THE TOWN OF NEW ROCHELLE. 63 1 



full restoration of ecclesiastical discipline also ; in truth I do not see 

 what England can desire more of you, or your majesty can confer more 

 upon it." a Here are none of those home-bred charges of superstition, 

 idolatry, anti-Christianism, or popery, brought against the liturgy ; but it 

 is owned to be the pure worship of God, purged from the filth and dregs 

 of anti-Christianism. 15 As the poet Cowper well observes : — 



' ' All zeal for reform, which gives offence 

 To peace and charity, is mere pretence." 



But there is one thing which it will not be amiss to mention here, 

 which is, that these seceders not only proscribed the established Liturgy 

 of the Church of England, but altogether discarded the public Liturgy or 

 Form of Prayers and Administration of Sacraments, which all ministers 

 of the French church were obliged to use in their daily service. Calvin 

 gave this advice to the heads of the English Reformation in King Ed- 

 ward's days, and we do not doubt but he took care to put it in practice 

 in his own country: — " As to what concerns a form of prayer and Eccle- 

 siastical rites," says he, " I highly approve of it, that there be a certain 

 form, from which the ministers be not allowed to vary ; that first, some 

 provision may be made to help the simplicity and unskillfulness of some. 

 Secondly, that the consent and harmony of the churches, one with 

 another, may appear; and lastly, that the capricious giddiness and 

 levity of such as affect innovations may be prevented ; to which end 

 I have shown that a catechism will be very useful. Therefore, there 

 ought to be a stated catechism, a stated form of prayer, and administra- 

 tion of the sacraments." 



"If we had no clearer light or evidence concerning the practice of 

 the French Church in this matter," says Bingham, " this were a strong 

 presumption what it must be, considering how great a hand Calvin 

 had in its reformation." But we have most certain and ■ undeniable 

 evidence in the case. Their Book of Discipline in one canon deter- 

 mines the controversy beyond all dispute, (Chap V, Art. 32,) where it 

 says, "If any pastor break the Church's union, or stirs up contention 

 about any point of doctrine or discipline, or about the form of cate- 

 chising or administration of the sacraments, or of our common prayers 

 and celebration of marriage, and conform not to the determination of 

 the Classis, he shall then be suspended from his office, and be further 

 prosecuted by the Provincial or National Synod." Here we see con- 

 formity to the Liturgy and all its parts, as well as to the Confession of 



a Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian Church, vol. viii. 97-8. 



h Mr. Skinner, the grand-father of the late Primus of Scotland, somewhere observes, that 

 Subter-stition is quite as bad as Super-stition. 

 c Calvin Ep. ad. Protector. Angl. p. 4169. Bingham's Antiq. of Ch. vol. viii. B. viii. p. 8T. 



