Sabaoth Heaven and Earth are full of thy glory Blessed be thou unto all Ages world without End Amen In like manner the Prayer of Consecration which comes next is very agreeablee to that Form which was of most ancient usage The Prayer of Consecration only it is shorter than that old affectionate and devout Prayer wherein they commemorated the wonderful love of God and Christ to an undone world and made mention of his Humility Incarnation Birth Life Miracles Passion Death and Burial then thanked God for the Redemption of the World by these methods of Love and Wisdome then proceeded to the History of this Sacraments Institution using the same words as we do who in the same night that he was betray'd took Bread c. and likewise the Cup saying c. and at last prayed unto the Father of Lights that he would look favourably upon the Elements and send his holy Spirit to Const lib. 8. sanctifie them so that whosoever did partake thereof might be confirmed in Religion and receive remission of sins and be filled with the holy Ghost These things done and all having received they proceeded Post Communion even as we do to a Prayer of Thanksgiving which as we find it in the Book of Constitutions did so resemble for the most part of it that second Prayer after the Communion prescribed in our Liturgy as if it were none other than a Copy and Translation of it After that they used that Angelical Hymn Glory to God on High c. concerning which I cannot but observe the Conjecture of the Learned Dr. Hammond that it is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Hymn View of the Direct in Philopat which Lucian the Heathen Scoffer pointed to when speaking in the person of Triephon who represents the Christian he saith let those words alone beginning your prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Father and adding in the end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that famous Ode or Hymn full of Synonymous and repeated words The Doctor concieves that by the former is intended the Pater Noster with which both now and anciently the Communion-Service was begun and that by the latter is meant that Hymn of ours Glory be to God on high we praise thee we bless thee with which that Service ends having nothing but the Benediction after it which being so powerful and importunate repetition of O Lord God Heavenly King and O Lord God Lamb of God c. is most properly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the notion that it was used in among the Heathen Writers Now if this opinion of Dr. Hammonds be right we have a most pregnant account of the Antiquity of this Hymn because Lucian lived about S. John the Evangelists time but however we find it in Clements Constitutions I have insisted the longer and the more particularly upon the Antiquity of our Service-book to satisfie the World that it was not taken out of the Roman mint neither is a late invention without good Authority and Precedent but that it hath the practice of the Old Apostolical Churches and times to warrant and patronize it however it is new slighted and hated by a sort of people among us who either cannot or will not distinguish between an invaluable Jewel and the dry harsh husk of a sorry Barley-corn I shall conclude this whole matter with that known story of Arch-Bishop Cranmer in the reign of Queen Mary how he offered the Queen if he might be permitted to take unto him Peter Martyr and four or five more to prove that the Communion-office set Foxes's Martyrol Anno 1554 in his purgation out by King Edward the sixth was conformable to that which Christ commanded and which the Apostles and Primitive Church used many years And that the whole Order of Divine Service then used by the Church of England was the same meaning in effect and substance that had been used in the Catholick Church for fifteen hundred years past By what has been said hitherto it doth appear that the Zealous Prelate spake not without good Reason But the Challenge would not be accepted because the Learned sorts of Papists knew that the thing could be made out And though some ignorant and some malicious men among our selves have been pleased to say that our Liturgy was taken out of the Mass-Book yet the most judicious and most unprejudiced Protestants have looked upon it to be as in Truth it is a most strong Bullwark and Fence against Popery And indeed the Papists themselves know it to be so and therefore upon the restoring of Popery in Queen Maries time they did with all haste and fury throw our Excellent Liturgy and the wise Compilers of it into the Fire and surely none but Mad men and Fools would have served their friends so The Antiquity of our Rites Customes and Vsages comes to be confidered in the next place And truely there are some Ecclesiastical Observations which we meet with in the most Ancient Writers of the Greek and Latine Churches of whose Birth and Original I believe the Learnedst men in Christendom cannot shew us the particular time by the help of their best readings nor can they who dislike them shew us when they came first into the Church 1. The first is the use of the Cross especially at the time of Baptism Of the Cross Mercerus Vticensis in his additions to the Hieroglyphicks of Orus Apollo tells us that the Cross among the old Aegyptians was an Emblem of the Life to come What their reason was I Eccl. Hist lib. 11. c. 29. am not to enquire But Ruffinus relates the same thing and moreover tells us that the Aegyptians and especially their Priests who understood their Mysteries best the more willingly embraced the Christian Religion for the Cross sake calling to mind its ancient signification The Ancient Christians though they Min. Fel. never worshipped the Cross yet they used the sign of it as an outward badge of their Profession and all that were received into the Church received this sign upon their foreheads in token that they were not ashamed of a Crucified Saviour 'T is recorded of the Gnosticks those first Hereticks who denied the reality of Christs Incarnation and Passion that they branded their Proselytes with an hot Iron in the upper part of their right ear Iren. lib. 1. and some conjecture that S. Paul restected upon that custome of theirs where he saith that they had Consciences seared with an hot Iron meaning as well as their ears But in all probability this custome was taken up in opposition to the true Christians 1 Tim. 4. 2. who were marked with the sign of the Cross upon their foreheads S. Basil I am sure reckons it in the first place among S. Basil de Spiritu Sanctu c. 27. the Ecclesiastical Constitutions which were derived by Tradition from the holy Apostles and indeed the use of the Cross was so ancient and so
Friday betrayed and on the Friday murther'd sequestred these dayes weekly to their solemn Devotion spending the time in reading of the Scriptures with Prayers Tears Almsdeeds and Fastings from the beginning of the day till three in the afternoon We find continual mention made of these dayes by the Greeks under the Names of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fourth day the preparation the day before the Sabbath or Saturday The Latine Fathers call them generally the Quarta sexta Feria and Tertullian Tertul. de jejunio sometimes stationum Semi-jejunia the stationary half-fasts because their abstinence at this time was not so long as in Lent and on other occasional days of humiliation when they fasted until night And Epiphanius tells us that these dayes were constantly observed all the world over and that the Original of this custome Epiphan lib. 3. adv Haer. Haeres 77. adv Aerium was owing to Apostolick Tradition It is most likely that it was so if any Credit in the World may be given to Antiquity But instead of disputing and quarrelling about that it would be for the Interest of Religion and for the great good of the World if men would buckle in good earnest to that Piety which is humble grave and serious and not give occasion to the old fashioned Christians to tell them that the cross-grain Spirit of Aerius hath undone all and to upbraid them that their Belly is their God and a Kitchin their Church 5. As times of Fasting so days of Festivity and joy were very Anciently kept by the Church for they celebrated not only the weekly day of Christs Resurrection but also the Anniversary day of Easter and the day of the Nativity and of the descent of the holy Festivals V. Euseb Eccl. His l. 5. c. 24. Ghost and indeed all that course of fifty days from Easter to Whitsunday And not those onely but moreover they honoured Cur Pascha celebramus annuo circulo in mense primo cur quinquaginta exinde diebus in omni exultatione decurrimus Tert. adv Psych Martyrum Passiones Dies anniversariâ commemoratione celebramus Cyprian ep 34. v. Pamelii Annotat. Memorias Sanctorum facimus Origne in Joh. lib. 3. Harum sc Innocentium memoria semper ut dignum est in Ecclesiis celebratur secundum integrum ordinem Sanctorum ut primorum Martyrum Id. Hom. 3. in diversos tom 2. p. 282. Oblationes pro Natalitiis annua dii facimus Tertull. de Cor. Mil. those days whereon the holy Martyrs did suffer commemorating their Lives and Sufferings and offering up Thanksgivings to God for their Faith Constancy and good Examples and calling the days of their Martyrdom their Birth-days when they entred into Life Eternal The Church of England in observing this custom doth but follow the steps of the Catholick Church of old And in mine opinion men do greatly wound the Protestant Cause when they call this and other ancient Customs by the names of Popery and Superstition For they do the Church of Rome too much honour in calling things which are ancient and Catholick Popery We know that Popery is of a late and a base Extraction and this hath abundantly been proved by Church of England-men And how do the Dissenters contradict us and justifie the Romanists when they say that this and that Observation whatever is laudable ancient and of Catholick usage is Popery Herein they befriend the Pope and give Arguments and Encouragements to the Papists more than perhaps they are aware of 6. We are required in the time of Sacred Ministrations to be clothed with a white Vesture This forsooth giveth much Surplice offence and is a great eye-sore to some now And yet for many hundreds of years before it was not offensive when men had very good eyes and Consciences too that were very tender but not galled The old Fathers startled at the very name of Perjury Rebellion and Dishonesty but they were not frighted at the sight of a Surplice but lookt upon it as a decent Habit and fit to be used in Ministerial Offices because it did resemble those Robes wherein the Angels those Ministring Spirits were wont to appear This is clear that the custom of wearing a white Garment in time of Divine-Service and S. Hieron Com. in Ezek. 44. lib. 1. adv Pelag. S. Chrys Hom. 60. ad pop Antioch Clem. Const lib. 8. especially at the Administration of the Sacrament is as old as St. Hierom in the Latin Churches and as St. Chrysostom in the Greek and that is 1300 years ago and in the most flourishing times of the Church It may be much older for ought we know to the contrary however I am sure that there is more to be said for its Antiquity than can with reason be pleaded against its Vse 7. Our standing up at the reading of the Holy Gospel is an act Standing at the Gospel Expressive of our great Reverence unto it and Significative of our Readiness to observe and obey it And questionless this Custom was originally derived from the Jews as many other Christian Customs were for at the reading of the Law this posture was used by the Congregation Ezra opened the Book in the sight of all the people for he was above all the people and when he opened it all the people stood up Nehem. 8. 5. Now seeing it was more reasonable for Christians to do Honour unto Christ than for the Jews to do it unto Moses it came to be an universal Custom even from the beginning to stand Durant de Rit lib. 2. c. 23. Constit Apost lib. 2. c. 57. up at the hearing of our Saviours Doctrine and Life and to bless God for it So the Apostolical Constitutions require When the Gospel is read let the Presbyters and Deacons and all the people stand with all quietness for it is written Hear O Israel and keep silence And accordingly St. Chrysostome witnesseth S. Chrysost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that when the Deacon opened the Book of the Gospel and began to read they all stood up and cryed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glory be to thee O Lord. 8. It is order'd by our Church that for persons to be Baptiz'd there shall be Sureties whose Office it is to call upon Sureties them to hear Sermons to see them Catechiz'd and vertuously brought up And surely by the Laws of our Religion every man is to be his brothers Keeper And what these Sureties do binde themselves to by a Particular and Personal Obligation every Neighbour is bound to by the General Rule of Love In my opinion among all the Constitutions of our Church this is one of the most Charitable and most Profitable Constitutions and that which thousands have been beholding to for their Christian Education And were it only for the Motherly Care and Tenderness of our Church in this particular she might well claim a dutiful Observance at the hands of all her Children but that St. Paul
Provincia abundet in sensu suo praecepta majorum leges Apostolicas arbitretur Hieron ad Lucian Rites were of Apostolical Appointment and they did generally call the Customs of the Church and the Injunctions of their Ancestors by the name of Apostolical Traditions But yet 't is reasonable to believe that Christians of the second and third Century who gave diligence to search into and had means to find out the Original of many Ecclesiastical Observations were able to give a very fair and satisfactory account what had been transmitted to them from the Apostles and what not For some of them conversed with the Apostles themselves or with some of them as Polycarp Ignatius and S. Clement of Rome Others again as Irenaeus and Justin Martyr were acquainted with Apostolical men And others were so near to these as Clemens of Alexandria Origen Tertullian Cyril c. that it was not very hard for them to know whether the Ordinances and Customs then used in the Church did owe their birth to the first Preachers of Religion or whether they were postnate to the Age of the Apostles Do not we know by the Acts and Monuments of former times what the Governours of our Church did and appointed in the beginning of the Reformation under King Henry the Eighth Why it is very probable then that what the Apostles did and instituted at the Planting of Religion under Nero Vespasian and Domitian might be easily known to those Fathers of the Church who lived and flourished some ten some thirty years after them and others onward to an hundred or say two hundred years successively So that if it shall hereafter appear that the outward Frame of Religion which is establish'd in the present Church of England was the very same Model for the most part which was used anciently in other Churches in the days of those primitive Writers and the very Model which they professed to have received from Christ's immediate Successors then I cannot imagine what just reason any man can have against the asking for and the walking in a way so ancient so laudable and so safe If he will not grant that our Establishments were instituted by the holy Apostles which yet in probability is true that they were appointed by them as things useful decent and convenient though not as necessary in every particular he must needs grant that they were appointed by due Authority that is by Apostolical Persons and so may claim veneration and observance at our hands Besides it is to be consider'd that not to the Apostles onely but to their lawful Successors also was that Promise of our blessed Saviour made that he would be with them always even unto the end of the world Matth. 28. 20. and that other Promise that he would send his Spirit to guide them into all truth John 16. 13. Now though that Promise requireth certain conditions of us and extends it self chiefly to the necessaria fidei matters of faith and necessary matters too yet 't is altogether improbable that Christ and his Spirit should take so little care of his Church in reference to its Polity and Discipline as to forsake her in the very next age or to leave her to be abused by the Fancies of Dreamers and to be imposed upon by men of foolish and degenerous Spirits and to be defaced and spoiled of her pristine Beauty by the frothy Conceptions of men of corrupt minds I pray whither went the Spirit of Christ from the old Christians to speak unto us after the space of Fifteen hundred years How came he to suspend his Influences from those who lived Saints and died Martyrs and at last came to breathe afresh into dry bones and to restore Religion which had been lost in a long interval of Time and succession of Ages Can any but Franticks conceive that the Church was never pure till an hundred years ago Or that for so many Centuries she needed to be swept and yet a Besom could never be found till the DIsciplinarian started up and made one and swept at such a rate that with us Order Decency and Religion were quite flung out of doors and Hypocrisie and Oppression were set up in its room 2. Zanchius profest that he had rather drink old Wine than Vorst ad Theolog Heidelb in Epist Ecclesiasticis new meaning that he preferred the Sense of the Ancients above that of Modern Divines in all Points not determined in Scripture He said like a wise man and 't would be much for the Peace of Christendom if all Christians would resolve in matters of Opinion to follow the Judgment and in matters of Discipline to observe the Practice of the ancient Church But some Palats are for new Wine onely not because it is so good for the old is better but because it is new And I am not likely to persuade such to conform to the Establishments of our Church by this Argument because they are ancient Establishments Yet I would beseech them to consider in the second place that the way we plead for is not onely an old but a good way also We must not think that the Contrivers of our Constitutions and Usages were so many Fools how low soever they may lie in the esteem of men who have less Wisdom and worse Manners and value a little Serpentine Craft above the Dove's Innocence A Church being gather'd it was impossible that without Laws that Society should hold together or answer the ends of its Foundation and therefore Government was necessary and of all sorts of Government that by Bishops was thought most convenient and fitting because presumed to be the best Defensative against Faction Schism and Disorder and the Experience of all Ages hath found it to be so Again since the Church is a Collection of men learned and unlearned who are set apart to worship God and do hold their Title unto Christ by their Faith in him it was judg'd very expedient that Set Forms of Publick Prayer should be prescrib'd both as a Repository of wholsom and sound Doctrines and likewise as a Provision for the necessities of the ignorant and moreover as a Preservative of Order Unity and Peace among Christians Lastly considering that the Worship of God is to be celebrated with solemn Decency and Comliness suitable in some degree to the Greatness of that Majesty which is to be adored certain outward Rites and Ceremonies were appointed as good means to conduct 1 Cor. 14. 40. men to a sense of Religion and to the exercise of Godliness and to create and stir up the Devotion of the Mind and the Reverence of the Heart For by the Judgment and Practice of the whole World it doth appear that an external Solemnity and Observance of Circumstances such as Habits Ornaments Gestures c. do bring a mighty respect to all secular Transactions and the Grandeur of Princes Courts of Courts of Judicature and of Civil Corporations is much upheld and Government becomes venerable
the Christian Churches were universally deceived in the Primitive Times and that in two Instances 1. They all believed that after the World was 6000 years old there would be a general Resurrection of the Dead and then that Christ would Reign on Earth a thousand Years Secondly It was an universal custom to give the Sacrament of the Lords Supper even to Infants after they were Baptized And if all the Anolent Churches were actually cheated in two things 't is probable that they were in more also at least nothing can be brought from the General Practice of those Churches to make their Customs venerable In Answer to the former Instance I have three things to offer briefly 1. That it was not matter of Fact or Discipline but matter of Opinion only in which the World might be more easily abused because points of Doctrin are not obvious to the Senses and are more hard to be retained in the Memories of men than things of Custom and Discipline And therefore Tradition is not allowed to be a safe Record of things concerning the Faith but the Scriptures only 2. That this Persuasion was not derived from the Apostles but came Originally from some Jews converted to Christianity who were mixed up and down in the Churches of Christ For such an old Tradition we read of called the Tradition of the House of Rabbi Elias that the World should continue 6000 Years and then that the Everlasting Sabbath should begin Which Fancy continuing in the Minds of most Christian Jews Papias and other Christians came by degrees to imbibe it by conversing with those of the Circumcision who were dispersed all Christendom over 3. And yet thirdly this was no universal Doctrine by your favour For Eusebius saith that Many Euseb Hist Eccl. lib. 3. in fine Ecclesiastical persons were abused with this Error And Justin Martyr tells us that though he himself and many others were of that Opinion yet there were many others men of pure and pious Judgments who did not think so And shew me if you can any such in those days that were against the received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Dial. cum Tryph. Government and Discipline of the Church In Answer to the latter Instance we have reason to affirm that the giving of the Communion to Baptized Infants was not an universal custom in the Primitive Times whatever some Learned men have suggested to the contrary Such indeed was the exuberant Piety of those Ages that they would not fail in any thing which seemed to be a Duty and a security of their hopes and some did run away with a misconstruction of those words of our Saviour in Joh. 6. 53. But suppose that this was an usual Custom in some particular Churches it is not fair that one single Exception if yet it be an Exception should void a whole Rule and all that we can gather from it is that all their Customs were not of Apostolical Institution nor do we say they were onely Iurge that where their Customs were universal in the first Ages there is a fair probability that they came from good hands and a sufficient Argument for us to walk in a way which was so universally old But lastly in answer to both these Objections it is clear that as well the former Opinion as this Custom met in time with publick contradiction for the one was disown'd and the other was laid aside in following Ages and so the Instances do not reach us whose Establishments have passed all along without condemnation or censure nay with accessions and advantage till of late some indiscreet men resolved to run far enough from the Church of Rome ran themselves out of their wits and five senses and forgetting the Golden Mean took too quick a step out of Superstition into Confusion and now are in a fair way to run round again out of Confusion into Superstition 2. I hope that our Plea of Antiquity in defence of our Constitutions standeth yet fair notwithstanding this first Pretence The next is that even in the Apostles days the mystery of iniquity was working as S. Paul witnesseth 2 Thess 2. 7. For they who are not Friends to the way of the Church of England do generally but wrongfully understand by that Mystery of Iniquity a Spirit of Tyranny and Superstition even in the bowels of Christ's Spouse that was then setting up for Antichrist and laying the Foundations of Prelacy and a ceremonious pompous way of Worship and whatsoever else men will please to say For the voiding of this Pretence 1. We do aknowledge that there was a sort of men in S. Paul's days and the less wonder if there are such now that were like Moles blind and busie Creatures working under ground restless and mischievous notwithstanding their soft delicate and smooth Skin But then secondly we do utterly deny and 't is a marvel that any man of Learning should have the confidence to affirm that these were true Christians living in the communion of the Church and under the guidance and government of the Holy Apostles No they were the Sectaries of those times whom S. Paul meaneth by the Mystery of Iniquity a company of close Villains whose lewd designs were hid in the dark and whose abominable Practices were kept private under a Curtain and within the Walls of their Conventicles for it is a shame even to speak of those things which were done of them in secret Ephes 5. 12. The Apostles do point plainly unto these Miscreants throughout all their Epistles S. Paul gives them the Character of false Prophets deceitful Workers transforming themselves into the 2 Cor. 11. 13. Phil. 3. 2. Col. 2. 18. 1 Tim. 6. 20. 2 Tim. 3. 2 3 4 5. Apostles of Christ dogs evil workers the Concision that all good people should beware of men vainly puffed up by their fleshly minds and not holding the head pretending knowledge falsly so called lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers or Make-bates incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traitors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof S. Peter calls 2 Pet. 2. 3 10. them false teachers that through covetousness with feigned words made merchandize of people despisers of government presumptuous self-willed that were not afraid to speak evil of dignities c. S. Jude Jude 4 8 9 16 describes them as men crept in unawares ungodly men turning the grace of God into lasciviousness filthy dreamers that despised dominion and spake evil of dignities and of those things which they knew not murmurers complainers c. Any man may perceive that those were the followers of Simon Magus the Gnosticks whom the Holy Writers did thus lash and expose to the World men who called themselves Christians and went under the Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Mart.
