Concerning Submission to Usurpers, Title page
Bishop Sanderson's JUDGMENT Concerning SUBMISSION TO Usurpers.
LONDON, Printed by for Richard Marriott. MDCLXXVIII.
Bishop Sanderson's JUDGMENT Concerning SUBMISSION TO USURPERS.
SIR,
WHEREAS you desire to know what my judgment and practice is concerning the using or forbearing the establish'd Liturgy (either in whole, or in part) in the publick Service of God, and Office of the Church: If it be any satisfaction to your Friend, I shall fully acquaint you what my practice is (whereunto if my own Judgment be not conform, I am, without all excuse, my own condemner) and upon what considerations I have, according to the variation of the times, varied from my self therein.
So long as my Congregation continued unmixt with Souldiers, as well after as before the Promulgation of the Ordinance of the two Houses for the abolishing of the Common Prayer, I continued the use of it, as I had ever formerly done in the most peaceable and orderly times, not omitting those very Prayers, the silencing whereof I could not but know to have been chiefly aim'd at in the Ordinance (viz.) three for the King and Queen and Bishops; and so I did also though some Souldiers were casually present, till such time as a whole Troop coming to Quarter in the Town (with a purpose to continue a kind of Garison or Head-quarter among us) were so enrag'd at my reading of it the first Sunday after they came, that immediately after Morning Service ended, they seiz'd upon the Book, and tore it all in pieces. Thenceforward during their continuance there for full six months and upwards (viz.) from the beginning of November till they were call'd away to Naseby Fight in May following, besides that for want of a Book of necessity I must, I saw that it also behoov'd me, for the preventing of farther Outrages, to wave the use of the Book for the time, at least in the Ordinary Service; only I read the Confession, the Lord's Prayer, all the Versicles, and the Psalms for the day. Then after the first Lesson in the Forenoon Benedictus or Iubilate; and in the Afternoons Cantate. After the second Lesson also, sometimes the Creed, sometimes the Ten Commandements, and sometimes neither, but only sang a Psalm, and so to Sermon. But in all that while, in the Administration of the Sacraments, the Solemnization of Matrimony, Burial of Dead, and Churching of Women, I constantly used the ancient Forms and Rites to every of them respectively belonging, according to the appointment in the Book; only I was careful in all the rest to make choice of such times and opportunities as I might do them with most secresie, and without disturbance of the Souldier. But at the Celebration of the Eucharist I was the more secure to do it publickly, because I was assur'd none of the Souldiers would be present.
After their departure I took the liberty to use either the whole Liturgy, or but some part of it, omitting sometimes more, sometimes less upon occasion, as I judg'd it most expedient in reference to the Auditory, especially if any Souldiers, or other unknown persons hapned to be present. But all this while the substance of what I omitted I contriv'd into my Prayer before Sermon, the phrase and order only varied, which yet I endeavour'd to temper in such sort, that any person of ordinary capacity might easily perceivve what my meaning was, and yet the words left as little liable to exception or cavil as might be.
About two years ago I was advertis'd (but in a friendly manner) by a Parliament man of note in these parts, that at a publick Meeting at Grantham, great complaint was made by some Ministers of the Presbyterian Gang, as I afterwards found, of my refractoriness to obey the Parliaments Order in that behalf. The Gentleman told me withal, That although they knew what my judgment and practice was, yet they were not forward to take notice of it before complaint made, which being now done in so publick a manner, if they should not take notice of it, the blame would lie upon them. He therefore advised me to consider well what I had to do, for I must resolve either to adventure the loss of my Living, or to lay aside Common Prayer; which if I should continue after complaint and admonition, it would not be in his power, nor in the power of any Friend I had to preserve me. The effect of my then Answer was, That if the case were so, the deliberation was not hard: I having long ago considered of the case, and resolved what I might do with a good Conscience, and what was fittest for me in prudence to do, if I should ever be put to it (viz.) to forbear the use of the Common Prayer Book so far as might satisfie the letter of the Ordinance, rather than forsake my Station.
My next business then was to bethink my self of such a course to be thenceforth held in the publick work in my own Parish, as might be believed neither to bring danger to my self by the use, nor to give scandal to my Brethren by the disuse of the establish'd Liturgy. And the course was this, to which I have held me ever since.
