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Parentalia, or, memoirs of the family of the Wrens : Viz. of Mathew Bishop of Ely, Christopher Dean of Windsor, &c. but chiefly of Sir Christopher Wren ... in which is contained, besides his works, a great number of original papers and records on religion, politicks, anatomy, mathematicks, architecture, antiquities ... / comp. by his son Christopher; now published by his grandson Stephen Wren
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THE LIFE OF

alienated from repairing unto divine Service, and the holy Sacraments, becausethe Surplice is worn in the executing thereof. For it cannot be conceived,but that the same Garments must naturally have the lame Operation in allplaces of the Church, which it hath in one, and in every part of the Minister’sFunction, which it hath in any. And if it be so, then he humbly conceiveththat it is not the Garment indeed, but their own Conceit that is in the Fault;which will needs fancy to themselves those uncertain Suspicions, Fears andUmbrages, whereof if ever there had been any Probability fas there neverwas, when this Stitch against it, was of old taken) yet now very Track ofTime hath worn them all out.

He therefore faith, that what was herein directed by him, was done uponthese Grounds.

1. For Decency and Convenience j otherwise the Minister being in hisSurplice unto the End of the Nicene Creed, after which the Sermon is tofollow; and after the Sermon, being again to finish the Morning-service in hisSurplice : such putting of the Surplice off to go to the Pulpit, and putting ofit on again, when he comes from the Pulpit, would not only create Lois ofTime and too great a Pause in the divine Administration, but would also be-get vain Surmises in the People’s Minds, neither of which could be, if hekept it still on.

2. For an Uniformity to all other Persons, Places and Times, the ReverendBishops as well in preaching, as in all other divine Offices, ever have worn,and still do wear their Rockets. In Colleges also, and in the cathedral andcollegiate Churches, the Fellows, Canons, and Prebends do ordinarily preachin their Surplices; and that in Parish Churches also they did preach in themin Q. Elizabeth’ s Time, appears by that Complaint thereof cited by Mr. Hooker[We judge it unfit and inconvenient, as oft as we pray or preach so arrayed,p. 247.] viz. with a Surplice on.

3. For Conformity to the Law itself. For the Rubrick before the MorningPrayer faith, and emphatically setteth it on, which here is to be noted,That the Minister at the Time of the Communion, and at all other Times inhis Ministration, shall use such Ornaments in the Church, as were in Use inthe second Year of K. Edward the Vlth. But that the Priest was in thoseTimes to wear a Surplice, appears by the Liturgy of that Year [F. 120 B.]Will they then fay, that they which be permitted to administer either theWord or the Sacraments, (as they are stiled in Q. Eliz. Injunctions 29. in theMinistry of the Word, that is, in preaching) are not in Execution of partof their Ministration ? For if they be, then are they to wear the Surplice,by the Rule above alledged. But if they fay, they be not, in so sayingthey contradict not only those which make preaching the chiefest part oftheir Ministry, but also the whole Opinion of the first Reformers. For soBishop Cox ranks the Offices of the Minister [at the time of Common-prayer,Preaching, and other Service of God. Injuntl. 2. 8.] which Words are takenout of the Act of Parliament for Uniformity of 1. Eliz. And by our Ru-brick before the Offertory, the Sermon is brought in as a part of the di-vine Service, no less than the Epistle or the Gospel, or the Lessons were : atall which the Surplice might as reasonably be put off as at the Sermon ; notto fay, if the Sermon be no part of the divine Service, what docs it thenin the Church? especially within the Time of divine Service.

To the wearing of their Hoods, this Defendant answereth, that he sol-low’d therein the Directions of the Canons 58. and 74. of Jacobi!. And asto that which is alledged touching the Parish of Knat’s Hall , he faith, thathe believeth it not, much less knoweth he any thing thereof. And hehumbly conceiveth, that by the Rule of Christianity, they which informed2 the