Appendix to These commissioners had several meetings at the SaIntroduct. voy, but all to very little purpose; the Presbyterians heaped together all the old scruples that the Puritans had for above a hundred years been raising against the Liturgy, and, as if they were not enough, swelling the number of them with many new ones of their own. To these, one and all, they demand compliance on the Church side, and will hear of no contradiction even in the minutest circumstances. But the completest piece of assurance was the behaviour of Baxter, who (though the King's commission gave them no farther power, than to compare the Common Prayer Book with the most ancient Liturgies that had been used in the Church, in the most primitive and purest times; requiring them to avoid, as much as possible, all unnecessary alterations of the Forms and Liturgy, wherewith the people were altogether acquainted, and had so long received in the Church of England) would not so much as allow that our Liturgy was capable of amendment, but confidently pretended to compose a new one of his own; and, without any regard to any other Liturgy whatsoever, either modern or ancient, amassed together a dull, tedious, crude, and indigested heap of stuff; which, together with the rest of the Commissioners on the Presbyterian side, he had the insolence to offer to the Bishops, to be received and established in the room of the Liturgy. Such usage as this, we may reasonably think, must draw the disdain and contempt of all that were concerned for the Church. So that the conference broke up, without any thing done, except that some particular alterations. were proposed by the episcopal divines, which, the May following, were considered and agreed to by the whole Clergy in Convocation. The principal of them were, that several lessons in the calendar were changed for others more proper for the days; the prayers for particular occasions were disjoined from the Litany, and the two prayers to be used in the Ember-weeks, the prayer for the Parliament, that for all conditions of men, and the general: thanksgiving, were added: several of the collects were altered, the epistles and gospels were taken out of the last translation of the Bible, being read before according to the old translation: the office for baptism of those of riper duction to his Defence of the Doc- therefore I suppose he was left out of the copy of the commission in 1661, by the printer's mistake, and that from thence Dr. Nichols and Mr. Collier might continue the omission. to years, and the forms of prayer to be used at sea, were Appendix added78. In a word, the whole Liturgy was then brought to that state in which it now stands; and was unani- Introduct. mously subscribed by both houses of Convocation, of both Provinces, on Friday the 20th of December 1661. And being brought to the house of Lords the March following, both houses very readily passed an act for its establishment; and the Earl of Clarendon, then high Chancellor of England, was ordered to return the thanks of the Lords to the Bishops and Clergy of both Provinces, for the great care and industry shewn in the review of it. our Li a civil Thus have I given a brief historical account of the first The comcompiling the Book of Common Prayer, and of the seve- piling of ral reviews that were afterwards taken of it by our Bishops turgy, &c. and Convocations: one end of which was, that so "who- done by an "soever will may easily see (as Bishop Sparrow shews on ecclesiasti"a like79 occasion) the notorious slander which some of cal, and not "the Roman persuasion have endeavoured to cast upon power. "our Church, viz. That her reformation hath been alto"gether lay and parliamentary." For it appears by the proceedings observed in the reformation of the service of the church, that this reformation was regularly made by the Bishops and Clergy in their provincial synods; the King and Parliament only establishing by the civil sanction what was there done by ecclesiastical authority. "It was indeed (as my Lord Bishop of Sarum has excellently well ob"served 8°) confirmed by the authority of Parliament, and "there was good reason to desire that, to give it the force "of a law; but the authority of [the book and] those "changes is wholly to be derived from the Convocation, 66 who only consulted about them and made them. And "the Parliament did take that care in the enacting them, "that might shew they did only add the force of a law to "them: for in passing them it was ordered, that the Book "of Common Prayer and Ordination should only be read ❝ over, (and even that was carried upon some debate; for "many, as I have been told, moved that the book should "be added to the act, as it was sent to the Parliament "from the Convocation, without ever reading it; but that "seemed indecent and too implicit to others,) and there "was no change made in a tittle by Parliament. So that "they only enacted by a law what the Convocation had 78 For a more particular account of what was done in this review, see the Preface to the Common Prayer Book. 79 Preface to his Collection of Articles, &c. towards the end. 80 Vindication of Ordinations of the Church of England, p. 53, 54. Introduct. 66 Appendix "done." And therefore, as his Lordship says in another to place", "As it were a great scandal on the first general councils to say, that they had no authority for what they did, but what they derived from the civil power; so is it no less unjust to say, because the Parliament impowered (I suppose his Lordship means approved) some persons to draw up forms for the more pure administra❝tion of the sacraments, and enacted that these only should "be lawfully used in this realm, which is the civil sanc"tion; that therefore these persons had no other autho"rity for what they did. Was it ever heard of that the "civil sanction, which only makes any constitution to "have the force of a law, gives it any other authority "than a civil one? The Prelates and other Divines, "that compiled [these forms,] did it by virtue of the au"thority they had from Christ, as pastors of his church; "which did impower them to teach the people the "pure word of God, and to administer the sacraments, "and to perform all holy functions, according to the "Scripture, the practice of the primitive church, and the "rules of expediency and reason; and this they ought to "have done, though the civil