making or ordaining Bishops c. ancient Authors that from the Apostles time there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christs Church Bishops Priests and Deacons And in that our Church mentioneth the reading of Holy Scripture it is clear that in her account she taketh in the very times of the Apostles and meaneth that from the Scripture it may be proved that Episcopacy was erected while the Apostles were living Which shall give me warrant to take one step more backward from the Age next to the Apostles to the Apostolical Age it self and to affirm that even then there was such a Sacred Order of men as we now call properly strictly and by way of eminence and distinction Bishops Now that we meet with the Name frequently in our Translation and oftner in the Original is altogether out of doubt The grand Question is about the thing whether in those days the Office Power and Order of a Bishop was distinct from and in any respect superiour unto the Office Power and Order of a Presbyter And though the Sence and Practice of the succeeding Age be enough to make us morally certain that it was so because it cannot be reasonably suppos'd that men so harassed by Persecution so zealous for Truth and Honesty and so careful to observe the Apostles orders even in the least things could or would conspire together to make an universal defection from so main a part of Christianity as the Government of the Church is yet setting aside that consideration to me it seemeth obvious and certain that Christ the great Bishop of our Souls erected an Episcopal Power and that the Apostles continued and propagated it I mean still a Power above that belonging to Presbyters This I shall endeavour briefly to shew 1. By making good the Affirmative and then Secondly By clearing up those difficulties which are usually brought from Scripture to prove the Negative 1. For probation of Episcopacy we begin with the Ordination of the Twelve Apostles which evidently differ'd from the Mission of the Seventy two Disciples in whom 't is conceived that the Office and Power of Presbyters was founded Now the Twelve Apostles were indeed Bishops though they were not clenched to any particular Sees and Chairs which the necessities of those times would not give way to For the clearing of this it is observable that the Mission of the Twelve Apostles as to their own Persons was extraordinary and that which none could pretend to in following Ages because they were sent immediately by Christ himself and had a common jurisdiction and care over all the Churches that should be and were endowed with a Power of working Miracles to confirm the Truth of their Doctrin But then their Authority and Charge as to their Function was an ordinary and standing Power that was not to dye with them nor to cease as Miracles did after a little interval but such as was to be transmitted to others from time to time and so to continue to the Worlds end Now if it doth appear First that the Twelve had a Superiour power over Presbyters Secondly that this Power was to be imparted and communicated to their Successors for ever Thirdly that this was no other than the Ordinary Episcopal Power Then this will suffice to shew that the Twelve Apostles were truly and indeed Bishops in their ordinary capacity and consequently that Episcopal Power was erected in their Time First then That the Twelve Apostles had a Superior power over Presbyters appeareth not only from the Extent of their Commission which compared with that given to the Seventy two Disciples was much larger for as the Father sent Joh. 20. 21. Christ so Christ sent them with full power to Teach and Govern the Church according to God's Will and to ordain Successors and in all respects to execute that power which he was invested with and had delegated unto them but moreover it is clear from the Exercise of this their Authority for they ordained Deacons Act. 6. They Ordained Matthias and took Act. 1. him into the number of Apostles who before was one of the Seventy two as Eusebius tells us twice they made Decrees Euseb lib. 2. c. 1. and sent them abroad to be observed in all Churches Act. 16. They had power of Censure and Jurisdiction every single Apostle had over inferiour Presbyters for St. John threatned ambitious Diotrephes that when he came he would remember his deeds meaning that he would correct him with the Rod of 3 Joh. his Apostolical Power And so were Hymenâ—us and Alexander delivered unto Satan by St. Paul after that he was ordained an Apostle This is enough to shew the Superiority of the Apostles 1 Tim. 1. 20. power 2. Again This power of theirs was no Temporary thing that was to vanish with their breath but that which was to be communicated to others to be transmitted unto Posterity and to hold as long as there should be need of it that is as long as the World should hold For so the promise of Christ runs Lo I am with you always even unto the end of Matt. 28. 20. the World Here our Lord did engage not to be with their Persons alone for they were to dye within a short time but to be with their Successors too that is to assist their Function for ever And truly had not Christ assisted it marvellously it would have fallen e're now since it hath been so lustily beav'd at especially in these last Ages 'T is plain that our Saviour intended that the Apostles power should continue to the Worlds end I mean their Ordinary power which was for the Regiment of the Church For their Extraordinary power of speaking all Languages and working Miracles which was for the Planting of the Church was not to last long but to cease after a while So that it was their ordinary and standing power to Administer Sacraments to Preach to Govern to Ordain and to exercise the power of the Keys this was that which was to hold to be delivered and banded down from Generation to Generation Now if there be any truth in that Promise of Christ this Apostolic Power and Office doth last and still continue and is even at this hour in the World 3. Thirdly then this Power we speak of is really that which we now call Episcopacy The Apostles Function is part of it in Deacons more of it in Presbyters and all of it in Bishops there the whole Ordinary power centers and is united The Twelve were called as their immediate Successors were many times also called Apostles in respect of their Mission and Authority from Christ but in respect of their Office and Inspection over Christ's Church they were indeed Bishops They were the first possessors of Episcopacy and the Bishops now are their Successors to the Apostolate 'T is plain that they themselves and the Church following them understood them to be no more than Bishops in their ordinary capacity For as on
went out into the Mount of Olives Matth. 26. 30. 2. Having thus cleared the first thing that set Forms of Divine Service were in use among the Ancient Jews I proceed to make good the second Position viz. that such Forms were likewise used by the Primitive Christians Here no man of learning can deny 1. That Prescript Forms of worship have been establisht in the Christian world for above these 1200 years last past For 't is now 1312 yeares since the Council at Laodicea Can. 18. and then it was Decreed that the Choristors should sing by Book and that the same Prayers should serve for Noon and for Evening-service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 15. Aristen in Epit canonis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Balsamon and for every Synaxis or Assembly nor should any Prayers be read but what were received and establisht having been delivered unto them by their fore-fathers Like unto this was that Canon of Can. 23. Balsam in Can. 18. Concil Laodic the Council at Carthage which was 1284 years ago that if any man did compose any Prayers he should not presume to use them till he had consulted the most knowing men in the Church The intent of which Decree was that none should have the liberty to use what forms of Prayer he pleased but that such onely should be said as had been ratified by due Authority and ancient custom Lastly t is 1277 years since the Can. 12. Council at Milevis and then it was provided that no manner of Prayers should be used in the Church but what had been approved of by a Synod and I cannot but observe the reason of this Canon ne forte aliquid contra fidem vel per ignorantiam vel per minus studium sit compositum said those wise Fathers lest new Prayers should containe that which was contrary to the true Faith either through the Ignorance or through the carelesness of the Composer It was one great Reason among many others why Publick Liturgies were compiled of old that they might be Repositories of sound Doctrine and Preservatives of the Catholick Faith and the Ancients were wont to dispute against Heriticks not only out of Scripture but out of the Churches Service-books too For these were Antidotes to keep Christians from being poisoned with Erroneous and rotten Principles as our English Liturgy is at this day an Excellent amulet against infection from Papists Sōcinians Pelagians and other modern seducers and perhaps this is the grand reason why the Bell-weathers of Faction hate our Common-Prayer Book because it stinteth their extravagant Spirits who can sow Heresie and Sedition by their Praying as well Preachments this I am certain of that many gross errors which now prevail especially in the Church of Rome have been greatly occasioned by the base Arts of men who have time after time altered and corrupted the Ancient Service-Books thereby insensibly insinuating into mens breasts such things as belong not to Christianity But I will not digress further To return to our purpose it cannot be denyed secondly that in the dayes of St. Basil and St. Chrysostom which was about 380 years after our Lords birth Liturgies were generally used in the Churches of Christ for at this hour there are Liturgies extant under the Names of those Great men and though we do not think that these are the very same which they used because latter ages have defaced them and foisted many Heterogeneous things into them yet 't is rediculous to imagine that St. Basil and St. Chrysostom did not compile any or that nothing of these was of their composing And yet what they did in this business was not a New thing they were not the first divisers of these Forms no they framed their Liturgies out of old Materials and did fit and suit them to their own times For it cannot be denyed thirdly that Liturgies were used before ever these men were born For the Ancients did conceive that St. James the first Bishop of Jerusalem and S. Mark the Evangelist did both of them frame Liturgies for the use of their respective Churches and though I dare not say that this conceit is undoubtedly true much less that the Liturgies which are now called by their Names and as we have them were composed by them yet this I will affirm that in the early days of Christianity set Forms of Divine Service were used in the Churches of Jerusalem and Alexandria Nay if we consider well of that Form of Service in the Constitutions of Clement which questionless is a most ancient one and then compare those Liturgies we find in the Bibliothcca Patrum called S. Peters for Rome S. Thomas's for the Indians S. Matthew's for the Aethiopians and the Mosarabe for the Spaniards though we confess that these as well as others have suffered many alterations yet in all of them we may see such plain foot-steps of prime Antiquity that we may rationally conclude Liturgies were used in the very next ages to the Apostles over all parts of Christendom I know this will be looked upon as a very high and bold assertion and therefore I am bound to be the more punctual in this matter and for proof thereof I shall appeal to such Testimonies as are Authentick and which being compared with the Liturgies before-mentioned will satisfie any indifferent man that such and such Forms were used by Christians in the first Ages and so that in all probability they were directed by the Apostles or Apostolical Persons S. Cyprian speaks of solemn offices which cannot otherwise be understood then of customary Forms of Prayer especially considering that he elsewhere Solemnibus adimpletis Cypr. de lapsis De Orat. Dom. mentions a Preface used even then and still retained by us before the Commuion the Priest saying sursum corda lift up your hearts and the People answering Habemus ad Dominum we lift them up unto the Lord. When Demetrian the Proconsul of Asrick charged all the Wars Famines Plagues and Droughts upon the Christians S. Cyprian then Bishop of Charthage answered him to this purpose we pour out our Prayers and Supplications Ad Dem. for deliverance from enemies for rains and for the removal or the abatement of all evills and day and night we pray continually and earnestly for your Peace and safety Now what should he mean by these continual and constant Prayers Why no doubt those charitable Forms which they used in the ordinary course of their morning and evening-service For such we find in all the old Liturgies and particularly in that ascribed to S. Mark which Cyprian perhaps might refer to there is a Collect after the Reading of the Gospel where the Minister saith Be pleased O Lord to send wholesome showres upon every thirsty Land of thy Mercy give us fountains of waters increase and bless the fruits of the earth preserve the Kingdom of thy Servant whom thou hast thought fit to set over us in peace righteousness and tranquility and
that which fully clears this matter is that even the converted Jews were extreamly shy of letting go any of their Rituals though they had been better informed of the Designe and Nature of Christianity then others were we find Act. 21. 20 21. that there were many Myriads of Jews which believed and they were all zealous of the Law and when they had but an incling that S. Paul taught the Proselites abroad to forsake Moses and not to walk after the Rites and customes of their Fathers they were so moved Vid. Bezam in loc at it that the Bretheren at Jerusalem were fain to advise him to purifie himself and to satisfie them that he walked orderly And since they did so pertinaciously insist upon Punctilio's can we conceive that they would not insist rather upon weighty matters would they suffer the whole frame of their Religion to be altered when they would not endure any part of it to be changed or omitted Certainly had the Apostles gone about to take away their Sacrifices and their Service-book too and to destroy their Legal and Moral observances both it would have been concluded that their design was to make havock of all Religion and to turn the World upside down and such a Rupture would have been made hereby that Men would have crowded out of the Church with greater zeal than ever they went into it And therefore it is unquestionably clear that the Apostles and their Disciples did at their publick and common Assemblies carefully keep to that way of worship which was then establisht which as hath been proved was Prescript and according to Form 2. The great Question is what their way of worship was in their peculiar and more private Assemblies when they met together to perform such proper Exercises of Christianity as they were not permitted to perform either in the Temple or at the Synagogue That these Services were transacted without premeditation and Form is strongly believed and confidently asserted by some And it must be acknowledged that their occasional Prayers were uttered after that manner such as that Prayer mentioned Act. 4. And should it be granted that their whole Devotion was of sudden conception then it would be no prejudice to the use of Set Forms now because the Apostles were immediately inspired whereas those miraculous afflations of the Holy Ghost are ceased long ago and the Question is not whether unpremeditated Prayers are simply unlawful but whether they are so fit and convenient for the publick since our wants and weaknesses are so great and the best of us can pretend but to the ordinary assistance of Gods Spirit upon our humane Endeavours But I must confess that I am not at all satisfied of the Truth of that conceit that in the Christian Assemblies in the Apostles dayes there were no manner of Forms or that their ordinary or standing Services were performed wholly by extemporaneous suggestion Indeed the Scripture gives us but little account of this matter and therefore what is determin'd about it must be concluded by the help of Reason and some Collateral evidence To the point then The service of God consisteth of Praises and Prayers Now that the Christians in the Apostles time had composed and set Forms of praising and glorifying God seemeth highly probable from 1 Cor. 14. 26. where St. Paul saith that when they came together every one of them had a Psalm This is a general word comprehending both Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs to the use whereof St. Paul adviseth Christians twice elsewhere once in Ephes 5. 19. and again Col. 3. 16. Now 't is hard to believe that these several wayes of extolling Gods name were conceived in the Church on a sudden by the whole Congregation Rather it is credible that they came ready furnished with suitable Forms either with those which had been formerly compos'd by David or with some that had been lately framed by Men inspired or with both which is most likely For the same Spirit which moved the Prophets of old did breath upon the Church now and 't is probable that as David and others did by the dictates of the Holy Ghost compose Forms of praising God for the use of the whole Congregation so in the Apostles time many were moved by the same Spirit to compose the like Christian Hymns for the use of the whole Church So St. Chrysostome tells us positively that in those ancient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Chrys in 1 Cor. 14. 26. times they did frame Psalms by the Gift of the Holy Ghost And since the Apostle doth distinguish between these Psalms and those Revelations which were given in an instant at the Church it seemeth to be clear that such Formes were conceived at home by such as had the Gift of Tongues and then being rendered into a Language which they understood were communicated to the People to be used by them at their solemn Meetings and so they had or came provided of Psalms when they came together For the scope of the Apostle there is to shew that every thing should be done in the Church that others might receive benefit by it And whereas some had the gift of speaking in strange Languages and were apt to boast of their abilities St. Paul in that Chapter proveth that the Service of God should be performed in a known Tongue that every Christian might bear a part in it and so he concludeth that even the Psalms which were composed by Persons inspired should be first made intelligible before they were used in their publick Assemblies because all things were to be done to edisying And truely that there were such divine Songs frequently used in the Apostles dayes seemeth to be clear from a testimony in Eusebius For speaking of several eminent Catholick Writers under Euseb Hist Eccl. lib. 5. cap. 28. the Emperour Severus he saith that in confuting the Heresie of Artâ—â—â—on who denied the Godhead of our Saviour they appealed to those Psalms and Hymns which had been written in the beginning of Christianity by the Faithful in which Hymns they confessed Christ to be the Word of God and worshipped him as God To which I shall add that account given by Pliny the Heathen who lived about St. John's time For writing to Trajan the Emperour he informed him of the Christians That they were Plinius Trajano a sort of People that on a certain day were wont to meet together early in the morning and did sing a Hymn unto Christ as unto God and did bind themselves in a Sacrament not to steal not to commit adultery c. Questionless this Hymn was some set Form of Praise which was used by the whole Congregation at the Communion Office And if I may be allowed my conjecture I conceive it might be that Hymn which we find still in Clements Constitutions the Clem. Const lib. 7. in fine Tenor whereof is this Glory be to God in the Highest Peace on Earth good will among men We
