Moderation a virtue, or, A vindication of the principles and practices of the moderate…Moderation a vertue, or, A vindication of the principles and practices of the moderate…

1. He saith, The place for reading the second Service, is without all doubt, a thing indifferent in its own nature. To this I oppose that a place inconvenient for saying or reading any part of the Service of God is not a thing indifferent; because it is partly what is read to the People for their Edification, and partly the Devotion of the People towards God. If the Communion-Table be fixed Altar-wise, or be not removed from the upper end of the Church, in very many Churches the People cannot hear, and cannot join in Prayer: some have made some such Objection to him, which he doth not remove, and saith, Be it never so inconvenient. This may be debated in a regular way, and the Inconvenience taken away by legal Authority; but for any Parish Curate to judg of the Convenience or Inconvenience of a Law — and thereupon to alter the Law after his own Model, is no less a piece of Insolence, than to take upon him to be King, Bishop and Priest in his own Parish. Whereby we are instructed, that a Minister is to read at the Altar whether the People hear or no, and pray, or not. I know one Doctor that takes leave sometimes of his great Congregation, and goes to the upper end of a Great Chancel, rather like to his private Devotion, than public Worship. But a great Doctor had some respect to the Edification and Devotion of his People, when he set his Man at the Steeple to observe whether he could be heard from the Table over all the Church: to make trial of it, he interrupted his Devotion (as the Story goes for true) and called to his Man by name: Dost thou hear me now? the Servant answers, Yes, very well, then the Minister goes on. Certainly this Doctor thought it was necessary ⟨p. 70⟩the People should hear and be edified, hear and join, and many of us Curates are of the same Mind. This was a Reason in Queen Eliz. Injunctions Anno. 1559. and Can. 82.

1. He saith, The place for reading the second Service, is without all doubt, a thing indifferent in its own nature. To this I oppose that a place inconvenient for saying or reading any part of the Service of God is not a thing indifferent; because it is partly what is read to the People for their Edification, and partly the Devotion of the People towards God. If the Communion-Table be sixed Altar-wise, or be not removed from the upper end of the Church, in very many Churches the People cannot hear, and cannot join in Prayer: some have made some such Objection to him, which he doth not remove, and saith, Be it never so inconvenient. This may be debated in a regular way, and the Inconvenience taken away by legal Authority; but for any Parish Curat to judg of the Convenience or Inconvenience of a Law — and thereupon to alter the Law after his own Model, is no less a piece of Insolence, than to take upon him to be King, Bishop and Priest in his own Parish. Whereby we are instructed, that a Minister is to read at the Altar whether the People hear or no, and pray, or not. I know one Doctor that takes leave sometimes of his great Congregation, and goes to the upper end of a Great Chancel, rather like to his private Devotion, than publick Worship. But a great Doctor had some respect to the Edification and Devotion of his People, when he set his Man at the Steeple to observe whether he could be heard from the Table over all the Church: to make trial of it, he interrupted his Devotion (as the Story goes for true) and called to his Man by name: Dost thou hear me now? the Servant answers, Yes, very well, then the Minister goes on. Certainly this Doctor thought it was necessary