A Trial of Private Devotions, Title page – Letter
A TRYALL OF PRIVATE DEVOTIONS. OR, A DIALL FOR THE Houres of Prayer.
By H. B. Rector of St. MATHEVV…S Friday-street.
MATH. 6.7.
When yee pray, vse not vaine repetitions, as the …athen, or hypocrites doe; for they thinke that they shall bee heard for theyr much Babbeling.
Gloss. Ordinar. in Math. 6. vers. 6.
In fide interiori & dilectione oratur Deus: non strepitu verborum, sed deuotione virtutum.
LONDON. Printed for M. S. 1628.
TO THE MOST BLESSED AND BELOVED SPOVSE of IESVS CHRIST, the Church of England, my deare Mother.
DEare Mother, SOPHOCLES the Tragedian, when being intent vponupon his Studies in his Old age,Cicero de Senectute. hee was of his Sonnes called before the Iudges, and accused by them as one vnfit to gouerne his Family, and so, worthy to bee remoued and dismissed from that charge: then the good old man, in defence of himselfe, produced and recited before the Iudges, the Tragedie of Oedipus Col…neus, which he then had in his hands, newly written, asking of the Iudges whether that verse seemed to be written by a foole; which when hee had recited, hee was by the sentence of the Iudges …reed. The like plea seemeth to bee commenced against you, deare Mother, and that by some, who call themselues your Sonnes. Your reuerend old Age, joyned with a too motherly indulgence (as is too vsuall) towards your younger Sonnes, they requite no better then to sue out such a Writ. For proofe hereof, may it please you but with your maturest judgement to … (so called) lately published. … …ou may see how one of your sonnes (at … about to reduce you to an vnion with the Church of Rome, as your only Mother, & to entertaine againe a conformitie and communion with her in her superstitious Rites and Ceremonies. Wherein …ow nearely it concerneth you to vindicate and acquit your honour & reputation, your selfe can best judge. Nor need you (as Sophocles) to produce some new proofes of your old and venerable wisedome in the gouernment of your so noble a Family, it being not onelyonly established vponupon the pure doctrines of …he word of God, but sealed with the bloud of so m…ny Martyrs, and witnessed by the …estimonies and writings of so many of your ancient learned and reuerend sonnes both Bishops, Doctors, and others. Nor onelyonly so, but the same Religion, anciently and for so many yeares continuance avowed and maintained by such a cloud of Witnesses, hath beene withall backed hitherto from the first Reformation, and your just separation from Babylon, by so many Parliaments all along. So that neyther doth your Mot…erhood need to solicite Gods Vicegerent, your royall Gouernour and Protector next vnderunder Christ, to call a n…w Synod for the discussing and determining of those Tenents, which for so many yeares you hauehave holden and maintained. It was the serpentine Craft of the Arrians to procure a Councell at Ariminum, wherein they might, if not by number of voyces (wherein they exceeded the Orthodox there present) cry downe the Conclusions of that famous Councel of Nice, touching …, with the Father, in pugned by … yet at least so shake & waue them by calling them into question, as thereby to disable their validity and authority. Which fraud the Orthodox part smelling out, did openly protest against them, avouching, that they there assembled, not now to dispute or discusse the Decrees of Nice, but altogether to ratifie & subscribe vntounto them by common assent. May it please you therfore in your wisedome to resolue, whether it were not expedient to petition his gracious and excellent Matie …ogether with the Hon: Court of Parliament now assembled, that an Act of ratification may be decreed for the Religion hitherto maintained; and an Act of Prohibition for the suppressing of all Popish & Arminian bookes henceforth; sith the Arminian section …ath abused the Kings Proclamation, & so dishonoured the King, as if it gaue liberty to Popish Arminian bookes to be published, and restraint to their opposites, which maintaine your Orthodox doctrines, quite contrary to the intent of the Proclamation: and an Act of qualification, that in case any Orthodox booke, & such as tendeth to found edification in piety, as in Eltons booke of the Commandements, if it be in some one particular or other, found faultie, may not presently all at a clap be cōmitted to the mercil…sse fire, as his was, but purged rather; wheras, on the contrary, such books, as here is answered, the whole frame & body whereof is Popish▪ and worthy the fire, yet vponupon the p…iring onelyonly of a naile, (as if now thoroughly purged) is suffered to passe without controule to be prin…ed and reprinted. As if the Truth now were brought to such nice termes▪ & so weake an estate, as the least straw is enough to stumble it, and cause it to fall, and wholly to suppresse and bury it in the ashes: and contrarily, Popery and Heresi… so highly aduanced, as it can easily leape ouer all blocks & Bulwarks of opposition. Againe, be pleased to take notice of one great inconuenience, if not rather mischiefe, which is like speedily to incroch vpō your indulgence, if not preuented. Some of your sonnes hauehave already dared to add to the Cōmunion