3 4 5. apud Bin. Tom. 2. par 2. pag. 212. Here we have one Kalendar fixed appointing the very same Lessons one Form of Salutation derived from the Apostles one Written Form for the celebration of the Eucharist and another being the Order of Baptism which in the days of a Bishop who was dead some years before this Council were sent in Writing from Rome and had been ever since used in these Provinces which can be nothing else but a Liturgy from which they will not suffer any Minister to vary in the least And it signifies nothing to alledge That this is one of the first Injunctions for such Uniformity in this Country that had been for an Age and more over-run with Barbarous People and overspread with Heresies because there are evident Supposals That the Ancient Churches which had not been renversed by these Calamities but kept to their old accustomed Ways furnished the New regulated Churches with ancient Forms which had been used among them from the Primitive Ages and that sufficiently proves the Antiquity of Liturgies My Adversary who conceals all this Evidence cites the 30th Canon of this Council but very falsly for he reads it thus Besides the Psalms of the Old Testament let nothing Poetically Composed be Sung in the Church and he false dates it also (z) Disc of Lit. pag. 179. Concil Bracar Can. 30. An. 565. But the Words of the Canon are a Translation of the Canon of Laodicea made 200 years before Forbidding the Singing of any Poetical Compositions in the Church except the Psalms and what Hymns were taken out of the Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament (a) Vid. Bin. Tom. 2. par 2. pag. 212. which was designed to set aside the late composed Hymns of the Arians used among the Heretical Goths and other corrupt modern Composures Not to reject the Magnificat the Benedictus Nunc dimittis and other Canonical Hymns which our Dissenters now totally disuse He adds That Ordo Psallendi in the Council of Tours signifies not what but how many Psalms shall be Sung (b) Disc of Lit. pag. 174. But let the Canon be consulted and any Man who knows the Custom of the Age will see that the design of that Canon was to establish a Kalendar which did appoint and prescribe the very Psalms as well as the Number which were to be Sung at the certain Seasons there mentioned (c) Vid. Bin. Tom. 2. par 2. in Concil Turon 2. An. 570. Can. 19. p. 228. And he unfortunately forgot one Canon of this Council of Tours which enlarges the former Canon of Braga and takes in all the ancient Hymns which he pretends are rejected by that Canon for it says Though we have the Hymns of Ambrose in the Canon yet since we have other Forms worthy to be Sung we willingly receive them unless they have no Authors Name in the Title because if they be agreeable to the Faith they ought not to be left out of use (d) Ib. Can. 24. pag. 230. So that we see this Canon owns the Te Deum the Benedicite and other Hymns provided they be Orthodox and the Authors were known Friends to the Catholic Faith and here are Forms supposed as generally used and a Council to allow them after which the Church may use them though they be not taken out of Canonical Scripture I have no more to add here but a scattered Passage or two to confirm the continuance of the old Forms in the Gallican Church First Whereas there was a necessity of leaving the Priest at liberty to put the Names of those who Offered into the Prayer for all Estates of Men some ventured to take more freedom and in that part of the Office varied from their Mother Church Which occasion'd a Council at Arles to Decree That the Oblations made at the Holy Altar should not be offered up by any of the Bishops of that Province otherwise than according to the Form used in the Church of Arles (e) Concil Arelat An. Dom. 554. Can. 1. apud Cointe Annal. pag. 799. Or if with some we expound this Canon of the Prayer of Consecration still it proves That the Forms used in the Metropolitan Church were to be an invariable Rule to all the Churches in that Province The Council of Tours also before cited mentions Litanies Antiphons and the Hallelujah (f) Concil Turon 2. An. 570. Can. 18 c. And we have a farther account of the Use of Litanies there in the first Council of Lions (g) Concil Ludg. 1. eod An. Can. 6. Bin. Tom. 2. par 2. pag. 232. All which are the Forms which we have shewed were in use in the preceding Centuries And when Chilperic a King of France about this Time pretended to Compose new Hymns and Prayers our Author tells us They would by no means receive them into the Churches Offices (h) Greg. Turon lib. 6. cap. 46. pag. 308. for those were fixed before and none but a Council of Bishops could be permitted to alter or add to them I had almost forgot Martin Bishop of Braga Martin Episcop Bracar An. Dom. 572. who came into that See very soon after the fore-mentioned Council and being a Grecian by Birth he collected and translated divers Canons of the Greek Church into Latin for the use of Spain in which Collection of his we have very many plain Indications of a Liturgy One of these Canons obliges every Clergy-man in a City or any place where there is a Church to be present at the daily Office of Singing Mattens and Vespers (m) Canones Martin Bracar Can. 63. Bin. Tom. 2. par 2. pag. 246. And another forbids New composed Psalms made by some of the Vulgar to be said in the Church (n) Ib. Can. 67. For indeed the Hours of Prayer and the Offices appointed for them were then so fixed that as none might neglect them so none were allowed to change them or add to them in any sort whatsoever And I must note by the way that this very Martin who collected these Canons was he that had Converted the Suevians in Spain to the Catholic Faith that so we may be satisfied that part of Spain a little before this had a second and New Conversion and that gave occasion to divers of these Canons for an Uniformity in the Divine Service which was to be established there Pelagius II. Ep. Rom. An Dom. 577. § 10. To proceed with the Western Church the Bishops of France and Germany about this Time desired Pope Pelagius the Second to inform them what were the Prefaces then used in the Roman Church that is what Festivals there were upon which they made a peculiar Addition to the Primitive Form of Lift up your Hearts c. suitable to the occasion of that particular Festival And his Reply is this Having diligently read over the holy Roman Order and the sacred Constitutions of our Predecessors we find only these Nine
still extant was made at least as early as the Age in which S. Martin lived (p) Bona rerum Liturg. lib. 1. cap. 12. in Append. And that in the Time of Sidonius Apollinaris the Clergy there generally used a Common-Prayer-Book in that same Fifth Century An. 475. We have proved That in the end of the Sixth Age Gregory the Great directed Augustin the Monk to read over the Gallican Liturgy as well as the Roman which shews it was then Written in a Book Yea my Adversaries own Author Mornay in the place cited by him which he must needs see affirms That before the Time of Gregory there was another manner of Service in France than there was at Rome and that Innocent and Gelasius who were Popes in the Fifth Century as well as Gregory had used their utmost endeavours to bring them to conform to the Roman Order (q) Mornay of the Mass Book I. chap. 8. pag. 63. Which supposes plainly they had a Service of their own differing from the Roman in Innocents and in Gelasius his Time that is in the Fifth Century and that Epistle of Hildewinus to Lewes the Gentile An. 825. mentioned in Mornay implies the same thing For Hildewinus saith We have still divers very ancient Mass-Books almost consumed with extreme Age containing the Order of the Gallican Service which was used from the time that the Faith was first received in this part of the West until we admitted the Roman Order (r) Hildevinus Abb. praefat ad opera Dionys Areop Where we see He not only affirms they had a Form of Service from their first Conversion but that in the beginning of the Ninth Age some of the Copies of that Service were worn out with extreme Antiquity so that probably these Copies were writ in the Sixth Age And from hence we may discern the falshood of my Adversaries Pretence That there were no Service-Books in France before the 8th Century Secondly He affirms That these Books were used at the discretion of him that Officiated But this is as false as the former for we have proved by divers French Canons in the Fifth and Sixth Ages That all the Clergy in one Province were bound to use the same Form of Service which was used by their Metropolitan And in the Eighth Century Theodulphus Bishop of Orleance enjoyns his Clergy When they came to his Synod to bring their Common Prayer-Books with them and two or three Clerks who assisted them in the celebrating Divine Service that so it might appear hour exactly and diligently they had performed their Duties (s) Theodulph Aurel. Ep. ad Cler. cap. 4. ap Bon. rer Liturg. p. 349. which is a stricter course than is now taken in our Church But my Adversary pretends he hath Evidence for this Liberty out of an ancient Chronicle in Mornay (t) Mornay of the Mass Book I. chap 8. pag. 64. which saith That every one at his pleasure had depraved the Book of Offices by adding and diminishing To which I Reply That these Words are not in Mornay and if they be in the Chronicle of Engolism as the Margen recites them The meaning is plainly this That those who writ out these Forms had depraved them by leaving out some things and putting in others Not that those who used these Books altered or added at their pleasure for he who officiates cannot properly be said to have depraved a Book by not reading it aright it was the Scribes who writ the Copies falsly and variously that had depraved the Old Office so much that it gave a good Pretence to French Kings to bring in the Roman Service Herein therefore he hath no ground for his false Assertion That these Books were used at the discretion of him that did Officiate Thirdly He mistakes again in saying That Charlemaign in the beginning of the Ninth Age reformed them after the Roman guise For first his own Author Mornay affirms That King Pepin for reverence of Pope Steven received the whole Order of Rome and cites two Capitulars for this wherein Charles the Great declares That his Father Pepin first put down the Gallican and set up the Roman Service in France (u) Capit. lib. 1. cap. 80 lib. 5. cap. 219. in Mornay ut supr pag 64. Now Pope Steven died An. 755. which is near Fifty years before the Ninth Age began Moreover the Centuriators out of Sigebert and divers ancient Historians tell us That it is apparent there was a different way of Singing in the Roman and the Gallican Churches till Pepin upon his being made King of France by the Pope brought in the Roman Rites and way of Singing into the Gallican Church (w) Magdebur Cent. 8. cap. 6. pag. 342 343. Now this was in the year 751. that is in the midst of the Eighth Age. 