The Savoy Conference. General Ex ceptions to the Prayer Book. now we should not have our Liturgy so composed as to gain upon the judgments and affection of all those who in the substantials of the Protestant religion are of the same persuasion with ourselves. 3. To omit the repetitions and responsals of the clerk and people, and the alternate reading of the Psalms and Hymns, which cause a confused murmur in the congregation the minister being appointed for the people in all Public Services appertaining to God; and the Holy Scriptures intimating the people's part in public prayer to be only with silence and reverence to attend thereunto, and to declare their consent in the close, by saying Amen. 4. To change the Litany into one solemn prayer.1 5. That there may be nothing in the Liturgy which may seem to countenance the observation of Lent as a religious fast. 6. To omit the religious observation of saints' days. 7. That there may be no such imposition of the Liturgy, as that the exercise of the gift of prayer be totally excluded in any part of Public Worship; and that it may be left to the discretion of the minister to omit part of it, as occasion shall require. 8. That the new translation of the Bible should alone be used in the portions selected in the Prayer Book. 9. That nothing be read in the church for lessons but the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. 10. That no part of the Liturgy be read at the 1 The Litany was disliked for the shortness of the petitions, as were also the Collects; and because the actual prayer is uttered by the people, which was thought not to be so consonant to Scripture, which makes the minister the mouth of the people to God in prayer.' The meaning of 'one solemn prayer' was exemplified by Baxter, who composed such a prayer in his 'Reformation of the Liturgy,' under the title of 'The General Prayer' (Reliq. Liturg. Vol. IV. pp. 36-43), and another form in the Appendix, entitled 'A Larger Litany, or General Prayer: to be used at discretion' (Ibid. pp. 142— 157). communion-table but when the Holy Supper is administered. The Savoy Conference. General Ex the Prayer II. To use the word 'Minister,' and not 'Priest' or ceptions to 'Curate,' and 'Lord's-day' instead of 'Sunday.' 12. To amend the version of metrical Psalms. 13. To alter obsolete words. 14. That no portion of the Old Testament, or of the Acts of the Apostles, be called 'Epistles,' and read as such. 15. To reform the Offices, where the phrase is such as presumes all persons within the communion of the Church to be regenerated, converted, and in an actual state of grace; which, had ecclesiastical discipline been truly and vigorously executed, might be better supposed, but cannot now be rationally admitted. The Bishops reply to this, The Church in her prayers useth no more offensive phrase than St. Paul uses, when he writes to the Corinthians, Galatians, and others, calling them in general the churches of God, sanctified in Christ Jesus, by vocation saints, amongst whom notwithstanding there were many who by their known sins (which the Apostle endeavoured to amend in them) were not properly such, yet he gives the denomination to the whole from the greater part, to whom in charity it was due, and puts the rest in mind what they have by their baptism undertaken to be; and our prayers and the phrase of them surely supposes no more than that they are saints by calling, sanctified in Christ Jesus, by their baptism admitted into Christ's congregation, and so to be reckoned members of that society, till either they shall separate themselves by wilful schism, or be separated by legal excommunication; which they seem earnestly to desire, and so do we. 16. Instead of the short Collects, to have one methodical and entire prayer composed out of many of them. Book. The Savoy Conference. General Ex ceptions to the Prayer Book. 17. The present Liturgy seems defective in forms. of praise and thanksgiving; in consisting very much of general expressions, such as, 'to have our prayers heard, to be kept from all evil, to do God's will:' the Confession does not clearly express original sin, nor sufficiently enumerate actual sins with their aggravations; and there is no preparatory prayer for assistance or acceptance. The Catechism is defective as to many necessary doctrines; some even of the essentials of Christianity not mentioned except in the Creed, and there not so explicit as ought to be in a Catechism. The Bishops reply, There are many Thanksgivings, Te Deum, Benedictus, Magnificat, Benedicite, Glory be to God on high, Therefore with Angels and Archangels, Glory be to the Father, besides occasional Thanksgivings after the Litany, of the frequency whereof themselves elsewhere complain. The use of general expressions, as in confession of sin, is the perfection of the Liturgy, the Offices of which being intended for common and general services, would cease to be such by descending to particulars; the instances of general expressions are almost the very terms of the petitions of the Lord's Prayer. It is an evil custom springing from false doctrine, to use expressions which may lead people to think that original sin is not forgiven in Holy Baptism: yet original sin is clearly acknowledged in confessing that the desires of our own hearts render us miserable by following them, &c. 18. The Surplice, the Cross in Baptism, and Kneeling at the Lord's Supper, are brought forward as the usual instances of ceremonies, judged unwarrantable by sundry learned and pious men, and exposing many orthodox, pious, and peaceable ministers to the displeasure of their rulers. They must be fountains of evil, unless all his Majesty's subjects had the same subtilty of judgment to discern even to a ceremony how far the power extends in the things of God. The following exceptions were taken against par- Exceptions ticular parts of the Prayer Book: They wish the first rubric to be expressed as in the Book of 1552; and the second rubric about vestments and ornaments to be omitted. The doxology to be always added to the Lord's Prayer; and this prayer not to be so often used. The Gloria Patri to be used only once in the Morning, and once in the Evening. Rubric. And to the end the people may the better hear, in such places where they do sing, there shall the Lessons be sung in a plain tune, after the manner of distinct reading and likewise the Epistle and Gospel.' We know no warrant why they should be sung in any place, and conceive that the distinct reading of them with an audible voice tends more to the edification of the Church. The Bishops reply, The rubric directs only such singing as is after the manner of distinct reading, and we never heard of any inconvenience thereby.1 To appoint some Psalm or Scripture hymn instead of the apocryphal Benedicite. In the Litany they object to the expressions, deadly sin, sudden death, and all that travel. To omit the words 'this day,' in the Collect for Christmas Day. Some other Collects were named, 'as having in them divers things that we judge fit to be altered;' some of which were altered, as were also others to which no objection was here raised. The rubric was omitted, when the book was reviewed by Convocation. against particular parts of the Prayer Book. In the Communion Service :— The first rubric had directed intending communicants to 'signify their names to the Curate over-night, or else in the morning afore the beginning of Morning Prayer, or immediately after.' It was objected that this notice was not sufficient; and the rubric was altered to 'at least some time the day before.' They desire that the minister should have a full power to admit or repel communicants. They object to kneeling during the reading of the Commandments, and also to the petition after each Commandment, preferring that the minister should conclude with a suitable prayer. They desire preaching to be more strictly enjoined, and that ministers should not be bound to 'Homilies hereafter to be set forth,' as things which are as yet but future and not in being. They object to the Offertory sentences, that two are apocryphal, and four of them more proper to draw out the people's bounty to their ministers, than their charity to the poor; and to the Offertory itself, that collection for the poor may be better made at or a little before the departing of the communicants. The Exhortation, which was appointed to be read ‘at certain times when the Curate shall see the people negligent to come to the Holy Communion,' is objected to as unseasonable to be read at the Communion. They object to the direction, 'that no man should come to the Holy Communion but with a full trust in God's mercy, and with a quiet conscience,' as likely to discourage many from coming to the Sacrament, who lie under a doubting and troubled conscience. The Bishops reply, Certainly themselves cannot desire that men should come to the Holy Communion with a |