I begin the Service with a Preface, and an Exhortation infer'd to make Confession of Sins; which Exhortation I have fram'd out of the Exhortation and Absolution in the Book, contracted and put together, and exprest for the most part in the same words and phrases, but purposely here and there transplac'd, that it might appear not to be, and yet to be the very same.
Then follows the Confession it self in the same Order; it was enlarg'd only with the addition of some words, whereby it is rather explain'd than alter'd. The whole frame whereof, both for the fuller satisfaction in that particular, and that you may conjecture what manner of addition and change I have made proportionably hereunto (yet none so large) in other parts of the holy Office, I have here underwritten.
O Almighty God and merciful Father, we thy unworthy Servants do with shame and sorrow confess, that we have all our life long gone astray out of thy ways like lost sheep; and that by following too much the vain devices and desires of our own hearts, we have grievously offended against thy holy laws both in thought, word, and deed. We have many times left undone those good duties which we might and ought to have done, and we have many times done those evils, when we might have avoided them, which we ought not to have done. We confess, O Lord, that there is no health at all, nor help in any Creature to relieve us; but all our hope is in thy mercy, whose justice we have by our sins so far provoked. Have mercy upon us therefore, O Lord, have mercy upon us miserable Offenders: Spare us good Lord who confess our faults, that we perish not, but according to thy gracious promises declared unto mankind in Christ Iesu our Lord, restore us upon our true Repentance into thy grace and favour. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake, that we henceforth study to serve and please thee by leading a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of thy holy Name, and the eternal comfort of our own Souls, through Iesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
After the Confession the Lord's Prayer with the Versicles, and Gloria Patri, and then Psalms for the Day, and the first Lesson: After which in the Forenoon, sometimes Te Deum, (but then only when I think the Auditory will bear it) and sometimes an Hymn of mine own, gathered out of the Psalms and Church Collects, as a general Form of Thanksgiving (which I did the rather, because I have noted the want of such a Form as the only thing wherein the Liturgy seem'd to be defective). And in the Afternoon, after the first Lesson the 98th. Psalm, or the 67th. then the second Lesson, with Benedictus or Iubilate; after it in the Forenoon and Afternoon a singing Psalm. Then followeth the Creed, with Dominus Vobiscum; and sometimes the Versicles in the end of our Letany [From our Enemies defend us] if I lik'd my Auditory, otherwise I omit the Versicles. After the Creed, and instead of the Letany and the other Prayers appointed in the Book, I have taken the substance of the Prayer I was wont to make before Sermon, and dispos'd it into several Collects or Prayers, some longer and some shorter, but new modell'd into the language of the Common Prayer Book much more than it was before. And in the Pulpit, before Sermon I use only a short Prayer in reference to the hearing of the Word, and no more. So that upon the matter, in these Prayers I do but the same thing I did before, save only that what before I spake without Book, and in a continued Form in the Pulpit, I now read out of a written Book broken into parcels, and in the reading Desk or Pue. Between which Prayers and the singing Psalms before the Sermon, I do also daily use one other Collect, of which sort I have for the purpose compos'd sundry, made up also (as the former) for the most part out of the Church Collects, with some little enlargement or variation; as namely, the Collects Adventual, Quadragesimal, Paschal, or Pentecostal, for their proper seasons; and at other times Collects of a more general nature, as for Pardon, Repentance, Grace, &c. And after one or more of them in the Forenoon, I usually repeat the Ten Commandements, with a short Collect after them for Grace to enable us to keep them.
This hath been my practice, and is like still to be, unless some happy Change of Affairs restore us the liberty of using the old way again, or it be made appear to my Understanding by some able charitable Friend, That I therein have done otherwise then I ought to have done: For I may say, that I have not yet met with any thing in Discourse, either with my own Reason or others, of sufficient strength to convince me that I have done any thing, but what may stand with the Principles as well of Christian Simplicity as Prudence.
There are but three things, that I know of, that are of any consideration oppos'd, viz.
1. The Obligation of the Laws.
2. The Scandal of the Example.
3. The unseemly symbolizing at least with Schismaticks, if not partaking with them in the Schism.