THis rub removed, we now proceed unto a view of such Formes of Worship as have been setled in this Church, since the first dawning of the day of Reformation, in which our Parliaments have indeed done somewhat, though it be not much. The first point which was altered in the publike Liturgies, was that the Creed, the Pater-noster, and the Ten Commandements, were ordered to be said in the English Tongue; to the intent, the people might be perfect in them, and learn them without book, as our phrase is. The next, the setting forth and using of the English Letany, on such dayes and times, in which it was accustomably to be read, as a part of the service. But neither of these two was done by Parliament; nay, (to say truth) the Parliament did nothing in them. All which was done in either of them, was onely by the Kings Authority, by vertue of the Headship or Supremacy, which by way of recognition was vested in him by the Clergy, either co-operating and concurring with them in their Convocations, or else directed and assisted by such learned Prelates, with whom he did advise in matters which concerned the Church, and did relate to Reformation. By vertue of which Headship or Supremacy he ordained the first; and to that end, caused certain Articles or Injunctions to be published by the Lord Cromwel, then his Vicar General, Anno 1536. And by the same did he give order for the second, I mean, for the saying of the Letany in the English Tongue, by his own Royal Proclamation, Anno 1545. For which, consult the Acts and Monuments, fol. 1248, 1312. But these were only preparations to a greater work which was reserved unto the times of K. Edw. 6. In the beginning of whose Reign there passed a statute for the administring the Sacrament in both kindes to any person that should devoutly and humbly desire the same, 1. E. 6. c. 1. In which it is to be observed, that though the statute do declare, that the ministring of the same in both kinds to the people was more agreeable to the first Institution of the said Sacrament, and to the common usage of the primitive Times. Yet Mr. Fox assures us (and we may take his word) that they did build that Declaration, and consequently the Act which was raised upon it, upon the judgment and opinion of the best learned men, whose resolution and advice they followed in it, fol. 1489. And for the Form by which the said most blessed Sacrament was to be delivered to the common people, it was commended to the care of the most grave and learned Bishops, and others, assembled by the King at His Castle of Windsor; who upon long, wise, learned, and deliberate advice did finally agree (saith Fox) upon one godly and uniform Order for receiving of the same, according to the right rule of Scriptures, and the first use of the primitive Church, fol. 1491. Which Order, as it was set forth in print, Anno 1548. with a Proclamation in the name of the King, to give authority thereunto amongst the people so was it recommended by especial Letters writ unto every Bishop, severally from the Lords of the Councel to see the same put in execution; A copy of which Letters you may finde in Fox, fol. 1491. as afore is said.