fellow Apostles observed the same course 2. It is observable that there is such a marvellous Harmony and Correspondence between all ancient Liturgies in the materia substrata matter body and substance of them that it is not imaginable by men that will give their impartial Judgement how there could be that harmony without a general consent or how there could be that general consent without the Apostles directions Some indeed have been forward to expose the Errors of the ancient Fathers and as forward to expose the Corruptions of the Ancient Service-books and we aswell as they do acknowledge those Service-books to have been tainted since they were first compiled but yet I never saw any one sufficient Argument to prove that the main frame of those Liturgies was not founded upon the practice of the Apostles nay it is very probable that the old Compilers of those Liturgies took their measures from the Practice of the Apostles 3. For Thirdly S. Chrysostome speaking of the Constitution of S. Chrysost in Rom. 8. 26. Hom. 14. the Apostles times tells us that among other extroardinary Gifts of the Holy Ghost then there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gift of Prayer that this Gift was not bestowed upon all but upon some one a few in comparison that the persons thus inspired did pray for all the rest and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with much compunction and with many groans and moreover that they taught others to pray also Now a man that would be nice might make it a question what S. Chrysostome means when he saith that these gifted men taught others to pray and whether his sense be not this that they dictated prayers to the Congregation by calling upon them to join their suffrages for such and such Mercies If so then here is an account of the Original reason and use of those Allocutory Forms of Prayer which were so anciently and so universally received And that de facto it Was so seemeth to be probable from a following passage in St. Chrysostome where he tells us that the manner of Deacons praying in his time did which resemble and was correspondent to the way after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those inspired persons prayed in the Apostolick Age now that was Litany-wise and it was a very ancient and very usual way of teaching people to pray as was noted before out of Justine Martyr and others and that it is not unlike to the style and strain of Gods Spirit shall be shewed hereafter In the mean time if there be any truth in S. Chrysostomes account of this matter we must couclude that the men who were thus enabled to Pray did teach others either by propounding prayers to them that they might give their consent to them saying Lord have mercy or some such Form or by using the same prayers frequently so that by the often repetition of them they might the better be fixed in peoples memories or by committing those Prayers which they had conceived to writing that they might be of constant use unto the whole Church in their ordinary services Which way soever we pitch upon it is very unlikely that the Apostles who ordered all things unto edification would not order the Worship of God so that all people might go along with them in it with their hearts and with their tongues too It is unlikely that they who did insist so much upon order and decency would not be careful rather of that which is most material It is unlikely that they who would not indure any Confusion any Irreverence any Vncomliness not so much as a mans Head to be covered in the Service of God would not settle the service it self and cast it into such a Model that all Christians might bear a part in it The Learned and Judicious Dr. Hammond was clearly of opinion View of the New Directory that such as had the Gift of prayer in the Apostles days did first conceive and then did frequently use some special Forms of Prayer for daily and constant wants and that these Forms were received and kept by Apostolical men who had so benefited under them And it seemeth reasonable to believe that this was the Original of those Ancient Liturgies which go under the names of S. James S. Peter S. Mark c. should it not be allowed that they were the Pen-men and Compilers of any Service-books yet there are fair Arguments to perswade that these and other inspired persons did conceive indite and utter many admirable Forms of Prayer which are still in being as to the matter and substance of them and that these Forms were methodized and cast together into several Bodies by some Apostolical men to be the standing Church-service For the extroardinary Gift of Prayer beginning to fail there was a necessity for certain fixt and prescript Forms and what better Forms could they use then what had been used by the Apostles themselves and which they remembred and knew and kept upon Record And so I conceive the Ancient Liturgies came to be compiled and perfected by the pious diligence of holy and good men who made what Collections they could of this and that Apostles prayers and added others where it was needful For it was some considerable time before these Liturgies were perfectly compleated because some Doctors of the Church were ever and anon desirous of prescribing new Forms of their own and of adding them to the old stock And this was a thing so usual in those early times that some Councels were fain to V. Concil Milevit Can. 12. Carthag Can. 23. Zonar in Can. 18. Concilii Laodiceni interpose and restrain men from adding Prayers of their own at their pleasure The Reason of this was founded on the Practice of the Apostles and Apostolical persons their Co-temporaries and Followers 't was in imitation and by example of them that Bishops in succeeding Ages did prescribe certain special prayers of their composing because they had observed that many Forms had been conceived heretofore by S. James for the use of the Churches of Jerusalem and that the like had been done not onely by other Apostles for the use of other Churches but also by the Apostles immediate successors who had collected many Prayers composed by their Predecessors and added more of their own Conception which gave encouragemant to others to do so too till Liturgies did swell so that S. Basil and S. Chrysostome thought it convenient to abridge them All this framing composing and prescribing of Forms of Prayer was originally occasioned by Apostolical practice And for what the Holy Apostles did in this matter there are such precedents as are beyond all manner of exception For so did David and other inspired persons of old conceive prescribe and deliver Forms of Service unto the Church under the Law So did S. John the Baptist in Christs time teach his Disciples to pray by giving them a Form Nay so did Christ himself teach the very Apostles
of Toledo and in Cassians time which was above twelve hundred years ago is as certain The only question is about the time when it was first appointed and commonly it has been said that the Fathers of the Nicene Council ordered it which yet was about the year three hundred twenty five But Questionless the use of it is much Elder For the Arrians corrupted and altered it saying Glory be to the Father by the Son in the Holy Ghost But had it been an Hymn newly appointed at Nice instead of altering they would have utterly rejected it But the Hymn was in use long before for we find it in Clemens Alexandrinus who lived about Anno 190. And 't is likely that 't was derived from an higher Fountain though Clem. Alex. Poedag that 's high enough and if the three hundred and eighteen Fathers at Nice ordered a constant use of it at the end of every Psalm and in other parts of Liturgy to secure Religion from the poyson of the old Arrians methinks it should be as Religiously observed now to secure our Faith from the poyson of Socinians Quakers and other Modern and Blasphemous impugners of the Doctrine of the ever Blessed and most Glorious Trinity It has been likewise an old and general custome at the opening of the Service and before the set repetitions of Davids Psalms to sing some Hymn which was called the Introit or The Introit Entrance Hymn The reason of the Appellation is given by Rhenanus in his Notes upon Tertullian as he is Cited by Durantus Durant de rit lib. 2. cap. 11. because it was sung while people were entring into the Church and before the Congregation was quite full And Rhenanus saith that it was a Psalm of David In the book concerning the order of the Musarabe 't is said that Judica me Deus did follow the Confession I suppose the twenty sixth Psalm is there meant But our Church useth the ninety fifth as being a solomn Invitation to stir up mens Devotion and to inflame their zeal and to prepare their hearts for the due performance of the rest of the Service and for that reason was intended by the Psalmist for Publick Assemblies And in this matter the Church of England followeth the steps of Pious Antiquity For Cassander speaking of the order of Cassand Liturgic c. 7. S. Chrysostomes Liturgy tells us that about the beginning of the Service the Readers did say or sing that Psalm Entituled Venite exultemus And by what we find in the Ritual of Jacobus Goar it is evident that this Psalm was generally used throughout the Eastern Churches Consequent to this are the Psalms of David A Book never to be used enough because it containeth the marrow and flour of holy Scripture and is the Repository of Devotion The Psalms and Lessons Therefore it made up a great part of the Jewish Liturgy as it doth of ours and all Christians in all Ages have had this admirable Exercise in such esteem that the Service of God was never performed without it St. Paul and S. James mention it as an excellent piece of Divine Service in their times and by all Records of Antiquity in following Ages we find that Christians were wonderfully zealous in this point that they were wont for the most part to sing them that they spent much time in this Divine and Heavenly exercise and that they Sang not some ends and shreds but whole Psalms and a great portion of the Psalter at a time insomuch that Lucian that old Scoffer at Christ and Christianity jeered the Church for spending a great part of the night in singing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Hymns or Psalms For St. Basil tells us that they did rise to it very early and very long before day and having made solemn Confession of their sins they did rise from prayer and fall as we do especially in Cathedral and Collegiate Luc. in Philop Basil ep 63. Precibus subinde intersertis noctem superant Id. ibid. Laod. Concil Can. 17. Churches to the singing of Psalms and so spent the remaining part of the night The truth is so intent and earnest they were upon this matter that to make it the less tiresome they did insert Prayers between whiles yea and read some Chapters and Lessons out of the Scriptures and then fall to singing again So it was appointed by the Laodicean Council that between the Psalms there should be Lessons read for which Balsamon and Aristenus give this Constit lib. 2. Cap. 57. reason least people should be tired with continued Singings And before that Council we find it prescribed in the Apostles Constitutions that two Lessons should be read out of the old Testament and then that they should sing again and then other portions of Scripture out of the New Testament likewise And correspondent to this is the usage of the Church of England interlacing Hymns and chiefly some Psalms of David between Lesson and Lesson Of which Hymns the Te Deum is the first which is certainly The Hymns as old as St. Ambrose and some have confidently told us that assoon as that great Luminary of the Church S. Austin had been baptized by S. Ambrose both of them did in a Divine Rapture break forth into this Form of Praise The truth of the story must depend upon the Credit of its Authours But this is plain that ever since it has been used by the whole Vniversal Church and when I consider its admirable strain and other excellencies I am apt to think that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of those Waters where it was conceived The Song of the three Children commonly called the Benedicite is but a larger Edition of the one hundred forty eigth Psalm and was framed in imitation of the style of Psalm 136. And that it was used above a thousand years ago by the whole Catholick Church all over the World we have the Can. 13. whole Council of Toledo to bear us witness besides other single Testimonies of the use of it in the first Ages of Christianity The rest of our Hymns are all of Divine composure and as old as our Saviours time And why they may not be Sung being parts of Scripture as well as other Psalms and Hymns passeth my skill to know For if they whom S. Apol. 15. 3. John saw in Heaven did sing the Song of Moses what hinders but we on Earth may sing the Song of the Holy Virgin or the Song of Zachany or the Song of Simeon Certainly we cannot follow a better Pattern than what was shewed on the Mount Our Service concludes as it did of old both in the Jewish and Christian Church with several Prayers And though The Prayers these Prayers are not to be found in any Ancient Liturgies in so many express words except that excellent Prayer of S. Chrysostome yet the substance and matter of them is to be found in all For nothing is
THE Good Old Way OR A DISCOURSE Offer'd to all True-hearted PROTESTANTS Concerning the ANCIENT WAY OF THE CHURCH And the CONFORMITY of the Church of England THEREUNTO As to its Government Manner of VVorship Rites and Customes By Edward Pelling Rector of S. Martin Ludgate and Chaplain to his Grace the Duke of Somerset Jer. 6. 16. Thus saith the Lord stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the Old paths where the Good Way is and walk therein 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con. Nic. London Printed for Jonathan Edwin at the Sign of the three Roses in Ludgate-street 1680. TO THE Right Reverend Father in God HENRY Lord Bishop of London one of the Lords of His Majesties most honourable Privy Council My Lord I Am oblig'd to offer to your Lordship these following Papers which will the rather need a good Patron such as your Lordship because the Times are Censorious and many mis-guided people are ready to clamour against a man that shall adventure though out of pure Charity to direct them contrary to their own minds Maximus Tyrius observed long ago that Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such a morose querulous and Squeamish stomach't thing that he will cry out at whatsoever crosseth his Humour whether it be wrong or Right I do not doubt but it may be my Lot to receive such Returnes from some and as to mine own particular I do not care if it be especially since Clamouring is again become a Mode I am sure the Design of this little piece is Honest for it aimeth at Peace and unity which in these uncertain and tottering times is the only Expedient to secure the interest of our Religion against a Forreign Enemy Many even of different perswasions in other things are agreed in this But the great question is what are the beast Means for the compassing of so Excellent an End And some to use their own Expression are for setting the Church doors wider open meaning that they would have some of our Usages and Constitutions thrown aside because they are not fit for their Tooth unless it be to bite at But were this thing fairly Practicable I beleive 't would be as ineffectual in its issue as 't is unreasonable in it self For how impossible is it to satisfie Desires that are still craving we could never yet tell nor can they themselves what will really stint them only some have told us in general Terms that they would have every thing down which is not of Primitive use of which they themselves must be judges too So that if they will please to conclude against the whole frame of our Discipline and Government away it must or else they will not be satisfied Concessions hitherto have been so far from being Advantageous to the Church that like General Indulgences they have only made ungrateful Spirits the more Bold and Insolent so that they hope at last to get into the Saddle Those five Reverend Divines who were fain to lay their Noddles together to give birth to Smectymnuus among other Huge Reasons for the Abolishing of our Liturgy urged this for one because forsooth it had already undergone some Alterations As for instance whereas in King Edward the Sixth's time days of Abstinence were called Fish-days afterwards that word was altered and Fasting days was put in its room From which Mighty Argument those great Logicians and Magisterial Divines did strongly conclude that the whole Service-book might be laid aside Find the Consequence He that can but sad and long Experience hath shew'd us what advantage designing and insatiable Men will take of every little thing to make it a Precedent and to plead for more still that after the removal of this pin and that and so on the whole Fabrick may at last tumble upon our heads Would to God this design was not on foot now But however some endeavour to stop our Mouths yet we have Eyes as well as They and there is too great Reason to conclude that many that is to say some Atheists some Jesuited persons and some whose low Fortunes and Interest together with their Malice engage them to be Factious do directly level their aim at the Ruine of our Establish't Church We are so charitable as to hope that many of our Dissenters are better conditioned But as in the late Troubles the Rebellion went further than the first Raisers of it did intend for they hoped to force the King to buckle to their Terms when others behind them did resolve to force Him and Monarchy to the Grave so we have grounds to believe that now while one party desires an accommodation in some matters others make use of their Help and Assistance with an intent to overthrow all This unadvised concurrence of our over zealous Brethren in this Juncture though it be of most evil consequence yet is the more to be pittied because they imprudently strive against their own securities For it is evident to any indifferent Eye that the great Rampier against the Church of Rome is the Church of England whose Doctrines are a certain Antidote against poysonous Principles from abroad and whose Government and Discipline do tend of themselves to Order and Unity at home Yet certainly it is want of Judgement and clear insight into the Nature of our Establishments which hath made some so passionately to oppose them because they will not give themselves the leasure to read and consider those Books which all along have been written in defence of them by learned and good Men who saw of what vast use they were to the interest of the Protestant Cause And though I may not expect that my little pains will be taken notice of much less prove successful when the labours of so many great men have been lost yet I had some reasons to induce me to discourse purposely of the Antiquity of our usages the rather because a wrong and groundless notion runs about that all our Constitutions were Originally borrowed of the Romanists so that whosoever now is a strict Conformist is looked upon by the heady rabble to be Popishly affected and stands fair to be knockt down when opportunity shall serve which is the main thing wanting Not to dissemble with your Lordship I did not long ago discourse upon this Theme in the Pulpit And finding the subject so acceptable and in a manner a new thing even to intelligent and sober persons I had some strong invitations to publish those short Collections which I had then made But knowing the Niceness of the subject and the Capricious humour of some men who lie upon the Catch I found it necessary to take all into pieces and to throw aside some things and to add many more and more largely so that my task was like the mending and altering of an old House which is many times so troublesome and chargeable that a new one may be built at a cheaper rate And now my Lord I hope the world will not condemn me for entitling this
