A Short View of the Prelatical Church of England 2, Chapter 1
CHAP. I. The Preface.
AS Loyalty to King and Country, is the very fortreſs and wall of Polity, being Commanded and commended, both by the Laws of God and nature; ſo Pure and undefiled Religion, James 1.27.is the Fountain and Rock of approved Loyalty; yea, equity, charity, ſobriety and loyalty are the Virgin daughters of unſpotted Piety, as the foreſaid place witneſſeth: we could be large in this Theme, but wee haſten to the Particular; the ſubject whereof is one of the weightieſt Peeces that yet hath been preſented, namely, The Service-book, which notwithſtanding the preſent ſurfeit of Books, yet we hope it ſhall finde a place in the moſt ſerious and judicious thoughts; we may well call it with the Comick, Fundi noſtri calamitas, The overwhelming ſtorm of the Purity of worſhip; for as it is true, No Ceremony, no Biſhop, becauſe the Ceremonies are the pitchy wings whereon they fly; ſo it is as true, that no Service-book, no Ceremony; for that is the Magazine of nimble Ceremonies. Doctor Boyes, in his Epiſtle Dedicatory to Richard Canterbury, upon his Expoſition of the Lyturgy, complains heavily, yet cauſeleſly, that the Lyturgy is crucified between two Malefactors, on the left hand Papiſts, on the right hand Schiſmaticks, meaning Puritans; both of theſe hee calls Foxes: but by a juſt retortion, wee ſhall ſet the ſaddle on the right Horſe, and ſhall make it appear, that the Purity of Chriſt his worſhip in this Land, hath long been crucified between two Theeves, namley, that Superſtitious and Popiſh Liturgy and rank Atheiſm, varniſhed with Superſtition, to whom wee may well apply that ſaying of Luther, Praefat. in Com. in Gal.They are tied together by their tayls to do miſchief, though by their heads they ſeem to bee contrary; and though wee have no time to run over the Common Places of Atheiſm and Superſtition, and to ſhew how like Pilate and the Superſtitious Jews, they concur to the crucifying of Chriſt in his Worſhip; yet, thus much the Scripture witneſſeth, and experience proveth, and we humbly deſire your Honours to mind it, That all Superſtition, and the Purity of Gods Worſhip, ever have been and ſhall be at continual wars, and can no more dwell under one roof, than a chaſte Spouſe, and a Proud inveigling Strumpet; or no more in one Temple, than Dagon and the Ark. Geneca.Superſtitio eſt res inſana, Superſtition (ſaith one) is a mad thing, and ſo indeed it is; for it is contrary to the wiſdome of the Word, and of the Spirit, which are the ground and life of the Worſhip of God. Superſtitio eſt vitium contrarium Religioni, Superſtition is a ſin oppoſite to Religion (ſaith Aquinas) which is very clear from the nature and riſe of it;Sere. ſecund. q. 92. Art 19 for as Religion is a worſhiping of God according to his will, Quiſquis praeceptis Coeleſtibus obtemperavit, is culior eſt, Whoſoever follows the Divine Precepts, hee is a worſhipper of God, ſaith Lactant. but ſuperſtition carrying the very nature in the name of it,Lib 6. c. 2 tels us, that it is Supra ſtatutum, over and above the Statutes of God: the word in the Greek is foreign, as if it ſhould ſignifie the ſear of the Devil, and the ſignification ſuits very well with the nature of the thing; for when a Man coyneth a Worſhip to himſelf, he recedeth ſo far from the fear of God, and whereas the Devil is the Author of all Superſtitious worſhip, whether it be of another God, or of the true God, after a way of ſelf-device, or will-worſhip, then it may be truly called, the fear of the Devil, as the true Worſhip of the true God is notioned under the name of his fear: this Superſtition ſhutteth up the way to the Jews converſion, and openeth the mouths of Atheiſticall Gentiles, againſt the Profeſſion of all Religion, in deriſion whereof Averroes ſpeaks tauningly thus:In Metaphyſ. 