CHAP. traying of their own folly. For in such a case they ought
I. rather to have reverence unto them for their antiquity, if

they will declare themselves to be more studious of unity and
concord, than of innovations and new-fangleness, which (as
much as may be with the true setting forth of Christ's reli-
gion) is always to be eschewed. Furthermore, such shall a
have no just cause with the ceremonies reserved to be
offended. For as those be taken away which were most
abused, and did burden men's consciences without any cause,
so the other that remain, are retained for a discipline and
order, which (upon just causes) may be altered and changed,
and therefore are not to be esteemed equal with God's law. 15
And moreover they be neither dark nor dumb ceremonies,
but are so set forth that every man may understand what
they do mean, and to what use they do serve. So that it is
not like that they in time to come should be abused as the
other have been and in these our doings we condemn no
other nations, nor prescribe any thing but to our own people
only. For we think it convenient that every country should
use such ceremonies as they shall think best, to the setting
forth of God's honour and glory, and to the reducing of the
people to a most perfect and godly living, without error or
superstition. And that they should put away other things,
which from time to time they perceive to be most abused,
as in men's ordinances it often chanceth diversly in divers
countries.

17

ANNOTATIONS

UPON

CHAPTER I.

I.

(A) The necessity of common prayer. And of a book of common prayer, CHA P. ib. Arguments for set forms. Proved to have been used in the three first centuries after Christ. And approved by reformed Churches. (B) Set forms of administering the Sacraments. Proved by primitive practice. (C) Rites and ceremonies fit to be prescribed. (D) Every particular Church hath authority to prescribe set forms and rites. The main ground of uniformity. (E) A necessity of an act for uniformity. (F) The present act a reviver of a former. (G) The parliament did only ratify, not make the alterations. (H) Anciently bishops visited in person. An uniformity of articles commended. (I) The canons 1603, not repugnant to the Act for Uniformity. The power of the civil magistrate in ecclesiastical matters. (K) The occasion of the conference at Hampton Court. (L) The proclamation of King James obligatory to obedience. (M) Our service not taken out of the Mass-Book. (N) The Pye. Several acceptations of the word. (O) [The lessons in the calendar.] (P) Apocryphal lessons lawful to be read. The minister hath liberty to exchange them for canonical Scripture. They are more edifying than many chapters of the canon appointed by the Directory. (Q) The bishops to interpret in doubtful cases. (R) The several degrees of the first Reformation. (S) What meant by the minister saying daily prayer either privately or openly. (T) Ceremonies of human institution lawful. Proved by the several confessions of reformed Churches. (V) Order in the Church of divine institution. Orders to be obeyed, not disputed, where they are not simply unlawful. (W) The Church's prudence and moderation in her first Reformation. (X) Significant ceremonies lawful. (Y) Superstition defined. (Z) Our ceremonies elder than the Mass-Book. Directory, a popish word. (A) Scandal no just exception against our liturgy by the confession of Geneva herself. More scandalized, and more justly by the Directory than our Common Prayer.

Α The Book of Common Prayer.] As God is the first principle and prime efficient of our being, so that very being (of so supereminent a quality) is obligation of the highest importance, for us to defer to Him the greatest honour we possibly

СНАР. Сan.

I.

Objection.

Answer.

That which hath the ordering and disposal of this honour to Him is religion; the most noble, the most proper act of religion is prayer, an act by which we turn tenants to God, and own Him as the donor of "every good and perfect gift." A duty enforced by our Saviour's express command, "Pray always," so He, Luke xviii. 1. "Continually," so His blessed Apostle, 1 Thess. v. 17, that is, levant and couchant, morning and evening, suitable to the diurnal sacrifices in 18 the temple, that at least. A duty dignified with the gift of miracles, exemplified in Elias, Joshua, and many more. Now οὐδὲ εὐχὴ μόνου τοσαύτην δύναμιν ἔχει, πολλῷ μᾶλλον ἡ μετὰ πλήθους, i. e. “ If the solitary prayer of one single supplicant be so operative, what would it do in a full assembly, who combining together, besiege and beset God with their prayers? such a storming of and forcible entry into heaven, being most acceptable to Him," as Tertullian elegantly. Such an advantage hath the public above the private, the Church above the closet: and hence a necessity of common prayer.

But there may be a necessity of common prayer, yet no necessity of a book of common prayer, that is, of a set form. The prayers of the minister, in the congregation, for the congregation, are common prayers; which are prayers conceived, and without book.