power had opposed it in "which case their duty had been to have submitted to "whatever severities and persecutions they might have "been put to for the name of Christ, or the truth of his "Gospel. But on the other hand, when it pleased God 66 to turn the hearts of those which had the chief power, "to set forward this good work; then they did, as they "ought, with all thankfulness acknowledge so great a "blessing, and accept and improve the authority of the "civil power, for adding the sanction of a law to the re"formation, in all the parts and branches of it. So by the authority they derived from Christ, and the warrant they "had by the Scripture and the primitive Church, these "Prelates and Divines made those alterations and changes "in the ordinal; and the King and the Parliament, who "are vested with the supreme legislative power, added "their authority to them, to make them obligatory on "the subjects." These excellent words of this right reverend Prelate are a full and complete answer to the Romanists' cavil of the lay original of our Liturgy. And I cannot but wonder, that others, who have wrote exceeding well on the Common Prayer Book, have not been careful to obviate this objection; but have indeed rather 81 P. 74, 75. to given occasion for it, by intimating as if the Book of Appendix Common Prayer had been compiled by some persons only Introduct. by virtue and authority of the King's commission: whereas it was indeed a committee of the two houses of Convocation, and the book was revised and authorized by the whole synod, and in a synodical way, before it received the civil sanction from the King and Parliament. And for this reason I have given a true account of this matter, that others who are led away by Erastian principles, and think that the civil magistrate only has authority in matters of religion, may be convinced that this is not agreeable to the doctrine of our Church; who declares in her twentieth article, that the Church (that is, the ecclesiastical governors, the Bishops and their Presbyters; for there may be a church where there is no Christian civil magistrate) hath power to decree rites and ceremonies and authority in matters of faith: and affirms again in the thirtyseventh article, that where we attribute to the Queen's Majesty the chief government, we give not to our Princes the ministering either of God's word, or of the Sacraments; but that only prerogative, which we see to have been given always to all godly Princes in holy Scripture by God himself; that is, that they should rule all estates and degrees committed to their charge by God, whether they be ecclesiastical or temporal, and restrain with the CIVIL sword the stubborn and evil doers. Our Liturgy was therefore first established by the Convocations or provincial Synods of the realm, and thereby became obligatory in foro conscientiæ; and was then confirmed and ratified by the supreme Magistrate in Parliament, and so also became obligatory in foro civili. It has therefore all authority both ecclesiastical and civil. As it is established by ecclesiastical authority, those who separate themselves and set up another form of worship are Schismatics; and consequently are guilty of a damnable sin, which no toleration granted by the civil magistrate can authorize or justify. But as it is settled by act of Parliament, the separating from it is only an offence against the state; and as such may be pardoned by the state. The act of toleration therefore (as it is called) has freed the Dissenters from being offenders against the state, notwithstanding their separation from the worship prescribed by the Liturgy but it by no means excuses or can excuse them from the schism they have made in the church; they are still guilty of that sin, and will be so as long as they separate, notwithstanding any temporal authority to indemnify them. D Appendix to And here I designed to have put an end to the IntroIntroduct. duction; but having in the first part of it vindicated the use of Liturgies in general, and in this Appendix given an historical account of our own; I think I cannot more properly conclude the whole than with Dr. Comber's excellent and just encomium of the latter; by which the reader will, I doubt not, be very well entertained, and perhaps be rendered more inquisitive after those excellencies and beauties which are here mentioned, and which it is one chief design of the following treatise to shew. In hopes of this therefore, I shall here transcribe the very words of the reverend and learned author. A character of our Liturgy. "Though all churches in the world, saith he 82, have "and ever had forms of prayer; yet none was ever blessed "with so comprehensive, so exact, and so inoffensive a "composure as ours: which is so judiciously contrived, "that the wisest may exercise at once their knowledge "and devotion; and yet so plain, that the most ignorant may pray with understanding: so full, that nothing is "omitted which is fit to be asked in public; and so par"ticular, that it compriseth most things which we would "ask in private; and yet so short, as not to tire any that "hath true devotion: its doctrine is pure and primitive; "its ceremonies so few and innocent, that most of the "Christian world agree in them: its method is exact and "natural; its language significant and perspicuous; most "of the words and phrases being taken out of the holy "Scriptures, and the rest are the expressions of the first and "purest ages; so that whoever takes exception at these "must quarrel with the language of the Holy Ghost, and "fall out with the church in her greatest innocence: and "in the opinion of the most impartial and excellent Gro"tius, (who was no member of, nor had any obligation to, "this church,) the English Liturgy comes so near to the "primitive pattern, that none of the reformed churches can compare with it 83. "And if any thing external be needful to recommend "that which is so glorious within; we may add that the Compilers were [most of them] men of great piety and "learning; [and several of them] either martyrs or con"fessors upon the restitution of Popery; which as it de"clares their piety, so doth the judicious digesting of these prayers evidence their learning. For therein a scholar 66 may discern close logic, pleasing rhetoric, pure divinity, 82 Dr. Comber's preface, p. 4. of the fol. edit. 83 Grotius Ep. ad Boet. |