Works of Hooker, Book 5 (3 of 10)

Works of Hooker · Book 5 (3 of 10)

p. 16723. Between the Throne of God in Heaven,Of Prayer. and his Church upon Earth here militant, if it be so that Angels have their continual intercourse, where should we finde the same more verified than in those two ghostly Exercises, the one Doctrine, the other Prayer? For what is the Assembling of the Church to learn, but the receiving of Angels descended from above? What to pray, but the sending of Angels upwards? His Heavenly Inspirations, and our holy Desires are as so many Angels of intercourse and commerce between God and us. As Teaching bringeth us to know that God is our supream Truth; so Prayer, testifieth that we acknowledge him our soveraign Good. Besides, sith on God, as the most High, all inferiour Causes in the World are dependant; and the higher any Cause is, the more it coveteth to impart vertue unto things beneath it, how should any kinde of service we do or can do, finde greater acceptance than Prayer, which sheweth our concurrence with him, in desiring that wherewith his very Nature doth most delight? Is not the name of Prayer usual to signifie even all the service that ever we do unto God? And that for no other cause, as I suppose, but to shew that there is in Religion no acceptable Duty which devout Invocation of the name of God doth not either presuppose or inferr. Prayers are thoseaaOse. 14. 3.Hos 14:3 Calves of Mens lips; those most gracious and sweetbbRevel. 5. 8.Rev 5:8 odours; those rich Presents and Gifts, which beingccActs. 10. 4.Acts 10:4 carried up into Heaven, do best restifie our dutiful affection, and are, for the purchasing of all favour at the hands of God, the most undoubted means we can use. On others what more easily, and yet what more fruitfully bestowed than our Prayers? If we give Counsel, they are the simpler onelyonly that need it; if Almes, the poorer only are relieved; but by Prayer we do good to all. And whereas every other Duty besides, is but to shew it self as time and opportunity require, for this all times are convenient:Rom. 1. 9. 1 Thes. 5. 17. Luke 18. 1.Rom 1:91 Thess 5:17Luke 18:1 when we are not able to do any other things for mens behoof, when through maliciousness or unkindness they vouchsafe not to accept any other good at our hands, Prayer is that which we always have in our power to bestow, and they never in theirs to refuse. Wherefore God p. 168fotbid, saith Samuel, 1 Sam. 12. 23.1 Sam 12:23speaking unto a most unthankful People, a People weary of the benefit of his most vertuous Government over them, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord, and cease to pray for you. It is the first thing wherewith a righteous life beginneth, and the last wherewith it doth end. The knowledge is small which we have on Earth concerning things that are done in Heaven. Notwithstanding, thus much we know even of Saints in Heaven, that they pray. And therefore Prayer being a work common to the Church as well Triumphant as Militant, a work common unto Men with Angels, what should we think, but that so much of our Lives is celestial and divine as we spend in the exercise of Prayer? For which cause we see that the most comfortable Visitations,Dan. 9. 20. Acts 10. 13.Dan 9:20Acts 10:13 which God hath sent men from above, have taken especially the times of Prayer as their most natural opportunities.

Of Publick Prayer.24. This holy and religious duty of Service towards God concerneth us one way in that we are men, and another way in that we are joined as parts to that visible Mystical Body,Psal. 55. 18. Dan. 9. 3. Acts 10. 9.Ps 55:18Dan 9:3Acts 10:9 which is his Church. As men, we are at our own choice, both for time, and place, and form, according to the exigence of our own occasions in private: But the service, which we do as Members of a Publick Body, is publick, and for that cause must needs be accompted by so much worthier than the other, as a whole society of such condition exceedeth the worth of any one. In which consideration unto Christian Assemblies,Matth. 18. 20. 2 Cor. 1. 11.Matt 18:202 Cor 1:11 there are most special Promises made. St. Paul, though likely to prevail with God as much as any one, did notwithstanding think it much more, both for God's glory, and his own good, if Prayers might be made and thanks yielded in his behalf by a number of men. The Prince and People of Niniveh, Jonah 4. 11.Jonah 4:11assembling themselves, as a main Army of Supplicants, it was not in the power of God to withstand them. I speak no otherwise concerning the force of Publick Prayer in the Church of God,Apolog. 1. 39. Ambros. l. de Poen. Multi minimi dum congregantur unanimes, sunt magni. & multorum preces impossibilest contemni. than before me Tertullian hath done, We come by Troops to the Place of Assembly, that being banded as it were together, we may be Sapplicants enough to besiege God with, our Prayers: These Forces are unto him acceptable. When we publickly make our Prayers, it cannot be but that we do it with much more comfort than in private, for that the things we aske publickly are approved as needful and good in the Judgement of all, we hear them sought for and desired with common consent. Again, thus much help and furtherance is more yielded, in that, if so be our zeal and devotion to God-ward be slack, the alacrity and fervour of others serveth as a present spurt.Psal. 12. ….Ps 12 For even Prayer it self (saith Saint Basil) when it hath not the consort of many voyces to strengthen it,foreign Basil. Epist. … is not it self. Finally, the good which we do by Publick Prayer, is more than in private can be done, for that besides the benefit which is here, is no less procured to our selves, the whole Church is much bettered by our good example; and consequently whereas secret neglect of our duty in this kinde is but only our own hurt, one man's contempt of the Common Prayer of the Church of God may be and oftentimes is most hurtful unto many.Psal. 26. 12. 34. 18. Ps. 30 4. & 96. 5.Ps 26:12Ps 26:34Ps 26:18Ps 30:4Ps 96:5 In which considerations the Prophet David so often voweth unto God the Sacrifice of Prayse and Thanksgiving in the Congregation, so earnestlie exhorteth others to sing Praises unto the Lord in his Courts, in his Sanctuary, before the memorial of his Holiness; and so much complaineth of his own uncomfortable exile, wherein although he sustained many most grievous indignities, and indured the want of sundry both pleasures and honours before injoyed; yet as if this one were his only grief,Psal. 27. 4. & 42. 4. & 84. 1.Ps 27:4Ps 42:4Ps 84:1 and the rest not felt, his speeches are all of the heavenly benefit of Publick Assemblies, and the happiness of such as had free access thereunto.

Of the form of Common-Prayer.25. A great part of the Cause, wherefore religious mindes are so inflamed with the love of Publick devotion, is that vertue, force and efficacy, which by experience they finde that the very form and reverend solemnity of Common Prayer duly ordered hath, to help that imbecillity and weakness in us, by means whereof we are otherwise of our selves the less apt to perform unto God so heavenly a service, with such affection of heart, and disposition in the powers of our Souls as is requisite. To this end therefore all things hereunto appertaining, have been ever thought convenient to be done with the most solemnity and majesty that the wisest could devise.Matth. 6. 5, 6.Matt 6:5Matt 6:6 It is not with Publick as with Private Prayer. In this, rather secresie is commanded than outward shew, whereas that being the publick act of a whole Society, p. 169requireth accordingly more care to be had of external appearance. The very assembling of men therefore unto this service hath been ever solemn. And concerning the place of assembly, although it serve for other uses as well as this, yet seeing that our Lord himself hath to this, as to the chiefest of all other, plainly sanctified his own Temple,Mat. 21. 13.Matt 21:13 by entituling it the House of Prayer, what preeminence of dignity soever hath been either by the Ordinance, or through the special favour and providence of God annexed unto his Sanctuary, the principal cause thereof must needs be in regard of Common Prayer.Chrys. Hom. 14. ad Hebra & 24. in Act. For the honour and furtherance whereof, if it be as the gravest of the antient Fathers seriously were perswaded, and do oftentimes plainly teach, affirming that the House of Prayer is a Court, beautified with the presence of Celestial powers, that there we stand, we pray, we sound forth Hymnes unto God, having his Angels intermingled as our Associates; and that with reference hereunto the Apostle doth require so great care to be had of decency for the Angels sake;1 Cor. 11. 10.1 Cor 11:10 how can we come to the House of Prayer, and not be moved with the very glory of the place it self, so to frame our affections Praying, as doth best beseem them,Psal. 96. 6. Power and Beauty are in his Sanctuary.Ps 96:6 whose Suits the Almighty doth there sit to hear, and his Angels attend to further; When this was ingrafted in the mindes of men, there needed no penal Statutes to draw them unto publick Prayer. The warning sound was no sooner heard,Ad domos sletim Dominicas currimus corpora humisternimus, mixtis cum sletu gaudija supplicamus. Salvia de Prov. l. 7. but the Churches were presently filled, the pavements covered with bodies prostrate, and washt with their tears of devout joy. And as the place of publick Prayer is a Circumstance in the outward form thereof, which hath moment to help devotion; so the Person much more with whom the People of God do joyn themselves in this Action, as with him that standeth and speaketh in the presence of God for them. The authority of his Place, the fervour of his Zeal, the piety and gravity of his whole Behaviour, must needs exceedingly both grace and set forward the service he doth. The authority of his Calling is a furtherance, because if God have so farr received him into favour, as to impose upon him by the hands of men that Office of blessing the People in his Name, and making intercession to him in theirs; which Office he hath sanctified with his own most gracious Promise,Num. 6. 23. 2 Chron. 30, 27.Num 6:232 Chr 30:27 and ratified that promise by manifest actual performance thereof, when others before in like place have done the same, is not his very Ordination a seal, as it were to us, that the self-same Divine love which hath chosen the instrument to work with, will by that instrument effect the thing whereto he ordained it, in blessing his People, and accepting the Prayers which his Servant offereth up unto God for them? It was in this respect a comfortable Title which the Antients used to give unto God's Ministers,Col. l. … … 3. de Epi. & Cler. 43 & 44. saepe. terming them usually God's most beloved, which were ordained to procure by their Prayers his love and favour towards all. Again, if there be not zeal and fervency in him which proposeth for the rest those sutes and supplications, which they by their joyful Acclamations must ratifie; if he praise not God with all his might, if he pour not out his Soul in Prayer; if he take not their Causes to heart, and speak not as Moses, Daniel, and Ezra, did for their People; how should there be but in them frozen coldness, when his affections seem benummed from whom theirs should take fire? Vertue and godliness of life are required at the hands of the Minister of God, not only in that he is to teach and instruct the People, who for the most part are rather led away by the ill example, then directed aright by the wholesom instruction of them, whose Life swarveth from the rule of their own Doctrine; but also much more in regard of this other part of his Function; whether we respect the weakness of the People, apt to loathe and abhorr the Sanctuary, when they which perform the service thereof are such as the Sonnes of Heli were;1. Tim. 2. 8. John 9. 31. Jer. 11. 11. Ezech. 8. 18.1 Tim 2:8John 9:31Jer 11:11Ezek 8:18 or else consider the inclination of God himself, who requireth the lifting up of pure hands in Prayers, and hath given the World plainly to understand, that the Wicked, although they cry, shall not be heard. They are not fit Supplicants to seek his mercy on the behalf of others, whose own un-repented sins provoke his just indignation.Psal. 132. 9.Ps 132:9 Let thy Priests therefore, O Lord, be evermore cloathed with Righteousness, that thy Saints may thereby with more devotion rejoice and sing. But of all helps for due performance of this Service, the greatest is that very set and standing order it self, which, framed with common advice, hath both for matter and form prescribed whatsoever is herein publickly done. No doubt, from God it p. 170hath proceeded, and by us it must be acknowledged a Work of singular care and providence, that the Church hath evermore held a Prescript form of Common Prayer, although not in all things every where the same, yet for the most part retaining still the same analogy. So that if the Liturgies of all antient Churches throughout the World be compared amongst themselves, it may be easily perceived they had all one original mold, and that the publick Prayer of the People of God in Churches throughly settled, did never use to be voluntary Dictates, proceeding from any man's extemporal wit. To him which considereth the grievous and scandalous Inconveniencies, whereunto they make themselves daily subject, with whom any blinde and secret Corner is judged a fit House of Common Prayer; the manifold confusions which they fall into, where every man's private Spirit and Gift (as they term it) is the only Bishop that ordaineth him to this Ministry; the irksome deformities whereby through endless and senseless effusions of indigested Prayers, they oftentimes disgrace in most unsufferable manner, the worthiest part of Christian duty towards God, who herein are subject to no certain Order, but pray both what and how they list; to him, I say, which weigheth duly all these things, the reasons cannot be obscure,2 Chron. 6. 20. Joel. 2. 17. 2 Chron. 29. 30.2 Chr 6:20Joel 2:172 Chr 29:30 why God doth in Publick Prayer so much respect the Solemnitie of Places where, the Authority and calling of Persons by whom, and the precise Appointment even with what Words or Sentences his Name should be called on amongst his People.