Answer. Confessed, such prayers may in some sort be called common prayers, but not so properly as set forms, because the minister who officiateth publicly is but the agent, the representative of the people in their resort to God. Now in arbitrary prayer he cannot so well be called the mouth of the assembly, or said to send up his prayers on their errand, when they are not privy to one syllable he will deliver, when he speaks always his own, not always their sense; in which case the people's Amen should be as arbitrary as is his prayer: and if upon some dislike at either the matter or form, the people think fit to suspend their Amen, what then becomes of the common prayer? Again, in conceived prayer the spirit of the congregation is more stinted than imposed; our concernments, whether temporal or whether spiritual, are very numerous, and require in terminis, to the best of our power, a Chrysostom.

I.

a clear enumeration of them all by the congregation in their CHAP. addresses to God. Commit these particulars to a prescribed form, it will faithfully dictate them again; commit them to memory, impossible it is for her precisely to refund them upon a minute's warning, and where any are omitted, the people's spirits as to those particulars must needs be restrained. Again, arbitrary prayer is not so edifying as a prescript form. When the people are pre-acquainted with and wonted to a set form, better can they accompany the minister all along that sacred exercise with intention of spirit than when he prayeth ex tempore, many words, perhaps sentences, being like to escape audience, either through vocal impediment or local distance. Again, by set forms many mischiefs are prevented, to which conceived prayer stands obnoxious; be the abilities of him who officiateth in an extemporary way never so eminent, yet are they not always the same. As man, subject he is to those familiar incidents, languor of either body or mind, and when either of these possess him, the vigour of his spirit must needs abate, his conceptions become disordered; and it were a sad case that when a congregation assemble to solicit God by public prayer, there should prove a fail in that great duty upon any such common emergency, which mischief is prevented by a prayer always the same. Care also is taken thereby, as the council of Milevis decreed; Ne forte aliquid contra fidem, vel per ignorantiam, vel per minus studium sit compositum. "Lest by chance, either through ignorance or incuriosity, heterodox and unsound tenets be vented:" and the necessity of such a provision these woeful times have sufficiently taught us. Care is taken in all those three particulars, for whose sake Mr. Calvin adviseth it with his valde probo, "I do exceedingly approve of it." First, Ut consulatur quorundam simplicitati et imperitiæ; "That there may be a provision to help the simplicity and unskilfulness of some," that there be praying not toying in the church; that those holy addresses, which should breathe all possible reverence, be not conceited as well as conceived; that all levity and fantastical wanton

b Can. 12.

Epist. Protectori. Geneva, 1575. [Quod ad formulam precum et rituum ecclesiasticorum, valde probo ut certa

illa extet, a qua pastoribus discedere
in functione sua non liceat, tam ut
consulatur, &c.]

I.

CHAP. ness be avoided. Secondly, Ut certius constet ecclesiarum omnium inter se consensus; "That the consent and harmony of parochial churches may the better appear." Thirdly, Ut obviam eatur desultoria quorundam levitati, qui nova- 19 tiones quasdam affectant; "That the capricious giddiness of such who like nothing but changes and innovations be encountered." Upon which and other considerations set forms have ever been esteemed so expedient, as the casting all our public applications to God totally upon occasional and indigested suggestions, cannot but signify a strange humour of singularity, and a practical schism from all holy men in all ages. What the practice of the people of God hath been unto the days of our Saviour, what of the Christians from Constantine to this day, hath been so often proved by very learned champions of our Church, as our adversaries begin to yield this controversy to us. But we are slender gainers by it, for now we are told that after Constantine's time the Church began to gather soil, and that unless we can produce evidence for set forms within the first three hundred years, w we shall not be heard. Well then let that be our present task, which if we be not able to make good, we profess we have much missed our aim. And first we will make our inquisition as early as may be; Acts i. 14, we find the Apostles "all with one accord in prayers and supplications ;" upon which words Chamier", (a man far enough from superstition,) Si orabant una, ergo communis erat omnibus formula: "If they prayed together then they used one set form;" whether such a conclusion be absolutely inferable from the premises of their praying together, I will not here determine; that it will easily flow in upon another account, viz. with consideration had to the circumstance of time, I am prone to believe. Our Saviour was but new ascended, and the Holy Ghost not being yet sent down upon the Apostles, they were not qualified above the rate of other men, and having not yet those extraordinary dispensations of gifts, which were conferred upon them at Pentecost, it is very probable they durst not repose themselves upon unpremeditated suggestions, but used some known form amongst them, most likely such as

d Panstrat. Cathol., lib. 10. cap. xii. Geneva 1626.