'T is true Charles the Great did go on with the same work but then it was before the beginning of the Ninth Age which is the Period that my Adversary assigns to this Matter For finding still that some Churches kept up the Old way of Singing he sent two Clerks to Rome to learn there the Authentic way of Singing and they first taught the Church of Metz and then all France (x) Magdeb. ibid Sigeb Chron. An. 774. But this was in the year 774 Six and twenty years before the Ninth Age began Again He owns this Uniformity was brought in by his Father Pepin and enjoyns it once more (y) Capitul Franc. Tom. I. in Cap. An. 788. pag. 203. about the Year 788. The next Year in another Capitular Charles the Great obliges the Monks also to follow that Roman Order of Singing which his Father appointed when he put down the Old Gallican way (z) Capitul ibid. An. 789. cap. 78. p. 239. In the same year also was this Law made That the Clergy should have Orthodox Books very well Corrected lest those who desire to pray to God aright by Ill written Books should ask amiss and therefore none was to write out the Gospel the Psalter or Missal but a Man of mature Age (a) Capitul ibid. Tom. I. cap. 70. p. 237. And finally The last Persons sent from Rome about compleating this Uniformity were Adrian's two Chanters who came into France An. 790 (b) Magdeb. Cent. 8. cap. 6. pag. 343. Sigebert An. 790. Wherefore he is out in his Chronology as to this Matter because the Roman Order was brought into the Gallican Church by Pepin first and then universally setled there by Charles the Great before the Ninth Age began But to let that pass it is certain there was no more liberty allowed to any Ministers in the Gallican Church before the Roman Offices came in there than there was afterward because it is plain they had a Liturgy before imposed strictly by divers Canons of several Councils and while that Gallican Office was in Force the Clergy were as much bound to use those Forms as they were to use the
of Rome (m) Mornay of the Mass Book I. chap. 9. pag. 74. For then it follows That the ancient German Offices were still used in some Parts that were subject to the Archbishop of Colen So that still this is exchanging one Form for another and no proof at all of liberty in Praying a thing unknown in this Age. Agobardus Episc Lugdun An. 831. § 7. We have little more in this Discourse against Liturgies out of Antiquity excepting only some few pretended proofs from late Ages to shew that they used various words in the distribution of the Eucharist As First he tells us that Agobardus the Famous Arch-Bishop of Lions could not well like that Common Roman Form The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ c. since he was only for Scripture Expressions in the public Offices And then he intimates that Agobardus was censured for this by Baronius and his Epitomator (n) Disc of Lit. pag. 90. 91. To which I reply First That Baronius never censures this great Bishop at all for this passage is not in Baronius but only in Spondanus the Epitomator and from him alone my Adversary cites it (o) Vid. Baron Tom. 9. An. 831. p. 797. 798. Secondly Spondanus speaks not one word of Agobardus his correcting the Communion-Office but only that he took great pains in restoring the ancient Antiphonary or Book of Hymns (p) Spondan Epitom An. 831. Num. 2. And Baluzius hath now put out the very Tract which Spondanus refers to and there is not one Syllable in all that Book expressing any dislike at the Words used in the distribution (q) Agobardi lib. de divin Psalmod lib. de correct Antiph oper Tom. 2. edit Paris 1666. Yea there is a peculiar discourse of this Bishop against Amalarius his Comment on the Mass wherein he speaks of the Roman Canon Te igitur c. yet never makes the least exception against the Roman Order or any thing contained in it (r) Ibid. lib. contr Amal. pag. 101. So that this pretended dislike of the Roman Form of distribution is a meer Fiction of his own Brain And if it were true that Agobardus did not like any thing in Sacred Offices but what was Scripture Yet there is no cause he should for that cause dislike this which he calls the Roman but was the Primitive and is now our Protestant Form since the words are taken out of and grounded on express places of Holy Scripture The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ is a Scripture Expresion (s) Math. xxvi 26. Luk. xxii 19. 1 Cor. xi 24. and the next words Preserve thy Body and Soul to Eternal Life are grounded on Scripture Promises (t) John vi ver 50.51.53.54 58. so that if Agobardus were never so scrupulous he might very well like and use this Form But because my Adversary deals only in Epitomes I will now give a full Account of this matter We must observe therefore that Leidradus the Predecessor of Agobardus in the year 799. according to the desire of Charles the Great had brought in the Roman Order of Singing into the Church of Lyons and had put out an Antiphonary with an Epistle before it the Hymns whereof were generally taken out of the Holy Scripture (u) Leidradi Ep. ad Carol. Mag. inter oper Agob Tom. 2. p. 127. But about 30 years after Amalarius a busy Monk pretends to bring a new Antiphonary from Rome Corrected after the Roman Office in the time of Gregory the Fourth which he presented to Lewis the Godly and hoped by his Authority to impose it on all the Gallican Church But Agobardus the Primate of France rejects this new Antiphonary and writ a Book to prove there were Heresies Blasphemies and Nonsense in these Hymns of Amalarius and keeps to the old Roman Antiphonary established by his Predecessor the Hymns of which were for the most part taken out of the Psalms and other parts of Holy Scripture commending this to his Clergy and giving them his Reasons why he would not admit of the other And this Book of Agobardus concludes with these words As the Church hath a Book of Mysteries for Celebrating the Solemnity of the Mass digested Orthodoxly and with convenient Brevity and hath a Book of Lessons collected Judiciously out of the Divine Books so they ought to have this Third Book the Antiphonary purged from all Human Figments and Lies sufficiently ordered out of the pure words of Scripture through the whole Circle of the year That so in performing sacred Offices according to the most approved Rule of Faith and the Authority of ancient discipline there may be kept among us one and the same Form of Prayer of Lessons and of Ecclesiastical Songs (w) Agobard de correct Antiphon §. 19. Tom. ii p. 100. This is the whole Story and the passage which Spondanus ignorantly or at least rashly Censures and my Adversary Ridiculously brings in to shew Agobardus his dislike of the words of distribution Whereas these words refer only to the Hymns which yet probably were not all the very words of Scripture but were either Transcribed thence or agreeable thereto much more than the new Hymns of Amalarius And since Agobardus received and used the Roman Canon and the whole Roman Missal wherein were many things which are not the words of Scripture we must not expound these words cited but now so strictly as Spondanus doth as if he would not use any words in Divine Offices but those of Scripture For Agobardus means no more than that the Hymns ought to be either taken out of Scripture or agreeable to the Doctrine thereof for he proves that the Hymns of Amalarius were Heretical and Blasphemous contrary in many things to the Holy Scripture and therefore he rejected them But as to any Liberty in varying the Prayers Lessons or Hymns that were established or altering the Roman Forms This great Bishop was so far from it that he enjoyns the old Gregorian Office and imposes that prescribed Form together with the Lessons and the Hymns and opposes those Innovations and Alterations which some attempted to make because the Forms and Order then established were agreeable both to the Rule of Faith and to the acient Ecclesiastical Laws upon which occasion he produceth that African Canon before cited (x) Part. i. Cent. 4. §. 24. pag. 257. in these Words viz. That no Supplications and Prayers be said unless they have been approved in a Council nor shall any of these at all be Sung in the Church till they have been considered by the Prudent and approved of in a Synod lest any thing against the Faith be composed either my mistake or by design (y) Canon Afric ap Agob de correct Antiph §. ii p. 92. And now the Reader shall judge whether this Author be for my Adversaries purpose or no since he imposes Books of prescribed Prayers Lessons and Hymns and thinks the keeping strictly to them is
how they should do (m) Math. viii 4. Mark i. 44. Luke v. 14. and the Word whence it is derived signifies to methodize put in order and to place Souldiers in their Ranks (n) Cor. 15.23 so to do all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to Order (o) 1 Cor. xiv 40. is to act according to a prescribed Rule which Rule S. Paul saith he will make or prescribe when he came (p) 1 Cor. xi 34. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This then being the proper and natural signification of this Word we may reasonably expound it of Prescribed Forms of Prayer both for Morning and Evening of which as the Centuriators observe Origen speaks in other places (q) Magdeb. Cent. 3. cap. 6. pag. 134. But our Adversary would shift off this proof also First By asking If these were not private Prayers (r) Disc of Liturg pag 140. I Answer The Words are general not restrained either to public or private Prayers expresly but it being certain the Christians had a custom to assemble Morning and Evening to Prayers the phrase of using these Prayers Night and Day seems chiefly to be referred to public Offices Secondly He asks If no Prayers can be commanded but in Set Forms I Reply The Word doth not barely signifie Prayers commanded but enjoyned according to a prescribed Order as I have proved Now Prayers left to the Invention of Men to be daily made new cannot properly be called Ordered Prayers And therefore though Christian Ministers were commanded to preach yet the Words and Method being left to their invention or choice our Adversary can no where find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made use of as an Epithet for a Sermon or Homily Note also Origen doth not say The Christians made these enjoyned Prayers but used them which supposes they were made into a prescribed Form before Thirdly He enquires If there be no Commands for Praying frequently but Human Prescriptions and I must ask what is this to the purpose Origen is not speaking of Commanding Men to pray nor declaring whether the Duty of Prayer be prescribed by God or the Church He is speaking of the Prayers themselves and gives them this Character that they were Ordered or Prescribed so that he is very impertinent to tell us of Divine Commands to pray frequently since Origen's Words are not about Obeying a Precept to Pray but using ordered enjoyned or prescribed Prayers which all ingenuous Men must own to be in Forms and that proves a Liturgy because it is Prayers in the plural Number Thirdly in the same Books against Celsus when Origen cites some certain passages out of the Psalms â—e brings them in with these