Of them which like not to have any set form of Common Prayer.26. No man hath hitherto been so impious, as plainly and directly to condemn Prayer. The best stratagem that Satan hath, who knoweth his Kingdom to be no one way more shaken, than by the Publick devout Prayers of God's Church, is by traducing the form and manner of them, to bring them into contempt, and so to shake the force of all men's devotion towards them. From this, and from no other forge, hath proceeded a strange conceit, that to serve God with any set form of Common Prayer, is superstitious. As though God himself did not frame to his Priests the very speech,Num. 6. 23.Num 6:23 wherewith they were charged to bless the People; or as if our Lord, even of purpose to prevent this fancy of extemporal and voluntary Prayers, had not left us of his own framing one, which might both remain as a part of the Church-Liturgy, and serve as a Pattern whereby to frame all other Prayers with efficacy, yet without superfluity of words. If Prayers were no otherwise accepted of God, then being conceived always new, according to the exigence of present occasions; if it be right to judge him by our own Bellies, and to imagine that he doth loath to have the self-same supplications often iterated, even as we do to be every day fed without alteration or change of diet; if Prayers he Actions which ought to waste away themselves in the making; if being made to remain that they may be resumed and used again as Prayers, they be but instruments of Superstition; surely, we cannot excuse Moses, who gave such occasion of scandal to the World, by not being contented to praise the Name of Almighty God, according to the usual naked simplicity of God's Spirit, for that admirable victory given them against Pharaoh, unless so dangerous a President were lest for the casting of Prayers into certain Poetical moulds, and for the framing of Prayers which might be repeated often, although they never had again the same occasions which brought them forth at the first. For that very Hymne of Moses grew afterwards to be a part of the ordinary Jewish Liturgy; not only that, but sundry other sithence invented. Their Books of Common-Prayer contained partly Hymns taken out of thē Holy Scripture, partly Benedictions, Thanksgivings, Supplications, penned by such as have been, from time to time, the Governours of that Synagogue. These they sorted into their several times and places, some to begin the service of God with, and some to end, some to go before, and some to follow, and some to be interlaced between the Divine Readings of the Law and Prophets. Unto their custom of finishing the Passeover with certain Psalmes, there is not any thing more probable, then that the holy Evangelist doth evidently allude, saying, That after the Cup delivered by our Saviour unto his Apostles,aaMat. 25. 30. foreign having sung the Psalmes which were unto at that Feast those Psalms which the Jews call the great Hallelujah beginning at the 113 and conti…ing to the …a. l. of the ll8. S…e Paul Bar…s. in Ps. 112 … … … and … de ….Matt 25:30Ps 112 they sung, and went forth to the Mount of Olives. As the Jews had their Songs of Moses, and David, and the rest; so the Church of Christ from the very beginning hath both used the same, and besides them other also of like nature, the Song of the Virgin Mary, the Song of p. 171Zachary, the Song of Simeon, such Hymnes as the Apostle doth often speak of, saying,1 Cor. 14. 15. Eph…s. 5. 19.1 Cor 14:15 I will pray and sing with the Spirit. Again, in Psalms, Hymnes, and Songs, making melody unto the Lord, and that heartily. Hymnes and Psalms are such kindes of Prayer as are not wont to be conceived upon a sudden; but are framed by Meditation before hand, or else by Prophetical illumination are inspired, as at that time it appeareth they were, when God by extraordinary gifts of the Spirit, inabled men to all parts of service necessary for the edifying of his Church.

27. Now, albeit the Admonitioners did seem at the first to allow no Prescript form of Prayer at all,Of them who allowing a set form Prayer y…t allow …er…. but thought it the best that their Minister should always be left at liberty to pray, as his own discretion did serve, yet because this opinion upon better advice they afterwards retracted, their Defender and his Associates have sithence proposed to the World a form, such as themselves like, and, to shew their dislike of ours, have taken against it those exceptions, which, whosoever doth measure by number, must needs be greatly out of love with a thing that hath so many faults; whosoever by weight, cannot chuse but esteem very highly of that, wherein the wit of so scrupulous Adversaries hath not hitherto observed any defect which themselves can seriously think to be of moment. Gross Errours and manifest Impiety they grant we have taken away. Yet aaT. C. l. 1. p. …31 afterwards, p. 135. Whereas … Do…er … meth that the…e can …e nothing shewed in the whole Book which is not agreeable unto the Word of God: I am very …h &c. Notwithstanding, my duty of defening the Truth and Love which I have first towards God, and then towards my Countrey const. … an… be in…t…u… pro…e… speak a few words more particularly of the form of Prayer, that when the blemishes thereof do appear, it may please the Queens Majesty, and her Honourable Council, with …ho…c of the Parliam…nt, &c.many things in it they say are amiss; many instances they give of things in our Common Prayer, not agreeable as they pretend with the word of God. It hath in their eye too great affinity with the form of the Church of Rome; it differeth too much from that which Churches elsewhere reformed allow and observe; our Attire disgraceth it; it is not orderly read nor gestured as beseemeth; it requireth nothing to be done, which a Childe may not lawfully do; it hath a number of short cutts or shreddings, which may be better called Wishes than Prayers; it intermingleth Prayings and Readings in such manner, as, if Supplicants should use in proposing their Sutes unto mortal Princes, all the World would judge them madd; it is too long, and by that mean abridgeth Preaching; it appointeth the People to say after the Minister; it spendeth time in singing and in reading the Psalms by course, from side to side; it useth the Lord's Prayer too oft, the Songs of Magnificat, Benedictus, and Nune Dimittis, it might very well spare; it hath the Letany, the Creed of Athanasius, and Gloria Patri, which are superfluous; it craveth Earthly things too much; for deliverance from those Evils against which we pray, it giveth no Thanks; some things it asketh unseasonably, when they need not to be prayed for, as deliverance from Thunder and Tempest, when no Danger is nigh; some in too abject and diffident manner, as that God would give us that which we for our unworthiness dare not ask; some which ought not to be desired, as the deliverance from sudden Death, riddance from all Adversity, and the extent of saving Mercy towards all men. These and such like are the Imperfections, whereby our form of Common Prayer is thought to swerve from the Word of God. A great favourer of that part, but yet (his Errour that way excepted) a learned, painful, a right vertuous and good man, did not fear sometime to undertake, against Popish Detractors, the general maintenance and defence of our whole Church-Service, as having in it nothing repugnant to the Word of God. And even they which would file away most the largeness of that Offer, do notwithstanding in more sparing terms acknowledge little less. For when those opposite judgements which never are wont to construe things doubtful to the better, those very tongues which are always prone to aggravate whatsoever hath but the least shew whereby it may be suspected to savour of, or to sound towards any evil, do by their own voluntary sentence clearly free us from gross Errours, and from manifest Impiety herein; who would not judge us to be discharged of all blame, which are confest to have no great fault, even by their very word and testimony, in whose eyes no fault of ours hath ever hitherto been accustomed to seem small? Nevertheless, what they seem to offer us with the one hand, the same with the other they pull back again. They grant we erre not in palpable manner, weare not openly and notoriously impious; yet Errors we have, which the sharp insight of their wisest men do espy; there is hidden impiety, which the profounder sort are able enough to disclose. Their skilful ears perceive certain harsh and unpleasant discords in the sound of our Common Prayer, such as the Rules of Divine Harmony, such as the Laws of God cannot bear.

p. 172The form of our Liturgy too near the Papists, too far different from that of or her reformed Churches, as they pretend.28. Touching our Conformity with the Church of Rome, as also of the difference between some Reformed Churches and ours, that which generally hath been already answered, may serve for answer to that Exception, which in these two respects they take particularly against the form of our Common Prayer. To say, that in nothing they may be followed, which are of the Church of Rome, were violent and extream. Some things they do, in that they are men, in that they are Wise men, and Christian men some things, some things in that they are men misled and blinded with Errour. As farr as they follow Reason and Truth, we fear not to tread the self-same steps wherein they have gone, and to be their Followers. Where Rome keepeth that which is antienter and better; others whom we much more affect leaving it for newer, and changing it for worse; we had rather follow the perfections of them whom we like not, than in defects resemble them whom we love.T. C. l. 1. p. 135. For although they profess they agree with us touching a prescript form of Prayer to be used in the Church; yet in that very form which they say, is agreeable to Gods Word, A Bo…k of the form of Common Prayer tendered to the Parliament, p. 46.and the use of Reformed Churches, they have by special Protestation declared, That their meaning is not, it shall be prescribed as a thing whereunto they will tye their Minister. It shall not (they say) be necessary for the Minister daily to repeat all these things before mentioned, but beginning with some like Confession, to proceed to the Sermon; which ended, he either useth the Prayer for all States before mentioned, or else prayeth as the Spirit of God shall move his Heart. Herein therefore we hold it much better, with the Church of Rome, to appoint a prescript form which every man shall be bound to observe, then with them to set down a kinde of direction, a form for men to use if they list, or otherwise to change as pleaseth themselves. Furthermore, the Church of Rome hath rightly also considered, that Publick Prayer is a Duty intire in it self, a Duty requisite to be performed, much oftner than Sermons can possibly be made. For which cause, as they, so we have likewise a Publick form how to serve God both Morning and Evening, whether Sermons may be had or no. On the contrary side, their form of Reformed Prayer sheweth only what shall be done upon the dayes appointed for the Preaching of the Word;Pag. 22. with what words the Minister shall begin,Pag. 24. when the hour appointed for Sermon is come; what shall be said or sung before Sermon, and what after. So that according to this form of theirs, it must stand for a Rule, No Sermon, No Service. Which over-sight, occasioned the French spitefully to term Religion that sort exercised, a meer Preach. Sundry other more particular defects there are, which I willingly forbear to rehearse; in consideration whereof, we cannot be induced to prefert their Reformed form of Prayer before our own, what Church soever we resemble therein.