any thing can be found among us that is either in genere fidei untrue or in genere morum unlawful For Custom though never so gray-headed cannot be any Prescription in Bar of Truth Cypr. ep 73 74. and without Truth it is nothing else but an inveterate Error But God be blessed this reacheth not to the prejudice of the Church of England because as nothing can be found in our Doctrine which is really false so nothing can be found in our Discipline which is really and in the nature of the thing evil Instead of those many whiffling Pretensions which peevish and ignorant men have used against our Government our Rites and our Way of Worship if they could shew us but one Masculine Reason to prove our Establishments to be contrary to God's Word the Debate would soon be at an end and we would give up our Cause and our Lives also as well as our Livings to please them But this Advantage we have that many great and famous Divines in the Reformed Churches abroad who have searched into our Constitutions with more Impartiality that is with better Eyes and Judgments and Spirits than our own Brethren could never yet discover any thing in them that is repugnant to the Scriptures In former Ages Bucer and Peter Martyr and Zanchius and Melanchthon and several excellent Writers more have delivered their Sence much in favour of our side Nay the Learned Calvin himself though he was constrain'd by the necessities of Times to erect a New Discipline at Geneva yet was he far from condemning the way of this Church In an Epistle to the Duke of Somerset he did acknowledge that God had made him an especial Instrument of restoring purum sincerum suum cultum in regno Angliae his pure and sincere Worship in the Kingdom of England and he severely condemned those Seditious and Brain-sick People for so he call'd them who under colour of the Gospel would have brought in Disorder and Confusion In an Epistle to those Englishmen at Frankfurt who would have alter'd our Settlements he intimates that there was no manifest Impiety in them and therefore advised them not to be stiff and capricious above measure And in an Epistle to Bullinger he doth confess that he himself persuaded Bishop Hooper to Conformity And in this last Age the great H. Grotius who for Learning and Moderation Grot. ep ad Gedeon à Boeâ—sel was the Phoenix almost of his time look'd upon the way of the Church of England with admiration as that which came nearest to the Primitive Simplicity And among the present Dissenters if such as are more sober and judicious than the rest would but please to speak out they must needs do us right too and confess that however some of our Usages are not point-vise just as they would have them and suitable to their humours and who can tell what will or can be so yet none of them are indeed naturally and intrinsecally unlawful Nay it is much to be suspected that those wayward and hot Spirits among us who are profest Patrons of Separation would not find much fault neither if their former Declamations against our way were but forgotten and their Books burnt and their Interest and Credit in the world were but secure at least if their own Hands had but been concern'd in settling this way They would have been well pleas'd could they but have said Lo this is the Bethel that we have built But because this beautiful Fabrick was erected by other Hands now nothing will serve their turn unless it be said Lo this is the Babel that we have helped to pull down The summe is this that though the Plea of Antiquity be not sufficient to justifie those Ecclesiastical Constitutions which either tend not to Edification or are used after a Superstitious manner and to Superstitious ends or are bad and sinful in themselves yet if the Constitutions be such as have been originally occasioned by some Scripture-hints and intimations if they be such as are retained and used for some solid lasting and perpetual Reasons if they be such as serve to Decency in God's Worship to Order Peace and Unity among Christians and if they be such too as are not offensive scandalous or evil in their own nature then I say the Plea and Súffrage of Antiquity doth add that gloss and advantage unto them that they ought not to be laid aside for mens Humour 's sake but should be esteemed venerable safe and worthy of all acceptation Now this we conceive to be our Case in every particular and therefore supposing the usefulness reasonableness and lawfulness of our Constitutions which many Learned Divines have abundantly proved if it be further made to appear and I shall endeavour to shew it in the Process of this Discourse that these our Constitutions were observed in the Ancient Church of Christ and that this was the old path wherein Millions of blessed Saints walked while Religion continued fresh and fair within its Inclosure then more will not be needful to convince any rational serious and sober man that this is a good as well as old way wherein we also may and ought to walk notwithstanding the Pretences of those who love to walk irregularly and by themselves 1. For it is to be considered that if there be any safe and good way certainly it must be found among the Ancient Christians and the Stream of Religion must needs be still purer and purer the nearer we come to the Fountain Ex ipso ordine manifestatur id esse Dominicum verum quod sit priùs traditum id autem extraneum falsum quod sit posteriùs immissum Tertul. de Praescript adv Haeret. Head I speak now of things concerning the Government and Discipline of the Church And questionless those things could not but be in a very good posture in the first Ages when the Minds of Christians were full of Simplicity when their Quando Domini nostri adhuc calebat cruor fervebat recens in credentibus fides Hieron ep ad Demetriad Spirits were holy their Designs honest and their Factions few and their Interests united When the Bloud of Christ was yet warm in their hearts and their Faith was so fresh and sprightly that they chose to die rather than they would depart from the Rule that had been fix'd by the Apostles When Persecutions were so rife that Christians had other things to do than to study or think of Innovations in Religion and let me add also when they had such an account as was clear and certain in comparison of that which later Ages have had touching the Original and Institution of things which came so lately to their hands We indeed cannot certainly tell what were Apostolical Traditions but such as we find in Scripture because we want many good Records which were written in the early days of Christianity Nay in S. Jerom's time they were posed to tell certainly what Vnaquaeque
by the use of Rites and Ceremonies though little in their own nature In like manner the use of Ceremonies in the Service of God and in all Sacred Transactions doth make a great impression on mens Minds it commandeth Reverence which is the security of Religion and conveyeth through our senses into our hearts an awful regard of what we are about and as apparel upon our bodies serveth to maintain the vital heat within so do these outward Appendages help to preserve the very heart of Religion which consisteth in true Piety and Devotion This is enough to shew the wisdom of those who first chalked out unto us this old way for which we now plead And before men cry out against this way they should do well to consider whether they can direct us to a better But our Dissenters could never yet do this They could pull down our Government and throw out our Liturgy which yet was quite contrary to their Solemn Declaration they could abolish our Declarat of April 9. 1642. Ceremonies and destroy our Discipline and any Child or Dunce can spoil a Model which none but an Artist can set together But though they had the confidence to mar things yet they had not amongst them all the wit to mend them Government which sate easie upon the Shoulders of unprejudiced people before became an intolerable burthen to all by their pretended Reformation Though at first the World was in love with their new Trangum yet 't was soon weary of it and in a little time threw it away with scorn and indignation What a grave decorum was there in all Churches before and what intolerabiles ineptiae Fooleries and Ridicules succeeded them Were not the Houses of God turned into Theatres Was not Religion turned into a Comedy And were not all sacred Offices brought into contempt so that men abhorred the offering of the Lord Why 't is strange that those men who in a fit of good nature are so kind as to pity the weakness of their Forefathers and are so silly as to be puffed up with a windy conceit of their own knowledge will not be so modest and just as to allow the Ancient Assertors and Props of Christianity the due Credit of having been wise men 't is strange I say since these Starters aside from the old Paths never altered those Establishments which our Fathers left us but still they altered them for the worse What a thin pitiful and impertinent business was the Directory in comparison of our Service-book And yet that was the onely thing that was like a Platform and that did not very well please themselves And since His Majesty's Restauration a new Liturgy was offered to the World for a Tryal of Skill and yet it would not pass the Contrivers of it could not satisfie either us or their own Party by it And if you will go back to former times you will find that they were Bunglers from the beginning To which purpose the story is observable which the Learned and Excellent Dr. Hammond relates of those four Classes View of the new Directory of Reformers in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth who had set themselves up in this Kingdom These had made complaint to the Lord Burleigh against our Liturgy and entertained hopes of obtaining his Favour in that business about the Year 1585. He demanded of them whether they desired the taking away of all Liturgy They answered No. He then required them to make a better such as they should desire to have settled instead of this The first Classis did accordingly frame a new one which I suppose was that Book of Common Prayers mentioned by Bishop Bancroft but it was according Bang Pos B. 3. c. 10. to the Geneva Form But this the second Classis disliked and altered in 600 particulars That again had the fate to be quarrell'd by the third Classis and what the third resolved on by the fourth And the dissenting of those Brethren as the division of Tongues at Babel was a fair means to keep that Tower then from advancing any higher Thus he Now certainly that outward Frame and Constitution of Religion was very wisely contrived which Clubs of peevish and restless Spirits have been pecking at for these hundred years together and yet are at a loss how to raise any tolerable good Fabrick upon the ruins of the old one And then I appeal to any indifferent person whether it be not the safest course for men to walk in that way which taking it from one end to the other and in the main is so good condition'd that either you need not or cannot mend it 3. And yet besides what has been said already there is a third very considerable Argument to shew what great Reason we have to stick to our Establishments and it is this that our Way is not onely Ancient in respect of it self and incomparably useful in respect of its ends but is also that which was generally used by all Professors of Christianity in the beginning Had our Government and Discipline been Local and set up in this Church of England alone there might have been some room for an Impeachment of Singularity But you shall see that the Way which is settled among us was for the most part the great and common Road which all Saints and Martyrs observed of old so that we do not onely plead Prescription but we plead it from the joynt consent of all Christendom and our Constitutions carry as great Countenance and Authority as the Catholic Church can give them Scarcely shall you find any ancient Records of either the Asiatic or African or European Churches but we can fetch Testimonies out of them touching the universal use of most of our Establishments if not all And can we reasonably think that a Platform so received all Christendom over without contradiction and handed down unto us from the Practice of all Natious so separated by distances of place and so divided by differences of language could be an Imposture or Corruption Is it not rather to be presumed as a thing probable and likely at least that it came originally from the hands of those who first planted Christianity in the several Quarters of the World It is a Rule in Tertullian that quod Tert. de Praescr adv Haret apud multos unum invenitur non est erratum sed traditum That Religion which did so consent with it self up and down in so many places was derived from the Apostles or Apostolick men who scatter'd themselves into all Nations and resolved to teach people but one general Way To say that the beginning of many Usages in the Church is unknown is a plain confession of their Antiquity and just ground for a suspicion that they bear Date with the first Publishing of Christianity To say that every one of our Customs was at first the fancy of some private person which by continuance and contagion came at length to be a public Rite
seemeth to be as groundless an Assertion as the former For the Devisor of that Custom was either an Heretic or a Catholic First then suppose he was a known deceiver suppose he had fair opportunities of going into all parts and great ability of speaking all Languages and a strong design of corrupting the Simplicity of Religion yet it is impossible that so many wise and watchful Fathers of the Church could sleep all that time and suffer every Province and Countrey to be overrun with Superstition and Innovation in a trice Consider seriously but this one following Instance Montanus was a very early Impostor for Tertullian at last became a Proselyte to his Party This man pretended to have been inspired and profess'd greater Sanctity of Life than other men insomuch that his Adherents called all sober and regular Christians by the name of Psychici that is Animal or Carnal Gospellers He condemned all second Marriages and would have a Euseb Eccles Hist lib. 3. enacted Laws of Fasting and endeavoured to introduce a Custom of observing more Lents than one b Hieron Epist ad Marcel in a year The Christians at that time were very severe in their times and manner of Abstinence and were ready enough to comply with any usual though never so austere kinds of Discipline But yet when Montanus went about to impose upon them his attempting an Innovation gave such an Alarm to the Bishops that the Church rose up against him as one man and condemn'd him for an Heretic though if Tertullian c Non quòd aliquam fidei aut spei regulam evertant scil Montanus Maximilla sed quòd planè doceant saepiùs jejunare quà m nubere Tert. adv Psychicos may be believed he did not Innovate in any matters pertaining unto the Faith Now when we consider this single Instance can we be so unreasonable as to imagin that a Government which was set up every where was a new-fangled device Or that a Discipline which was received every where was a private Invention and of a Seducer too Or that Forms and Rituals which were used every where were Brats begotten by some doating Head and superstitious Brain and then thrown into the Bosom and forc'd into the Embraces of every Church in the World 2. Well to mend the matter a little suppose this Author of these Customs to have been a Person of Note and Eminence in the Church yet we are much mistaken if we think that the Governours of the Church were such tame easie and flexible men as to receive and admit of new Customs upon the Recommendation of a single or private Person though of unquestionable Integrity for they refus'd Offers made them by whole Churches For instance The difference about the keeping of Easter is as famous as it was old The Churches of Asia observed it on the day of the Jews Passover on whatsoever day of the week that happened The Western Churches observed upon the day when our Lord rose from the dead This Variety of Observation was from the beginning if there be any truth in Ecclesiastical History and in a little time it begat a Controversie first between two Bishops Anicetus of Rome and Polycarpus of Smyrna S. John's Disciple The matter was debated between them but neither could Polycarpus persuade Anicetus to recede from his Custom nor could Anicetus persuade Polycarpus to recede from his So they parted good Friends Almost thirty years after this Controversie Euseb Eccles Hist l. 5. c. 23 24. was revived between whole Churches in the time of Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus and Victor of Rome Several Provincial Synods were summoned to consider of the matter and on each hand Tradition was urged The Western Churches insisted upon a Tradition which they had received from some of the Apostles the Churches of Asia pleaded a Tradition which they had received from S. John who 't is likely recommended that Custom to them to gratifie the Jews And perhaps the Plea on both sides was good But so stiff they were on each hand that no Arguments could prevail with either Party to relinquish their old Custom and to take up the other so that Victor in a great heat would have cut off tot tantas Ecclesias Dei so many and such eminent Churches of God from his Communion had not the great Prelate of Lyons Irenaeus stood in the gap and reprehended Victor for his rashness Now he that shall seriously consider this story with all its Circumstances cannot with reason believe that the Ancient Churches were easie to be impos'd upon or to be corrupted with Superstition when they stood out so resolutely against an innocent Tradition Much less is it credible that a few Persons though of Repute and Dignity could possibly leven all Churches in Christendom with their private Inventions And therefore when we consider how all Churches of old did conspire as in the same Faith so in the same Government in the same Ministrations and generally in the same Rites too and those now in use with us here we must needs be startled in our thoughts and be posed to conceive how these things could arise all at once of themselves without any hand like so many Mushromes that start out of the Earth in a Night or how they could be disseminated by any Private hand Rather it seemeth reasonable to impute them to the Special Providence of God and to the Institution of the first Ministers of Religion who probably did recommend these usages as things useful or convenient though they did not Ordain or Impose them as things simply and universally Necessary I do not pretend peremptorily to derive all our Customes from Apostolical Practice although there are such fair evidences of the Antiquity of many of them that we might strongly argue that point if the Ancient Christians may be allowed what is allowed Jews and Heathens to be good Witnesses of matters of Fact But my purpose is to prove that our present Establishments in the Church of England are of a very Venerable date and for that Reason to contend that they ought not to give place to Novelties as if they were of no moment or to be kick'd down as if they are Despicable So that if better Arguments may be setch'd from Antiquity on their behalf than can be brought against them I have obtained my Ends and in order to that I urge the General as well as Ancient usage of them For certainly one Church ought to have regard to the Constitutions of other and especially the Ancient Catholick Churches or else St. Paul's Argument is trifling in 1 Cor. 11. 16. where condemning the covering of Mens Heads and the uncovering of Womens in Religious Assemblies he confronts the Practice by urging the custom observed in all Places besides Corinth We have no such custom neither the Churches of God And in St. Paul's Judgment that was enough to determine the Controversie Two things may be objected against what hath been spoken First That
