An account of all the proceedings of the commissioners of both persuasions appointedAn accompt of all the proceedings of the commissioners of both persvvasions appointed

To the most Reverend Archbishop & Bishops, And the Reverend their ASSISTANTS, Commissioned by his Majesty to treat about the Alteration of the Book of COMMON-PRAYER.

Most Reverend Fathers, and Reverend Brethren,

When we received your Papers, and were told that they contained not only an Answer to our Exceptions against the present Liturgy; but also several Concessions, wherein you seem willing to join with us in the Alteration and Reformation of it: Our Expectations were so far raised, as that we promised our selves to find your Concessions so considerable, as would have greatly conduced to the •ealing of our much-to-be-lamented Divisions, the settling of the Nation in Peace, and the satisfaction of tender Consciences, according to his Majesties most gracious Declaration, and his Royal Commission in pursuance thereof: But having taken a survey of them, we find our selves exceedingly disappointed, and that they will fall far short of attaining those happy Ends, for which this Meeting was first designed; as may appear both by the pa• city of the Concessions, and the inconsiderableness of them, they being for the most part Verbal and Literal, rather then Real and Substantial; for in them you allow not the laying aside of the reading of the Apocrypha for Lessons, though it shut out some hundreds of Chapters of Holy Scripture; and sometimes the Scripture it self is made to give way to the Apocryphal Chapters. You plead against the addition of the Doxology ⟨image 23⟩unto the Lords Prayer. You give no liberty to omit the too frequent repetition of Gloria Patri, nor of the Lords Prayer in the same public Service: nor do you yield that the Psalms be read in the new Translation, nor the word [Priest] to be changed for [Minister or Presbyter,] though both have been yielded unto in the Scottish Liturgy. You grant not the omission of the Responsals, no not in the Litany it self, though the Petitions be so framed, as the People make the Prayer, and not the Minister; nor to read the Communion-Service in the Desk, when there is no Communion; but in the late Form instead thereof, it is enjoined to be done at the Table, though there be no Rubric in the Common-Prayer-Book requiring it. You plead for the Holiness of Lent, contrary to the Statute. You indulge not the omission of any one Ceremony. You will force men to kneel at the Sacrament, and yet not put in that excellent Rubric in the v. and vi. of Edw. 6. which would much conduce to the satisfaction of many that scruple it.