Prefaces We â—nd in the Prayers or We say often in the Prayer (s) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orig. in Cels lib. 4. p. 178 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. pag. 197. And thus it is said in the Prayer or The prudent when he prayeth â—aith (t) Idem lib. 6. pag. 285. lib. 7. pag. 354. Now when we consider that the Psalms were the main part of the Jewish Liturgy and that the Christians in the first Ages inclined to imitate their Forms and above all the Old Testament admired and frequently used the Book of Psalms and took their Forms of Praise from thence we may conclude they borrowed many Forms of Prayer also from the Psalms and transcribed them into their Liturgy so that Origen appeals to these passages as being known by the Christians to be a part of their Prayers Which will still be clearer when we observe that the Abassine Christians who are very tenacious of primitive Rites and derived most of their Usages from the Ancient Church of Alexandria as Ludolfus relates Take most of their daily Prayers out of the Psalter (u) Ludolf hist Ethiop lib. 2. cap. 12. And therefore Origen who belonged to Alexandria no doubt refers by these Prefaces to the public and known Liturgy then used in that famous Church Our Adversary is not pleased at this Inference and whereas his own Eyes are so blinded with his Extempore Way that he cannot see the clearest light for Forms he saith it argues a Fancy deeply tinctured with Liturgies to suppose this to be any proof of them But let it be noted he barely asserts it is no proof and most falsly represents the matter for he saith When Origen quotes any passage out of the Psalms he thus speaks c. (w) Discourse of Liturg. p. 139. Now this is not true because first Origen in that very Book cites an hundred passages out of the Psalms without any such Preface without saying They are found in the Prayers c. Secondly The places which he doth cite with such a Preface are always very proper to be used in a Liturgy as Forms of Praise or Prayer Such as these The Earth is full of the Goodness of the Lord and Open thou mine Eyes that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law Create in me a clean Heart O God and the like So that these and no other passages being said to be found in the Prayers c. no doubt we have all imaginable cause to think that these very words of the Psalms were in Origen 's time used in the Churches Liturgy and prescribed in the Forms of Public Prayer Especially since he can ascribe no sufficient Reason but the peculiar use made of these Select places in the public Offices which made Origen quote them with such a Preface and cite other passages of the Psalms as he doth other Scriptures without any Preface at all Fourthly Our Adversary cites another place out of Origen's Homilies taken at the second hand from Dailé to prove they used no Forms of Prayer in that Age because it is said Our Thoughts must not wander after our Senses in Prayer but be wholly intent and fixed on God not being disturbed by the Idea of any External appearance (y) Orig. in Num. hom XI I shall not here need to fly to his help at a dead lift that possibly Ruffinus the Translator did put in these Words For allowing them to be genuine it must be more unlawful to let our Minds wander after new Phrases and our Fancy rove about for Matter Order and Words which is the case in Extempore Prayer than it is to repeat the Words of a known Form which we can say by heart or read without disturbance because the actings of the Fancy and Invention in Extempore Prayer do much more hinder the Mind from steddy thinking upon God than having a Book before us in the recital of a common and usual Form Lastly I hope it is needless to repeat what was shewed before viz. That Origen's Phrases of Praising God as well as we are able (z) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orig. in Cels l. 8. pag. 402. and Praying to him with all the might we have (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Id. ib. pag. 386. See the Discourse of Liturg
that when Constantinople was shaken with an Earthquake he was frequently desired by the Emperour to come out of his Cell and say the Litany being thought to be one whom God would hear (o) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ibid. p. 290. Now if the Litany had not been a stated Form proper only to be used in a great Assembly because of the great share the People bare in it as Du-Plessis before hath described it this Monk might as effectually have said it in his Cell and need not have done it in so formal a Procession And that it was usual thus to sing or say the Litany in times of common danger or calamity in the Eastern Church long before Mamertus brought that Usage into the West may appear from what Nicephorus and Cedrenus both relate concerning Proclus Bishop of Constantinople An. Dom. 434. That Theodosius the Emperour requested him thus to use the Litany when the City was in danger of an Earthquake Yea the very Manner of the Procession is described by Socrates when he shews how that City was delivered from a dreadful Tempest in the Time of the younger Theodosius by a solemn Litany (p) Socrat. lib. 7. cap. 22. pag. 49. Now that must be a known prescribed Form wherein so many Thousands can make their Responses and bear their part Again The dissenting Bishops in this Council complain to the Emperour that Cyril Bishop of Alexandria and Memnon of Ephesus by the help of the Rabble would neither suffer them to keep the Feast of Pentecost nor to perform the Morning or the Evening Liturgy (q) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epâ—â— ad Imperat Bâ— Tom. I. par 2. pag. 228. and if my Adversary to serve his Cause would translate this The Morning and Evening Administration that would not hurt me because there is such plain proof That the Eastern Church then performed this Administration by a Form and called that Form a Liturgy also Again it is Recorded in these Acts That Cyril in his Letter to John Bishop of Antioch used these words We have been taught also to say in our Prayers O Lord â—ur God Give us Peace fâ—r thou art the Giver of all things to us (r) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. pag 428. Nothing can be plainer thâ—n that this was a Liturgick Form which S. Cyril had not made of his own Head but had been taught it by his Forefathers and it was so generally known and used that he Quotes it to another Bishop as an Argument why they should agree who both used the same Form of praying for Peace I should here have concluded this Section but I will briefly remark That Nestorius who lived in this Time and his Master Theodorus of Mopsvestia who flourished twenty years before it are accused for impiously presuming to alter the Churches usual Liturgy and without any Reverence either for that of the Apostles or for S. Basils made a new and a blasphemous Office of his own (s) Leontius Byzan adver Nestor lib. 3. which in these early days no doubt was accounted a very bold Undertaking and yet still this is only changing one Form for another nor setting up for Extempore Prayers of which there is not any mention in this Age. § 9. This Section shall continue the same Evidence in a few Passages out of some Lesser Fathers as first Petrus Câ—rysologus An. Dom. 433. Petrus Chrysologus the most elegant Preacher of this Age tells us That the Form of the Apostles Creed was taught to the Catechumens by Heart a little before their Baptism (t) Petr. Chrysol Ser. 56. And he bids them commit it not to Paper but to their Breasts not to their Table but their Memory (u) Id. Serm. 60. pag. 187. Where by the way we may note that the Breast is put for the Memory even as De pectore in Tertullian signifies saying a Prayer by heart or by Memory Again the same Author explains the Words of the Lords Prayer after he had delivered it as a Form to the Catechumens (w) Chrysol Serm. 6â— c. And he notes That before his Sermon he had saluted them by praying to God to give them Peace (x) Id Ser. 138. pag. 354. Which we have seen was prescribed in the old Liturgies of the use whereof there are divers other Intimations in his Works Secondly The next place shall be assigned to a Gallican Monk of great Fame Linceriâ—ius Iarinens An Dom. 434. who saith concerning The common-prayer-Common-Prayer-Book which he calls there Sacerdotalem Librum The Priests Book that None of them dared to alter it because it was then Signed and Consecrated by the Confessors and many of the Martyrs (y) Librum Sacâ—r â—talem quis vestrum resignare audeat signatum a Comessoriâ—â—s multerum â—am Martyrio consâ—cratum Iâ—r n. adv haeres cap. 7. p. 12 13. But whatever his Opinion were we have some who would not only alter but utterly cast away our Priestly Book though the Compilers of it were all either Confessors or Martyrs However we learn from hence That in this Age there was a Book of Offices in France believed to have been originally Composed by the ancient Confessors and Martyrs Lâ—o I. Ep. Rom. An. Dom. 440. Our next Witness shall be Leo Bishop of Rome whose Works afford many Instances of the use of prescribed Forms both of Praise and Prayer For he mentions the Singing of Psalms with harmonious and agreeing Voices (z) Serm. 2. in assump Pontif. pag. 4. He Comments twice upon that eminent Preface Lift up your hearts noting that it is just and right so to do (a) Serm. 2. in Natâ—v pag. 37. Ser. 2. in Ascens pag. 207. and observing that if we comply with this Exhortation earthly things cannot depress our Minds He calls the Creed That Rule of the Catholic and Apostolic Faith (b) Serm. 4. de Nativ pag. 48. Ser. 11. de Pass Dom. pag. 164. allowing no variation from it In him we find the same Epistles and Gospels always read upon the same Festivals and generally the same which we read in our Church at this day (c) Serm 3. de Epiph. pag. 76. Ser. 5. de Epiph. pag 84. Ser. 6. pag. 88. item Serm 4 de Quadrag pag. 105 107. Serm. 3. de Pentec p. 218. In him also we find that ancient Use prescribed by the Liturgies of reading the Names of the Offerers and others at the Altar (d) Decretal Ep. 41. cap. 3. pag. 355. Finally he mentions the Prayer for the Jews on Good Friday used in our Liturgy at this day (e) Serm. 19. de Pass Dom. pag. 191. And he gives us this description of the public Fasting and Prayer then in use What can be denied saith he to so many Thousand People joyning in the performance of the same service and unanimously beseeching God with one Spirit It is a great thing in Gods sight when the whole Christian People are instant upon