A…te be…enging to the Service of God. T. C. l. . 1 p. …1. We think the Surplice especially unmeet for a Minister of the Gosp. … to …ear, p. 75. … is easily seen by Solomo n Eccles. 8. 9. th… to wear a white Garment was highly esteemed in the E…st parts, and was ordinary to those that were in any elimination, as black with us, and therefore was no several Apparel for the Ministers to execute their Ministry in … Hierom in 44. Ezech. P…iero. Adver. Pelag. l. 1. c. 9. T. C. l. 1. p. 77. Be a White Garment is meant a comely Apparel, and not slovenly.Eccl 8:929. The Attire which the Minister of God is by Order to use at times of Divine Service, being but a matter of meer formality, yet such as for Comeliness sake hath hitherto been judged by the wiser sort of men not unnecessary to concurr with other sensible Notes, betokening the different kinde or quality of Persons and Actions whereto it is tyed; as we think not ourselves the holier, because we use it, so neither should they with whom no such thing is in use, think us therefore unholy, because we submit our selves unto that, which in a matter so indifferent the wisdom of Authority and Law have thought comely. To solemn Actions of Royalty and Justice, their suitable Ornaments are a Beauty. Are they only in Religion a stain? Divine Religion, saith Saint Ierom (he speaketh of the Priestly Attire of the Law) hath one kinde of Habite wherein to minister before the Lord, another for ordinary uses belonging unto common life. Pelagius having carped at the curious neatness of men's Apparel in those days, and through the sowreness of his disposition spoken somewhat too hardly thereof, affirming, That the glory of Cloaths and Ornaments was a thing contrary to God and godliness; S. Ierom, whose custom is not to pardon over-easily his Adversaries, if any where they chance to trip, presseth him as thereby making all sorts of men in the World God's enemies. Is it enmity with God (saith he) if I wear my Coat somewhat handsome? If a Bishop, a Priest, Deacon, and the rest of the Ecclesiastical Order come to administer the usual Sacrifice in a white Garment, are p. 173they hereby God's Adversaries; Clarks, Monks, Widows, Virgins, take beed, it is dangerous for you to be otherwise seen than in soul and ragged Cloaths. Not to speak any thing of Secular men, which have proclaimed to have war with God as oft as ever they put on precious and shining Cloathes. By which words of Ierome, we may take it at the least for a probable collection, that his meaning was to draw Pelagius into hatred, as condemning by so general a speech even the neatness of that very Garment it self, wherein the Clergy did then use to administer publickly the holy Sacrament of Christ's most blessed Body and Blood; For that they did then use some such Ornament, the words of Chrysostome give plain testimony,Chrysost. … popul. Antioch …om. 5. Serm. 60. who speaking to the Clergy of Antioch, telleth them that if they did suffer notorious Male…actors to come to the Table of our Lord, and not put them by, it would be as heavily revenged upon them, as if themselves had shed his Blood, that for this purpose God had called them to the rooms which they held in the Church of Christ; that this they should reckon was their Dignity, this their Safety, this their whole Crown and Glory; and therefore this they should carefully intend, and not when the Sacrament is administred, imagine themselves called only to walk up and down in a White and shining Garment. Now, whereas these speeches of Ierome and Chrysostom do seem plainly to allude unto such Ministerial Garments as were then in use; To this they answer, that by Ierom nothing can be gathered, but only that the Ministers came to Church in handsome Holy-day apparel, and that himself did not think them bound by the Law of God no go like Slovens; but the Weed which we mean he defendeth not. That Chrysostome meaneth the same which we defend,T. C. l. 1. p. 75. It is true, Chrysostom maketh mention of a White Garment, but not in commendation of it, but rather to the contrary: for he sheweth that the dignity of their Ministery was in taking h…d that none unmeet were admitted to the Lords Supper, not in going about the Church with a White Garment. but seemeth rather to reprehend than allow it as we do. Which Answer wringeth out of Ierome and Chrysostome that which their words will not gladly yield. They both speak of the same Persons, namely, the Clergy; and of their Weed at the same time when they administer the blessed Sacrament; and of the self-same kinde of Weed, a white Garment, so far as we have wit to conceive; and for any thing we are able to see, their manner of speech is not such as doth argue either the thing it self to be different whereof they speak, or their Judgment concerning it different; although the one do only maintain it against Pelagius, as a thing not therefore unlawful, because it was fair or handsom, and the other make it a matter of small commendation in it self, if they which wear it, do nothing else but weare the Robes which their Place requireth. The honesty, dignity, and estimation of White Apparel in the Eastern part of the World, is a token of greater fitness for this sacred use, wherein it were not convenient that any thing basely thought of should be suffered. Notwithstanding, I am not bent to stand stiffely upon these Probabilities, that in Ierom's and Chrysostom's time any such Attire was made several to this purpose. Yet surely the words of Solomon are very impertinent to prove it an Ornament, therefore not several for the Ministers to execute their Ministry in, because men of credit and estimation wore their ordinary Apparel white. For we know that when Solomon wrote those words, the several Apparel for the Ministers of the Law, to execute their Ministry in, was such. The Wise man which seared God from his heart,Eccles. 45. 7.Sir 45:7 and honoured the Service that was done unto him, could not mention so much as the Garment of Holiness, but with effectual signification of most singular reverence and love. Were it not better that the love which men bear to God, should make the least things which are imployed in his Service amiable, than that their over-scrupulous dislike of so mean a thing as a Vestment, should from the very Service of God with-draw their hearts and affections? I term it rather a mean thing, a thing not much to be respected, because even they so account now of it, whose first Disputations against it were such, as if Religion had scarcely any thing of greater waight. Their Allegations were then,T. C. l. 1. p. …9. That if a man were assured to gain a thousand by doing that which may offend any one Brother, or be unto him a cause of falling, he ought not to do it; That this Popish Apparel, the Surplice especially,71. hath been by Papists abominably abused, That it hath been a mark and a very Sacrament of Abomination;75. That remaining, it serveth as a Monument of Idolatry, and not only edifieth not, but, as a dangerous and scandalous Ceremony doth exceeding much harm to them of whose good we are commanded to have regard, 7….that it causeth men to perish, T. C. l. 2 p 403. L…. p. …3 …6. l. …. p. 403.and make shipwrack of Conscience, for so themselves profess they mean, when they say the weak are offended herewith; that it hardneth Papists, hindreth p. 174the weak from profiting in the knowledge of the Gospel, grieveth godly mindes, and giveth them occasion to think hardly of their Ministers; that if the Magistrates may command, or the Church appoint Rites and Ceremonies, yet seeing our abstinence from things in their own nature indifferent, if the weak Brother should be offended, is a flat Commandement of the Holy Ghost, which no Authority either of Church or Common-wealth can make void;Lib. 1. p. 76. Page. 81. therefore neither may the one nor the other lawfully ordain this Ceremony, which hath great incommodity and no profit, great offence and no edifying; That by the Law it should have been burnt and consumed with fire as a thing infected with Leprosie; That the Example of Ezekiah beating to powder the Brazen Serpent, and of Paul abrogating those abused Feasts of Charity, inforceth upon us the duty of abolishing altogether a thing which hath been, and is so offensive; Finally,Page. 78. That God by his Prophet hath given an express Commandement, which in this case toucheth us, no less than of old it did the Jews,Esay. 30. 12.Isa 30:12 'Ye shall pollute the covering of the Images of Silver, and the rich ornament of your Images of Gold, and cast them away as a stained ragg; thou shalt say unto it, Get thee hence. These, and such like, were their first Discourses, touching that Church-Attire, which with us for the most part is usual in Publick Prayer; our Ecclesiastical Laws so appointing, as well because it hath been of reasonable continuance, and by special choice was taken out of the number of those holy Garments, which (over and besides their mystical reference) served for aaExod. 18. 2.Exod 18:2comeliness bbExod. 39.27.Exod 39:27under the Law, and is in the number of those Ceremonies, which may with choice and discretion be used to that purpose in the Church of Christ; as also for that it suiteth so fitly with that lightsom affection of ccPsal. 149 2. Apoc. 13.9. Mar. 16. 5.Ps 149:2Rev 13:9Mark 16:5joy, wherein God delighteth when his Saints praise him; and so lively resembleth the glory of the Saints in Heaven, together with the beauty wherein Angels have appeared unto men, that they which are to appear for men in the presence of God, as Angels, if they were left to their own choice, and would chuse any, could not easily devise a Garment of more decency for such a Service. As for those fore-rehearsed vehement allegations against it, shall we give them credit, when the very Authors from whom they came, confess they believe not their own sayings? For when once they began to perceive how many, both of them in the two Universities, and of others, who abroad having Ecclesiastical charge, do favour mightily their Cause, and by all means set it forward, might by persisting in the extremity of that Opinion, hazard greatly their own Estates, and so weaken that part which their Places do now give them much opportunity to strengthen; they asked counsel, as it seemed from some abroad, who wisely considered, that the Body is of far more worth than the Rayment. Whereupon,T C. l. 1. p. 7…. & 1. 2. p 250. Index.l 3.c. 8. l.3. p. 262, 263. for fear of dangerous inconveniences, it hath been thought good to adde, That sometimes Authority must and may with good conscience be obeyed even where Commandment is not given upon good ground; That the duty of Preaching is one of the absolute Commandements of God, and therefore ought not to be forsaken; for the bare inconveniency of a thing which in the own nature is indifferent; That one of the foulest spots is the Surplice, is the offence which is giveth in occasioning the weak to fall, and the wicked to be confirmed in their wickedness; yet hereby there is no unlawfulness proved, but only an inconveniency, that such things should be established, howbeit no such Inconveniency neither, as may not be born with; That when God doth flatly command us to abstain from things is their own Nature indifferent; if they offend our weak Brethren,Lib. 3. p. 263. his meaning is not we should obey his Commandement herein, unless we may do it, and not leave undone that which the Lord hath absolutely commanded. Always provided, That whosoever will enjoy the benefit of this Dispensation, to wear a scandalous Badge of Idolatry,Page. 263. rather than forsake his Pastoral charge, do (as occasion serveth) teach nevertheless still the incommodity of the thing it self, admonish the weak Brethren that they be not, and pray unto God so to strengthen them that they may not be offended thereat. So that whereas before, they which had Authority to institute Rites and Ceremonies, were denyed to have power to institute this, it is now confest, that this they may also lawfully, but not so conveniently appoint; they did well before, and as they ought, who had it in utter detestation and hatred as a thing abominable; they now do well, which think it may be both born and used with a very good Conscience; before, he which by wearing it were sure to win thousands unto Christ, ought not to do it if there were but one which might be offended; now, though it be with the offence of thousands, yet it may be done rather than that should be given over, whereby p. 175notwithstanding we are not certain we shall gain one; the Examples of Ezechias and of Paul, the Charge which was given to the Jews by Esay, the strict Apostolical prohibition of things indifferent, whensoever they may be scandalous, were before so forcible Laws against our Ecclesiastical Attire, as neither Church nor Common-wealth could possibly make void, which now one of far less authority than either, hath found how to frustrate by dispensing with the breach of inferiour Commandments, to the end that the greater may be kept. But it booteth them not, thus to soder up a broken Cause, whereof their first and last discourses will fall asunder, do what they can. Let them ingenuously confess that their Invectives were too bitter, their Arguments too weak, the matter not so dangerous as they did imagin. If those alleged testimonies of Scripture did indeed concern the matter, to such effect as was pretended, that which they should inferr were unlawfulness, because they were cited as Prohibitions of that thing which indeed they concern. If they prove not our attire unlawful, because in truth they concern it not, it followeth that they prove not any thing against it, and consequently, not so much as uncomeliness or incoveniency. Unless therefore they be able throughly to resolve themselves, that there is no one Sentence in all the Scriptures of God, which doth controul the wearing of it in such manner, and to such purpose, as the Church of England alloweth; unless they can fully rest and settle their mindes in this most sound perswasion, that they are not to make themselves the only competent Judges of decency in these cases, and to despise the solemn judgement of the whole Church, preferring before it their own conceit, grounded only upon uncertain suspicions and fears, whereof if there were at the first some probable cause, when things were but raw and tender, yet now very tract of time hath it self worn that out also; unless, I say, thus resolved in minde they hold their Pastoral Charge with the comfort of a good Conscience, no way grudging at that which they do, or doing that which they think themselves bound of duty to reprove, how should it possibly help or further them in their course, to take such occasions as they say are requisite to be taken, and in pensive manner to tell their Audience; Brethren, our hearts desire is, that we might enjoy the full liberty of the Gospel, as in other reformed Churches they do elsewhere, upon whom the heavy hand of Authority hath imposed no grievous burthen. But such is the misery of these our days, that so great happiness we cannot look to attain unto. Were it so, that the equity of the Law of Moses could prevail, or the zeal of Ezechias be found in the hearts of those Guides and Governours under whom we live; or the voyce of God's own Prophets be duly heard; or the Examples of the Apostles of Christ be followed; yea, or their Precepts be answered with full and perfect obedience: these abominable Raggs, polluted Garments, marks and Sacraments of Idolatry, which Power, as you see, constraineth us to wear, and Conscience to abhor, had long ere this day been removed both out of sight and out of memory. But, as now things stand, behold to what narrow streights we are driven; On the one side, we fear the words of our Saviour Christ, Woe be to them by whom scandal and offence cometh: on the other side, at the Apostles speech we cannot but quake and tremble, If I preach not the Gospel, woe be unto me. Being thus hardly beset, we see not any other remedy, but to hazzard your Souls the one way, that we may the other way endeavour to save them. Touching the the offence of the Weak therefore, we must adventure it. If they perish, they perish. Our Pastoral charge is God's most absolute Commandment. Rather than that shall be taken from us, we are resolved to take this filth, and to put it on, although we judge it to be so unfit and inconvenient, that as oft as ever we pray or preach so arrayed before you, we do as much as in us lyeth, to cast away your Souls that are weak-minded, and to bring you unto endless perdition. But we beseech you, Brethren, have a care of your own safety, take heed to your steps, that ye be not taken in those snares which we lay before you. And our Prayer in your behalf to Almighty God is, that the poyson which we offer you, may never have the power to do you harm. Advice and counsel is best sought for at their hands, which either have no part at all in the Cause whereof they instruct; or else are so farr ingaged, that themselves are to bear the greatest adventure in the success of their own Counsels. The one of which two Considerations maketh men the less respective, and the other the more circumspect. Those good and learned men which gave the first direction to this course, had reason to wish that their own proceedings at home might be favoured abroad also, and that the good affection of such as inclined towards them might be kept alive. But p. 176if themselves had gone under those sails which they require to be hoised up, if they had been themselves to execute their own Theory in this Church, I doubt not but castly they would have seen, being nearer at hand, that the way was not good which they took of advising men, first, to wear the apparel, that thereby they might be free to continue their preaching, and then, of requiring them so to preach as they might be sure they could not continue, except they imagine that Laws which permit them not to do as they would, will endure them to speak as they list, even against that which themselves do by constraint of Laws; they would have easily seen that our People being accustomed to think evermore that thing evil which is publickly under any pretence reproved, and the men themselves worse which reprove it, and use it too; it should be to little purpose for them to salve the wound, by making protestations in disgrace of their own actions, with plain acknowledgement that they are scandalous, or by using fair intreaty with the weak Brethren, they would easily have seen how with us it cannot be endured, to hear a man openly profess that he putteth fire to his Neighbors house, but yet so halloweth the same with Prayer, that he hopeth it shall not burn. It had been therefore perhaps safer and better for ours to have observed S. Basils advice, both in this and in all things of like nature:Basil. Asect. …pent 2. l in…er. 47. Let him which approveth not his Governours Ordinances, either plainly (but privately always) shew his dislike of he have foreign, strong and invincible reason against them, according to the true will and meaning of Scripture; or else let him quietly with silence do what is enjoyned. Obedience with profest unwillingness to obey, is no better than manifest disobedience.