yet by their notorious and unparallell'd wickedness brought a reproach upon Religion and caused the Name of Christ to be blasphemed by the Gentiles But the Apostles have taken most particular notice of their separation from the Church of Christ These are they saith S. Paul which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins 2 Tim. 3. 6. They went out from us but were not of us saith S. John 1 Joh. 2. 19. These be they who separate themselves saith S. Jude ver 19. which have forsaken the right way saith S. Peter and are gone astray following the 2 Pet. 2. 15. way of Balaam By which plain Testimonies it doth appear that the Schismaticks of that Age are they which S. Paul meant by the Mystery of Iniquity the high-flown stubborn seditious and contentious Gnosticks they that forsook the Regular Assemblies that spurn'd at Government they that were set against the Hierarchy and lifted up their unholy Claws to pull down the Constitutions of the Church These were that Mystery of Iniquity which was then working and factoring for Antichrist And what is this to the true Church For there was no evil then working within the Church there was no preparing of Materials for the Kingdom of the Devil within the Church there was no Idolatry in the Mint nor Superstition upon the Anvil within the Church but indeed without there was hard working sweating and toiling so that after the death of the Apostles many Errors were scatter'd by these Preachers of Hegesippus in Euseb Eccl. Hist l. 3. c. 32. Knowledge falsly so called who counterfeited themselves Christians and lurked among those who were Christians in truth and reality But shall we be unjust and wicked like the Pagans reviling the whole ancient Church for the sake of these old villanous Sectaries Shall our Ecclesiastical Constitutions be depraved by reason of the Schismatical and Diabolical Practices of the Gnosticks If Samaria doth transgress there is no reason that Judah should suffer for it unless she be a Confederate Now it would be to the purpose if it could be proved that the Gnosticks that Mystery of Iniquity were the founders of our Prelacy or the Authors of our Discipline and Ceremonies But it is obvious that they were the first though not the last the hated and oppos'd Episcopal Authority and that they used quite different and most monstrous Rites in their filthy Assemblies and as soon it may be proved that their and our Faith is the same whereas it is known that they denied the Reality of Christ's Incarnation and Passion and for that reason came not to the Christian Communion and that their Creed was a confused Mess of Heathen Mythology concerning S. Ignat. ep ad Smyr 1 Tim. 1. 4. Aeones and Genealogies of Gods which afterwards Valentinus the Heretick digested into some kind of Form Briefly then If the way Establish'd in this Church of England be the old Christian way if it be so excellently contrived that no other Constitution can be better or so well framed to answer the ends of Christianity if it be that way which for the greatest if not in every part thereof is that which was universally observed for very many Centuries all along from the Pure and Primitive Times of Christiantiy then have we reason to believe that it was originally laid out not by the Invention of a Private Person or two or by the Confederacy of crafty Impostors but by the wisdom of just and competent Authority whose business it was to set things in order in the 1 Cor. 11. 34. Churches of Christ To be sure we have then great Reason to ask for this old Path where the good Way is and to walk therein notwithstanding the desires and endeavours of those which are given to changes And thus the first thing is dispatch'd which I propounded to discourse of 2. The second Consideration now followeth that it would be a thing greatly useful and advantageous unto us as well as just in it self if we would but unanimously agree to walk steddily in this Good old way And truly many excellent ends there are to which the Practice of this thing would be highly serviceable 1. As first it would put that Lustre and Beauty upon Religion which by our Distractions and Innovations is manifestly and in an high degree defaced it would restore it to that Decorum and Order which made it venerable and lovely in the days of Old Among other things which St. Paul rejoiced to see in the Collossians this was one that he beheld their Order Col. 2. 9. For this very much helpeth to bring Religion into Request and extorteth a Confession from its very Enemies that of a truth God is in them that do profess it whereas Confusion and Disorders in a Church either for want of a sixt Rule or by the neglect of it doth but expose Religion to Reproach and its Professors to Scorn If there come in into irregular Congregations those that are unlearned or unbelievers will they not say that ye are mad As the Apostle speaks pertinently to my purpose 1 Cor. 14. 23. 2. To walk together in the good Old Path would be an excellent means as to put an Outward Gloss upon Religion so also to recover that Inward Life of it which consisteth in Charity and brotherly Love Scarcely is any thing so much wanting among us as Charity though the Holy Ghost doth up and down command us to be rooted and grounded to walk and to be knit together to abound and continue in and to provoke one another unto Love Mens forsaking of the good Old Way has been the Occasion and Rise of all that uncharitableness which is the Monstrous Sin and the Characteristical note of this Age when instead of being Lambs and Doves some count it a piece of Religion to be worse than wolves and Vultures ready to devour one another For in the Primitive Times when Christians could dispute well and live better the very Heathens could not but observe with Admiration how they loved one another Men have ceased to be our Friends since they refused to go the usual way with us into the House of God and parted from us into different and by-roads And that ill-natur'd Sect which first divided from us is justly rewarded with Ishmaels doom Gen. 16. 12. That his hand is against every man and every mans hand against him And as far as I can see things are likely to go on still at this rate 'till men will be so kind to themselves and so just to us as to quit those Novel courses and uncouth paths in which Pride and Singularity and a Spirit of Contradiction together with base respects to their Secular Interest have caused them to wander hitherto 3. A thing which is the more desirable especially at this juncture and nick of time because thirdly it would infinitely serve to the general Quiet and Safety of us All. It would unite our Interests as well as our
Affections 't would compose our Minds and our Affairs too 't would not only make us live together with one mind in an House but moreover it would establish our House and make it strong and firm and safe over our Heads For 't is not every difference in Opinion that exposeth a Church or a Nation to danger but 't is fighting and quarrelling about the Main way that ruins all We know that among the Turks there are several Sects and Parties and different persuasions and yet the Ottoman Empire holds though it be a most Arbitrary and Tyrannical Policy and the Interest of Mahomet is carried on though it be a most palpable and fulsome Imposture because though they jangle in matters of lesser moment yet they are true to their Common Interest and agree in the Main and closely adhere to their general Model of Government Religion and Worship In like manner among the Romanists themselves who boast so much of the Unity of their Church there are many very Considerable Divisions and more perhaps than there are among Us and those as hotly maintained and yet Herod and Pilate know how to agree against Christ the Scotists and Thomists the Molinists and Jansenists the Dominicans and Jesuits and the rest are wise enough to hang together under the Laws of their Church they go quietly and hand in hand in the main way they conspire in one Common Form they are tite to their Government and keep close to their Rubricks and Establishments and as long as the Pope can but keep things in this Channel either by the Terrours of the Inquisition or by other Politick Arts he knows that his and his Churches Interest is safe and he needs not make use of his pretended Infallibility to determine those points which are controverted I wish that we would learn so much wit of the Adversaries of True Religion as not to fall out there where the safety of us all is concern'd but walk together like Friends in that plain way which the Ancient Church hath beaten out before us and the Laws of our Land have fenced in for differences in matters of Speculation and points disputable could not hurt us or lay us open to danger if some among us were but True to our Common Interest if they would but stick to our Establishments which are the Rampiers and Bullwarks of the Church if they would but be as zealous for Christ as the Turk is for Mahomet or as the Jesuit is for Him whom some suppose to be Antichrist Nothing in all Probability can give us Rest to our Souls and Security to our Nation and Prosperity to our Religion but this one thing to seek after the good Old Way Men may please themselves with Fancies and try many fruitless Conclusions and make experiments of this and of that Expedient but the World will see in the end that nothing but the observing of the Old Path will put us into a good posture 4. But yet fourthly there is one huge Advantage more which the performance of this matter would bring unto us and that indeed which I shall chiefly insist on and it is this That it would justifie our whole Cause before all the World and cut off all just occasion from those who wrongfully upbraid us all for Innovators and under that pretence trepan many a Soul Where say they was your Religion before Luther Now the Dissenter is not able to answer this Question truly throughly or to satisfaction because a great part of his Religion was no where in the world no not in Luther's days and so the Romanists have a continual and unanswerable Objection to fling in his teeth But the Church of England as it is establish'd hath a fair and full Plea that her whole Religion was long before Popery that it was in the world in the days of the Apostles that it was in the Liturgies of the primitive Churches that it is to be seen still in the Tomes of the Greek and Latin Fathers nay she can justifie her Cause out of those very Writers in communion with the Roman Church both before and since the time of Luther whose Books they like dishonest men have corrected purged and mangled by the Expurgatory Indices lest they should tell tales I do not intend now to vindicate the Doctrine of our Church in this respect for that is not so much to my present purpose and our Faith hath been by others abundantly proved to be exactly consonant to the Sence of Scripture and to the Faith of all Orthodox Christians in the purest and best Ages and by this we are ready to stand or fall let the Papist bark at us till his Tongue and his Heart aketh But my purpose is to justifie the Government and Discipline of our Church to be the same which was used in Christian Churches from the beginning and that against a sort of men among our selves who accuse us of Superstition as the Papists do accuse us of Schism though God be blessed we are guilty of neither We tell our Dissenting Brethren that our way which they have forsaken is indeed the old Path we affirm our Government to have been Primitive and Apostolical and we say too that our Discipline Rites and way of Worship is the same generally which was establish'd in the first and best times and this I shall endeavour now to prove in some measure by instancing in particulars that men who desire satisfaction herein may see that the Frame of our Religion is de facto very ancient and that on that account besides many others it ought to be upheld and maintain'd which is the thing I have already argued for and withall that our Charge of Innovation would be unjust and ridiculous did we but unanimously resolve to tread in this Path our Brethren then would be free from guilt as well as our selves 1. The first thing to be spoken to is our Form of Government I mean our Episcopacy the thing that is such an Eye-sore to Papists Atheists and Schismaticks It is clear that for 1500 years it was the onely kind of Government in the Church And whatever some Learned men have pretended I believe you can scarcely instance in any ancient Churches perfectly and completely formed that were not under the care and government of Bishops in our present Sence of the word Bishops presiding over them either in person or by their Authority Those great Luminaries of the Church to whom the World hath been and is so much beholding the Austins Cyprians Chrysostoms Basils Cyrils Gregories and Ambroses were famous and renowned Prelates some of them Metropolitanes some Patriarchs all of them Bishops Those Fathers of the third Century after the Apostles as Theodoret Jerom and others who thought the Names of Bishop and Presbyter to be indifferently and promiscuously used in the Scripture did not mean to impair the just honour and dignity of Bishops for they acknowledged that though the Names were in common yet the Office Power and
Age we find Pothinus to have been Bishop of Lyons and Clement of Rome and Denys the Areopagite of Athens and another Denys of Corinth who mentions Philippus Bishop of Gortina and Pinytus Bishop of Gnossus I say though the Names of these and other Primitive Bishops in the very next Century to the Apostles do still stand upon good Record yet 't is not modest ingenuous or reasonable for any Man to require us either to nominate every one of the Apostles Successors in all parts of the World or to lay down our pretensions of a setled Episcopacy in the Ages next to them especially since Ireneus hath told us that he was able though Iren. ubi suprà Idem affirmat Tertullianus de Praesc Adv. Her we are not to reckon up the Bishops who succeeded the Apostles in all the Churches Were there no exact List of the former Prelates of England yet I hope it would not follow that these Churches have not been all along under the Government of Episcopacy It will trouble the best Antiquary to tell us all the old Bishops among the ancient Britains and Scots and yet we know that they had Bishops before the Saxons came in hither which was about Anno 450 and many Ages before the Bishops of Rome claimed any Jurisdiction in this Island 3. But then supposing a Succession of Bishops in the Apostolical Churches nevertheless it is Objected Thirdly that Antiquity is no sufficient witness of a setled Episcopacy in the first Ages because the Ancients speak ambiguously and doubtfully of those Bishops calling them sometimes Presbyters so that we have no certain account whether those Men were superiour to Presbyters in Order Power and Authority or whether they were above them only in a Degree of Honour like the Chair-men in Assemblies or like the Archontes at Athens and the Ephori at Sparta who had an equal power but gave a deference of Honour and Dignity to one above the rest Now I cannot but wonder that Men should invent doubts where there are none for nothing is more clear then that the Bishops thus succeeding the Apostles had a Superiority of Power over the rest of the Clergy not only to ordain but also to judge and censure them without any Authority given them by a Bench of Presbyters though not always without their Aid and Advice For the removing of this third Scruple then these five things are to be noted 1. That in many of the writers of the first and second Age after Apostles we find a plain distinction between Bishops Presbyters and Deacons as three distinct Orders 2. That in not one of these writers can we find that this Superiority of Bishops over Presbyters was thought then what ever was imagined in after-times to be founded on any act vote or consent of the Church as bestowing this Power upon them 3. But on the contrary that the care of all Ecclesiastical Can. Ap. 39. matters was acknowledged then to belong to the Bishops that Presbyters were charged to obey the Bishops in all things and to do nothing without them or contrary to their Sentence is plain and evident out of Ignatius and other writers of that Age and all this was grounded upon the Sacredness and Superiority of their Power which they all owned to have been derived to them not from the Presbytery but from God and Christ by Divine appointment and institution and through the hands of the Apostles who left them for their Successors Suum ipsorum locum Magisterii tradentes as Ireneus said delivering to Iren. l. 3. c. 3. them their own Office Power and Authority 4. Therefore whereas it is alleaged that a Father or two of that Age do sometimes comprehend Bishops under the general Name of Presbyters it is granted that the Prelates were so humble and modest as upon occasion to stile themselves Presbyters thereby giving a deference of Honour to those as were such only But yet they looked upon the Offices to be distinct and saith St. Clemens Ep. ad Cor. pag 57. the Apostles fore-seeing that a contention would arise about the Name of Episcopacy for that reason they appointed the Orders aforesaid and divided their parts and Offices among them meaning to the Bishop his Office and to the Presbyter his that they being dead other fit Men might succeed them in their Ministry Office or Apostolic function Now how all this can consist with that novel pretence that Presbyters had an equall Power with Bishops and that Bishops had only an Honorary Dignity above Presbyters seemeth to me to be altogether unimaginable 5. But fifthly to put all out of doubt we are beholding to a very Learned Prelate of our Church for Two useful and choice Vindic. Epist Ignat. p. 2. c. 13. Observations which we may well take upon his Credit First that no writer of that Age next to the Apostles did so promiscuously use the Names of Bishop and Presbyter as to give the Name of Bishop to one who was only a Presbyter of the second Order Though Bishops were sometimes called Presbyters the greater Office including the less yet that a bare Presbyter was ever then called a Bishop is not to be proved by any one instance out of the Monuments of those times Secondly that no writer of that Age did ever give the Name of Presbyter to a Bishop when he reckoned up the Degrees and Orders of Church-men and where he spake of some single Minister then living So that as you shall never find a Presbyer called Bishop so you shall rarely find Bishops called Presbyters and where they are so the writer mentioneth things in a lump not counting up the Degrees orderly nor speaking of one single person of his time With these two positive Assertions I shall rest 'till I see some body to have either the confidence to contradict or the Learning to confute them By what has been briefly said it may appear to any unprejudiced person that in the earliest and first times when Christianity was but green in the World the Churches were under the Government of Bishops We find innumerable instances of it in those Churches planted by St. Paul St. Peter St. John and other Apostles We find in undoubted Monuments of the best Antiquity the very Names mentioned of several Primitive Bishops who presided over some Apostolical Churches and a certain Succession avowed of other Bishops in other Churches whose particular Names do not occur We find that these Bishops were then looked upon as a distinct Order from the rest of the Clergy sometimes called Bishops in contra-distinction to Presbyters and always own'd as Superiour unto them not by any Ecclesiastical consent or grant for the avoiding of confusion only but by an Antecedent Charter derived to them from the Apostles All which do abundantly satisfie me of the Truth of that declaration of the Church of England that it is evident to all Men diligently reading Holy Scripture and Pref. to the form of