of it sent to this Bishop is called An Order of Prayer Which therefore doth not signifie a bare Rubric for Method but a Book containing the Prefaces Hymns and Prayers themselves And thus it is used in the Life of S. Laetus a Monk who about this Time was ordained Deacon and He in a short time learned the Psalter and all that the Ecclesiast cal Order required so as to be more perfect in them than many were who had been longer used to them (s) Cointè Annal Eâ—â—les â—raâ—â— An 533. pag 413. This Ecclesiastical Order was a Book as well as the Psalter and this ingemous Monk got to say the very Words of them both by Heart But to return to Pope Vigilius He was so tenacious of Forms that he warns Etherius not to permit one Syllable to be altered in the Gloria Patri Which the Catholics by ancient Custom use to say after the Ps â—ms thus Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost but some Heretics a little before presumed to leave out the last and saying it thus and to the Son the Holy Ghost which he coâ—demus as an Heretical Variation (t) Vâ—â— Ep. 2. ibid. pag 4. But it had been impossible to secure the Orthodox Forms if my Adversaries pretended liberty of varying the Words of their Prayers and Praises had then been allowed in the Church Nay if that had been permitted in former Ages there would have been no certain Primitive Forms left by which they could have corrected these Heretical Innovations § 8. In the East we have further Evidence of the continuance of Liturgick Forms Concil Mopsevest An. D. 550 for in the Council of Mopsvestia the Fathers there assembled pray for the Emperour in that ancient and generally received Form O Lord save the Emperour And hear him whensoever he calls upon thee (u) Salvum fac Domine Imperatorem exaudi eum quacunque die te invocaverit Vid. Synod Quint. collat 5. apud Bin. Tom. II. par 2. pag. 83. Anastasius Sinaita Patriar Antioch An. Dom. 560. But soon after this we have sufficient Proof that the whole Liturgy transcribed in the Apostolical Constitutions and shewed to have been the Antiochian Office some Ages before was still in use there For Anastasius who had been a Monk of Mount Sinai being now Patriarch of Antioch hath some Homilies owned to be genuine still extant wherein he refers to and expounds the Words and Actions prescribed by that ancient Liturgy As first He bids them mind the Deacons Voice when he crieth Stand with reverence stand with fear bow down your Heads And again The Priest saith he engages you to attend when he bids you Lift up your Hearts And what do you Answer Do you not Reply We lift them up unto the Lord Adding That the Peoples joyning their part to the Priests made the Prayers to be more effectual He goes on to tell them The Angels minister at the holy Liturgy The Cherubins stand round about and with sweet Voices sing the Trisagion Holy Holy Holy and the Seraphins bow and adore He mentions also the Lords Prayer as being daily repeated by all in the Communion-Office and Comments upon that ancient Form Give holy things to those that are holy (w) Arastas Sin Orat de sacr Synaxt in Auctario Bib. Pati Tom. 2. col 9 10. Now these Passages and in this Order may be seen in divers ancient Liturgies particularly in that which is set down in the Constitutions which shews that the same Forms were used at Antioch in this Age which had been used there in divers of the fore-going Centuries And though in these Homilies he doth transcribe no more of them but only such parts of the Liturgy as were proper to move the People to come to the Communion with Devotion and Reverence Charity and holy Resolutions yet by those which he occasionally mentions and by the Order of them we may discern the ancient Forms were still in use there with little or no Variation § 9. By this Time divers Parts of Spain had embraced the Catholic Faith Concil Bracar I. An. Dom. 563. and therefore now the Orthodox Bishops met in a Council at Braga and after they had caused the Book of ancient Canons to be publicly read before them they gather out of them some that were of present use and revive them by a fresh imposing them The first thing they labour to regulate is that variety of Forms and different ways of Divine Service which the mixture of divers Nations and Opinions had produced among them therefore the first Canon is That one and the same Order of Singing shall be kept in Morning and Evening Prayer and that no different Customs either of private Men or of Monasteries shall be mixed with the Ecclesiastical Rule (x) Ut unus atque idem Psallendi ordo in Matutinis vel Vespertinis officiis teneatur non diversae ac privatae neque Monasteriorum consuetudines cum Ecclesiasticâ regulà sint permixtae Concil Brac. Can 1. Bin. Tom. 2. par 2. pag. 211. The Morning and Evening Offices consisted chiefly of Psalms and Hymns with some proper Collects and were all or the most part of them chanted and sung which cannot be in a public Congregation unless the Form and Words be known before Wherefore for these Mattens and Vespers they had established One Order Besides these there was the Communion-Office before Noon and for that they had also a Prescribed Form which they call here The Ecclesiastical Rule and since some private Persons presumed to alter this and others followed some of the Forms prescribed by the Rules of certain Monasteries they utterly reject these Variations and bind them all to the public Liturgy This is the plain sense of the Canon and therefore Ordo Psallendi and Ecclesiastica Regula must be more than a Rubric for these confined them to Sing the Mattens and Vespers in the same words and to celebrate the Communion-Service by such a certain Rule as admitted of no Variation And the following Canons make this still more plain The Second is That on the Vigils of Feasts and at the Communion all shall read the same and not different Lessons in the Church The Third orders That Bishops and Priests shall use the same Form of Saluting the People viz. The Lord be with you To which they shall Answer And with thy Spirit even as the whole East hath retained it from the Apostles and not as the Priscillianists have altered it The Fourth Canon is That the Communion-Office shall by all be celebrated by that same Order which Profuturus formerly Bishop of this Church received in Writing from the Apostolical See The Fifth enjoyns That none pass by that Order of Baptizing which the Church of Braga anciently used and which to avoid all doubts concerning the same Profuturus had received in Writing from the See of S. Peter (y) Concil Bracar l. Can. 2
Orthodox and Heretics agreed in the use of Forms none so much as thought of Extempore Prayers no Nation pleaded for expected or enjoyed such a Liberty nor did any of the Clergy or Laity complain That the imposing there Forms was an Innovation or hindrance to their Gifts or an invading of their Christian Liberty § 12. There is nothing clearer in all History S. Gregor Mag. Episc Roman An. Dom. 590. than that there was a Canon or Form of Consecrating the Communion at Rome long before the Time of S. Gregory the Great The very Words of it have been produced out of S. Ambrose his Book of Sacraments An. 374. and we have proved it cited by the Author of the Questions out of the Old and New Testament who writ in the Fourth Century We have also brought in the plain Testimonies of Innocent Celestine Leo Gelasius and Vigilius all of them Bishops of Rome long before Gregory's Time And we now add That Johan Moschus declares there was a certain Form of the Canon at Rome in the Time of Pope Agapetus who lived An. 535 (y) Joan. Mosch pratum Spirit cap. 150. Bib. Patr. Tom. pag. 1121. And that the Lord Du Plessis whom my Adversary cites often shews very largely that there was a Canon of the Mass at Rome which was very pure and Orthodox before Gregory's Time yea he sets down divers parts of it and assures us it was common to all both Priests and People (z) Mornay of the Mass Book I. Ch. 7. pag. 53. And John the Deacon who writ S. Gregory's Life saith That he corrected the Gelasian Book for the Communion-Office taking away some things altering some few and adding other things to explain the Gospels putting it all into one Volume (a) Johan Diac. vit Gregor lib. 2. cap. 17. Which shews there was a Canon before written down in the Gelasian Book which S. Gregory only altered in some few things and it doth not appear he added any more to it except these Words O Lord order our days in thy Peace deliver us from Eternal damnation and make us to be numbred among the Flock of thine Elect For these are the only Words that all Writers say were of his Making and which he added to the Canon (b) Johan Diac. ut supr Item Pedae histor lib. 2. cap. 1. p. 53 Naucler Gener. 20. pag. 743. ita Platina vit Greg. pag. 82. wherefore he was only the Corrector of the Old Canon not the Maker of a New one And whereas some Authors of later Times ascribe the Composing of the Roman Offices to him we have seen it is usual in most Writers to call such as only corrected and reformed Liturgies The Authors of them by which they mean no more than those who published them in a more compleat Form than before But my Adversary who can prove any thing undertakes to make out two difficult things in relation to this Pope Gregory First That there was no Form of Consecration at Rome before his time Secondly That when another had made this Form he did not impose it on others (c) Disc of Lit. pag. 83 84 85 86 87. The former of these Assertions he proves from a Passage in Saint Gregory his Epistles which the ignorant editor of the Discourse of Liturgies hath put into a wrong Page But I shall cite it at large and then will examine the true meaning of it We therefore say the Lords Prayer immediately after the Prayer of Consecration because it was the custom of the Apostles with that Prayer alone to Consecrate the Host and it seems to me very inconvenient that we should say over the Host that Prayer which a Scholastical Man had composed and not say that Form which our Lord himself composed over his Body and Blood (d) Ut precem quam Scholasticus composuerat super Oblationem diceremus c. Greg. Epist 63. lib. 7. pag. 230. Now from hence he gathers that Scholasticus is a Mans Name who was Contemporary with S. Gregory and since he affirms this Scholasticus composed the Canon therefore the Canon as he pretends could not be made before Gregory's Time The weakness and mistakes of which Inference we shall easily perceive if we consider the occasion and the sense of these Words S. Gregory was accused for imitating the Custom at Constantinople In ordering the Lords Prayer to be repeated immediately after the Canon and these Words are his defence of his bringing in this Custom Now doubtless it had been more rational to object his setting up a New Canon made by a late obscure Author if he had done any such thing than to alledge his only adding the Lords Prayer to it and if he had first brought in this Canon of Scholasticus that had been an imitation of Constantinople too so far as it was a Canon for they had long used the Canon of S. Basil and that of S. Chrysostom there but of this the Objectors take no notice which makes it probable that the Canon was setled long before it was a Prayer which he found and added the Lords Prayer to it But my Adversary urges S. Gregory's Saying That the Apostles only Consecrated with the Lords Prayer and therefore Scholasticus his Canon must be composed about S. Gregory's Time Why so was there not above Five hundred years between the Apostles and S. Gregory If this Canon were not extant in their Time might it not be made in some of the intervening Ages and yet be long enough before S. Gregory And indeed there is a Mistake as learned Men think in the Popes premises for he is supposed to refer to S. Hierom who only saith Christ taught his Apostles that the Faithful might daily say in the Sacrifice of his Body Our Father (e) Hieren adv Pelag. Tom. 2. pag. 469. But neither he nor any Ancient Writer before this Gregory did ever affirm That the Apostles themselves used no other Form of Consecration but only the Lords Prayer it being generally believed they used the Words of Institution recorded in the Gospel and the Lords Prayer when they Consecrated to which long before S. Basil's and S. Ambrose his Time as we have shewed other parts of the Canon were added And for the Roman Canon whatever Du-Moulin and my Adversary say (f) Disc of Lit pag. 84 85. Du-Plessis and other both ancient and modern Writers do agree That several of the old Popes made the several Parts of it in divers Ages long before the Time of Gregory (g) Mornay of the Mass B.I. Chap. 6. p. 44. But Gelasius gathered together all these Additions and put them into that Form wherein Gregory found it and he as Cassander thinks is called by the Title of Scholasticus because he was first a Scholastical Man before he was chosen Pope (h) Gelasius ex Scholastico Papa factus Exp. vet Miss ap Cassand de Liturg. lib. 1. And if this be so as it is very probable then
