The primitive rule of Reformation according to the first liturgy of K. Edward VI, 1549 containing an extract of the same, so far as it is Popishly affected : together with several honourable testimonials thereof from church and state, of that, and of succeeding ages : as also the wishes of several churches and chuchmen of the Reformation, for restoring the said liturgy in parts.

For Invocation of Angels.

O ye Blessed Spirits, ye are ever by me, ever with me, ever about me: I do as good as see you, for I know you to be here; I reverence your Glo∣rious Persons, I Bless God for you; I walk Aw∣fully, because I am ever in your Eyes: I walk Con∣fidently, because I am ever in your Hands. How should I be asham'd, that in this piece of Theolo∣gy I should be out-bid by very Turks, (citing Blunt's Voyage to the Levant in the Margent,) whose Priests shut up their Devotions with an Appreca∣tory, mention of your Presence; as if this were the up-shot of all Blessings; I am sure it is that, wherein next to my God and Saviour, I shall ever place my greatest Comfort and Confidence; neither has Earth or Heaven any other besides, that looks like it. So Bishop Hall in his Treatise of the In∣visible World. l. 1. Sect. 3.

Again, This Devotion we do gladly profess to owe to good Angels (he speaks here in the Name of his Church) that though we do not Pray unto them, yet we do Pray to God for the Favour of their Assistance and Protection; and Praise God for the Protection that we have from them. That Faithful Patriarch, of whom the whole Church of God receives Denomination, knew what he said, when he gave this Blessing to his Grand-Children: The Angel that Redemed me from all Evil, Bless the Children. Whether this were an interpreta∣tive kind of Imploration, as Becanus and Lorichius

contend; or whether (as it is no less Probable) this Angel were not any Created Power, but the great Angel of the Covenant, the same which Ja∣cob wrestled with before, for a Blessing upon Him∣self; as S. Athanasius and Cyril well conceive it, I will not here dispute. Sure I am, if it were an implicite Prayer, and the Angel mention'd a Crea∣ture (it seems he is not sure of the Contrary) yet the Intention was no other then to Terminate that Prayer to God, who Blesses us by his Angel (which is a kind of Popish Logick, in behalf of a Popish Practice.) He proceeds, — yet further, we come short of our Duty to these Blessed Spirits (says he) if we entertain not in our hearts an high and vene∣rable Conceit of their wonderful Majesty, Glory and Greatness, and an awful acknowledgement and reverential Awe of their Presence; an Holy Joy to do ought that might Cause them, to turn away their Faces in Dislike from us. Thus the same Bishop, Sect. 9. of the same Book.

But because the Devotion to Angels is an imme∣diate Consequence of the Doctrine of Guardian Angels, as being but a grateful Acknowledgement of the same. Instead of the Sense of a single Bishop, take that of the whole Church of England; so far as it appears from her present Liturgy; where all the Alterations and Reviews notwithstanding, the Col∣lect for Michaelmass-day, is with no greater Diffe∣rence, or Variation from that in the Missal, than follows.