knowledge of any such Generation of Men unless it be to shut the door against them that they might not get into the world Mat. 20.25 26. though since they have committed Burglary and broke open this door and are gotten in the House of God to the great anoyance and disturbance of the peace of it The Scripture maketh mention onely of one in those days who did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3 John 9. wish or desire to be a Lord-Bishop whose character was that he would not suffer faithful Ministers of the Gospel in the Church no not the Apostle himself who was so peculiarly loved by Christ but prated against him with malicious words And to me it is the first-born amongst many Arguments that such a kind of Officers in the Church as these men pretend themselves to be were never intended by the Lord Christ namely that neither by Christ himself nor by any of his Apostles he hath given any name whereby the Church should know or call them or distinguish them from others It opposeth all the believing faculties of my Soul to think that Christ should either forget or neglect to mention the prime and Head-Officers of his Church as our Bishops so called conclude themselves to be and as indeed they are if they be any at all by an appropriate and distinct name whenas he hath provided and given such names unto those that are esteemed subordinate and inferiour to them as Pastors Teachers and Deacons For those Apocryphal Officers we speak of have sacrilegiously robb'd those true Officers of the Church Pastors and Teachers of the name Bishop which was given in common unto them and having alter'd the property of the Divine Consecration of it have sanctified and devoted it unto themselves lest being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without a name they should be found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 also spurious and illegitiâ—â—ate Besides as Christ left such Officers no name so neither hath he left them any work For he sufficiently provided for all the spiritual occasions of his Church in all Ages by those Officers whom the Apostle expresly nameth Ephes 4.11 Read this verse with the three next following and you will find the Bishop to be a superfluous and very impertinent Officer in and for the Church But as being left by Christ without a name they made a dishonest shift as we have heard to get one so being left without work also they found out an imployment likewise for themselves as namely to serve the Church with indifferent that is with impertinent and needless things with a few harmless Ceremonies lenitate verbi tristitiam rei mitigante as Tippits and Rochets Caps and Hoods Black Gowns and White Surplices Crossings and Cringings Standings up and Kneelings down with several others of the like profound calculation all which both joyntly and severally are as effectual and proper to build up the Church in Unity Love and Peace as the confusion of Tongues was to promote the building of the Tower of Babel and the poyson of Asps to nourish and preserve the natural Life of Man As for their imployment about Ordination which together with their Name and Title of Bishop they have injuriously wrested out of the hand of those true Officers of Christ Pastors and Teachers with their respective Congregations this takes up so little of their time and so seldom engageth them that had they not found themselves other work which might last all the year long and so fill up the void spaces between Ordination and Ordination which the management of Ceremonies as they trouble themselves and others about them doth the inconsiderableness of their work would have rendred their importune and loud claim of grandure and great things in the Church very obnoxious Therefore certainly that kind of Officer we speak of having neither Name nor Work in the Church assigned unto him by Christ was not designed by him to any part or fellowship with those that bear Office here 4. There was a generation of men in the world who were wont to make the King glad with their wickedness and the Princes with their lies Hos 7.3 Iâ— our Lord Bishops be not the servants of this impiety the world is uncharitable and the thing it self next to a miracle For they lie under greater temptations to ensnare them in this kind than flesh and blood ordinarily is willing to resist And the desires of the great things of the world unto which they are advanced for these things are not wont to be found of those that seek them not proclaim them to be no mighty men of valour to resist temptations Therefore in this respect also they are not competent to make Advisers unto Kings or Rulers in any their consultations about forming or setting forth the Worship of God Pâ—ssimum genus Consiliariorum Adulatores 5. The Worship of God being of a most tender resentment with those who truly know and fear him and tremble to offend him these men being violent and importune obtruders of Forms and Ceremonies are the most unfit men in the world to be called unto Counsel when this affair is to come under consideration 6 Concerning the pretended narrowness of the Authority and Power of Kings in case they should be confined within a Politique sphere and not stretch themselves unto Spiritual things also I answer 1. That God understandeth better than the wisest of men what measure or degree of Power maketh both the most commodious and the most comely proportion for any man and doubtless unto whomsoever he giveth it in this proportion he giveth it Therefore for any man to call that narrow or unmeet which God in his Word judgeth large enough and comely is an unsavoury presumption Are our weights and measures better or more exact than his 2. I believe that Kings and Princes would find full imployment for their Authority and Power within their Politick sphears respectively work enough to fill their heads hearts and hands were they conscientiously intent upon what God yea and their own honour comfort and peace require of them here But 3. and lastly for this If God should allow unto Christian Kings and Magistrates a right of power to impose Forms of Worship upon men he should allow them a greater power or liberty than he hath or hath judged meet to leave unto himself For if Kings may impose Forms of Worship they may impose one while one and when they