Liturgies and chose out the best things from each put them together in one Volume and then required these Forms should be daily used so that both Priests and People might be accustomed to them And as S. Gregory did not impose the Roman Liturgy or Canon upon Augustin the Monk who lived in a distant Country and in a distinct National Church so we do not impose ours upon Denmark or Sweden upon the Dutch or the Helvetians But to argue from hence We are not for imposing our own Liturgy upon our own Clergy is so weak so obvious a Fallacy as deserves to be laughed at rather than seriously confuted Again because Gregory the Patriarch of the West took the liberty to correct the Roman Offices by that which he approved of in the Forms of other National Churches (w) Disc of Liturgies p. 87. And because he would not impose the Trine Immersion used at Rome upon Leander's New Converted distant Church in Spain (x) Gregor Ep. 41. ad laeanat lib. 1. Therefore every Parish-Priest and private Minister may vary from the Liturgy of his own Church daily if he please And therefore no Bishops ought to impose any Liturgy upon their own Clergy living under them in the same Diocess or Nation This is such woful Sophistry that I am sure he cannot impose this sort of Arguing upon any rational Men yet if these Inferences be not drawn from S. Gregory's Answer it makes nothing to his purpose unless it be to prove there were no Forms imposed in Gregory's Time But how can that be squeezed out of any of these Passages The Epistle first cited supposes a Form of Prayers extant and imposed at Rome before S. Gregory's Time wherein the Hallelujah was never sung but between Easter and Pentecost which ordered the Sub-Deacons to wear Surplices when they sang the Litany in Processions in which Litany by the old Form they did not repeat the Kyrie Eleeson often nor was the Lords Prayer in the Communion Office of that old Book prescribed to be used immediately after the Canon But this Epistle shews that Gregory had altered the ancient Liturgy of Rome in all these Particulars and made it agreeable to the Liturgy at Constantinople from which place he was lately come And this he was censured for by some this he excuses in the whole Epistle (y) Gregor Ep. 63. lib. 7. pag. 230. Wherefore here was a Form imposed before his Time and he imposes it again with his Corrections upon his own Church or else what need the Clergy under his Jurisdiction complain Indeed he did not impose it on Spain France or Britain which were not in that Age under his Authority but he was strict enough at Rome and in the Churches then subject to that See He corrected the Book of Gelasius and imposed that there He compiled Hymns and Antiphons and brought in a New way of Singing them teaching Boys to do it with skill so that soon after all the West imitated that Way (z) Johan Diac. vit Greg. lib. 2. cap. 6. He compiled that Book for the Communion-Service which still is called his Sacramentary wherein are all the Forms used at Rome for the Eucharist (a) Id. ib. c. 17. He brought in the Sevenfold Litany and prescribed how and when it should be used (b) Naucler Gen 20. p. 743. Platin. pag. 82. Johan Diac. in vit And all these Parts of Liturgy were by him imposed on the Roman Church and will my Adversary still pretend he was against the imposing Forms of Praise and Prayer Did he take all this pains for his own private use Did all the West voluntarily conform to this and yet was it not used and observed at Rome any further than the Clergy pleased These are wild Conjectures But he saith Cassander publishes the Ordo Romanus in which there are no Forms of Prayer but only the Order wherein they proceeded I Reply Those Copies which Cassander publisheth are only a Breviat of S. Gregory's Liturgy and therefore the Hymns and Prayers he composed are not set down at large there yet when this was writ out these Forms were so well known that they are named often only by two words of the beginning of each Form Ex. gr Gloria Patri Kyrie Eleeson Gloria in excelsis Dominus vobiscum c. (c) Cassander de Liturg. lib. â— Which shews the Forms were then well known and had been so long used as to be understood by short hints in this Epitome of the Gregorian Office But my Adversary knew well that the Sacramentary of Gregory is extant in his Works wherein all the Prayers and Antiphons c. are set down at large which Gregory made and imposed on the Roman Church and therefore it is disingenuous in him to argue for his pretended liberty from this Epitome There is but one thing more in my Adversary relating to this Matter which is That Augustin being not imposed on by S Gregory would not impose it on the Britains (d) Disc of Lit. pag. 87 88. which he gathers from this viz. That the Britains and Scots were Enemies to the Roman Use in Gildas his Time and had no Uniformity in Worship long after Now to his Position I say That if Augustin followed Gregory's Advice as no doubt he did then he did impose not the Roman Forms but those of his own collecting upon the Saxons which I shall prove more largely afterwards But as for the Britains they were a distinct Christian Church then and did owe no manner of subjection to Augustin so that it had been ridiculous iâ— him to have imposed a Newly compâ—â—â—d Liturgy upon them They were no more obliged to receive his Forms than we are to receive those of Geneva or they to observe ours Again as to his Proof How doth the Britains rejecting the Roman Use in Gildas's Time prove That they had no Forms imposed on them by Augustin Gildas died according to Bishop Vsher An. 570. that is Thirty years before Augustin the Monk came in (e) Cave Cartoph Eccles in Gild. Badon pag. so that their dislike of the Roman Usages then is nothing to Augustin's Impositions Besides The Roman Liturgy and Augustin's were two different things and therefore it is very weak to prove they did not receive Augustin's Liturgy from their rejecting the Roman Usage since they were different things So that this would be a good Argument if it were not as destitute of Logic and Chronology as it is of Truth For Augustin did make a Form and impose it on the Saxons under his Jurisdiction and they received it and used it long after As for the Britains Scots and Irish in that Age they belonged not to him and so he could impose nothing on them And for their Uniformity I shall clear that Point after a little while For what hath been observed I hope may suffice to prove That imposed Liturgies were in use in all Churches long before the Time of
Antiq Brit. Eccles pag. 370. An. Dom. 560. Moreover Baleus further tells us That S. Asaph the Scholar and Successor of Kentigern writ a Book Of the Ordinations of his Church (g) Balaeus de script Brit. fol. 34. An. Dom. 590. which seems to be the Forms used there in Ordaining Presbyters and Deacons and perhaps in Admitting of Monks This may suffice to shew us the Britons had written and prescribed Forms before my Adversary will allow them to have been used any where and if any require further satisfaction he may consult the Learned B. Vsher's Antiquity of the British Churches where there are divers Evidences of this Truth We proceed therefore to the Saxons who were Converted by Augustin the Monk about the end of the Sixth Century And He no doubt according to S. Gregory's direction made a Liturgy for them taken out of the Roman the Gallican and other Forms which continued in use for some time But after Gregory's Roman way of Singing began to be so generally admired in all these Parts of the World That was also laboured by Augustin's Successors to be brought in here For Bede mentions one James a Deacon who was skilled both in the Roman and the Canterbury way of Song saying of him That Paulinus leaving York and returning to Rochester left this James behind him in the North who when that Province had Peace and the Number of the Faithful encreased being very skilful in Singing in the Church became a Master of Ecclesiastical Song to many after the way either of Rome or of Canterbury (h) Bedae histor lib. 2. cap. 20. circ A. D. 640. Which must signifie his teaching Clerks how to recite Gregory's or Augustin's Forms of Service because in that Age they chanted their Prayers and Praises both About Thirty years after this in Theodorus his Time They learned to Sing the Office all England over and one Eddi after the aforesaid James was their Master in the Churches on the North of Humber (i) Beda ibid. lib. 4. cap. 2. circ An. 670. And a little after those who Instructed Men in Ecclesiastical Offices are called Masters of Singing (k) Idem lib. 5. cap. 20. because the Offices were set to some certain Notes and that alone is enough to prove they then Prayed by certain prescribed Forms it being impossible to set Arbitrary or Extempore Prayers to Notes which though some have affirmed liable to be Canted yet none ever thought them capable to be Chanted But we proceed I doubt not but the Gregorian Forms as well as his way of Singing came into use here before the Year 700 For in the late elaborare Collection of Old Saxon Books and Manuscripts put out by my Worthy Friend Dr. Hicks there is a Sacramentary of S. Gregory which is at least a Thousand years old (l) Grammatica Maeso-Gothic D. Hick p. 148. and then it must be Written about the Year 690. But this is more plain in the Famous Council of Clovesho which sat 24 year after wherein there is not only clear Testimony for the use of Forms but a full Evidence of the prevailing Interest of the Roman Offices For there it is appointed That All Priests shall learn to repeat the whole Office by Law appointed for their Order and shall be able to interpret the Creed the Lords Prayer and the holy Words pronounced in the Mass