Of gesture in praying, and of different places chosen to that purpose. T C. l.1. p. 134.30. Having thus disputed, whether the Surplice be a fit Garment to be used in the service of God, the next Question whereinto we are drawn, is, Whether it be a thing allowable or no, that the Minister should say Service in the Chancel, or ruin his face at any time from the People, or before Service ended remove from the place where it was begun? By them which trouble us with these doubts, we would more willingly be resolved of a greater doubt; Whether it be not a kinde of taking God's Name in vain, to debase Religion with such frivolous disputes, a sin to bestow time and labour about them? Things of so mean regard and quality, although necessary to be ordered, are notwithstanding very unsavory when they come to be disputed of; because Disputation presupposeth some difficulty in the matter which is argued, whereas in things of this nature they must be either very simple or very froward, who need to be taught by disputation what is meet. When we make profession of our Faith, we stand; when we acknowledge our sins, or seek unto God for favour, we fall down; because the gesture of constancy becometh us best in the one, in the other the behavior of humility. Some part of our Liturgy consist in the reading of the word of God, and the proclaiming of his Law, that the people may thereby learn what their duties are towards him; some consist in words of praise and thanksgiving, whereby we acknowledge unto God what his blessings are towards us; some are such as albeit they serve to singular good purpose, even when there is no Communion administred; nevertheless, being devised at the first for that purpose, are at the Table of the Lord for that cause also commonly read; some are uttered as from the people, some as with them unto God, some as from God unto them, all as before his sight, whom we fear, and whose presence to offend with any the least unseemliness, we would be surely as loath as they, who most reprehend or deride that we do. Now,T. C. l. 1. p. 203. because the Gospels which are weekly read, do all historically declare something which our Lord Jesus Christ himself either spake, did, or suffered in his own Person, it hath been the custom of Christian men then especially in token of the greater reverence to stand, to utter certain words of acclamation, and at the name of Jesus to bow. Which harmless Ceremonies, as there is no man constrained to use; so we know no reason wherefore any man should yet imagine it an unsufferable evil.Mark 12. 6.Mark 12:6 It sheweth a reverend regard to the Son of God above other Messengers, although speaking as from God also. And against Infidels, Jews, Arians, who derogate from the honor of Jesus Christ, such Ceremonies are most profitable. As for any erroneous estimation, advancing the Son above the Father and the holy Ghost, T C l. 3 p. 215.seeing that the truth of his equality with them, is a mystery so hard for the wits of mortal men to rise unto, of all Heresies, that which may give him superiority above them, is least to befeared. But to let go this as a matter scarce worth the speaking of, whereas, if fault be in these things any where justly found, Law hath referred the whole disposition and redress thereof to the Ordinary of the place;T. C. l. 1. p …4. they which elsewhere p. 177complain, that disgrace and injury is offered even to the meanest Parish Minister, when the Magistrate appointeth him what to wear, and leaveth not so small a matter as that to his own discretion, being presumed a man discreet,T. C. l 1. p 134. …. 3. p. 137. and trusted with the care of the Peoples Souls, do think the gravest Prelates in the Land no competent Judges, to discern and appoint where it is fit for the Minister to stand, or which way convenient to look Praying. From their Ordinary therefore they appeal to themselves, finding great fault that we neither reform the thing against the which they have so long since given sentence, nor yet make answer unto what they bring, which is, that Saint Luke, declaring how Peter stood up in the middest of the Disciples, Acts 1. 13. T. C. l. 1. p. 134. l. 3 p. 137.Acts 1:13did thereby deliver an unchangeable rule, that whatsoever is done in the Church, ought to be done in the midst of the Church; and therefore not Baptism to be administred in one place, Marriage solemnized in another, the Supper of the Lord received in a third, in a fourth Sermons, in a fifth Prayers to be made; that the custom which we use is Levitical, absurd, and such as hindreth the understanding of the People; that if it be meet for the Minister, at some time to look towards the People, if the body of the Church be a fit place for some part of Divine Service, it must needs follow that whensoever his face is turned any other way, or any thing done any other where, it hath absurdity. All these reasons, they say, have been brought, and were hitherto never answered, besides a number of metriments and jests unanswered likewise, wherewith they have pleasantly moved much laughter at our manner of serving God. Such is their evil hap to play upon dull spirited men. We are still perswaded that a bare denyal is answer sufficient to things which meer fancy objecteth, and that the best Apology to words of scorn and petulancy, is Isaac's Apology to his Brother Ismael, the Apology which patience and silence maketh. Our Answer therefore to their Reasons, is, no; to their Scoffs, nothing.