dreggs of the Cup of his fury then adventure upon Worship of a humane Original and Generation But I leave you to the conscientious perusal of the ensuing Discourse which is full fraught with cogent Arguments for the Authority of Jesus Corist and against the frothy Impositions of defiling Inventions in the Worship of God The Lord grant that the living Words of this Dead Saint may be blessed to the purpose by him intended to the awakening of some who are now snoreing in the Lap of the * Nah. 3.4 well-favoured Harlot and to the establishment of others in the present Truth C. W. Common-Prayer-Book Devotions Episcopal Delusions OR The second Death of the Service-Book THE Liturgy or Common-Prayer commonly used in our Parish Churches relateth unto the conscience of him that useth it and of him that desireth to be understandingly satisfied about the lawfulness or unlawfulness of the use of it both in the matter and form or substance but especially in the injunction or imposition of it by men I shall at present not say much unto it in the former relation only in case the imposition were taken off and Ministers and People left at full liberty the one whether they would read it the other whether they would attend upon it or no these amongst many other particulars would be very considerable 1. Whether God under the New Testament or since Christ ascended on high to give gifts unto men ever commanded or required or spake a word of such a thing or whether ever it came into his mind or heart Jer. 7.31 19.5 to be worshipped by his Saints in their Publick Assemblies by a stinted form of Liturgy and Prayers not to be altered or varied from from generation to generation upon any imergencies of Providence whatsoever unless the Powers and Potentates of the Earth shall interpose with their Swords and Scepters to command it and consequently whether they who draw near unto him in this Worship have not as much cause to fear the breaking-out of his Jealousie upon them as Nadab and Abihu had for offering strange fire before the Lord which he commanded them not Levit. 10.1 and whether the patience and long-suffering of God exercised towards persons offending in this kind in these dayes be not to lead them to repentance Rom. 2.4 2. Whether in case it were or upon good grounds could be supposed that it may be pleasing enough unto God to be worshipped by his Saints in their holy Assemblies with set forms of Liturgies and Prayers being left free and not imposed namely if they be for matter and form irreprovable or such as they may be it could notwithstanding reasonably be supposed withall that Worship according to any model or draught of Liturgy or Prayers whatsoever would be thus pleasing unto him More particularly whether a Worship conform to the image of such a Liturgy as we shall now characterize or describe in part would be in any degree pleasing unto him as viz. 1. which shall be a rhapsody medley or confused heap of a multitude of ingredients heterogeneal and of opposit natures Mollia cum duris sine pondere habentia pondus Things soft and hard things weighty and things light as the Poet describes the constirution of the old Chaos no more meet to be moulded together into the same body of an Evangelical Worship than God under the Law judged an Ox or an Ass to be yoked together for service in the same plough as for instance Canonicals and Apocriphals the heavenly sayings of Christ and the fabulous reports of Tobit the Psalms of David and the Song of S. Ambrose Magnificat and Quicunque vult passages and expressions some grave and serious solid and distinct others ludicrous and light barbarous obscure and truthless 2. Wherein the Prayer-devotion prescribed is or shall be ordered with that strange unsutableness to the simplicity of the Gospel that 1. the Lord's Prayer which was delivered by him with a special intent to prevent battologies or vain repetitions in prayer Mat. 6.7 8 9. compared is it self injoyned to be repeated over and over and over and I know not how often without any reason given or easie to be taken for any one of these repetitions in their respective places this disposition of it can be resolved into no other reason or cause but the meer phansy and will of the Contriver who by it seems to have been acted by the spirit of this superstition condemned by Christ Mat. 6.7 that men shall be heard for their much speaking or for the tale and number of their prayers only said over and repeated Besides this Prayer is ordered to be at the same time audibly pronounced by all the Congregation and Minister together in some of the said places Again 2. the great body of this Prayer-devotion is so ill handled not to mention the unsound constitution in several veins and parts of it that it is divided in sunder and some parts of it severed from others in several places by Psalms and Songs by Chapters and broken pieces of Chapters under the false titles of Epistles and Gospels whereof they are but small snips or shreds by Creeds or Confessions of Faith thrust in between and besides it is in some places chopped or minced into small pieces or particles and a distribution of them made some to the Minister and some to the People as if the People were to be the mouth of the Minister unto God as well as he theirs in the publick Assemblies yea when Minister and People are acting their parts in these strains of Prayer interchangeably assigned unto them there is such a bandying and tossing of devotions to and again from one to the other in a gingling and mymmical manner that it much resembles the jolly scene of a set of Ale-inspired Companions chanting their drunken Catches upon a bench 3. Where this great body of praying-devotion is compounded and made up of many lesser bodies of prayers the greatest part of which are more intire and distinct bodies in this kind than the main body or bulk rather made up of them all being closed and sealed up respectively with so many Amens Which is a method or manner of praying no where recommended unto us in the Scriptures by the Holy Ghost 4. Where there are appropriate devotions as Prayers under the Apocryphal name of Collects Epistles Gospels select Chapters c. for several dayes forced by the unjust hand of humane powers out of that allowance of six dayes in the week which God himself was pleased to make unto men to provide themselves by their honest labour of things needful for this present life and dedicated by men to the honour and service of certain Saints long since dead and so these days though but of humane consecration are here made equal in all points with the Lord's days themselves 5. Where the Service prescribed and enjoyned under the specious pretext of being Divine consisting of short pieces or Sentences of Scriptures of