into the Vulgar Tongue Can 10th As also That all Priests shall perform all their Offices after the same way and manner Can. 11th And further it is Decreed That the Festivals in memory of our Lord be celebrated in one and the same manner in all Offices belonging to them as to Baptism Administring the Communion and the manner of Singing according to the Written Form which we have received from the Roman Church and that the Festivals of the Martyrs shall be observed on the same day according to the Roman Martyrology with the Psalms and Hymns proper to each of them Can. 13th And finally That the Seven Canonical Hours of Prayer be observed with the proper Psalms and Hymns and that the Monasteries shall all Sing alike and shall neither Sing or Read any thing but what is generally used and is derived from Scripture or permitted by the Custom of the Roman Church that so all may with one Mind and one Mouth glorifie God Can. 15th (m) Concil Clovesho Can. 10 11 13 15. apud Spelm. Concil Tom. l. p. 249. circ An. D. 714. From which Canons it is very plain that the Saxons within one Century after their Conversion had Written Forms of Prayer for all Offices and that the Roman Liturgy was now beginning to be generally received in this Land I shall make but one Remark more in so clear a case which is That Venerable Bede dying on Ascension-day is by ancient Historians said to have repeated the Collect for the Day in these Words O King of Glory and Lord of Hosts who as on this day didst ascend triumphantly into the Heaven of Heavens leave us not comfortless but send us the Promise of the Father even the Spirit of Truth (n) Gul. Malms de gest reg lib. 1. cap. 3. pag. 12. Sim. Dunelm lib. 1. cap. 15. and soon after he gave up the Ghost Now this is the Collect in the Old Roman Forms and is yet continued in our Liturgy almost Verbatim which gives that Collect the honour of having been received in this Nation for near a Thousand years But since my Adversary dares not attempt the Saxons and Spelman's Councils afford so many undeniable Proofs of prescribed and imposed Forms used here from the Time of their Conversion I shall not heap up needless Instances but proceed to the Kingdoms and Churches in France and Germany where the same Order and Method of Praying was observed § 5. I have so fully proved Ecclesia Gallicana ab An. Dom. 450. that there was a Form of Service peculiar to the Gallican Church that I need not have added any thing on that Subject but that my Adversary hath the confidence to say In France they had Books for public Service in the 8th Century yet they were used at the discretion of those that officiated who added and left out as they thought fit till Charlemain in the beginning of the Ninth Age would have them Reformed after the Roman guise And this he proves by a Passage cited out of the Chronicle of Engolism related in Mornay of the Mass (o) Disc of Lit. p. 134. but the whole Story is nothing else but Falshood and Fallacy For First He speaks of Books for public Service in France in the 8th Century as if they had none before Whereas we have made it appear That S. Hilary made a Book of Hymns for the Gallican Church in the Fourth Age An. 354. That Museaus of Marseils composed a Book of Prayers for Consecrating the Sacrament in the Fifth Century An. 458. We have shewed That the Gallican Office which is
the Sybils Books their extraordinary Ritual had also a Liturgy sent to them in Writing by Apollo He also mentions a Public Table wherein their usual Prayer was writ and saith That Scipio reformed their Common-Prayer-Book (q) Ibid. p. 124. We leave him or his Friends to reconcile these Contradictions But being sure the Heathens did conceal their Mysteries and yet write them in Books and read them out of them He must infallibly grant That the Christians might both conceal their Mysteries and yet write them in Books also and read them out of them and if the Christians as he saith learned of the Heathens to conceal their Administrations they might also learn of them to write them in Books and deliver those Books to the custody of the Clergy to keep them from the sight of such as were not Initiated And this sufficiently shews the weakness and falshood of his Consequence viz. That the Christians could have no Written Liturgies because they concealed their Mysteries from the Uninitiated But since he hath filled so many needless Pages upon this Subject I will give some short Touches upon all that looks like Objection in each of them First He discourses as if this Silence and concealing of Mysteries were to be restrained especially to the Fourth and Fifth Ages (r) Disc of Lit. pag. 28. And the two Authors which furnished him with these Quotations Dailé (s) Dail de object cult lib. 2. cap. 25. and Chamier (t) Chamier Panstrat Tom. 4. lib. 6. cap. 8. both say This sort of Niceness did not begin till the Fourth or Fifth Age. Now if this be so and his Quotations generally fall within this Period then for all this doughty Argument the Chrians might have Written Liturgies for Three hundred years or more at the first since they did not endeavour in those first and best Times to conceal their Mysteries as these Men think Therefore we may have Precedents of prescribed Forms in the first Ages though all this were true Secondly Their calling the Sacraments Mysteries did not hinder them from Administring them in an audible Voice before the Faithful every day and therefore this doth not prove That they durst not commit them to Writing for daily reading or speaking these Words in public with so loud a Voice that all the Faithful might hear and answer was much more a publishing them than Writing them in Books committed to the custody of the Clergy So that all that Margen which he heaps up (u) Disc of Lit. pag. 29. only proves That they concealed them from the Unbaptized who were turned out when these Mysteries began as well as kept from seeing the Books and so remained ignorant of the Solemn Words but the Faithful were so well acquainted with the very Phrases and Expressions that if the least hint were but given them in a Sermon before a promiscuous Auditory it put them in mind of that Passage in the Offices which the Preacher hinted at Which undeniably proves they were known and usual Forms and being such they must of necessity be written down otherwise such Variations would have been made that no Appeal could have been made to the Faithful concerning any part of the Office because no Extempore Man now can appeal to his Congregation for his Words or Phrases used some time before Therefore they were Mysteries only with respect to the Uninitiated but well-known Forms to the Faithful and written down to prevent all Variation Thirdly As to the tedious Proofs of the Gentiles Secrecy (w) Disc of Lit. pag. 30 31 32 33. I have noted that he owns they writ down these Mysteries and pag. 32. he saith That the Romans had a Book of their public Rites as old as King Tarquin 's Time and that Valerius Max. mentions one who was punished for letting an unconcerned Person Transcribe it Which shews how impertinent all these Quotations are to prove his Point which is That Mysteries must not at all be committed to Writing Indeed fearing this Consequence he adds in the next Page 33. If they did commit them to Writing it was in such a Character as none of the Vninitiated understood But then he makes out nothing but that the Egyptians described their Mysteries in such unintelligible Hieroglyphicks which doth not prove that either Greeks or Romans writ them in such Figures much less doth it shew that the Christians used any Hieroglyphicks to conceal their Mysteries and therefore there is no reason to argue from that Custom peculiar to Pagan Egypt as if we might learn the Christian Usage from thence Fourthly The excluding the Catechamens from hearing the Prayers and refusing to recite any Phrases of them in a Sermon made to a promiscuous Auditory which he speaks of (x) Disc of Lit. pag. 35 36. are very good Arguments That these Offices were celebrated by prescribed Forms which Words had they been suffered daily to hear in the Church when the Administration was performed or had often heard them in Sermons they might easily learn and remember them And it was because they were prescribed constant invariable Forms that they durst neither let them stay in the Church when they repeated them nor openly mention them in a Sermon Had they Officiated variously and in his Extempore way they might have stood by for Seven years and heard the Sermons in which some part of them was referred to and there had been no danger of their learning them And since we see the Heathens did write down their Mysteries and make them known to the Initiated the Christians might do so also and yet keep them secret enough from the Unconverted or Unbaptized for they might as well keep them from seeing their Books of Mysteries as to turn them out of the Church to prevent their hearing them And his instance of the Creed pag. 37. proves this for the Creed was written down and expounded in the Time of Cyril and Ruffinus and yet then and long after it was kept secret from the Catechumens till some small time before the Day of their Baptism therefore every thing that was written was not published to the Uninitiated Fifthly Baronius doth not say the Primitive Literae formatae were not drawn up in Writing Spondanus indeed his Epitomator doth say something to that purpose (y) Disc of Lit. pag. 38. c Spondan â—pit An. 325. H. 44. but Baronius himself only saith That the Council of Nice would not put the Words of these Formed Epistles the private Cognizances by which Stranger-Christians were known to be Catholics where-ever they came into the Canons of their Council But he adds They agreed upon a Form there and setting down what it was he saith Such was the Form prescribed by the Fathers for these Formed Epistles (z) Baron An. 325. §. 166 167. pag. 32â— But still it was a Secret writ down then but not published among the Canons for fear the Hereticks might get Copies and deceive the Catholic Bishops thereby Which