made up of converted Gentiles Now over each of these Churches there did preside a Bishop with his Deacons so that frequently you shall find in Church-History two several Bishops in one City 2. Secondly that these and the Neighbouring Bishops were wont to convene and meet together to consult concerning the ordering and management of Ecclesiastical Matters 3. And thirdly that the necessities and condition of places were such in the beginning that all Churches were not so compleatly and perfectly modelled at the first as they were in process of time For as Churches were greater or less in proportion so were Church-Officers more or fewer in number Where the multitude of Christians was not great there a Bishop and his Deacon were enough to discharge the work of the Ministry where the numbers of Christians did increase there Presbyters were appointed to assist the Bishop and to act under him and where an Apostle thought good not to fix any Bishop but to hold the Government of a Church immediately in his own hands there he did commonly appoint a College or Bench of Presbyters to perform Ministerial Offices as his Proxies in his absence and by his Authority derived and delegated unto them For so did St. Paul keep the Superintendency over the Church of Corinth in his own hands as their immediate and sole Bishop because he had converted them to the Faith and what the Presbyters did in excommunicating that incestuous person they did it by St. Paul's Spirit that is by 1 Cor. 5. 4. his Episcopal Authority and Power committed unto him by Christ I verily as absent in Body but present in Spirit or by my Authority have judged already concerning him saith the Apostle This Observation will give us to understand the meaning Epiph. haeres 75. of that which we collect out of Epiphanius that in one Church there were Bishops and Deacons only where the numbers of Converts were small in another there were Presbyters without any Bishops besides an Apostle where there was need of many Ministers and yet one could not be found that was so fit for the Bishoprick in others agen there were Bishops Presbyters and Deacons too where the condition of the place did require it and the worth and abilities of the Men did admit of it Now then to come to the Objection St. Paul gives Timothy an 1 Tim. 3. account of the Qualifications necessary in Bishops and this questionless was in order to their Ordination But how doth it appear that Presbyters are meant by the word Bishops Were Presbyters now to be Ordained Did the word of God Act. 19. 20. grow and prevail so mightily in the Ephesian Churches and yet no Presbyters in them Was St. Paul among them for the space of three years preaching disputing and converting so many Act. 20. 31. Multitudes to the Faith and yet ordained no Presbyters to water what he had so prosperously planted And if Presbyters were ordained were setled in the Churches of Ephesus before the Apostles departure to Macedonia what necessity was there for him to send his Son Timothy Instructions concerning the Ordination of Presbyters especially when he hoped to return unto him shortly Divines conceive that this Epistle was sent by 1 Tim. 3. 14. him soon after he departed from Ephesus and were all the Presbyters dead in that little time 'T is hardly to be believed that Presbyters were wanting but Bishops were For hitherto St. Paul had been with the Ephesians for the most part in his own person he had governed them in his own person and had exercised his Episcopal Authority in his own person But now he was gone leaving Timothy in his room he was the first Bishop that was fixt at Ephesus and the only Bishop indeed now and yet but a young Man that had need of other Bishops to concur with him and help him in his Office and considering that St. Paul was uncertain when he should see him 1 Tim. 3. 15. again there was an urgent necessity for him to write speedily to his Son that other Bishops might be ordained that other Churches might be guarded from the Gnostic Seducers as well as Ephesus it self the great Metropolis There is no necessity then for us to conceive that St. Paul in his Epistle to Timothy did mean Presbyters when he spake of Bishops but rather that he gave directions for the Ordination of those who were to be Bishops indeed to be invested with Episcopal Power and to preside over other Cities as Timothy did over Ephesus in St. Paul's own Chair Again the Apostle saluteth the Saints at Philippi with the Bishops and Deacons Phil. 1. 1. But there is no Demonstrative Reason to constrain nor probable Argument to induce us to believe that he directed his salutation to Presbyters much less that he gave them the Title of Bishops For there are several fair accounts to be given of this matter either as some conceive that there were two Bishops over two Churches in Philippi Jewish and Gentile Christians as 't was usual in other places or as others are of Opinion that the Neighbouring Bishops were now assembled at Philippi as 't was usual at other times or as others are persuaded that the Salutation is sent not to but from the Bishops and Deacons and so the words are to be read thus with a Parenthesis Paul and Timotheus the Servants of Jesus Christ to all the Saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with the Bishops and Deacons Grace be unto you c. But which way soever we interpret the Text we are so far from finding any Presbyters in the Salutation that there is no argument to prove that they were at all in the City whither the Salutation was sent For Epiphanius tells us that many Churches at the first were ordered by Bishops and Deacons only and then why not the Churches of Philippi also Thus their whole Argument fails them who would prove the Office and Order of Bishop and Presbyter to have been the same in the Apostles days because forsooth the Name is given to both in Scripture Though the Consequence would not be good should their grand Principle be granted yet there is no solid reason for us to grant the Principle it self And therefore I shall not stick to conclude peremptorily That the Order of Bishops both as to name and thing is so far from being either an Antichristian or an Ecclesiastical Ordinance that it was instituted by Christ himself and founded in the Apostles of Christ and by them so establish'd and continued in all the Churches of Christ that for 1500 years together no Church in the world being perfectly and rightly form'd was ever under any other sort of Government but that the Episcopal Office and Authority hath through a continual Succession of Ages been communicated transmitted and handed down to the whole Catholick Church even from the most primitive and infant times of Christianity and consequently that this way of Government
still retained and defended in the Church of England is undoubtedly the old and the good way The truth is Aerius was the first man that ever durst affirm that a Bishop is not above a Presbyter in Power Order and Authority but he was counted a mad man for his pains and was ranked by the Church in the black Catalogue of Hereticks not onely for his Separation from the Catholick Bishops nor onely for his condemning of Catholick Customs nor onely for embracing the Heretical Sentiments of Arius but also for affirming that Presbyters were of equal power and authority with Bishops And yet I much question whether he spake his free opinion or onely said so out of envy and spight to Eustathius For Aerius would fain have been a Bishop himself but Eustathius stood in his way and for that reason he grew sullen dogged and envious and such men commonly vend some new opinion to be revenged for their disappointments and so did he this because he had not Merits enough to advance himself from a Presbyter to a Bishop he had it seems impudence enough to degrade a Bishop into a Presbyter I will not make any untoward Reflections upon those Disciples of Aerius who in these our days have greatly wounded Christianity by the same groundless and singular but confident Assertion Yet I think 't is no uncharitableness to wish for the Peace and Interest of Christendom that their tallons were well pared who are not content to scratch and deface the Walls of the Church unless they undermine the very pillars of it too those ancient and strong Pillars upon which the Church hath rested and by which Religion has been upheld even from the beginning 2. Having said thus much touching the Antiquity of our form of Government I proceed now to that which is another most material part of our Establishments that is the form of our Service-book or Liturgy Concerning which I will be bold to affirm and be bound to maintain against all parties whatsoever that whosoever doth either deprave or dis-esteem it must of necessity be either a very Ignorant or a very naughty person Very Ignorant if he doth not see that our Service is so correspondent to that of the Ancient Churches that no Church in Christendom this day can shew a more lively Monument of Antiquity than our Common-Prayer Book But a very naughty person if seeing and knowing this he doth presume yet to condemn it because he cannot in this respect condemn the Church of England but he must likewise condem all the Old Churches in the World which whether it be not an Argument of an Vnchristian and naughty Spirit I leave to all moderate men to Judge I am apt to hope that those calumnies and reproaches which our Liturgy hath been laden with have been occasioned by mens Ignorance of its excellencies And therefore to prevent those aspersions for the future if it be possible I shall endeavour to shew First the Antiquity of set forms of publick Prayer in general Secondly then the Antiquity of our English Liturgy in particular And when these two things be made to appear I hope the Church of England will be acquitted in this respect as following the Old way of serving God 1. Touching the Ancient use of set Forms of publick Prayer in general three things are proveable for the satisfaction of all Modest and Ingenuous People 1. That set Forms of Divine Service were used among the Ancient Jews 2. That set Forms of Divine Service were used also among the Primitive Christians 3. That after our blessed Lords Ascention in that interval between the Burial of the Synagogue and the setling of the Christian Church set Forms of Divine Service were allowed also even by the Holy Apostles These three Heads I shall insist on the more largely and particularly because they may serve to inform and satisfie many even prejudiced persons who have not searched into the bottom of things but have contented themselves with many superficial not to say groundless and impertinent Notions 1. First then it is manifest that the whole Body of Divine Service among the Jews did consist of several Prescript and set Forms At their Temple though a great part of their Service was Ceremonial and Typical consisting of divers kinds of Sacrifices and offerings which in the fulness of time were to be done away yet this was attended with Moral and Spiritual Services consisting of Praises and Prayers which were to continue for ever For the Levites whose office it was to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord and likewise at the Evening were wont to perform their parts as with a world of 1 Chron. 23. 30. solemnity so also with Hymns and Songs that were composed and set to their hands Most of these were Psalms endicted by David some were framed by Asaph and other Prophets and all were put together into a Book out of which the Levites were appointed in the Name of the Congregation to worship and praise God in one of the outward Courts of the Temple while the Sacrifices were offering by the Priest within Hence it is that we find many Psalms directed to the chief Musitian for Tunes to be set unto them that the Sons of Jeduthun Korah and other Levites in their courses might sing them in Consort with wind Instruments and stringed Instruments of which there were divers kinds as Flutes Cornets Trumpets Cymbals Harps Psalteries c. according to the commandment of the Lord by his Prophets 2 Chron. 29. 25. And hence it is too that we find some Psalms framed on purpose to be used on some special occasion as particularly the 92 Psalm entituled a Song for the Sabbath day which was intended questionless to be sung solemnly on the Sabbath in memory of Gods rest upon that day and to give him thanks for his wonderful works of Creation and Providence And Lastly hence it is that the fifteen Psalms immediately following the Hundred and Ninetenth are called Psalms of Degrees or steps because the Levites were wont to sing them upon the fifteen Stairs upon each Stair one which were between the womens and the mens Court. Briefly we find it said expresly of King Hezikiah that he commanded the Levites to sing praises unto the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the Seer 2 Chron. 29. 30. So that it seemeth to be without question that all Acts of Divine Worship done by the Levites were performed in Prescript and set forms And let me add touching the People of Israel that when they presented their first fruits at the Sanctuary the offerer was to make an humble acknowledgement of Gods mercy to him and to the whole Nation in a set Form of words Deut. 26. 5. Thou shalt speak and say these words a Syrian ready to perish was my Father and so on to the Tenth Verse inclusively And at the end of their Tithing every man of them was to say these words before the Lord I have
deliver this City from evil days from famine from pestilence and from invasion Compare this Prayer with S. Cyprians words and then judge if he did not point to this or to some other Form to the same purpose and of the same strain Again whereas Celsus the Pagan slandered the Christians as men given to Magical Arts and Sorceries Origen who was but one remove from the times of the Apostles affirmes positively and upon certain experience that they who worship Orig. adv Cess lib. 6. the Lord of the Vniverse by Jesus Christ and live according to the Gospel using night and day constantly and rightly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prayers which were Appointed cannot come under the power of Devils There is little Reason to doubt but that by these Prayers he means the Nocturnal and Diurnal Offices which we then prescribed and ordered by the Church and less Reason there is to fancy that such were not used in his time and for confirmation of this it is observeable that Origen himself else where quotes a customary Form then in use We frequently Orig. Hâ—om 11. in Jerem. say in our Prayers Grant us O Almighty God grant us a Portion with the Prophets grant us a place among the Apostles of thy Christ grant that we may be found followers of thine onely begotten Questonless this was an usual Form in the Alexandrian Liturgy and though we do not now find it in so many express words in the Liturgy ascribed to S. Mark yet we find in it a form to the same purpose grant us O Lord to have our Portion and inheritance with all thy Saints And in the Aethiopick Liturgy it is twice Lit. S. Marci in Anaphorâ Be propitious unto us O Lord and vouchsafe to make us joint-Possessors and partakers of the inheritance of the Apostles and cause us to follow their steps And again Lord write our names in the Kingdom of Heaven and joyn us with all thy Saints and Martyrs Furthermore Tertullian another African writer and somewhat Elder then Origen speaking of the Jam vero prout Scripturae leguntur aut Psalmi canuntur aut Adlocutiones proferuntur aut Petitiones delegantur c. Tert de Anima c. 3. Divine-service in his time which he calls Dominica Solennia reckons up four parts of it the Reading of Scripture the Singing of Psalms Allocutions and Petitions This place being throughly understood is very pregnant and full to our purpose 1. Here we have the reading of the Scriptures which in those early and pious times was perform'd not with that conciseness and brevity which was usual in after-ages but 't was Lectio fusissima and Lit. S. Jacob. large potions were read both out of the old and the new Testament 2. They Sung whole Psalms not only those composed by David and other Prophets among the Jews but as we shall see hereafter several Hymns and Songs of Praise which had been framed in the beginning by Faithful Christians and more immediately relating to the Christian Religion 3. But then a doubt may be moved what Tertullian means by those Allocutions which were made to the people and uttered at large for that I conceive to be his sence And the difficulty may be easily assoiled if we call to mind that in the Primitive times it was a general custome for the Deacon that read the service to direct the people in their devotion to tell them what they should pray for and to stir them up to beg such and such things of God calling upon them after this manner Let us pray let us pray earnestly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let us pray on yet further and with an intense Zeal and other such Forms there were which he frequently used and then dictated to them the matter of their devotion to which all the people gave their Suffrages readily and with much fervency of Spirit Litany-wise Now these Forms of exhortation were called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Latines rendred Allocutions We call it Bidding of Prayers And though the custome be for certain Reasons grown much out of use among us yet there are many plain footsteps of it to Clem. Const be seen in our Liturgy especially in our Litany and Communion-service in which offices it was most used of old for the Minister is often ordered to say Let us pray let us pray And as to the custome it self it is so Ancient that I cannot find the beginning of it and 't was so universal that 't was observed in all the Primitive Churches for in all the Liturgies which I have yet seen either of the Eastern or Western or African Churches such Allocutory Expressions are still extant more or less Sometimes the Minister used short and concise Forms saying Let us Pray let us behave our selves reverently Lift up your hearts let us give thanks unto the Lord and to these the Congregation gave their customary Answers Sometimes these Allocutions were more large as for instance in that Prayer for Persons who intended to be Baptized to which several others did correspond the Minister said on this wise as we find in an African Liturgy Let us that are Believers pray for our brethren who prepare themselves for holy Illumination or Baptism and for their salvation let us beseech the Lord And the People answered Lord have mercy That our Lord God may please to confirm and strengthen them let us beseech the Lord Ans Lord have mercy That he may please to illuminate them with the light of knowledge and godliness let us beseech the Lord Ans Lord have mercy That he may please in due time to vouchsafe them the Laver of Regeneration and forgiveness of their sins let us beseech the Lord Ans Lord have mercy That he may please to regenerate them with water and the Holy Ghost let us beseech the Lord Ans Lord have mercy That he may please to give them a perfection of Faith let us beseech the Lord Ans Lord have mercy That he may please to gather them into the holy Fold of his Elect let us beseech the Lord Ans Lord have mercy O Lord save pity help and keep them by thy good Grace Ans Lord have mercy These and such Forms as these were undoubtedly used by the Churches of Christ in the first Ages of Christianity And these were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Allocutions which Tertullian speaks of as used in his time and anon I shall make it probably appear that they were used before his time too 4. In the mean time it is observable that in the place before-cited he makes mention of Petitions also used in the Publick Assemblies of Christians By which I understand certain entire Prayers called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Collects when the requests of the Church were cast into one Body of Prayer offered up by the Minister to which the People answered Amen In the use of these he was the Apol. c. 30. mouth of
