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

Repl. We hoped when our desires were delivered in writing,¹ they would have been better observed and understood; we asked not [that no Apocryphal Chapter may be read in the Church] but that none may be read [as Lessons:] For so the Chapters of holy Scripture ⟨p. 56⟩there read are called in the Boo•; and to read them in the same place, under the same Title, without any sufficient note of distinction, or notice given to the People, that they are not Canonical Scripture (they being also bound with our Bibles) is such a temptation to the vulgar to take them for Gods Word, as doth much prevail, and is like to do so still: And when Papists second it with their confident affirmations, that the Apocryphal Books are Canonical, (well refelled by one of you, the R. Reverend Bishop of Durham,) we should not needlessly help on their success. If you cite the Apocrypha as you do other human Writings, or read them as Homilies, (when and where there is reason to read such) we spake not against it. To say that the People are secured by the Churches calling them Apocrypha, is of no force till experience be proved to be disregardable, and till you have proved that the Minister is to tell the People at the reading of ever such Chapter, that it is but Apocryphal, and that the People all understand Greek, so well as to know what Apocryphal signifieth. The more sacred and honourable are these Dictates of the holy Ghost recorded in Scripture, the greater is the sin by reading the Apocrypha, without sufficient distinction to make the People believe, that the Writings of man are the Revelation and Laws of God: And also we speak against the reading of the Apocrypha, as it excludeth much of the Canonical Scriptures, and taketh in such Books in their steads, as are commonly reputed fabulous. By thus much you may see how you lost your Answer by mistaking us, and how much you will sin against God by denying our desires.

Repl. We hoped when our desires were delivered in writing,¹ they would have been better observed and understood; we asked not [that no Apocriphal Chapter may be read in the Church] but that none may be read [as Lessons:] For so the Chapters of holy Scripture ⟨p. 56⟩