was the very Case of Liturgies then they were writ down but kept secret from the Unbelievers though at the same time they were known to all the Faithful And for his alledging pag 42. That Writing them out for many Châ—â—â—â—â—es must needs divulge them The Formed Epistles also were written out for every Bishop and a Copy transcribed as often as any of his Diocess was to Travel into a strange Country by shewing which to the Bishop of that remote City who had a like Form written down beside him this Stranger was admitted to Catholic Communion So that these were Written often out and yet kept secret from Hereticks as the Liturgies were also written out frequently yet still kept from the sight and hearing of the Catechumens or if any of them by chance came to the sight or knowledge of the Liturgick Forms he confesseth pag. 43 that Man was immediately Baptized and so obliged to keep all secret from those without And as to what he saith there of the Pagans torturing Christians to get out the Secrets of their Worship that proceeding was over long before the Age wherein he saith this Secrecy was so strictly practised And therefore he should not urge those Methods But if we grant this Concealing Mysterios began sooner there is no doubt but the Faithful were taught to be as resolute not to publish their Mysteries as they were not to deny their Faith so that there was no danger of their being published by Tortures Finally If the People had all their Responses and their part of the Liturgy by Heart as they might easily have there was no need of Writing out the Forms for them as he insinuates pag. 44. and so that could be no occasion of publishing the Forms to Unbelievers To conclude There is nothing in this tedious Ramble of my Adversaries for 16 Pages together which doth in the least prove That the Christian Mysteries were not celebrated by Written Forms and therefore there is nothing in it to his purpose but on the contrary much of it tends to prove That the Divine-Service was then performed by Prescribed Forms § 8. The next thing which looks like an Argument is his deducing the Fathers Extempore Praying from their Extempore Preaching For when he hath spent many Pages in proving That Origen Cyril Nazianzen Chrysostom Atticus Hierom and Augustin Preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Extempore He concludes at last in these Words Thus they did Preach and thus they might Pray (a) Disc of Lit. pag 50 to pag. 60. I Answer He seems very dubious he dare say no more than It is possible they might Pray so But still it is possible also they might pray by Forms and it is more than probable they did so because this Author hath ransacked every Corner of Antiquity and cannot produce one plain Evidence wherein any of these or other Fathers who are commended for Preaching thus are either affirmed to have Prayed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Extempore or commended for that Gift which our Adversaries think was then and is now one of the main Qualifications for the Ministry We need not doubt but if he had found any such thing he would have brought it out with all imaginable Triumph and Ostentation He that is forced to spend so much Paper to force two obscure Phrases into a Sense for his purpose viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and de Pectore which do but remotely hint That in the Ages of Inspiration when Justin Martyr and Tertullian lived they prayed without Book How would he have triumphed if he could have met with any plain Evidence of their Praying Extempore This would have done his business at once and gon far toward ending the Controversie But when this Author cannot find one word of this but is forced here to falsifie Nazianzen most grosly and pervert the Meaning of S. Ambrose as was shewed before to make out a remote Conjecture but he hath not one Positive Proof no not here where his Cause needed it so extreamly We may conclude there is no Evidence that any of these Fathers did pray Extempore in Public and thence it will follow that after the Fourth Century began the Gift of Prayer was ceased and the Usage of the Church was to pray by Forms yea these very Fathers who preached Extempore and so could have invented their Public Prayers as well as their Public Sermons having acquired that Faculty yet did not see fit to use it in their Addresses to God because they considered the Greatness of His Majesty and the Care and Caution to be used in speaking to Him before whom Angels voil their Faces their Sermons were only spoken to mortal Men but their Prayers addressed to a Glorious Immortal God therefore they took freedom in the one but durst not in the other There they used holy and known Forms not out of necessity but choice which shews their Judgment was That Forms were the best way of Serving God in public especially and though they were better Qualified than our Dissenting Brethren for Extempore Praying they rejected that Method All this we have reason to believe from the Universal Silence concerning Extempore Prayer in all these Ages wherein we see they do observe there was an use of Extempore Preaching and if this Gift of Praying on the sudden had been so admirable a thing and so necessary to qualifie a Man for the Ministry 't is impossible but there would have been some memorial of the use of it and some of the Fathers must have been commended for excelling in it but no such matter appearing while yet there are plain and express Proofs of Liturgies we conclude that none then did use to pray Extempore in a Public Congregation § 9. After this he Argues from the Liberty the Ancients took to use several Forms in Baptism with great variety That they also used as much Liberty in their Prayers (b) Disc of Lit. pag. 93. yet he tells us at first That Tertullian saith The Law of Baptism is imposed and the Form prescribed by Christ (c) Lex namque tingendi impositâ— est Fâ—rma praescripta Tertul de Bapt. cap. 13. viz. in those words Matth. xxviii 19. Go teach all Nations and baptize them in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Now it will not easily be believed that the Holy Fathers who took this prescribed Form to be a Law bound upon them by the Authority of Christ himself should think themselves at liberty to alter this Form as they pleased especially since we know the Ancients generally declared those Hereticks Baptism to be null and void who did not Baptize in this very Form of Words (d) Can. Apost Can. 49. Cyâ—r ad Jubai Epist 73. Concil Niâ—end Can. ult item Sozom. lib. 6. cap. 26. Which is a strong Proof that these Holy Fathers believed this Form to be invariable Let us therefore see how he makes out the contrary Why First his Text and Margen
be trusted with making Extempore Prayers and therefore it seems necessary that these Bishops should have Forms prescribed which they either Read or got them by Heart and if so then such Forms were used above 50 years before the Period he assigns As for his last Instance of Leo's not admitting any one to be a Bishop unless he were perfect in the Psalter I observe that this Emperor intended to prevent that Scandal which had been given by those few unlearned Bishops in former Times and therefore would have none admitted but such as well understood the Psalter which was a great part of the Liturgy and part of it to be Read every day among the Prayers so that it is very probable that the usual Forms of public Prayer were put into one Volume with the Psalter as our Common Prayer is at this day And I understand the Historians meaning to be That Leo would admit no Man into any Order of the Clergy who was not perfect in the public Book of Offices (k) Theodor. Lector Col. lib. 1. p. 182. and if it be so Expounded then it proves a constant and common use of Liturgies An. 460. However it is well known that whatever was the lowest measure for qualifying a Man to be Ordained there were very many Learned Clergy-Men in that Age Yea and in the following Century also But if the Church were so depraved as he represents it some time before and a little after the year 500 We have sufficiently shewed it doth not hurt the cause of Liturgies which were certainly come into use many Ages before And thus I will dismiss these Fraudulent and Invidious Reflections upon the Fourth and Fifth Centuries desiring the Readers Pardon for following my Adversary in so Tedious a Digression CHAP. V. Of the Agreement of the Reformed Churches in the Approbation and use of Liturgies § 1. THere remains nothing now to make out prescribed Forms of Prayer to be agreeable to Vincentius Lirinensis his Golden-Rule that is to have been used always by all Churches and every where (l) Vincent Lirin contra Haeres cap. 3. pag. 6. But only to prove the Reformed Divines do generally allow and commend Liturgies and all the Eminent Protestant Churches use them Now since the Learned and Pious Promoters of the Reformation did so narrowly examine into and so Unanimously reject all those Doctrins and Practices of the Roman Church which did not agree to Holy Scripture and pure Antiquity and yet none of them did ever reckon prescribed Forms among those Corruptions but approved and established them in those Churches which they had reformed we may conclude That Set Forms of Prayers and Liturgies are ageeable to Gods Word and to the usage of the best Ages of the Church And we have at this time a more particular reason to make out this Consent of all setled Protestant Churches as to the use of prescribed Forms Because our Adversaries are perpetually calling upon us to conform our selves to the Example of Foreign Reformed Churches and pretending that to allow their way will be a certain means to unite all Protestants both at home and abroad We confess the end is a thing at this Juncture very desirable but that which they suppose is so far from being a probable means to obtain it That if we should cast off our prescribed Forms and set up their Extempore and Arbitrary way of Praying we should act contrary to the Judgment of the best Protestant Writers and to the Practice of the most famous Protestant Churches every where but by continuing the use of our excellent Liturgy and binding all our Clergy to it we follow the advice and example of all our Sister Churches And can they imagin that to oblige a few obstinate and singular leading Men and their Ignorant and Enthusiastical followers we will bring such a reproach upon our Church as to cast away that Method of Praying which is so consonant to Scripture and Antiquity and so agreeable to the Opinion and practice of the best Protestants It would be madness in us to do this and it is little less in them to expect it However because some of them are to this day deluded with this gross mistake That prescribed Forms are some of the remains of Popery and a Liturgy established is not allowed in other Protestant Churches I shall conclude this Discourse with some few proofs of the Opinion and Practice of the most Eminent Divines and Churches of the Reformation both Foreign and Domestic and that in relation as well to Liturgies in general as to our Liturgy in particular when I have first observed that the Learned and Industrious Mons Durell hath Collected a great number of these Testimonies some of which I have here inserted and added others of my own observation referring the Reader for fuller satisfaction to his elaborate Book (m) Durell View of the Gov. and public Worship of God in the Reformed Churches beyond the Seas Print Lâ—nd 1662. I begin with the Lutheran Churches among whom the Reformation first began and who at this day do far exceed in number the Churches which follow Calvins Method and afford the greatest number of Foreign Protestants § 2. And First for Luther himself There is no Man can or dare Question his Approbation of Liturgies and prescribed Forms of Prayer it being well known that he appointed such Forms for all those Churches which he Reformed and in his works we have a Form of Common Prayer for the Church of Wittenburgh drawn up by himself out of the Mass-Book but so as to leave out that which he thought to be Superstitious and Corrupted (n) Forma Mist pro Eccles Wittenburg Ep. Luther Tom. II. p. 384. And all the Churches of his Communion at this day have and use a Liturgy containing Collects Epistles and Gospels for every Sunday in the year And also Set Forms of Hymns and Canticles Prayers and Litanies together with prescribed Offices for all other parts of Ecclesiastical Ministrations for Baptism and the Lords Supper for Matrimony Visiting the Sick Burying the Dead c. One of which lately Printed in a large Quarto in the Danish Tongue imposed on and used in the Churches of Denmark was lately shewed and in divers places intepreted to me by an ingenious Pastor of that Country Mons Ivarus de Brinch who came over with the Forces into England the last Winter An. 1689. And besides the Agreement between our Collects Epistles and Gospels and theirs I observed that their Litany is almost Verbatim the same with ours And the Churches in upper Germany which are Lutheran have all such Liturgies I have one Book Dedicated to Joachim Marquesse of Brandenburgh Collected by Christopher Cornerus Printed at Leipsick An. 1588. with this Title The select Canticles of the Old and New Testament with the pure Hymns and Collects which are wont to be sung in the Orthodox and Catholic Church He means of the Lutherans who do all to this