31. When they object that our Book requireth nothing to be done,Easiness of Praying alter our form. T.C.l. 1. p. 133. & l.3. p. 184. Another fault in the whole Service or Liturgy of England, is, for that it maintaineth an unpreaching Ministry in requiring nothing to be done by the Minister, which a Child of ten years old cannot do as well, and as lawfully, as that man wherewith the Book contenteth it self. which a Childe may not do as lawfully and as well as that man wherewith the Book conteneth it self; Is it their meaning that the service of God ought to be a matter of great difficulty, a Labour which requireth great learning and deep skill, or elsē that the Book containing it should teach what men are fit to attend upon it, and forbid either men unlearned, or Children, to be admitted thereunto? In setting down the form of Common-Prayer, there was no need that the Book should mention either the learning of a fit, or the unfitness of an ignorant Minister, more than that he which describeth the manner how to pitch a field, should speak of moderation and sobriety in diet. And concerning the duty it self, although the hardness thereof be not such as needeth much Art, yet surely they seem to be very farr carried besides themselves, to whom the dignity of Publick Prayer doth not discover somewhat more fitness in men of gravity and ripe discretion, than in children of ten years of age, for the decent discharge and performance of that Office. It cannot be that they who speak thus, should thus judge. At the board and in private it very well becommeth Children's innocency to pray, and their Elders to say, Amen. Which being a part of their vertuous education, serveth greatly both to nourish in them the fear of God, and to put us in continual remembrance of that powerful grace which openeth the mouths of Infants to sound his praise. But Publick Prayer, the service of God in the solemn Assembly of Saints, is a work, though easie, yet withal so weighty and of such respect, that the great facility thereof is but a slender argument to prove, it may be as well and as lawfully committed to Children as to men of years, howsoever their ability of learning be but only to do that in decent order wherewith the Book contenteth it self. The Book requireth but orderly reading. As in truth, what should any Prescript form of Prayer framed to the Minister's hand require, but only so to be read as behoveth? We know that there are in the world certain voluntary Over-seers of all Books, whose censure in this respect would fall as sharp on us as it hath done on many others, if delivering but a form of Prayer, we should either express or include an thing, more than doth properly concern Prayer. The Ministers greatness or meanness of knowledge to do other things, his aptness or insufficiency otherwise than by reading to instruct the flock, standeth in this place as a Stranger, with whom our form of Common-Prayer hath nothing to do. Wherein their exception against easiness, as if that did nourish Ignorance, proceedeth altogether out of a needless jealousie; I have often p. 178heard it inquired of by many, how it might be brought to pass that the Church should every where have able Preachers to instruct the People; what impediments there are to hinder it, and which were the speediest way to remove them. In which consultation, the multitude of Parishes, the paucity of Schools, the manifold discouragements which are offered unto mens inclinations that way, the penury of the Ecclesiastical estate, the irrecoverable loss of so many Livings of principal value, clean taken away from the Church long sithence by being appropriated, the daily bruises that Spiritual promotions use to take by often falling, the want of somewhat in certain Statutes which concern the state of the Church, the too great facility of many Bishops, the stony hardness of too many Patrons hearts not touched with any feeling in this case: such things oftentimes are debated, and much thought upon by them that enter into any discourse concerning any defect of knowledge in the Clergy. But whosoever be found guilty, the Communion Book hath surely deserved least to be called in question for this fault. If all the Clergie were as learned as themselves are that most complain of ignorance in others, yet our Book of Prayer might remain the same; and remaining the same it is, I see not how it can be a lett unto any man's skill in Preaching. Which thing we acknowledge to be God's good gift, howbeit no such necessarie element, that every act of Religion should he thought imperfect and lame, wherein there is not somewhat exacted that none can discharge but an able Preacher.

The length of our Service. T C l.1. p. 133. & l. 3. p. 184.32. Two faults there are, which our Lord and Saviour himself especially reproved in Prayer, the one, when ostentation did cause it to be open; the other, when superstition made it long. As therefore Prayers the one way are faulty, not whensoever they be openly made, but when Hypocrisie is the cause of open Praying: so the length of Prayer is likewise a fault, howbeit not simply, but where errour and superstition causeth more than convenient repetition or continuation of speech to be used. It is not, as some do imagine,Aug. Ep. 121. (saith Saint Augustine) that long Praying is that fault of much speaking in Prayer which our Saviour did reprove; for then would not he himself in Prayer have continued whole nights.Luke 6. 12.Luke 6:12 Use in Prayer no vain superfluity of words, as the Heathens doe, for they imagine that their much speaking will cause them to be heard: whereas in truth the thing which God doth regard is, how vertuous their mindes are, and not how copious their tongues in Prayer; how well they think, and not how long they talk, who come to present their Supplications before him. Notwithstanding for as much as in Publick Prayer we are not only to consider what is needful in respect of God, but there is also in men that which we must regard; we somewhat the rather incline to length, lest over-quick dispatch of a Duty so important should give the World occasion to deem, that the thing it self is but little accounted of, wherein but little time is bestowed. Length thereof is a thing which the gravity and weight of such actions doth require. Beside, this benefit also it hath, that they whom earnest letts and impediments do often hinder from being Partakers of the whole, have yet through the length of Divine Service, opportunity sleft them, at the least, for access unto some reasonable part thereof. Again, it should be considered, how it doth come to pass that we are so long. For if that very Service of God in the Jewish Synagogues, which our Lord did approve and sanctifie with the presence of his own Person, had so large portions of the Law and the Prophets, together with so many Prayers and Psalms read day by day, as do equal in a manner the length of ours, and yet in that respect was never thought to deserve blame, is it now an offence, that the like measure of time is bestowed in the like manner? Peradventure the Church had not now the leisure which it had then, or else those things whereupon so much time was then well spent, have sithence that lost their dignity and worth. If the reading of the Law, the Prophets and Psalms, be a part of the Service of God, as needful under Christ as before, and the adding of the New Testament, as profitable as the ordaining of the Old to be read; if therewith instead of Jewish Prayers it be also for the good of the Church to annex that variety which the Apostle doth commend;1 Tim. 2. 1.1 Tim 2:1 seeing that the time which we spend is no more than the orderly performance of these things necessarily required, why are we thought to exceed in length? Words, be they never so few, are too many when they benefit not the Hearer. But he which p. 179speaketh no more than edifieth, is undeservedly reprehended for much speaking.T. C. l. 1. p. 184. That as the Devil under the colour of long Prayer drave Preaching out of the Church heretofore, so we in appointing so long Prayers and Readings, whereby the less can be spent in Preaching, maintain an unpreaching Ministry, is neither advisedly nor truly spoken. They reprove long Prayer, and yet acknowledge it to be in it self a thing commendable; For so it must needs be, if the Devil have used it as a colour to hide his malicious practises. When Malice would work that which is evil, and in working avoid the suspition of any evil intent, the colour wherewith it overcasteth it self, is always a fair and plausible pretence of seeking to further that which is good. So that if we both retain that good which Saran hath pretended to seek, and avoid the evil which his purpose was to effect, have we not better prevented his malice, than if, as he hath, under colour of long Prayer, driven Preaching out of the Church, so we should take the quarrel of Sermons in hand, and revenge their Cause, by requital, thrusting Prayer in a manner out of doors under colour of long Preaching? In case our Prayers being made at their full length, did necessarily inforce Sermons to be the shorter, yet neither were this to uphold and maintain an unpreaching Ministery, unless we will say that those antient Fathers, Chrysostom, Augustine, Leo, and the rest, whose Homilies in that consideration were shorter for the most part than our Sermons are, did then not preach when their Speeches were not long. The necessity of shortness causeth men to cut off impertinent Discourses, and to comprize much matter in few words. But neither did it maintain inabilitie, not at all prevent opportunitie of Preaching, as long as a competent time is granted for that purpose. An hour and an half is, they say, in reformed Churches ordinarily thought reasonable, for their whole Liturgy or Service. Neh. 8. 3. Acts 20. 9.Neh 8:3Acts 20:9Do we then continue as Ezra did in reading the Law from morning till mid-day? or, as the Apostle Saint Paul did in Prayer and Preaching, till men through weariness be taken up dead at our feet? The huge length whereof they make such complaint, is but this, that if our whole form of Prayer be read, and besides an hour allowed for a Sermon, we spend ordinarily in both more time than they do by half an hour. Which half hour being such a matter, as the age of some, and infirmity of other some are not able to bear; if we have any sense of the common imbecillity, if any care to preserve mens wits from being broken with the very bent of so long attention, if any love or desire to provide that things most holy be not with hazard of mens Souls abhorr'd and loathed, this half-hours tediousness must be remedied, and that only by cutting off the greatest part of our Common Prayer. For no other remedie will serve to help so dangerous an Inconvenience.

33. The Brethren in AEgypt (saith St. Augustin, Epist. 121.) are reported to have many Prayers,Instead of such Prayers at the Pr…mitive Churches have used and those that be reformed now use; we have (they say) divers short cuts or shreddings, rather wishes than Prayers. T. C. l. 1. p. 138. & l. 3. p. 210, 211. but every of them very short, as if they were Darts thrown out with a kinde of sudden quickness, lest that vigilant and erect attention of minde, which in Prayer is very necessary, should be wasted or dulled through continuance, if their Prayers were few and long. But that which St. Augustine doth allow, they condemn. Those Prayers whereunto devout mindes have added a piercing kinde of brevity, as well in that respect which we have already mentioned, as also thereby the better to express that quick and speedy expedition, wherewith ardent affections, the very wings of Prayer, are delighted to present our suits in Heaven, even sooner than our tongues can devise to utter them; they in their mood of contradiction spare not openly to deride, and that with so base terms as do very ill beseem men of their gravity. Such speeches are scandalous, they savour not of God in him that useth them, and unto vertuously disposed mindes they are grievous corrosives. Our case were miserable, if that wherewith we most endeavour to please God, were in his sight so vile and despicable, as mens disdainful speech would make it.