12 Sit anima mea cum Philoſophis, quia Chriſtiani adorant quod edunt; Let my ſoul be with the Philoſophers becauſe the Chriſtians adore that which they eat: So may the Jews take occaſion to ſay: Let our ſouls be with the Old Ceremonies, ſith the Chriſtians New Ceremonies are ſo foppiſh and ridiculous; having no footing from the Word of God. But to bring the charge to the Particular in hand, if our Lyturgy be not a Maſs of Superſtition, and Superſtitious Ceremonies, we profeſs we know not what Superſtition is: to inſtance it in one Particular, namely, in the grand Ceremony of Adoration or kneeling at the Sacrament; hath it not been the ſtaff and ſtrentgh of that abominable Idol the breaden God? and if the Maſters of the Ceremonies diſavow that opinion, yet the Sermons and Writings of divers of them do teſtifie to their face, how they go as far, yea, and farther than many Papiſts in that particular;Lib. 36.12. De miſſa li. 2 c. 23.48. p. 242. As it is true that the current of Popiſh Champions do maintain the bodily Preſence, as Innocentius the Father of that Monster, Bellarmine, and Haiga the Expoſitor of the Engliſh Maſs, by changing and choping that Fiat corpus; ſo divers of the Canterburian faction, as himſelf, Mountague, Pocklington, Lawrence, agree with the Papiſts and Lutherans in this point, namely, concerning the Matter, leaving the Manner as a Cabaliſtical Myſtery: devocibus dixi, ne de miſſa quidem, Antid. P. 10.imo nec tranſubſtantiationis certamen moverimus; for words (ſaith Mountague) as the Maſs, yea, or Tranſubſtantiation it ſelf,Serm. P. 17, 18. we will not contend. I like not thoſe (ſaith Doctor Lawrence) that ſay his body is not there: and to explain himſelf he addeth Subſtantially, Eſſentially, not by way of Commemoration or Repreſentation: but ſhould not this be their opinion, ſince they act what they hold by a material Altar, Prieſt, and Sacrifice, had not that Hydra of the Scottiſh Lyturgy made a greater Monſter, by the addition of ſome more heads, and that very cunningly, by the Engliſh Authors, and ſent out to take in the Church of Scotland (had not that we ſay, loſt all the heads and had the brains daſhed againſt the ſtones) the aforeſaid Authors made no queſtion, but that all the power of both Head and Tayl ſhould have had room enough to domineer here in England, the Pope having ſuch a large Army both of Legionary and Auxiliary Forces to maintain it. But bleſſed be God, who brake the head of that young Dragon in our Neighbour Nation, and wee hope will by you cruſh out all the blood of the old one here, who was the Mother of that, and the Maſſe-book the Mother of both. There is a Proverb amongſt the Naturaliſts, foreign, Except a Serpent eat a Serpent, it cannot become a Dragon: ſo, except our Lyturgy had been full of Serpents, it could not have hatched the Dragon that was ſent unto Scotland. The Superſtitions of this Bulk are ſuch, and ſo many, that if Paul were here and ſaw them, as hee ſaw that of Athens, hee would undoudtedly cry out,Act. 17. Men and Brethren, I ſee that in all things you are too Superſtitious. We may better apply that Speech of Tacitus concerning Superſtition,22 Annal lib. 14 not exitialis, hurtful or dangerous, but execrabilis, curſed and execrable; and ſo it is indeed, both to whole Churches, and other People, whoſe eyes God hath opened to ſee the evil of it, which wee are confident you do;Act. 25 27. and I ſay as Paul ſaid to King Agrippa, Wee know you beleeve it: But as it ſeemed unreaſonable to Feſtus to ſend Paul a Priſoner without the charge laid againſt him; Act. 26.27.ſo we neither will, nor dare charge any thing upon this Lyturgy, which wee ſhall not Prove, nor deſire the outing of it without good and ſound Reaſons for our deſire; and therefore wee humbly and heartily deſire your Honours to take into your conſideration theſe five Reaſons following.
The firſt is from the Name, wherein the Champions of the Service-book agree with the Papiſts, calling it the Maſſe.
The ſecond is from the Ground of it.
The third is from the Matter of it.
The fourth is from the Manner of it.
The fifth is from the Effects of it, to which wee will adde ſome Motives.