booke; as the whole forme of the consecration of Archbishops, Bishops, Priests, & Deacons, being now inserted in the said book, I wot not by what authority. Yea, and if such may be suffered to goe on, they will correct Magnificat. For if it please you but to make search, you shall find in the great printing house at London a Communion Booke, wherin the Author of the booke of private Deuotions (and I saw it with mine eyes) hath in sundry places noted with his owne hand (as they say) how he would hauehave the Cōmunion booke altered; as in the Rubrick or Calendar he tels where and how he would hauehave such a Saints day called, and where he would hauehave red letters, put for the blacke, and so to canonize more Holidayes for you to obserue. Also throughout the Book, where he finds the word Minister, he would hauehave Priest put in stead thereof; such an enemy is he to the very name of Minister, as if he would hauehave the world belieue, he had rather be a popish Priest, then a Minister of the better Testament, as Christ himselfe is called, or a Minister of Christ, as the Apostles were called,2. Cor. 11.23. Acts 26.16. I hauehave ordayned thee a Minister, saith Christ to Paul. And in Conclusion, for those private godly prayers in the end of the reading Psalmes, he thinkes them fitter to be omitted, then added. I doe but briefly touch them, leauing them to your fuller inquirie, & more particular examination. But if such liberty may be indulged to such like Sonnes, it will shortly come to passe, that as neither you can owne them for your sonnes, so nor they you for their Mother: such a new face of Religion are they like to induce, if they bee not the better looked vntounto. Yea, what a Metamorphosis hauehave wee seene already in these our da…es? How vnlike is the present time to the former which we hauehave seene? For, as I told the L.BP. of London, it was a pitifull thing to see the strange alteratiō of these times within this 7. yeares, from those former. For formerly, not a Pop…sh, nor Arminian booke durst peepe out; but now, such onelyonly a…e countenanced and published, & Orthodox bookes suppressed. It was not wont to be so, my Lord, quoth I. And let your Motherhood be pleased to make inquirie which of your Sonnes it is, that hath dared of late dayes to incroch euen vponupon the liberty of Preaching it selfe, that in the most publicke place of the Kingdome, Preachers hauehave beene forced sometime before, to show their Sermons before they were preached, and some were not suffered to preach for their very texts sake, whereupō they purposed to preach? Alas Mother, are our diseased so desperate, as they cannot indure the plaister. And good Mother, I pray you well & thriftily to discipline such your sonnes, as being Licencers of Bookes, dare answer, that they must not licence any bookes against Arminius; no… yet any Catechismes. But I forbeare. I may feare, least, as Ioseph, for bringing the euil report of his brethren to his Father so I to you, may incurre their hatred, as he did. Now …he Lord looke mercifully vponupon you, & your goodly family, least Simeon & Leui Brethren in euil, indanger the whole house of Iacob to the vncircumcized. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is gone out against vsus. Y…t the naturall constitution of your pure body promiseth long life, if it may but be preserued from peccant humours, which otherwise may proue mortall. Wee know that God will consume the Beast with his limmes. But iudgement must begin at the house of God: there will he begin to purge out the dreggs of Popery. And if we would judge our selues, we should not be iudged. Now the Lord fill you full of holy zeale & courage for his glory & truth, least Christ charge you, as he did the Church of Ephesus, I hauehave somewhat against thee, Reuel. 2.because thou hast left thy first louelove. I… therfore you be not zealaeus and repent, take heed you proue not like to the Church of Laodicea, who said, I am rich, and increased with goods, and hauehave need of nothing: & knowest not that thou art wretched, Reuel 3.& poore, & blind, & naked; neither cold nor hot, but lukewarme, for which cause it came to passe, as Christ told her, that he spued her out of his mouth. For the preuention whereof, good Mother petition, that an Act may be made for the disabling & making incapable all Popish & Arminian Doctors of either Bishoprick or Denery, or other high preferments; so it is wel hoped you shold quickly see an end of al such heresies. And let the knees of your heart be euer exercised with your hands to lift vp your humblest prayers for the Lords anointed our most gracious Soueraigne, Patron, & Protector, that as God hath most richly endowed his Maiestie with such Princely & peerlesse graces, as no Prince in Christendome with the like: so it would please him to vouchsafe this sinfall nation, & vnworthy to be beloued, long and liberally to inioy the fruit and benefit of so vertuous and religious a Prince: whom if our great sins hinder not, I trust to see the most glorious and renowned King, that euer the state of Christendome saw. I hauehave no more to say, but to pray your Mothers blessing to
Your dutifull and affectionate Sonne, HEN: BVRTON.