LIX. EXCEPTIONS AGAINST THE BOOK OF Common Prayer.  
May 28th 1644  
THe Book of Common Prayer containeth in it, sundry things that are contrary to the Word of God; For,  

1. It appointeth a Liturgy which in the whold matter and form thereof, is too like unto the Mass-book.  
2. It appointeth a Liturgy which by the length thereof, doth in many Congregations ofttimes necessarily shut out Preaching, viz. When Baptism, the Communion, Marrying, Churching and Burial concer altogether (as oft times they do) in great Congregations.  
3. It approveth of a ministry as lawful which wanteth ability to preach.  
4 It containeth in it sundry popish errors, or such things (at least) as tend strongly to the maintenance of popish superstition. As, 

1. The minister of the Gospel is throughout the book, call●d Priest.  
2. It commands the observation of many Holidays, and requireth the minister to bid them, and preferreth them (in some sort) before the Lord's day, For the ordinary Lessons appointed in the Calendar for the Lords day, must give place to the proper Lessons of that holiday that falls on the Lord's day, and Athanasius Creed is appointed to be read only upon certain Holy days.  
3. It appointeth Saints Eves to be kept as fasting days, and commandeth the Minister to bid the●rso.  
4. It appointeth the time of Lent to be kept as a religious fast, and pervetteth both the example of Christ's fast, and sundry other places of Scripture, to the justifying thereof. It prescribeth a special service for the first day of Lent, and appointeth the Commination and other special prayers and exhortations tending to repentance, to be read upon that day only, and it affirmeth that, It was a godly discipline in the Primative Church, (the restoring whereof is much to be wished) that notorious sinners at the beginning of Lent, were put to open Penance.  
5. The week before Easter only of all the weeks in the year, hath prescript service appointed with Epistles and Gospels for every day, as solemn, as the holy days are wont to have.  
6. The Friday before Easter is called Good Friday, and hath three special Collects appointed for it, as hath no one day of the year besides.  
7. It commandeth every Parishioner shall receive the Communion at Easter.  
8. It appointeth the Congregation to pray that God would give them that, which their prayers dare not presume to ask.  
9 The Catechism (in delivering the number of the Sacraments) saith, there are two only as generally necessary to salvation.  
10. Theminister (as if Baptism were of absolute necessity) is allowed not only to Baptzie in private, but to use the words of Institution, and the element, though he have not so much time as to say the Lords Prayer.  
11. The Minister is allowed and directed to administer the Communion to one sick of the Plague, though there be not one more to communicate with him.  
12. Interrogatories in Baptism are ministered unto infants (as if repentance and faith were requisite in them, before they may be baptised) and it is said in the Catechism, That Infants perform faith and repentance by the Sureties who promise and vow them in their names.  
13. Every child baptised as if out ward Baptism did conset grace to all that receive it) is said to be regenerate and in the Catechism it is said, that we are by Baptism made the children of grace, and (in the Rubric immediately before catechism) that is certain by God's word, that children being baptised have all things necessary for their salvation, and be undoubtedly saved.  
14. The Minister is appointed to command that children be brought to the Bishop to be Consumed, yea none may be admitted to the Commmunion till ●e have b●● Confirmed. In Confirmation children are said to be certified thy the sign of the imposition of the Bishop's hand) of God's favour and gracious goodness towards them. And Confirmation is said to be ministered to them that are baptised, that by imposition of hands and prayer, they may receive strength and defence against all tentations to sin, and the assaults of the w●rld and the devil. Yea confirmation is dignified above Christ's Sacraments, in that none may administer it but a Bishop. And it is said to be administered after the example of the holy Apostles, & warrant thereby.  
16. It saith that Matrimony doth signify unto us the mystical union betwixt Christ and his Church, and that God did consecrate the state of Matrimony to such an excellent mystery, that it is signified and represented the spiritual marriage and unity between Christ and his Church. And the ring in Matrimony is appointed to be laid on the Book, and the Priest to take it and deliver it to the man, and to teach him to say thus, With this Ring I thee wed, etc. And the priest is appointed in his prayer unto God to say, That the Ring is a token and a pledge of the Covenant and vow made in Marriage.  

16. The Priest is appointed to absolve every sick person (that findeth his conscience troubled with any weighty sin, and maketh special confession of it) in this form, By Christ's authority committed to me, I absolve thee from all thy sins in the name of the Father, etc.  
And in another place the people are appointed to come to the minister to receive the benefit of absolution.   
17. Burial is made a ministerial duty, and a prescript Liturgy is appointed for it to be said at the grave, and we are appointed to pray thus. That God would hasten his kingdom, that we with this our brother, and all other departed in the true faith of thy holy Name, way have our perfect consummation and bliss, both in body and soul.  
18. Churching of women is commanded and made a ministerial duty, and a prescript Liturgy appointed for it, and the woman is appointed to kneel needle to the place where the table stands, and the Priest to stand by her, when he Churcheth her, and that she must offer her accustomed offerings.  
19 Both in that place and else where, in the book, offering days and an Offertory are allowed.  
20. In the Catechism it is said, That the Son of God hath redeemed all mankind, taking that phrase in a larger sensethens for all the Elect, as is evident by the words immediately going before, and following after.    
5. It appointeth sundry things that end directly to the profanation of the holy Sacraments either by prostituting them to unworthy persons, or administering them unreverently. For, 