meet and right that we should praise thee the very true God who art before all of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named the only Being without production without beginning and so on he goes rehearsing the Divine Attributes which I conceive is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or praise which Justine speaks of Then he largely mentioneth Gods Creating the World and all things in it his goodness to the first Man both before and after his fall his providence towards the Sons of Adam before and under the Law his particular favour to the seed of Abraham their redemption from Egypt c. for all which mercies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Cyri◠Catech. ◠Glory be unto thee O Lord Almighty there is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned by Justine After this he proceeds to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 blessing God for the wonderful work of the World's Redemption by Christ for his Conception Incarnation Birth Life Doctrine Miracles Passion Resurrection and Ascension into Glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we give thanks to thee O Almighty God not as we ought but as we can and we fulfil thy Commandment for in the same night that he was betrayed he took Bread c. where the Minister repeates at large the History and words of the Institution of the Sacrament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril ubi supra beseeching God to send down the Holy Ghost upon the offerings and so at last at the close of this long prayer of Consecration he proceeds to pray as the Deacon did before for the holy Catholick Church and for all its Members at the end whereof the Congregation answered Amen So it was in the book of Constitutions and so Justine affirms that the President did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 send up prayers again in a like manner the same after a sort with what had been sent up before and so that Ancient Writer S. Cyril tells us that after Consecration they did pray for the general peace of the Church for the quiet of the World for Kings c. In a word all the Old Liturgies gives us a plain full and concurrent account of this matter and whosoever shall seriously weigh and impartially consider the joynt suffrage and agreement of Antiquity as to this matter he must either betray his weakness or filthily belie his own Judgement if he doth not conclude that prescribed and set Forms of Divine Service were in use universally in Justine Martyrs time nay that Justine doth manifestly point to that Form in S. James Liturgies or Clements Constitutions such a clear agreement and correspondence there is between the account we find in him and in those other Records 3. This thing then being cleared that there were prescript Forms of Divine Service in the Primitive times of Christianity and even in that Age which was the very next to the Apostles I proceed to shew the third thing viz. that in the Holy Apostles time and in that interval between the burial of the Synagogue and the setling of the Christian Church set Forms of Divine Service were allowed also For confirmation whereof I think no Considerate man will deny that the Apostles and their Disciples conformed to the innocent Rites and Customes among the Jews and joyned with them in the ordinary moral service of God which was appointed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Chrys in Act. 2. 46. to be used daily 1. For first S. Luke tells us Luk. 24. 53. that after our Lords Ascension they were continually in the Temple praising and blessing God Though they had frequent peculiar coetus or Assemblies of their own yet they never withdrew themselves from the solemn Congregation of the Jews that they might not scandalize any but they continued daily in the Temple with one accord Act. 2. 46. That was the place whither they constantly resorted to Morning and Evening service For that being Moral it was utterly repugnant to the designe of Christianity to have destroyed it Some other offices indeed such as the Celebration of the Lords Supper as being proper to their Profession were to the Super-added to the ordinary service and for that purpose their custome was to adjourn from the Temple to the Caenaculum Sion or that upper room mentioned Act. 1. 13. The House was hard by the Temple if not part of it and there they brake bread in that House not as we render it House by House but in the House because they See Dr Hammond in loc and Mr. Medes Disc on 1 Cor. 11. 22. were not permitted to celebrate this Mystery in the Temple but yet the Temple was the place of their ordinary Devotion and there the service was by prescript Form In like manner we read of Peter and John that they went up together into the Temple at the hour of Prayer being the ninth hour Act. 3. 1. And from the whole History of the Apostles Acts it appears that S. Paul and others were wont ever to resort to the Synagogues at the usual days and hours and as it is improbable that they would have been so punctual as to the time and place of publick service had they not Conformed to the service it self so it is incredible that they should have found such easie access had not the Elders of the Jews lookt upon them as men of the same piece with themselves saving only in those points touching the Messiah's coming and the Necessity of such Ceremonies as were Typical or shaddows of better things 2. Again it is clear that the Apostles were very careful as far as it was consistent with their duty to give no offence unto the unbeleiving Jews but by all possible ways of compliance to gain them over unto Christianity in somuch that St. Paul who was one of the most stickling Apostles profest before Festus Act. 25. 8. that neither against the law of the Jews nor against the Temple had he offended any thing at all He declared before Foelix Act. 24. 12 that they never found him in the Temple disputing with any Man neither raising up the people neither in the Synagogues nor in the City And he told the Jews at Rome Act. 28. 17. that he had committed nothing against the people or customes of their Fathers In a word he allowed the Jews the use of Circumcision thought it was needless and he circumcised Timothy with his own Hands though it seemed extra-regular and in every particular they all went Act. 16. 3 as far as the Laws of Christianity would give leave that they might not exasperate any Now is it imaginable that men who were so willing to abate of their Liberty and to comply with the Jews even in things that were Ceremonial and Transitory should hold off in things that were their Duty and oppose that service of God which was substantial and permanent I mean the received Prayers Praises and Thanksgivings 3. But
to pray by delivering to them a most perfect Form of his own conception And then that the Apostles themselves who were acted by the same Spirit should likewise conceive and give unto Christians Forms also I think no wise man will wonder and that they used not the Lords prayer themselves in all their Services I think none but a mad man will have the confidence to assert All which things being duely considered I will take upon me to affirm that as Set Forms of Divine Service were used by the Jews before and in the life-time of our Saviour and by all Christians after the Age of the Apostles so in that intermediate juncture of time between the Ascention of our Saviour and the setling of Christianity set Forms of divine service were for certain allowed and in all probability practised used and transmitted unto the Church by the Apostles themselves and their Fellow-labourers whose names were written in the Book of life And so the first thing is dispatched which I undertook to make out touching the Ancient use of Set Forms of Divine Service in General Thus far to be sure we tread in the old ways in that we worship the God of our Father as our old Fathers did by a set and prescript Form 2. Next I proceed to speak of this form in particular I mean our English Liturgy about which there have been longer contentions then were once between the Angel and the Divel disputing about the Body of Moses I shall not insist either upon Jude 9. the Order or the Expressions contained in our Service-book because all Churches of old have taken the liberty of varying somewhat in these respects though the main Body of their Liturgies was in a manner the same But my intent is to take notice of the substance of our Service-book and to observe what an Eye our Learned and pious Reformers had to the Ancient Model when they compiled this and to shew how agreeable our standing and ordinary offices are to those of Old in their general Frame and Contexture The incomparably Learned and Moderate Grotius though he was a Foreigner Grot. Ep. ad Gedeon a â—oet yet did us the right to affirm as a thing that was clear and certain that the Liturgy of the Church of England was sufficiently correspondent to the usages of the Ancient-Church And if knowing men would but take the pains to consider and compare the particulars they would find that our Liturgy is not onely agreeable to the oldest and Best but moreover that it is the most pure and most perfect Liturgy that is now known to be in the whole world We begin as it becometh sinners and Penitents with an The Confession De Missa lib. 1. c. 3. humble and hearty confession of our offences And if the Noble Du Plessis may be credited so did the Jews begin their service to which the Apostles and their Disciples did all conform The same was the custome of Christians in following times So the Authour de Autoritate ordine Officii Muzarabici tells us of the Christians in Spain who were mingled with the Arabs that they began their Service with a General Confession And so we find in the Rubrick at the beginning of the service on the Feast of St. De Aut. Et Ord. Off. Muzar c. 37. James faciâ prius confessione uti fit in Missis Latinis juxta usum Toletanum antiquum dicitur Introitus Confession being first made as in the Latine services it is usually done according to the Ancient use of Toledo the Introit is said In like manner Cassander tells Cassand Liturgic Cap. 1. 2. us of the Armenians that their Priest having put on his habits said the Confession before the Altar with bended knees and his head bowed down according to the custome of the Latines In both these Testimonis mention is made of the custome of the Latine Churches that the Confession of the Spanish course was according to the way of the Latines and that the Confession in the Armenian course was according to the custome of the Latines so that in the Latine Churches as well as in these Service was begun as with us with a general confession Now as for the Greek Church St. Basil tells us that Basil ep 63. ad Cler. Neocaesar in his time they did rise betimes a good while before day and went to the house of prayer and there with pain and affliction and incessant tears made Confession unto God and that with one mouth and with one heart every one professing his Repentance with his own tongue Indeed St. Basil saith that when this first course was over at break of day they made Confession again using a Penitential Psalm and so doth our Church order the one and fiftieth Psalm to be used after Morning Prayer and Litany on the first day of Lent and on other special days of See the Commination Fasting but 't is clear from his words that the first thing the Greeks did was to joyn in a solemn and devout Confession of their sins at their publick meeting together In like manner the Lords Prayer is constantly used in the The Lords Prayer â—nirance to our Morning and Evening Service And this is agreeable to the Ancient practice of the Church We meet together saith Tertullian that we may offer holy violence unto Tertul. Apol. c. 39. God besieging him by prayer there Prayer is intimated to have been their first business But then he saith elsewhere that the Lords Prayer was premised and used first as the foundation of their Devotion to which they Premissâ Iegitimae ordinaria oratione quasi fundamento accidentium jus est desideriornm jus est superstruendi c. Tert. de Oratione might add and on which they might build other occasional prayers having used that before And as touching our frequent use of the Lords prayer any man that consults the Ancient Liturgies may see how agreeable it is to the old way That short Address O Lord open thou our lips together with the Response And our mouth shall shew forth thy praise are part of Psal 51. 15. And it has been noted before that The Versicles the Jews used that Form before their Prayers and that Christians continued the use of it and is still to be seen in the Liturgy ascribed to S. James and in S. Chrysostomes The Doxology is a short Confession of our Faith in the The Gloria Patri Blessed Trinity and an Act of Adoration and Worship and moreover an Argument of the holiness of our purposes and therefore is fit to be used often as a signification that all our confessions praises prayers c. are intended and directed all of them to the Glory of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost That it was of Ancient and Vniversal use both in the Eastern and Western Churches is most certain and that it was used at the ends of Psalms before the fourth Council
more consonant to the Ancient Spirit and Genius of Christianity or more agreeable to the Practice of all Churches in all Ages then to pray sometimes in short Collects and sometime in shorter versicles for Grace for Peace for the Divine protection for Plenty for seasonable weather for wholesome air for deliverance from Plagues and Enemies for the King for the Clergy and their respective Flocks for Magistrates for the whole Church and indeed for all men And of this nature and strain are those ordinary and occasional prayers with which our daily Service is wont to end Great exceptions have been taken by some at our Litany and yet it is as charitable and as Christian a piece of Devotion The Litany as ever could be framed by humane Pen if people will but bring with them hearts that are as good as the matter before them is excellent Here is Fire and Wood enough if the Lamb be not wanting for the Sacrifice Our Litany consisteth of two main parts The one is offered up by the Minister going before in supplications prayers and intercessions exactly according to S. Paul's Rule 1 Tim. 2. The other part is offered up by the people following after in their joynt suffrages and with such earnest and importunate cryes as pierce the highest Heaven Now this way of expressing our Devotions by turns the Minister in his turn and the Congregation in theirs is not only an admirable way to kindle and enflame each others zeal but moreover 't is a way and method suitable to the way and method of Gods Spirit and used many hundreds of years or Ages before the date of Christianity 1. For the Ministers going before the people both by his example and by calling upon them to joyn with him We find it was the continual practice of David not onely to make Addresses himself unto God but also to invite and call upon others to do so likewise O come let us sing unto the Lord let us magnifie his name together praise the Lord ye house of Israel praise the Lord ye house of Aaron praise the Lord ye house of Levi ye that fear the Lord praise the Lord and in Psal 107. O give thanks unto the Lord O that men would praise the Lord which form is repeated again no less than three times in the same Psalm as an admonition to keep up the Devotion of People And are not those Ancient Litany-forms used by the Deacons Let us pray let us beseech the Lord let us pray earnestly are they not exactly answerable to these Forms of Allocution used by this inspired and holy man If the Spirit thought fit to have such Forms used in praising God it is not unsuitable to the usual strain of that Spirit to use the like Forms in praying unto God too 2. As touching the peoples following the Minister by their suffrages it is a method no more unbecoming Gods Spirit then the other and nothing has been more customary than for the people to have their turns and to bear a part in Gods Worship After that remarkable victory over Pharoah and his forces the whole body of the Jews stood upon the shore of the Red Sea to bless God for their deliverance and we find Exod. 15. that Moses the Prophet and the men of Israel divided themselves into one body and Miriam the Prophetess with the women of Israel divided themselves into another body and as Moses and the men Sang his Triumphant Hymn so Miriam and the women answered them saying Sing ye to the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously the Horse and his Rider hath he thrown into the Sea This Form of Praise they repeated in all probability after every verse of Moses Song for we read of nothing else that they answered but only Sing ye to the Lord c. And if they had a Form of praise which they repeated after every verse as the ground and foot and burden of the Hymn is it unsuitable if we have a Form of prayer for the people to repeat after every Petition as the ground foot and burden of the Litany If they were directed by the Spirit of God when Moses went before them in a Song to answer Sing ye unto the Lord when they were delivered then it is also agreeable to the style of the same Spirit when the Minister goeth before us in our prayer for us to answer Good Lord deliver us Further it is to be considered that the 136th Psalm seemeth to have been composed by the Prophet on purpose that the end of each Verse might be repeated throughout by the whole Congregation O Give thanks unto the Lord for he is gracious and his mercy endureth for ever for his mercy endureth for ever for his mercy endureth for ever this is the burden of the Psalm from the beginning to the close of it And we may easily collect from 2 Chron. 5. 13. that at the Dedication of Solomons Temple this Psalm was repeated thus by turns one of the Priests saying before the former part of each Verse and then all the Singers following after with one voice and saying all along for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever And since they were directed by Gods Spirit to subjoyn throughout their prayers for his mercy for his mercy for his mercy endureth for ever it cannot be thought unbecoming Gods Spirit if we are directed to subjoyn in our Prayers Lord have mercy Lord have mercy Lord have mercy upon us And so I hope the Form and Contexture of our Litany will seem to every indifferent person to be free from all charge of vanity and superstition 2. It is free also from all just charge of Vncouthness and Innovation Many indeed judge of things by Modern usage and practice and because they have been accustomed to long continued effusions they look upon our Litany as an odd and a new device for which we were beholding to the Roman Missal But 't is clear to every knowing man that it was a very Ancient and a very usual way among Christians to pray Litany-wise It was so Ancient a way that for ought any man knows to the contrary it was used in the most early times of Christianity For in the oldest Rituals which are in being there are many such Forms of Prayer and some Ancient Service-books do consist of such for the most part 'T is true indeed they were not called Litanies at the first but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diaconick Prayers because they were wont to be Ministered by the Deacon and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pacifick Prayers because the purport and scope of them was for peace in the World and among all mankind 'T is true also that in after times above 300 years after Christ these Forms of Prayer came to be used at solemn and publick processions when times were calamitous and full of peril and the destroying Angel was abroad and then several additional Prayers were inserted proper and suitable to the occasion the