34. Again,Lessons intermingled with our Prayers. for as much as effectual Prayer is joyned with a vehement intention of the inferiour powers of the Soul, which cannot therein long continue without pain, it hath been therefore thought good so by turns to interpose still somewhat for the higher part of the minde, the understanding to work upon, that both being kept in continual exercise with variety, neither might feel any great wearinesse, and yet each be a spurre to other. For Prayer kindleth our desire to behold God by speculation; and the minde delighted with p. 180that contemplative sight of God, taketh every where new inflammations to pray, the riches of the Mysteries of Heavenly wisdom continually stirring up in us correspondent desires towards them. So that he which prayeth in due sort, is thereby made the more attentive to hear, and he which heareth, the more earnest to pray, for the time which we bestow as well in the one as the other. But for what cause soever we do it, this intermingling of Lessons with Prayers is**We have no such forms in Scripture as that we should pray in two or three lines, and then after having read a while some other thing, come and pray as much more, and so the 20. or the 30. time, with pauses between. If a man should come to a Prince, and having very many things to demand; after he had demanded one thing, would stay a long time, and then demand another, and so the third, the Prince might well think that either he came to aske before he knew what he had need of, or that he had forgotten some piece of his Suit, or that he were distracted in his understanding, or some other like cause of the disorder of his Supplication. T. C. l. 1. p. 138. This kinde of reason the Propher in the matter of Sacrifices doth use. T. C. 1. 3. p. 210. in their taste a thing as unsavoury, and as unseemly in their sight, as if the like should be done in Suits and Supplications before some mighty Prince of the World. Our speech to worldly Superiours we frame in such sort as serveth best to inform and perswade the mindes of them, who otherwise neither could nor would greatly regard our necessities: Whereas, because we know that God is indeed a King, but a great; King who understandeth all things before-hand, which no other King besides doth, a King which needeth not to be informed what we lack, a King readier to grant than we to make our requests; therefore in Prayer we do not so much respect what Precepts Art delivereth touching the method of perswasive utterance in the presence of great men, as what doth most avail to our own edification in piety and godly zeal. If they on the contrary side do think that the same rules of decency which serve for things done unto terrene Powers, should universally decide what is fit in the service of God, if it be their meaning to hold it for a Maxim, That the Church must deliver her publick Supplications unto God in no other form of speech than such as were decent; if suit should be made to the Great Turk, or some other Monarch, let them apply their own rule unto their own form of Common-Prayer. Suppose that the people of a whole Town, with some chosen man before them, did continually twice or thrice in a week resort to their King, and every time they come, first acknowledge themselves guilty of Rebellions and Treasons, then sing a Song, and after that explain some Statute of the Land to the Standers by, and therein spend at the least an hour; this done, turn themselves again to the King, and for every sort of his Subjects crave somewhat of him; at the length sing him another Song, and so take their leave: Might not the King well think, that either they knew not what they would have, or else that they were distracted in minde, or some other such like cause of the disorder of their Supplication? This form of suing unto Kings were absurd: This form of Praying unto God they allow. When God was served with legal Sacrifices, such was the miserable and wretched disposition of some mens mindes, that the best of every thing they had being culled out for themselves, if there were in their flocks any poor starved or diseased thing not worth the keeping, they thought it good enough for the Altar of God, pretending (as wise Hyprocrites do when they rob God to enrich themselves) that the fatness of Calves doth benefit him nothing; to us the best things are most profitable, to him all as one, if the minde of the Offerer be good, which is the only thing he respecteth. In reproof of which their devout fraud, the Prophet Malachy alledgeth, that gifts are offered unto God not asaaforeign Arist. Rhet. lib. 1. cap. 9. supplys of his want indeed, but yet as testimonies of that affection wherewith we acknowledge and honour his greatness. For which cause, sith the greater they are whom we honour, the more regard we have to the quality and choice of those Presents which we bring them for honor's sake; it must needs follow that if we dare not disgrace our worldly Superiours with offering unto them such reffuse as we bring unto God himself, we shew plainly that our acknowledgment of his Greatnesse is but feigned, in heart we fear him not so much as we dread them.Mal. 1. 2. 14.Mal 1:2Mal 1:14 If ye offer the blinde for Sacrifice, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy Prince; Will he be content or accept thy Person, saith the Lord of Hosts? Cursed be the Deceiver which hath in his Flock a Male, and having made a Vow, sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing: For I am a great King, saith the Lord of Hosts. Should we hereupon frame a Rule, that what form of speech or behaviour soever is fit for Suiters in a Prince's p. 181Court, the same and no other beseemeth us in our Prayers to Almighty God.

35. But in vain we labour to perswade them that any thing can take away the tediousness of Prayer,The number of our Prayers for earthly things, and our oft rehearsing of the Lords Prayer. except it be brought to the very same both measure and form which themselves assign. Whatsoever therefore our Liturgy hath more than theirs, under one devised pretence or other they cut it off. We have of Prayers for Earthly things in their opinion too great a number; so oft to rehearse the Lords Prayer in so small a time, is, as they think, a loss of time, the Peoples praying after the Minister, they say, both wasteth time, and also maketh an unpleasant sound;I can make no Geometrical and exact measure; but verily I believe there shall be found more than a third part of the Prayers, which are not Psalms and texts of Scripture, spent in praying for, and praying against the commodities and incommodities of this life, which is contrary to all the Arguments or Contents of the Prayers of the Church, sit down in the Scripture, but especially of our Saviour Christs Prayer, by the which ours ought to be directed. T. C. l. 1. p. 135. What a reason is this, we must rep at the Lords Prayer oftentimes, therefore oftentimes in half an hour, and one in the neck of another? Our Saviour Christ doth not there give a prescript Forme of Prayer whereunto he bindeth us: but giveth us a Rule and Squire to frame all our Prayers by. I know it is necessary to Pray, and Pray often. I know also that in a few words it is impossible for any man to frame so pithy a Prayer, and I confess that the Church doth well in concluding their Prayers with the Lords Prayer: But I stand upon this, Thee there is no necessity laid upon us to use these very words and no more. T. C. lib. 1. pag. 219. the Psalms they would not have to be made (as they are) a part of our Common-Prayer, nor to be sung or said by turns, nor such Musick to be used with them; those Evangelical Hymns they allow not to stand in our Liturgy; the Letany, the Creed of Athanasius, the Sentence of Glory, wherewith we use to conclude Psalms, these things they cancel, as having been instituted in regard of occasions peculiar to the times of old, and as being therefore now superfluous. Touching Prayers for things earthly, we ought not to think that the Church hath set down so many of them without cause. They, peradventure, which finde this fault, are of the same affection with Solomon; so that if God should offer to grant the whatsoever they ask, they would neither crave Riches, not length of dayes, not yet victory over their Enemies, but only an understanding heart; for which cause themselves having Eagles wings, are offended to see others flye so near the ground. But the tender kindness of the Church of God it very well beseemeth, to help the weaker sort, which are by so great oddes moe in number, although some few of the perfecter and stronger may be therewith for a time displeased. Ignorant we are not, that of such as resorted to our Saviour Christ being present on Earth, there came not any unto him with better success for the benefit of their Souls everlasting happiness, than they whose bodily necessities gave them the first occasion to seek relief, when they saw willingness and ability of doing every way good unto all. The graces of the Spirit are much more precious than worldly benefits; our ghostly evils of greater importance than any harm which the body feeleth. Therefore our desires to heaven-ward should both in measure and number no less exceed, than their glorious Object doth every way excel in value. These things are true and plain in the eye of a perfect Judgement. But yet it must be withal considered, that the greatest part of the World are they which be farthest from perfection. Such being better able by sense to discern the wants of this present life, than by spiritual capacity to apprehend things above sense, which tend to their happiness in the world to come, are in that respect the more apt to apply their mindes even with hearty affection and zeal at the least unto those Branches of Publick prayer, wherein their own particular is moved. And by this mean there stealeth upon them a double benefit; first because that good affection, which things of smaller account have once set on work, is by so much the more easily raised higher; and secondly, in that the very custom of seeking so particular aide and relief at the hands of God, doth by a secret contradiction withdraw them from endeavouring to help themselves by those wicked shifts, which they know can never have his allowance, whose assistance their Prayer seeketh. These multiplyed Petitions of worldly things in Prayer have therefore, besides their direct use, a Service, whereby the Church under-hand, through a kinde of heavenly fraud, taketh therewith the Souls of men as with certain baits. If then their calculation be true (for so they reckon) that a full third of our Prayers be allotted unto earthly benefits, for which our Saviour in his platform hath appointed but one Petition amongst seven, the difference is without any great disagreement; we respecting what men are, and doing that which is meer in regard of the common imperfection, our Lord contrariwise proposing the most p. 182absolute proportion that can be in mens desires, the very highest mark whereat we are able to aime.Praemisse legitima & ordinaria oratione, quasi fundamento, accidentium jus est desideriorum, jus est superstruendi extrinsecus petitioner. Ter…ol. de Orat. For which cause also our custom is both to place it in the front of our Prayers as a Guide, and to adde it in the end of some principal limbs or parts, as a complement which fully perfecteth whatsoever may be defective in the rest. Twice we rehearse it ordinarily, and oftner as occasion requireth more solemnity or length in the form of Divine Service; not mistrusting, till these new curiosities sprang up, that ever any man would think our labour herein mis-spent, the time wastfully consumed, and the Office it self made worse, by so repeating that which otherwise would more hardly be made familiar to the simpler sort; for the good of whose Souls there is not in Christian Religion any thing of like continual use and force throughout every hour and moment of their whole lives. I mean not only because Prayer, but because this very Prayer is of such efficacy and necessity: for that our Saviour did but set men a bare example how to contrive or devise Prayers of their own, and no way binde them to use this, is no doubt as Errour. Iohn the Baptist's Disciples,Luke 11. 1.Luke 11:1 which had been always brought up in the bosom of God's Church from the time of their first Infancy, till they came to the School of Iohn, were not so brutish, that they could be ignorant how to call upon the Name of God: but of their Master they had received a form of Prayer amongst themselves, which form none did use saving his Disciples, so that by it as by a mark of special difference they were known from others. And of this the Apostles having taken notice, they request that as Iohn had taught his, so Christ would likewise teach them to pray, Tertullian and Saint Augustin do for that cause term it, Orationem legitimam, the Prayer which Christ's own Law hath tyed his Church to use in the same Prescript form of words wherewith he himself did deliver it: and therefore what part of the World soever we fall into, if Christian Religion have been there received, the ordinary use of this very Prayer hath with equal continuance accompanied the same, as one of the principal and most material duties of honour done to Jesus Christ.Cypr. in Orat. Dom. Seeing that we have (saith Saint Cyprian) an Advocate with the Father for our Sins, when we that have sinned come to seek for pardon, let us alledge unto God the words which our Advocate hath taught. For sith his promise is our plain warrant, that in his Name what we aske we shall receive, must we not needs much the rather obtain that for which we sue, if not only his Name do countenance, but also his Speech present our requests? Though men should speak with the tongues of Angels, yet words so pleasing to the ears of God, as those which the Son of God himself hath composed, were not possible for men to frame. He therefore which made us to live, hath also taught us to pray, to the end that speaking unto the Father in the Sonn's own prescript without scholy or gloss of ours, we may be sure that we utter nothing which God will either disallow or deny. Other Prayers we use may besides this, and this oftner than any other, although not tyed so to do by any Commandement of Scripture, yet moved with such considerations as have been before set down: the causeless dislike where of which others have conceived, is no sufficient reason for us, as much as once to forbear, in any place, a thing which uttered with true devotion and zeal of heart, affordeth to God himself that glory, that aide to the weakest sort of men, to the most perfect that solid comfort which is unspeakable.