Hitherto nothing done by Parliament in the Formes of Worship, but in the following year there was For the Protector and the rest of the Kings Councel being fully bent for a Reformation, thought it expedient that one uniform, quiet and godly Order should be had thoroughout the Realm, for Officiating Gods divine Service. And to that end (I use the words of the Act it self) appointed the Archbishop of Canterbury, and certain of the most learned and discreet Bishops, and other learned men of the Realm to meet together, requiring them, that having aswel eye and respect to the most pure and sincere Christian Religion, taught in Scriptures, as to the usages in the Primitive Church, they should draw and make one convenient and meet Order, rite and fashion of Common Prayer, and Administration of Sacraments, to be had and used in this his Majesties Realm of England. Well, what did they being thus assembled? that the Statute tels us: Where it is said, that by the aid of the Holy Ghost (I pray you mark this well) and with one uniform agreement they did conclude upon and set forth an Order, which they delivered to the Kings Higness, in a Book entituled, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, after the use of the Church of England. All this was done before the Parliament did any thing. But what was done by them at last? Why first, considering the most godly travail of the Kings Highness, and the Lord Protector and others of his Highness Councel, in gathering together the said B. and learned men. Secondly, the Godly prayers, Orders, Rites and Ceremonies in the said Book mentioned. Thirdly, the motives and inducements which inclined the aforesaid learned men to alter those things which were altered, and to retain those things which were retained; And finally, taking into consideration the honour of God, and the great quietness which by the grace of God would ensue upon it; they gave his Majesty most hearty and lowely thanks for the same, and most humbly prayed him, that it might be ordained by his Majesty, with the assent of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament, and by authority of the same, that the said Form of Common-prayer and another, after the Feast of Pentecost next following, should be used in all his Majesties Dominions with several penalties to such, as either should deprave or neglect the same. 2. and 3. E. 6. cap. 1. So farre the very words of the Act it self. By which it evidently appeareth, that the two Houses of Parliament did nothing in the present business, but impose that Form upon the people: which by the learned & religious Clergy-men (whom the K. appointed thereunto) was agreed upon, and made it penal unto such as either should deprave the same, or neglect to use it. And thus doth Poulton (no mean Lawyer) understand the Statute, who therfore gives no other title to it in his Abridgement published in the year 1612 than this, The penalty for not using uniformity of Service, and Ministration of the Sacrament. So then the making of one uniform Order of celebrating divine Service, was the work of the Clergy, the making of the Penalties, was the work of the Parliament. Where let me tell you by the way, that the men who were employed in this weighty business (whose names deserve to be continued in perpetual memory) were Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury, George Day Bishop of Chichester, Thomas Goodrich B. of Ely and Lord Chancellour, Iohn Ship Bishop of Hereford, Henry Holbert Bishop of Lincoln, Nicholas Ridley Bishop of Rochester, translated afterwards to London, Thomas Thirleby B. of Westminster, Doctor May Dean of S. Pauls, Dr Taylor (then Dean afterwards) Bp of Lincoln, Dr Haines Dean of Exeter, Dr Robertson afterwards Dean of Durham, Dr Redman Master of Trinity Colledge in Cambridge, and Dr Coke then Almoner to the King, afterward Dean of Westminster, and at last Bp of Ely; men famous in their generations, and the honour of the Age they lived in: And so much for the first Liturgy of King Edwards Reign; in which you see how little was done by authority or power of Parliament, so little, that if it had been less, it had been just nothing. But some exceptions being taken against the Liturgy by some of the preciser sort at home, and by Calvin abroad, the book was brought under a review: and though it had been framed at first (if the Parliament which said so erred not) by the ayd of the Holy Ghost himself; yet to comply with the curiosity of the Ministers and mistakes of the people, rather then for any other weighty cause, As the Statute 5 and 6 Ed. 6. cap. 1. it was thought expedient by the King, with the assent of the Lords and Commons in Parliament assembled, that the said Order of Common Service should be faithfully and godly perused, explained, and made fully perfect.

Perused and explained; by whom? Why, questionless by those who made it; or else, by those (if they were not the same men) who were appointed by the King to draw up, and compose a Form of Ordination for the use of the Church. And this Assent of theirs (for it was no more) was the onely part that was ever acted by the Parliament, in matter of this present nature; save that a Statute passed in the former Parliament 3 and 4 Ed. 6. c. 12. unto this effect, that such form and manner of making and consecrating Archb. Bi-shops, Priests, Deacons, and other Ministers of the Church (which before I spake of) as by sixe Prelates and sixe other men of this Realm, learned in Gods lawes, by the King to be appointed and assigned, shall be devised to that purpose, and set forth under the great Seal, shall be lawfully used and exercised, and none other. Where note, that the King onely was to nominate and appoint the men, the Bishops and other learned men were to make the Book; and that the Parliament in a blinde obedience, or at the least upon a charitable confidence in the integrity of the men so nominated, did confirm that Book, before any of their Members had ever seen it, though afterwards indeed, in the following Parliament, this Book, together with the book of Common-prayer, so printed and explained, obtained a more formal confirmation, as to the use thereof throughout the Kingdom, but in no other respect; for which see the Statute 5 and 6 Ed. 6. c. 1. (As for the time of Qu. Elizabeth, when the Common prayer book now in use (being the same almost with the last of King Edward) was to be brought again into the Church, from whence it was cast out in Queen Maries Reign; it was commited to the care of some learned men; that is to say, to M Whitehead (once Chaplain to Queen Anne Bullen) Dr Parker, after Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Grindal, after bishop of London, Dr Cox, after Bishop of Ely, Dr Pilkington, after Bishop of Durham, Dr May, Dean of Saint Pauls, Dr Bill, Provost of Eaton, after Dean of Westminster, and Sr Tho: Smith. By whom being altered in some few passages which the Statute points to, 1 Eliz. c. 21. it was presented to the Parliament, and by the Parliament received and established without more ado, or troubling any Committee of both or either Houses to consider of it, for ought appears in their Records. All that the Parliament did in it, being to put it into the condition in which it stood before in King Edwards Reign, partly by repealing the Repeal of King Edw. Statutes, made in the first of Q. Mary, c. 2. and partly by the adding of some farther penalties on such as did deprave the book, or neglect to use it, or wilfully did absent themselves from their Parish-Churches. And for the Alterations made in King Iames his time, being small in the Rubrick onely; and for the additions of the Thanksgivings at the end of the Letany, the Prayer for the Queen and the Royal Issue, and the Doctrine of the Sacraments at the end of the Catechisme, which were not in the book before, they were never referred unto the Parliament, but were done onely by authority of the Kings Commission, and stand in force by vertue onely of His Proclamation, which you may finde before the book; the charge of buying the said book so explained and altered, being laid upon the several and respective Parishes, by no other Authority than that of the eightieth Canon, made in Convocation, Anno 1603. The like may also be affirmed of the Formes of prayer for the Inauguration day of our Kings and Queens, the Prayer-books for the fifth of November, and the fifth of August, and those which have been used in all publike Fasts: All which, without the help of Parliaments, have been composed by the Bishops, and imposed by the King.