Justin Martyr Ignatius and other the most Primitive Writers so that without all peradventure this custome is founded upon Apostolical Institution and exactly agreeable to this most Ancient and Christian custome is that Offertory appointed in our English Service-book Next follows the Prayer for the whole state of Christ's Church Militant here in earth which is highly consonant to the practice The Prayer for the Catholick Church of the Vniversal Church in all Ages in respect both of its order and matter For first before the reception of the Sacrament a Prayer of this Nature was ever offered and that saith S. Ambros according to the Rule delivered by S. Paul In some places I Comment on 1 Tim. 2. find that this Prayer was used once before the Consecration of the Elements the Deacon inditing it and the people answering Litanywise Lord have mercy and after Consecration it was repeated Clem. Const lib. 8. S. Cyril Catech 5. Justin Mart. Apol. 2. Ambros de Sac. lib. 4. c. 4. again by him that Ministred in chief the people answering only Amen But never was the Sacrament administred without supplications in the first place for the people for Kings and for the rest as St. Ambrose speaks And to the same purpose St. Cyril tells us that the Spiritual Sacrifice being prepared they went solemnly to prayer for the common peace of the Churches for the tranquillity of the World for Kings for their Armies and Allies for Cyril Catech 5. sick and afflicted people and for all that stood in need of help And of the truth of this all Liturgies extant are an abundant proof 2. Then as touching the particular matter of this excellent and Catholick Prayer it is observable 1. That our Church calleth the things laid upon the Lords Table not only Alms but Oblations and so did the Ancients call Clem. ep ad Cor. p. 52. them even S. Clement himself S. Pauls fellow-labourer For the old Christians conceived themselves obliged to make Offerings of Praise and Thanksgiving under the Gospel as well as Abel did before the Law and the Jews did under the Law The Species of Sacrifice was changed indeed for they offered not Bullocks and Goats but they did not think that all kinds of Offerings were abolisht but that they were bound to present Eucharistical Oblations unto God that they might be found thankful unto the Maker of the Vniverse as Irenaeus speaks So that in lieu of bloudy Sacrifices they presented Bread and Wine Iren. lib. 4. c. 34. V. Mede's Christian Sacrifice and the first fruits of their increase besides sums of money And these were called Oblations gifts whereby they acknowledg'd Gods right and propriety unto all their Possessions that the Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof not as if he needed these gifts but as humble Thanksgivings unto his Offerimus non quasi indigenti sed gratias agentes dominationi ejus Iren. ut suprá Soveraignty And so they were wont to profess in those days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord we restore unto thee some of thine own things 2. Our Church prayeth that God would accept these our Alms and Oblations which is perfectly answerable to the old custome for so the first Christians did beseech God that in mercy Clem. Const lib. 8. he would look upon their offerings and accept them as a sweet Odour through the Intercession of Christ 3. Then our Church goes on praying for the Vniversal Church for Kings Princes and Magistrates for the Clergy and the rest And thus did all the Churches of old pray for the holy Catholick Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from end to end for Kings Id. ibid. and all in Authority that they may be at peace with us and that we living in all quietness and concord may glorifie thee all our days through Jesus Christ for all holy Bishops rightly dividing the word of truth for all Presbyters and Deacons for all thy people and all that are in want and distress c. 4. Last of all it is customary with us at the end of this Prayer to make mention of the Saints departed and so 't was ever customary with all the Churches of old to bless God for their Faith Perseverance and Martyrdomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Const lib. 8. beseeching that they might be made partakers of their conflicts and with them might have their perfect Consummation and bliss This was the first design of these memorials of the dead In fide morientium devotè memoriam agimus tam illorum refrigerio gaudentes quam etiam nobis piam consummationem in fide postulantes Origen lib. 3. in Job p. 274. Ed. Par. See Bishop Vshers Ans to the Challenge which latter Ages corrupted adding Prayers for the release of souls out of a pretended Purgatory But this conceit and practice was never known in the Ancient and best times And therfore our honest Church resolving to bring things to their first stay threw out of her Prayers this dross and litter and filthy stuff retaining that which was pure and Primitive Among those things which have been corrupted in the old Liturgies as we now have them there are some things which have passed all along untouched As that salutation of the Minister the Dominus Vobiscum Lord be with you and the peoples Answer and with thy Spirit it is every where to be found in the ancientest Monuments And so that other sursum corda lift up your hearts with the return we lift them up unto the Lord we find it in S. Cyprian and S. Cyril and in every Liturgy As also the following exhortation let Cypr. de Orat. Dom. us give thanks unto our Lord God and the subsequent acknowledgement it is meet and right so to do the Minister going on Sursum Corda c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is very meet right and our bounden duty c. these Forms are still entire in all Service-books that they may rationally be concluded to have sprang from Apostolical practice And so the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all the company of Heaven c. together with the Trisagium following which was joyntly repeated by the whole Congregation Holy holy holy Lord God of Host c. they are Forms which were very anciently and universally V. Lit. Jacob. Marc. Petri. Aethiop Mosar Christian apud Ind. Clem. Constit cum multis aliis used at this time but somewhat more largely and with a little inconsiderable difference for thus they said of old before thee do stand praising and worshipping thee numberless Hosts of Angels Arch-angels Thrones Dominions Principalities and Powers the Cherubim and the six-winged Scraphim with two wings covering their feet and with two wings covering their faces and with two wings flying and crying continually and incessantly with thousands and thousands of Arch-angels and with myriads and myriads of Angels Holy holy holy Lord God of
tells it us as a Sign and Ingredient of perilous times that in the last days some great Professors of Religion would be disobedient to Parents without 2 Tim. 3. natural Affection and unthankful But in former Ages this Custom was justly accounted a good security to Religion And we finde it not onely in the Canon Vniversalis but even in Tertullian himself Habemus per benedictionem eosdem Arbitros fidei quos Sponsores salutis Tert. de Bapt. Quid necesse est Sponsores etiam periculo ingeri qui ipsi per mortalitatem destituere promissiones suas possint Id. ibid. Inde suscepti c. Id. de Cor. milit who frequently mentions it And so doth the pretended Dionysius Areopagita and the Author of the Questions and Answers ascribed to Justin Martyr And though it be acknowledged that those Books were not written by those men yet none doubts but they are ancient Records And 't is as certain that this Custom is much elder than those Authors Plat. in vita Hygini Magd. cent 2. c. 6. whosoever they were for it is confest that it prevailed in the time of Hyginus who was Justin Martyr's Co-temporary and lived within sixty years after S. John's decease 9. And so for baptismal Interrogatories and Stipulations and Vows of renouncing the Devil and all his works c. they Tertul. Cyril Just Mart. cum multis aliis are so manifestly ancient by the joynt Consent of all the most Primitive Writers that I dare say They bear date from the Apostles times And generally learned men do conceive that St. Peter alludes to that Custom 1 Pet. 3. 21. where he calleth Baptism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Answer or the Promise and Stipulation V. Grotium in loc of a good Conscience towards God 10. The repeating of Psalms and Hymns by turns by Minister Antiphonae and People is a very useful good course to keep peoples minds from rambling and to imprint holy things in their memories And this hath been customary in the ancient Church though as St. Basil tells us there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 variety Basil Ep. 63. ad Cler. Neocaes in singing For sometimes the Minister began one verse and was seconded by the whole Congregation as is the custom still in many of our Parochial Churches and sometimes the Quire was divided into two parts which alternately answered each other from side to side as 't is usual in our Colledges and Cathedrals At the close of each Psalm or Hymn they commonly had some End versicles called by Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De vitâ Contempl Const lib. 2. c. 57. and in Clements Constitutions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answerable to our Gloria Patri and these were recited by turns too Certain it is that the people were ever wont to bear their part in praising and blessing God which was one reason that Eusebius took those Therapeutae in Egypt for Christians because Eccl. Hist l. 2. c. 17. among other Christian Customs they had this And if he was mistaken in his opinion yet it argues that this was a general custom among Christians in his time And so indeed St. Basil assures us that it prevailed universally in the Eastern Churches Cassiodore affirms that Flavianus and Diodorus Tripart Hist l. 5. c. 32. brought in the Alternate singing of Psalms But this certainly is a mistake for this was most usual long before their days Socrates and others fetch it as high as from the holy Martyr Socrat. l. 6. c. 8. Ignatius who was no less than an Apostolical Bishop and this Trip. Hist l. 10. c. 9. is yielded by Cassiodore himself elsewhere But though Ignatius might have introduced this custom at Antioch yet in probability 't was originally borrowed of the Jews and so continued among Christians from the beginning This is evident that Pliny writing to the Emperour Trajan in whose days St. John died saith of the Christians that they were wont early in a morning to meet together which comes near to St. Basil's account and to sing Carmen Christo a Hymn to Christ and that secum invicem by course by turns or one after another 11. As concerning the posture of the body at the receiving Kneeling at the Sacrament of the Holy Sacrament it is clear that the sitting posture was never used unless by the Arrians who denied our Saviour's Divinity All the Catholicks did receive with all imaginable Reverence and in St. Cyril's time they did it in a worshipping Cyril Catech. Myst 5. and adoring gesture the Adoration being directed to God and Christ but not to the Elements 12. 'T is customary with us especially in some places to read the second Service at the Lords Table which some are pleased to look upon as a mighty piece of Superstition though it be nothing else but an innocent usage conformable to the Practice of the most Primitive times which is still preserved not onely in the Eastern parts but in the Lutheran Churches also For as Mr. Mede hath well observed this was the place Christian Sacrifice cap. 5. Ep. 56. to Dr. Twisse alibi where the Ancients offered up all their Prayers unto God and because the Passion of Christ is commemorated and his Death represented there they thought it the most fit and proper place for Divine-Service and so were wont to call upon God at the Altar signifying hereby that they offered up their Prayers in the Name and through the Merits of their crucified Saviour For the Readers further satisfaction I shall refer him to the Observations of that learned man and onely adde That that Phrase in Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be within the Altar is a plain allusion to this Ancient and Primitive custom and signifies to joyn with the Bishop in those Ministrations which were performed and in those Prayers which were offered up at the Altar And the like Phrase we finde in Clements Constitutions Const l. 7. c. 41. where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to partake of holy Mysteries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is explained afterwards to communicate in holy Ordinances In fine whosoever will give himself the trouble to search and will do us the right to speak impartially he must needs confess that those Constitutions of ours which are establisht by Law and those Rites which are preserved by Custom have had their Rise and Original from the best and most authentick Antiquity I have instanced in several particulars and a longer account might be given if that would do our business effectually But I hope what hath been already shewed will satisfie all indifferent and sober persons that our Church is free from all charge of Superstition and Novelty I would to God she were as free from danger too danger which is now threatned her not only by those who never were in her bosom but by those also to whom she like an indulgent Mother hath held
over us we need not fear what Enemy could annoy us God of his Mercy Grant us Peace in our days and give us Eyes to see and Hearts seriously to consider the things which do belong unto our Peace before they are hid from our Eyes Amen POSTSCRIPT I Shall by way of Appendix transcribe a passage out of that very learned and excellent man Dr. Sanderson in his Preface to his Sermons bearng date July 13 1657. where clearing the regular Sons of the Church of England from the unjust Aspersions of being Popishly affected he saith 1. That those very persons who were under God the Instruments of freeing us from the Roman yoke by casting Popery out of the Church and sundry of them Martyred in the Cause those very persons I say were great Favourers of these now accounted Popish Ceremonies and the chief Authors or Procurers of the Constitutions made in that behalf 2. That in all former Times since the beginning of the Reformation our Arch-bishops and Bishops with their Chaplains and others of the Prelatical Party were the principal I had almost said the only Champions to maintain the Cause of Religion against the Papists 3. That even in these times of so great distraction and consequently thereunto of so great advantage to the Factors for Rome none have stept into the gap more readily nor appear'd in the face of the Enemy more openly nor maintain'd the fight with more Stoutness and Gallantry than the Episcopal Divines have done as their late learned Writings testifie Yea and some of them such as besides their other Sufferings have lain as deep under the Suspicion of being Popishly affected as nay other of their Brethren whosoever 4. That by the endeavours of these Episcopal Divines some that were bred Papists have been gained to our Church others that began to waver confirmed and setled in their old Religion and some that were fallen from Us recovered and reduced notwithstanding all the disadvantages of these confused Times and of each of these I am able to produce some Instance But I profess sincerely as in the presence of God and before the world that I have not known at least I cannot call to remembrance so much as one single Example of any of this done by any of our Anti-ceremonian Brethren whether Presbyterian or Independent But I have somewhat to return upon these our Brethren who thus causelesly suspect us Possibly it will not please them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but I must speak it out both for the Truths sake and theirs to wit That themselves are in truth though not purposely and intentionally whereof in my own thought I freely acquit them yet really and eventually the great Promoters of the Roman Interest among us and that more ways than one First by putting to their helping hand to the pulling down of Episcopacy It is very well known to many what rejoycing that Vote brought to the Romish Party How even in Rome itself they sang their Io Paeans upon the tidings thereof and said triumphantly Now is the day ours now is the fatal Blow given to the Protestant Religion in England They who by conversing much with that Nation were well-acquainted with the fiery turbulent spirits of the Scotish Presbyterians knew as well how to make their advantage thereof and handled the matter with so much cunning by fomenting their Discontents underhand till they had framed them and by their means some of the same Party here to become the fittest Instruments for the carrying on of their great Designe And this I verily believe was the very Master-piece of the whole Plot. They could not but foresee as the Event hath also proved that if the Old Government a main Pillar in the Building were once dissolved the whole Fabrick would be sore shaken if not presently shattered in pieces and ruin'd things would presently run into Confusion Distractions and Divisions would certainly follow and when the Waters should be sufficiently troubled and mudded then would be their opportunity to cast in their nets for a draught c. Whoso pleaseth may read on and indeed the whole Preface is highly worthy to be read and judiciously considered especially at this Time FINIS A Catalogue of some Books printed for and sold by Jonathan Edwin at the Three Roses in Ludgate-street A Sermon preached on the Thirtieth of January 1678 9. being the Anniversary of the Martyrdom of King Charles the First of blessed Memory and published at the request of some Friends by Edward Pelling Rector of St. Martins Ludgate in quarto Ancient and Modern Delusions discoursed of in three Sermons upon 2 Thes 2. 11. concerning some Errours now prevailing in the Church of Rome by Edward Pelling Rector of St. Martins Ludgate in quarto The true Liberty and Dominion of Conscience vindicated from the Usurpations and Abuses of Opinion and Perswasion in octavo The Countermine or a short but true discovery of the dangerous Principles and secret Practices of the Dissenting Party especially the Presbyterians shewing that Religion is pretended but Rebellion is intended and in order thereto the Foundation of Monarchy in the State and Episcopacy in the Church are undermined in octavo The common Interest of King and People shewing the Original Antiquity and Excellency of Monarchy compared with Aristocracy and Democracy and particularly of our English Monarchy and that absolute Papal and Presbyterian popular Supremacy are utterly inconsistent with Prerogative Property and Liberty in octavo The Project of Peace or Unity of Faith and Government the onely Expedient to procure Peace both Forreign and Domestique and to preserve these Nations from the danger of Popery and Arbitrary Tyranny in octavo Two Sermons preached at the Funerals of the Right Honourable Robert Lord Lexington and the Lady Mary his Wife by Samuel Holden A. M. late of Lincoln-Colledge in Oxford and Chaplain to his Lordship deceased in quarto A Sermon preached July 17. 1676. in the Cathedral-Church of St. Peter in York before the Right Honourable Sir Francis North Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and the Honourable Vere Bertie Esq one of the Barons of the Exchequer his Majesties Judges of Assize for the Northern Circuit By Thomas Cartwright D. D. and Dean of Rippon Chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty A Sermon preached before the King at Whitehal January the 9th 1675 6. by Thomas Cartwright D. D. Chaplain in ordinary to his Majesty FINIS