1. All Priests & Deacons in Collegat Churches are commanded to receive the Communion, every sunday at least.  
2. Every Communicant may choose whether he will give notice of his purpose to receive, till after the beginning of morning prayer on the same day that he is to Communicate.  
3. All new married persons must receive the Communion the same day they are married.  
4. Private Baptism in some cases is allowed to be administered without any prayer, doctrine, or exhortation.    
6. It avoucheth sundry, manifest, and apparent untruths. As 

1. That in the Calendar (so much as may be) the reading of the Scripture is so set forth, that all things might be done in order without breaking of one piece from another.  
2. That nothing (by this book) is ordained to be read, but the very pure word of God the holy Scripture, or that mhich is evidently grounded upon the same.  
3. That this book is so plain and perfect, as that the Curates shall need no other books for their public service, but this book and the Bible, and yet it enjoins him to read Homilies.  
4. That all our Ceremonies pertain to edification, and are apt to stir up the dull mind of man, to the remembrance of his duty to God, by some notable and special signification.  
5. It calleth certain chapters of Esay, jeremy, loel and the Acts, Epistles.  
6. It appoints us to say every day, from Christmas day, to Newyeares' day in a Collect, that Christ was born this day And upon Whitsunday, Monday and Tuesday, God which on this day hast taught, etc.  
7. It affirmeth that Michael (mentioned, Rev. 12.) is a created Angel.  
8. It peremptorily affirmeth sundry things that (if they be not manifestly false) are doubtful. As, 

1. That the Infants whom Herod murdered, were innocents', and Gods witnesses; and that they confessed his praise by dying.  
2. That there are Archangels.  
3. That every one that is buried is a brother, that God hath taken to himself his soul, that we commit his body to the ground in sure and certain hope of resurrection to eternal life.      
8. It appointeth sundry things that bring great disorder and confusion unto the worship of God. As 

1. That the people should say after the Minister, whole sentences of Prayer and Scriputre; yea the Minister one part of the prayer, and the people another. And in sundry parts of the Litany, the people make the prayer, and the minister only directs them what to pray for.  
2. That the Minister is appointed to say some prayers kneeling, some standing, some in one part of the Church, some in another.  
3. That one of the people is allowed, to make the general confession of sins at the Communion in the name of the whole Congregation.  
4. That at some one meeting of the Assembly the Lords prayer is to be repeated eight several times, and Gloria patri twelve times.  
5. That the holy Scriptures are so mangled into shreds and pieces, in the Epistles and Gospels.  
6. That the words of the Institution are to be pronounced and repeated to every several Communicant.  
7. That the Churchwardens are appointed to go about on Communion days to gather the devotion of the people in the midst of divine Service.    
9 It contains sundry things that are ridiculous and absurd, and such as no reasonable sense can be made of; for 

1. It commands the reading of such Homilies as shall hereafter be set forth by public authority.  
2. It commands every parishioner to communicate at Easter, and also to receive the Sacraments and other rit●●.  
3. It ministereth Interogatories to Infants, which their Godfathers answer unto, and saith that Infants perform faith and repentance by their Godfathers.  
4. It appointeth (in some cases) Baptism to be administered conditionally in this form; If thou be not Baptised already, I Baptism thee, in the name of the Father, etc.  
5. It requireth that every husband be taught by the Priest 10 say to his wife (in the solemnisation of Wedlock) With my body Ithee worship.    
20. It contains in it sundry evident contradictions; for 

1. In the 2 Article of the Rubric after the Communion, the Minister is forbidden to celebrate the Communion, except there be a great number to communicate with him, and in the 3 Article of the same Rubric, he is allowed to cilebrate it, if there be but three to communicate with him.  
2. In one place it i● said that, It is thought good to follow the custom of the old Church (in ministering Baptism, but twice a year) so near us convemently may be, and yet elsewhere, it alloweth Baptism to be administered not only every day of the year in public, but also every hour, either of day or night in privatei  
3. In the Catechism it is said, there are but two Sacraments, and in another place the book giveth to confirmation whatsoe●er 〈◊〉 the definition of a Sacrament set down in the Catechism) belongs to the nature and essence of a Sacrament.  
4. In one place it us said, that children should be brought to the Bishop to he confirmed; so soon as they can say the Lords prayer, the Creed, and the ten Commandments; In another it saith, that our custom is agreeable to the usage of the Church in times past, whereby it was ordained, that Confirmation should be ministered to them that are of perfect age.      

London printed for R. B. 1644.   
FINIS.