Now unto this discourse of the Forms of Worship, I shall subjoyn a word or two of the times of Worship, that is to say, the Holy dayes observed in the Church of England; and so observed, that they do owe that observation chiefly to the Churches power. For whereas it was found in the former times, that the number of the holy dayes was grown so great, that they became a burthen to the common people, and a great hinderance to the thrist and manufactures of the Kingdom; there was a Canon made in the Convocation, An. 1536 for cutting off of many superstitious and superfluous Holy dayes, and the reducing them into the number in which they now stand (save that St George's day, and Mary Magdalens day, and all the Festivals of the blessed Virgin had their place amongst them) according to which Canon, there went out a Monitory from the Archbp of Canterbury, to all the Suffragans of his Province, respectively to see the same observed in their several Diocesses, which is still extant on Record. But being the authority of the Church was then in the wane, it was thought necessary to confirm their Acts, and see execution done upon it by the Kings Injunction: which did accordingly come forth with this Form or preamble; That the abolishing of the said holy dayes, was decreed ordained and established by the Kings Highness Authority, as supream Head in earth of the Church of England, with the common consent and assent of the Prelates and Clergy of this his Realm in Convocation lawfully assembled and congregate. Of which see Foxe his Acts and Monuments, fol. 1246, 1247. Afterwards in the year 1541, the King perceiving with what difficulty the people were induced to leave off those Holy days, to which they had been so long accustomed, published his Proclamation of the twenty third of Iuly, for the abolishing of such Holy days (amongst other things) as were prohibited before by his Injunctions: both built upon the same foundation, namely, the resolution of the Clergy in their Convocation.

And so it stood until the Reign of King E. 6. at which time the Reformation of the publick Liturgie drew after it by consequence an alteration in the present businesse, no days being to be kept or accounted holy, but those for which the Church had set apart a peculiar office, and not all those neither: For, whereas there are several and peculiar offices for the day of the Conversion of Saint Paul, and the day of Saint Barnabas the Apostles; neither of these are kept as holy days, nor reckoned or esteemed as such in the Act of Parliament wherein the names and number of the holy days is precisely specified, which makes some think the Act of Parliament to have had an over-ruling power on the Common prayer Book; but it is not so, there being a specification of the holy days in the book it self, with this direction, These to be observed for Holydays, and none other; in which the Feasts of the Conversion of St. Paul, and the Apostle Barnabas are omitted plainly, and upon which specification the Stat. 5 & 6 Ed. 6. cap. 3. which concerns the holy days seems most expresly to be built. And for the Offices on those days in the Common-prayer Booke, you may please to know that every holy day consisteth of two special parts, that is to say, rest or cessation from bodily labour, and celebration of Divine or Religious duties; and that the dayes before remembred are so far kept holy, as to have still their proper and peculiar Offices, which is observed in all the Cathedrals of this Kingdome, and the Chappels Royall, where the Service is read every day; and in most Parish Churches also, as oft as either of them falls upon a Sunday, though the people be not in those days injoined to rest from bodily labour, no more then on the Coronation day, or the fifth of November, which yet are reckoned by the people for a kind of holy days. Put all which hath been said together, and the summe is this; That the proceedings of this Church in the Reformation were not meerly Regall (as it is objected by some Puritans) much lesse that they were Parliamentarian in so great a work, as the Papists falsly charge upon us the Parliaments for the most part doing little in it, but that they were directed in a justifiable way, the work being done Synodically by the Clergy onely, according to the usage of the Primitive times, the King concurring with them, and corroborating what they had resolved on, either by his own single Act in his letters Patent. Proclamations and Injunctions or by some publick Act of State, as in times, and by Acts of Parliament.

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