The Peoples trying after the Minister. Another fault is, That all the people are appointed in divers places to say after the Minister, whereby not only the time is unprofitably wasted, and a confused noise of the people (one speaking after another) caused, but an Opinion bred in their hearts that those only be their Prayers which they pronounce with their own mouths after the Minister, otherwise than the order which is left to the Church doth bear. 1 Cor. 14. 16. and otherwise than Iustin Martyr sheweth the custom of the Churches to have been in his time. T. C. l. 1 p. 139. & l. 3. p. 211, 212, 213.1 Cor 14:1636. With our Lords Prayer they would finde no fault, so that they might perswade us to use it before or other Sermons only (because so their manner is) and not (as all Christian people have been of old accustomed) insert it so often into the Liturgy. But the Peoples custom to repeat any thing after the Minister, they utterly mislike. Twice we appoint that the words which the Minister first pronounceth, the whole Congregation shall repeat after him. As first in the publick Confession of Sins, and again in rehearsal of our Lord's Prayer, presently after the blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood received. A thing no way offensive, no way unfit or unseemly to be done, although it had been so appointed ofner than with us it is. p. 183But surely, with so good reason, it standeth in those two places, that otherwise to order it were not, in all respects so well. Could there be any thing devised better, then that we all at our first access unto God by Prayer, should acknowledge meekly our sins, and that not onelyonly in heart, but with tongue; all which are present, being made earwitnesses, even of every mans distinct and deliberate assent unto each particular branch of a common Indictment drawn against our selves? How were it possible, that the Church should any way else with such ease and certainty provide, that none of her Children may as Adam dissemble that wretchedness, the penitent confession whereof is so necessary a Preamble, especially to Common Prayer? In like manner, if the Church did ever devise a thing fit and convenient, what more then this, that when together we have all received those Heavenly Mysteries wherein Christ imparteth himself unto us, and giveth visible testification of our blessed communion with him, we should in hatred of all Heresies, Factions, and Schisms, the Pastor as a Leader, the people as willing followers of him step by step, declare openly our selves united as Brethren in one,foreign Basil. P…s. in Pral. by offering up with all our hearts and tongues that most effectual Supplication, wherein he unto whom we offer it, hath himself not onelyonly comprehended all our necessities; but in such sort also framed every Petition, as might most naturally serve for many, and doth, though not always require, yet always import a multitude of speakers together? For which cause Communicants have ever used it, and we at that time by the form of our very utterance do shew we use it; yea, every word and syllable of it, as Communicants. In the rest we observe that custom whereunto St. Paul alludeth,1 Cor. 14. 15.1 Cor 14:15 and whereof the Fathers of the Church in their Writings, make often mention, to shew indefinitely what was done, but not universally to binde for ever, all Prayers unto one onelyonly fashion of utterance. The Reasons which we have alledged, induce us to think it still a good work, which they in their pensive care for the well bestowing of time account waste. As for unpleasantness of sound, if it happen, the good of Mens souls, doth either deceive our ears that we note it not, or arm them with patience to endure it. We are not so nice as to cast away a sharp Knife, because the edge of it may sometimes grate. And such subtile opinions as few but Utopians are likely to fall into, we in this climate do not greatly fear.

37. The complaint which they make about Psalms and Hymns, might as well be over-past without any answer,Our manner of reading the Psalms otherwise then the rest of the Scripture. as it is without any cause brought forth. But our desire is to content them, if it may be, and to yield them a just reason, even of the least things wherein undeservedly they have but as much as dreamed or suspected that we do amiss. They seem sometimes so to speak as if greatly offended them, that such Hymns and Psalms as are Scripture, should in Common Prayer be otherwise used, then the rest of the Scripture is wont;They have always the same profit to be stu…ied in, to be read, and preached upon, which ether Scriptures have, and this above the rest, that they are to be sung. sometime displeased they are at the artificial Musick which we adde unto Psalms of this kinde, or of any other nature else; sometime the plainest and the most intelligible rehearsal of them, yet they savor not, because it is done, by Interlocution, and with a mutual return of Sentences from side to side. They are not ignorant what difference there is between other parts of Scripture and Psalms. The choice and flower of **foreignDi…nys. Hierar. Eccles. cap. 3.Eccl 3all things profitable in other Books, the Psalms do both more briefly contain, and more movingly also express, by reason of that Poetical Form wherewith they are written. The Ancients when they speak of the Book of Psalms, use to fall into large Discourses, shewing how this part above the rest doth of purpose set forth and celebrate all the considerations and operations which belong to God; it magnifieth the holy Meditations and Actions of Divine Men; it is of things heavenly an Universal Declaration,But to make daily Prayers of them hand-over-head, or otherwise then the present estate wherein we he, doth agree with the maner contained in them, is an abusing of them. T. C. l…. 3. pag. 206. working in them, whose hearts God inspireth with the due consideration thereof, an habit or disposition of minde whereby they are made fit Vessels both for receipt and for delivery of whatsoever spiritual perfection. What is there necessary for man to know, which the Psalms are not able to teach? They are to beginners an easie and familiar Introduction, a mighty Augmentation of all Vertue and Knowledge in such as are entred before, a strong confirmation to the most perfect amongst others. Heroical Magnanimity, exquisite Justice, gave Moderation, exact Wisdom, Repentance unfeigned, unwearied Patience, the Mysteries of God, the Sufferings of Christ, p. 184the Terrors of Wrath, the Comforts of Grace, the Works of Providence over this World, and the promised Joys of that World which is to come, all good necessarily to be either known, or done, or had, this one Celestial Fountain yieldeth. Let there be any grief or disease incident nuto the Soul of Man, any wound or sickness named, for which there is not in this Treasure-house, a present comfortable remedy at all times ready to be found. Hereof it is that we covet to make the Psalms especially familiar unto all. This is the very cause, why we iterate the Psalms oftner then any other part of Scripture besides; the cause wherefore we inure the people together with their Minister, and not the Minister alone, to read them as other parts of Scripture he doth.

Of Musick with Psalms.38. Touching Musical Harmony, whether by Instrument or by Voice, it being but of high and low in sounds a due proportionable disposition, such notwithstanding is the force thereof, and so pleasing effects it hath in that very part of man which is most Divine, that some have been thereby induced to think that the Soul it self by Nature is, or hath in it Harmony. A thing which delighteth all Ages, and beseemeth all States; a thing as seasonable in grief as in joy; as decent being added unto actions of greatest weight and solemnity, as being used when men most sequester themselves from action. The reason hereof is an admirable faculty which Musick hath to express and represents to the minde, more inwardly then any other sensible mean, the very standing, rising, and falling, the very steps and inflections every way, the turns and varieties of all Passions, whereunto the minde is subject; yea, so to imitate them, that whether it resemble unto us the same state wherein our mindes already are, or a clean contrary, we are not more contentedly by the one confirmed, then changed and led away by the other. In Harmony, the very Image and Character, even of Vertue and Vice is perceived, the minde delighted with their Resemblances, and brought, by having them often iterated, into a love of the things themselves. For which cause there is nothing more contagious and pestilent then some kindes of Harmony; then some, nothing more strong and potent unto good. And that there is such a difference of one kinde from another, we need no proof but our own experience, in as much as we are at the hearing of some more inclined unto sorrow and heaviness, of some more mollified and softned in minde; one kinde apter to stay and settle us, another to move and stir our affections: There is that draweth to a marvelous grave and sober mediocrity, there is also that carrieth as it were into extasies, filling the minde with an heavenly joy, and for the time, in a manner, severing it from the body: So that although we lay altogether aside the consideration of Ditty or Matter, the very Harmony of sounds being framed in due sort, and carried from the Ear to the Spiritual faculties of our Souls, is by a Native Puissance and Efficacy greatly available to bring to a perfect temper whatsoever is there troubled, apt as well to quicken the spirits as to allay that which is too eager, sovereign against melancholly and despair, forcible to draw forth tears of devotion, if the minde be such as can yield them able, both to move and to moderate all affections. The Prophet David having therefore singular knowledge, not in Poetry alone, but in Musick also, judged them both to be things most necessary for the House of God, left behinde him to that purpose, a number of divinely indited Poems, and was farther the Author of adding unto Poetry, melody a publick Prayer, melody both Vocal and Instrumental for the raising up of Mens hearts, and the sweetning of their affections towards God. In which consideration, the Church of Christ doth likewise at this present day, retain it as an ornament to Gods service, and an help to our own devotion. They which, under pretence of the Law Ceremonial abrogated require the abrogation of Instrumental Musick, approving nevertheless the use of Vocal melody to remain, must shew some reason wherefore the one should be thought a Legal Ceremony, and not the other. In Church Musick curiosity and oftentation of Art, wanton, or light, or unsuitable harmony, such as onelyonly pleaseth the ear, and doth not naturally serve to the very kinde and degree of those impressions which the matter that goeth with it, leaveth, or is apt to leave in mens mindes, doth rather blemish and disgrace that we do, then adde either beauty or furtherance unto it. On the other side, these faults prevented, the force and efficacy of the thing it self, when it drowneth not utterly, but fitly suiteth with matter p. 185altogether sounding to the praise of God, is in truth most admirable, and doth much edifie, if not the Understanding, because it teacheth not; yet surely the Affection, because therein it worketh much. They must have hearts very dry and tough, from whom the melody of Psalms doth not sometime draw that wherein a minde religiously affected delighteth. Be it as Rabanus Maurus observeth, that at the first the Church in this exercise was more simple and plain then we are; that their singing was little more then onelyonly a melodious kinde of pronounciation; that the custom which we now use, was not instituted so much for their cause which are Spiritual, as to the end that into grosser and heavier mindes, whom bare words do not easily move, the sweetness of melody might make some entrance for good things. St. Basil himself acknowledging as much, did not think that from such inventions, the least jot of estimation and credit thereby should be derogated:**foreign Basil. in Psal. For (saith he) whereas the Holy Spirit saw, that Mankinde is unto Virtue hardly drawn, and that Righteousness is the less accounted of, by reason of the proveness of our affections to that which delighteth; it pleased the Wisdom of the same Spirit to borrow from melody that pleasure, which mingled with Heavenly Mysteries, causeth the smoothness and softness of that which toucheth the ear, to convey, as it were, by stealth the treasure of good things into mans minde. To this purpose were those harmonious tunes of Psalms divised for us; that they which are either in years but young, or touching perfection of Vertue, as yet not grown to ripeness, might, when they think they sing, learn. O the wise conceit of that Heavenly Teacher, which both by his skill found out a way, that doing those things wherein we delight, we may also learn that whereby we profit!

