THE LIFE OF

Wherefore, to advance, not blind Superstition, but Holiness and christianDevotion, these Things he aimed at by the Particulars of that Enquiry. First,that in God’s House, by the observing of due Order and outward Comeliness,Men might be put in Mind of the Beauty of inward Holiness. Secondly,that God’s House being ordained for an House of Prayer, the People mighthave an Opportunity (and not any Impediment) to put themselves into thePosture of Prayer, to kneel down and humble themselves in God’s Service.Thirdly, that as much as might be with Convenience, they might look, orturn their Faces all one Way. A thing (as he humbly conceiveth) very ex-pedient, because otherwise Mens Devotions are much disturbed by gazing inone another’s Faces at Prayer; which hath begotten an unseemly Custom inmany, to hide their Eyes with their Hands, or to hold their Hats before theirFaces, as if they were alhamed of the Worship of God.

Upon that Supposition then, that to avoid this Inconvenience, and to pro-mote Uniformity, it would be fitting, that when Seats are hereafter to be made,or alter’d, to order them so, as that the People (as far as Convenience wouldpermit, might kneel all one and the same way ; which way was sit then tochuse, of East, West, North, and South, but Eastward. For hath not allChrijlendom generally observed it, from the Beginning, in the building ofChurches towards the East in all Nations ? Although by so doing they did that,which the Heathen had done before them in the building of their idolatrousTemples ; and contrary to that which the Jews had ever observed, who intheir time were the true Church of God. It was also the constant Observationof the Primitive Church in the Time of Prayer, to kneel towards the East[Ad Orient em convertimus , fays Gregory NyJJen, bib. de Or at. and St. Au~guflin , Lib. ii. de Serin. Dom. Cap. 19. Ad Orientem adoramus , fays Atha-nqjius, ^uæst. Necef. 14. Sp'eclamus Orientem cum precamur , fays St. Basil\Lib. de Spir. Cap. 27. Epiphanius y Lib. I. Lorn. I. Cap. 19.] And that itwas so accustomed here in England , after the Reformation, appears by the an-cient Forms of their Seats in many Churches, and by Mr. Cartwrighf s Com-plaint, that the Minister at Prayer was in the Chancel with his Back to thePeople : And by the Rubrick before Le Deum, appointing the Minister, whenhe reads the Lessons, to stand and turn himself so as he may best be heard.

This Defendant therefore could have no other Intention in that Enquiry butthis, that the East being the highest End of the Church, and the holy Tablestanding there, by kneeling all that way, People would give no Offence orDisturbance to one another, and would also the better hear and see, what theMinister said and did in his Administration.

And to the lame Purpose, that in the Time of the holy Communion MensThoughts might be less disturbed with other Objects, and the Minister him-self, and his Administration be less liable to Disturbance; and the Place itselfbe freer for that holy Service, and for Access of the Communicants, he enquiredwhether any Seats were above the Table, or up even with it, as holding it a thing,in his own Judgment, under Correction, for divers Causes very unfitting.

.To the Fifth Article, this Defendant answereth and denieth, that he en-joined the Minister, after some Part of the Morning-prayer, to go to the Tableset altarwise, as ma more holy Place: For he always accounted it to be table-wise, and. all Parts of the Church to be alike holy.

But this he faith, that the Church by Law hath directed several Parts ofthe divine Service to be executed in several Parts.and Places of the Church,As Baptism to be given at the Font, [ Rubrick before Baptism .] Matrimonyto begin in the Body of the Church. [Rubrick before Matrimony ,] and to befinished at the Lord’s Table, [ Rubrick after the Blejing .] The Order ofBurial to begin at the Church Style, and so to proceed either into the Church,

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