a Confession of Sins of an Absolution of the Lords Prayer repeated and repeated and repeated and so of the Doxology so called in like manner repeated over and over and over of whole Chapters for Lessons of broken Chapteâ—s for Epistles and Gospels of pieces of Chapters as Magnificat Benedictus Nunc dimittis c. with the Song of Sâ— Ambrose to separate between Lesson and Lesson as if there were some danger or inconvenience at least if they should come too close together of the Ten Commandments with as many Lord have mercy upon us's of a long Letany so called of Versicles and Responds of Collects and Prayers in abundance some for all men some for Christs Church militant here on Earth some for Bishops Pastors and Curates as if these were Members of the Church triumphant and some for such other occasions as the Policy and Piety of the Compilers could agree upon and lastly of a pair of Creeds the repeating of one of which being required of the whole Congregation requireth the most ignorant and prophane wretch in it to profess and say that he believeth as much if not more as the most knowing and worthiest Christian yea and that he believeth that which I believe no man understandeth upon any good grounds what it meaneth I mean that Christ descended into Hell the other imposing upon all men such a Faith as of absolute necessity unto Salvation which the Scriptures no where require upon such terms of any man and which is not found in many sound Christians if in any Where I say the Service enjoyned consisting of all these Members and Parts now mentioned must needs be tedious and tiresome unto the People spending and wasting the best and freshest of their attention and so indisposing them to attend unto the preaching of the Gospel and the words by which they must be saved as if the project and design of it had been to intercept the great Duties of preaching and hearing the Gospel preached by rendring the wearied Minister less capable of the one and the wearied People less capable and desirous of the other Now then I repeat from afar and ask Is it not very considerable or rather indeed is it worth any consideration at all whether God will be pleased with a Worship presented unto him in the shape and form of such a prodigious Liturgy as that which hath now been described unless haply men think that a Worship made up of various pieces and these of different colours is as honourable and so as acceptable unto God as Jacob thought a particoloured Coat would be unto Joseph his Son Or doth not the Liturgy the lineaments and feature of which have been presented as perfectly resemble the Common-Prayer-Book as face answereth face in the water 3. It calls for some consideration likewise whether it be possible in an ordinary way or without a piece of a miracle for a man or a woman to keep up his heart so much as in a tolerable posture of devotion reverence and attention unto such prayers which having been fram'd by men and these not of any known excellency above their neighbours are in respect of their original less considerable and after long familiarity more obnoxious to contempt especially when he can well nigh say them by roat beforehand and of which he is able to say with him in the Comedy Plus millies jam audivi I have heard them more than a thousand times over already The common saying verified by experience more than enough is familiarity breeds contempt and neglect And God himself judgeth it necessary to consult his Glory I mean a religious awe reverence and esteem of his Counsels and Works from men by concealing the one and the other until the time of their bringing forth that so they may come fresh and new unto them It is the Glory of God to conceal a thing Pro. 25.2 And speaking of his Works Isa 48.7 They are created now and not of old and even before this thou heardest them not so the former Transtation lest thou should say Behold I knew them implying that men commonly at least less mind or regard the declaration of such things unto them which they knew before And upon this account doubtless our Saviour speaketh thus Mat. 13.52 Therefore every Scribe i.e. every Doctor or Teacher which is instructed unto or for the Kingdom of Heaven i.e. is worthily or meetly qualified for the work of the Ministry of the Gospel by which the Kingdom of Heaven is promoted in the world is like unto a man that is an housholder which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old Now an ability to pray being as necessary an endowment for a worthy Minister of the Gospel as a gift of preaching the Apostles themselves as it seems Act. 6.4 giving it the preheminence in the exercise of their Ministry that Minister who shall pray little but only reade a longsome beadroll of Prayers long and short if yet they may be called Prayers some of them being termed Collects the greater part or number of them being imbodied and this body sirnamed Letany a work the performance whereof requires not the best of the abilities of an ordinary Schoolboy of seven years of age and therefore very improper and uncomly for him to bestow so much time upon who should be yea and who pretends to be an Ambassador from Christ unto the World one of a thousand c. such a Minister I say that shall perform the praying part of his Ministry at such a despicable rate as this is not like to draw many into part and fellowship with him in his worship of God but such who know not that God whom they worship nor care much either to know him or how to worship him as they ought The ignorance the prophaneness the wickedness the licentious and debauched lives of the greatest part of that generation both men and women who are the zealous followers of the Common-Prayer-Book Ministry in the Nation will seal the truth of these sayings fast and sure 4. Neither is this to be lightly passed over by those that stand in any awe or dread of the jealousie of God that the Liturgy or Common-Prayer we speak of smells rank of the Popish Mass-Book being indeed some slight interpolations or new surbushings with some accommodations to secular or civil ends and purposes amongst us only excepted little else but the substance matter contents of this Book This consideration alone is sufficient to render it the abhorring of their souls that understand any thing almost of the nature and dreadful severity of divine jealousie as that any little spark not only of right-down or broad-fac'd Idolatry but of any tiffling dalliance or wanton compliance with it will cause it to smoke against those that shall provoke it in this kind Husbands that are jealous are not able to bear not only the gross act of Adultery in their Wives but not so much as any familiarity or