39. And if the Prophet David did think that the very meeting of men together,Of singing or saying Psalms and other parts of Common Prayer, wherein the People and Minister answer one another by course. For the singing of Psalms by course, and side after side, although it be very ancient, yet it is not commendable; and so much the mere to be suspected, for that the Devil hath gone about to get it so great Authority, partly by deriving it from Ignatius time, and partly in making the World believe that this came from Heaven, and that the Angels were heard to sing after this sort. Which as it is a meer Fable, so is it confuted by Historiographers, whereof some ascribe the beginning of this to Damasus, some other unto Flavianus and Diodorus. T. C. lib. 1. p. 203. and their accompanying one another to the House of God, should make the Bond of their Love insoluble, and tie them in a League of inviolable Amity, Psal. 54. 14. How much more may we judge it reasonable to hope, that the like effects may grow in each of the people towards other, in them all towards their Pastor, and in their Pastor towards every of them; between whom there daily and interchangeably pass in the hearing of God himself, and in the presence of his holy Angels, so many heavenly Acclamations, Exultations, Provocations, Petitions, Songs of Comfort, Psalms of Praise and Thanksgiving; in all which particulars, as when the Pastor maketh their sutes, and they with one voice testifie a general assent thereunto; or when he joyfully beginneth, and they with like alacrity follow, dividing between them the sentences wherewith they strive, which shall most shew his own, and stir up others zeal, to the glory of that God, whose name they magnifie; or when he proposeth unto God their necessities, and they their own requests for relief in every of them; or when he lifteth up his voice like a Trumpet, to proclaim unto them the Laws of God, they adjoyning, though not as Israel did, by way of generality a chearful promise,aaExod. 19.…. Is 24.3. Deut. 3. 27. & 26. 17. Josh. 24.16.Exod 19Isa 24:3Deut 3:27Deut 26:17Josh 24:16 All that the Lord hath commanded, we will do; yet that which God doth no less approve, that which favoreth more of meekness, that which testifieth rather a feeling knowledge of our common imbecillity, unto the several Branches thereof, several lowly and humble requests for Grace at the merciful Hands of God, to perform the thing which is commanded; or when they wish reciprocally each others ghostly happiness; or when he by exhortation raiseth them up, and they by protestation of their readiness declare, be speaketh not in vain unto them. These interlocutory forms of speech, what are they else, but most effectual, partly testifications, and partly inflammations of all Piety? When, and how this custom of singing by course, came up in the Church, it is not certainly known.bbSocrat. Hist. Eccles. lib. 6. cap. 8. Socrates maketh Ignatius, the Bishop of Antioch, in Syria, the first beginner thereof, even under the Apostles p. 186themselves. But against Socrates they set the authority ofaaTheod. lib. 2 cap. 24. Theodoret, who draweth the original of it from Antioch, as Socrates doth; howbeit ascribing the invention to others, Flavian and Diodore, men which constantly stood in defence of the Apostolick Faith, against the Bishop of that Church, Leontius, a favorer of the Arians. Against both Socrates and Theodoret, bbPlat. in vit… Damasi.Platina is brought as a witness, to testifie that Damasus, Bishop of Rome, began it in his time. Of the Latine Church, it may be true which Platina saith. And therefore, the eldest of that Church which maketh any mention thereof, is St. Ambrose, ccBene mari plerunque comparatur Ecclesia, quae primo ingredientis populi agmine totis vestibulis undas comit; deinde in oratione totius plebis tanquam undis …efl. …ensib…s strides; cum responsuriis Psalmorum, canruvinocura mulierum, virginum, parvulorum consonus undatum stragor resulta:. Hexam. lib. 2. cap. 5.Bishop of Milan, at the same time when Damasus was of Rome. Amongst the Grecians, St. Basil ddBasil. Epist. 63.having brought it into his Church before they of Neocaesarea used it, Sabellius the Heretick, and Marcellus, took occasion thereat, to incense the Churches against him, as being an Author of new devices in the Service of God. Whereupon, to avoid the opinion of Novelty and Singularity, he alledgeth for that which he himself did, the example of the Churches of Egypt, Lybia, Thebes, Palestina, Tharabians, Phoenicians, Syrians, Mesopotamians, and, in a manner, all that reverenced the custom of singing Psalms together. If the Syrians had it then before Basil, Antioch the Mother Church of those parts, must needs have used it before Basil, and consequently before Damasus. The question is then, how long before, and whether so long, that Ignatius, or as ancient as Ignatius, may be probably thought the first Inventors. Ignatius in Trajans days suffered Martyrdom. And of the Churches in Pontus and Bithynia, to Trajan the Emperor, his own Vicegerent, there affirmetheePlin. secund. Epist lib. 10. cp. 97. Exod 15. 1. 21.Exod 15:1Exod 15:21, That the onelyonly crime, he knew of them, was, They used to meet together at a certain day, and to praise Christ with Hymns as a God, Secum invicem, one to another amongst themselves. Which for any thing we know to the contrary, might be the self-same form which Philo Iudaeus expresseth, declaring how the Essens were accustomed with Hymns and Psalms to honor God, sometime all exalting their voices together in one, and sometime one part answering another, wherein, as he thought, they swerved not much from the pattern of Moses and Miriam. Whether Ignatius did at any time hear the Angels praising God after that sort, or no, what matter is it: If Ignatius did not,Isai. 6. 3.Isa 6:3 yet one which must be with us of greater Authority did. I saw the Lord (saith the Prophet Isaiah) on an high Throne, the Seraphims stood upon it, one cryed to another, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts, the whole world is full of his glory. But whosoever were the Author, whatsoever the Time, whencesoever the Example of beginning this Custom in the Church of Christ; sith we are wont to suspect things onelyonly before tryal, and afterwards either to approve them as good, or if we finde them evil, accordingly to judge of them; their counsel must needs seem very unseasonable, who advise men now to suspect that wherewith the World hath had, by their own account, Twelve hundred years acquaintance, and upwards, enough to take away suspition and jealousie. Men know by this time, if ever they will know, whether it be good or evil which hath been so long retained. As for the Devil, which way it should greatly benefit him to have this manner of singing Psalms accounted an invention of Ignatius, or an imitation of the Angels of Heaven, we do not well understand, But we very well see in them who thus plead, a wonderful celerity of discourse. For perceiving at the first, but onelyonly some cause of suspition and fear, left it should be evil, they are presently in one and the self-same breath resolved,**From whence soever it came, it cannot he good, considering, that when it is granted, that all the people may praise God (as it is in singing of Psalms) then this ought no: to be restrained unto a few; and where it is lawful, both with heart and voice, tosing the whole Psalm; there it is not meet, that they should sing but the one half with their heart and voice, and the other with their heart onelyonly. For where they may, both with heart and voice sing, …i…e… the heart is not enough. Therefore besides the incommodity which cometh this way, in that being tossed after this sort, men cannot understand what is sung, those other two inconveniences come of this form of singing, and therefore it is vanished in all Reformed Churches T. C. lib. 1. p. 103. That what beginning soever it had, there is no possibility it should be good. The Potent Arguments which did thus suddenly break in upon them, and overcome them, are; First, That it is not unlawful for the People, all joyntly to praise God in singing of Psalms. Secondly, That they are not any where forbidden by the Law of God, to sing every Verse of the whole Psalm, both with heart and voice, quite and clean throughout. Thirdly, That it cannot be understood what is sung after our manner. Of which three, for as much as lawfulness to sing one way, proveth not another way inconvenient; the former two, are true Allegations, but they lack strength p. 187to accomplish their desire; the third so strong; that it might perswade, if the truth thereof were not doubtful. And shall this inforce us to banish a thing which all Christian Churches in the World have received; a thing which so many ages have held; a thing which the most approved Councils and Laws have so oftentimes ratified; a thing which was never sound to have any inconvenience in it; a thing which always heretofore the best Men, and wisest Governors of Gods people, did think they could never commend enough; a thing which as Basil was perswaded, did both strengthen the Meditation of those holy Words which were uttered in that sort, and serve also to make attentive, and to raise up the hearts of men; a thing whereunto Gods people of old, did resort with hope and thirst, that thereby, especially their Souls, might be edified; a thing which filleth the minde with comfort and heavenly delight, stirreth up flagrant desires and affections correspondent unto that which the words contain, allayeth all kinde of base and earthly Cogitations, banisheth and driveth away those evil secret suggestions which our invisible Enemy is always apt to minister, watereth the heart to the end it may fructifie, maketh the vertuous, in trouble, full of magnanimity and courage, serveth as a most approved remedy against all doleful and heavy accidents which befal men in this present life. To conclude, So fitly accordeth with the Apostles own Exhortation,Ephes. 5. 19.Eph 5:19 Speak to your selves in Psalms and Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, making melody, and singing to the Lord in your hearts; that surely, there is more cause to fear, lest the want thereof be a main, then the use a blemish to the Service of God. It is not our meaning, that what we attribute unto the Psalms, should be thought to depend altogether on that onelyonly form of singing or reading them by course, as with us the manner is; but the end of our speech is to shew, That because the Fathers of the Church, with whom the self-same custom was so many ages ago in use, have uttered all these things concerning the fruit which the Church of God did then reap, observing that and no other form, it may be justly avouched, that we our selves retaining it; an besides it also the other more newly and not unfruitfully devised, do neither want that good which the latter invention can afford, not lose any thing of that, for which the Ancients so oft and so highly commend the former. Let Novelty therefore in this give over endless contradictions, and let ancient custom prevail.