16 T H E L I F E O F
,c Surely, if it be decent and fit for God’s Service, it may stand so (if Autho-" rity please) in any Church : But if it advance, or usher in any Superstition" and Popery, it ought to stand so in none. Nor hath any King’s Chapel" any Prerogative (if that may be call’d one) above any ordinary Church to“ disserve God in, by any superstitious Rites.
“ Secondly , this appears by the Canon, or Rule of the Church of England" too, for it is plain in the last Injunction of the Queen j that the holy Table“ ought to stand at the upper End of the Choir, North and South, or Altar-
" wife ; for the Words of the Queen’s Injunctions arc these :- The holy
" Stable in every Church (mark it, I pray, not in the Royal Chapel, or Cathe-" drals only, but in every Church) Jhall be decently made, and set in the Place“ where the Altar flood. Now the Altar stood at the upper End of the Choir,“ North and South, as appears before by the Practice of the Church. And" there to set it otherwise, is to set it cross the Place, not in the Place where" the Altar stood ; And so jlulti dum vitant vitia, weak Men run into one" Superstition, while they would avoid another; for they run upon the Su-" perstition of the Cross, while they seek to avoid the Superstition of the" Altar. So you see, here is neither Popery nor Innovation in all the Practice" of Queen Elizabeth, or since.
Ru(Worth, " And once more, before I leave the Holy 'Table, Name, and Sthing, give me
t- l29 ‘ " leave to put you in Mind, that there is no Danger at all in the Altar, Name,
" or Thing. For, at the Beginning of the Reformation, though there was" a Law for the taking down of the Altars, and setting up of Holy Tables in" in the room of them, yet in some Places the Altars were not suddenlyInjunct. ult. " removed. And what says the Queen in her Injunction to this ? Why, she" says, That there seems no Matter of great Moment in this, saving for Uni~" formity, and the better Imitation of the Law in that Behalf.
" Therefore for any Danger or Hurt that was in the Altar, Name or Thing," they might have been left standing, but for Uniformity, and the Imitation." of the Law.
“ But howsoever, it follows in the same Injunction, That when the Altar" is taken down, the holy Table fJjall be jet in (not cross) the Place where the" Altar flood ; which (as is aforesaid) must needs be Altar-wise.
" The Objection and Offence concerning kneeling, bowing , or doing Re-" verence at Church, or at our nearer Approaches to the Communion-Table ," construed to be Idolatry, and the worshiping the holy Table, or God knows" what f the Archbishop thus answer'd, in the Spirit of holy Wisdom.p. , 2 j. " First, That God forbid we should worship any Thing but God him-
“ self.
“ Secondly, That if to worship God when we enter into his House, or ap-" proach his Altar, be an Innovation, it is a very old one.
" Yov Moses did Reverence at the very Door of the Tabernacle, Numb. xx. 6." Hezekiah, and all that were present with him, when they had made an end“ of offering, bowed and worfnped. (2 Chron. xxix. 29.) David calls the" People to it with a Venite, 0 come let us worfjip, and Jail down , and" kneel before the Lord our Maker, (Psalm 95.) And in all these Places (I pray" mark it) it is bodily Worship,
“ Nor can they fay, that this was Juddical Worship, and not to be imi-" tated : For long before Judaism began, Bethel, the House of God was a" Place of Reverence, {Gen. xxviii. 17, &c.) Therefore certainly, of, and" to God.
“ And after Juddical Worship ended, venite, adoremus, as far upwards" as there is any Track of a Liturgy, was the Introitus of the Priest all the" Latin Church over.
And