and for all the Occasional Offices which Book so translated was Printed at Leiden An. 1648. To this I may add another Book put out by Jo. Alasco a Noble Polonian Protestant in the days of King Edward the Sixth the Title whereof runs thus The Form and Manner of the whole Ecclesiastical Ministration in the Church for Strangers and especially Germans appointed at London by the most Religious King Edward the Sixth An. 1550 (q) Forma ratio tota Ecclesiastici ministerii c. Lond. An. 1550. Wherein there are also divers Set Forms of Prayer and Thanksgiving to be used in the several Offices of their Church And to name no more I have in my possession a Scotch-Common-Prayer-Book said to be Composed by Mr. Knox containing A Kalendar with Holy-days The Psalms of David in Meeter Forms of Prayer in the Visitation of the Sick Forms of Confession of Sin A Form of Intercession for all Estates of Men A Form of Prayer for the King Forms for Administring the Lords Supper and Baptism The Form of Matrimony and other occasional Offices c. for the use of the Kirk of Scotland Imprinted at Middleburgh An. 1594. I do not cite these Books as if there were no other or no more Protestant Liturgies but because I have seen all these lately and have most of them by me and because these are sufficient to convince any man That all established Protestant Churches do approve of and use Prescribed Forms so that if we should cast off ours to oblige that sort of Dissenters whom Mr. Clarkson Patronizes we must act contrary to the judgment and practice of the most famous Protestant Churches abroad and the most eminent Reformed Divines of all Nations and therefore I refer it to any Man to consider if this be a probable way to unite us with all Forein Protestants as some vainly discourse § 4. I know nothing can remain to be objected now unless it be That there are some great and just Exceptions lye against our Liturgy in particular To which I shall not now Reply by Repeating what I have said in my Larger Discourses upon the Common-Prayer where every one of the Objections that I have ever met with are considered and answered already But I shall now shew what esteem our Common-Prayer-Book hath been in among the most learned and judicious Protestant Writers ever since it was first Compos'd And I begin with Alexander Alesius an eminent Scotch Divine who Translated King Edward's Common-Prayer Book into Latin and in his Preface to it he saith He did this that it might be seen and read by many for the honour of the English Church whose care and diligence herein he doubted not would be for the example and comfort of some and for the shame of others and he hoped it might provoke the rest of the Reformed to imitate this most noble and divine Work in setling the Church believing that God put it into his hands to publish it at that time for the General Good (r) Praef. ad Libr. precum per Alex. Aâ—es inter Buceri script Anglicaâ— pag. 373 3â—5 c. with much more to the same purpose And here I must note that probably this was that Interpretation of our English Service Book which the judicious and modest Mr. Bucer looked over so diligently to satisfie himself whether he ought to conform to it And upon this he saith When I throughly understood it I gave Thanks to God who had granted to this Church to Reform her Rites to that degree of Purity For I found nothing in them which was not taken out of the Word of God or at least which was contrary thereunto if it were candidly expounded (s) Buceri censura super Libr. Sâ—croâ— praef pag. 456. And when by Archbishop Cranmer's special Command he had perused the whole Book in order to his censuring what he thought was to be amended He declares his Judgment thus In the prescript Form for the Communion and the daily Prayers I see nothing writ in this Book which is not taken out of the Word of God if not in express Words as the Psalms and Lessons yet in Sense as the Collects and also the Order of these Lessons and Prayers and the Times when they are to be used are very agreeable to the Word of God and to the Constitution observed in the Ancient Church (t) Buceri censura c. cap. 1. p. 457. And afterwards he is for writing down all holy Rites and the Words of the sacred Administrations and he owns that the Church of England hath done this very purely and conformable to Christ's Institution As for the things which he modestly supposed might be altered for the better it is evident That most of them were regulated afterwards and many of them were rectified according to his Advice there so that we not only see he was clearly for the use of prescribed Forms but liked the Book of King Edward with some few Amendments and had he seen our present Common-Prayer no doubt he would have wholly approved it The next Evidence shall be the most learned Archbishop of Spalato who affirms against Suarez That the English Liturgy containeth nothing in it which is not holy which is not pious and truly Christian as well as Catholic (u) Ant. de Dom. Spalat osteus error Fran. Suarez cap. 6. §. 82. pag. 340. And a little after The Form of Divine Offices that is of Public Prayers for all England which as I have said is taken out of the most ancient and most laudable Liturgies approved even by the Roman Church collected with great Judgment so as to leave out those things which the Romanists themselves are not very ready to defend (w) Ibid §. 37. pag. 342. Thus this Great Man stops the Mouth of a Malicious Enemy to our Liturgy And Causabon at the same time had as great an esteem for it For in his Epistle to King James the First he saith Your Majesty hath such a Church in your Kingdoms partly so instituted of Old and partly so regulated by your Endeavours that none at this day comes nearer to the Form of the most Flourishing Ages of the Ancient Church following a middle way between those who have offended both in the Excess and the Defect (x) Causaâ— Ep. ad Reg. jac praeâ—ix ad exerc Baron And in an Epistle to Salmasius he saith If his Conjecture do not fail the soundest part of the whole Reformation is in England (y) Id. Ep. ad Salmas qu. 709. Moreover Salmasius himself though in some Points he differed from our Church yet relates it as a Reason of King Charles the Martyrs constancy to our Liturgy That the Form of it was long since approved by most of the Reformed Pastors and those Men of the first Rank both in France and elsewhere and as being a Book which seemed to contain nothing but what agreed to Piety and to the Evangelical Doctrin (z)
do good (c) Clem. Alex. Strom. lib. 6. Now these being the constant and common wants of all Men and things daily needful for every one it was most fit to ask them in a set Form of Words and if they had pray'd for these things Extempore Clemens could not have been so positive in the Method as he seems to be I had almost forgot one of his Objections which is That the Christians then lifted up their Hands and Eyes to Heaven in Prayer which shews they had no Books (d) Discourse of Liturg. pag. 9. Clem. Alex. ibid. I reply It proves no such matter because though the Priest did read his part out of a Book the People might lift up their Hands and Eyes so long as he prayed alone and by frequent use of the common Forms both they and he would be so ready at the accustomed Words as to have liberty enough to look off from their Books and look up to Heaven as we in this Church often do in the use of our Liturgy § 4. At the same time flourished Tertullian Tertullian An. Dom. 192. in whose Works we have sufficient evidence that they used Forms of Prayer and Praises For he declares That Christ hath fixed a new Form of Prayer for us who are his Disciples viz. The Lord's Prayer which he expounds in a peculiar Tract (e) Tertul. de Orat. cap. 1. And in divers places calls it The lawful and the ordinary Prayer (f) De Orat. cap. 9. de Jejun cap. 15. pag. 553. de fuga in persec cap. 2. there being clear proof in him that the Christians daily repeated this very Form Now if they used but one Form in their Devotions they could not think Forms were unlawful nor imagine that Forms stinted the Spirit as our Dissenters now believe Yea that they used in public to pray by Forms seems to be intimated in that Passage That the Christians met together and as if they were drawn up to Battel did joyntly set upon God with their Prayers which Violence was acceptable to the Almighty (g) Quasi manu factâ precationibus ambiamus haec vis Deo grata est Tertul. Apol. cap. 39. for this implies their joyning Voices as well as Hearts And though he do not give us the very words of their Litany because he writ to the Unbelievers yet he describes some of the things which they desired of God to bestow on the Emperours viz. That they might have a long life and a quiet Empire that their Family might be safe their Armies valiant their Senate faithful their People virtuous and that the whole World might be in peace (h) Tertul. Apol. cap. 30. And it must be noted that Tertullian could not have quoted these particulars as a proof of the Christians Loyalty if they had not generally asked these very things Extempore Prayers would have been so various that they could have been no evidence in this or any other case Moreover he calls the Offices used in the celebration of the Eucharist Divine and Solemn Rites and adds That after these solemn Rites were finished the People were dismissed (i) Dominica solennia transacta solennia dimissa plebe Tert. de anim cap. 9. where though he studiously avoid reciting any part of the Office yet he intimates by that Phrase it was a Form because Solennes Preces Solemn Prayers among the Romans were those certain and solemn words in Prayer from which they might not vary (k) Brisson de formul lib. 1. pag. 61. He also saith concerning Baptism That Christ had not only imposed the Law of Baptizing but also prescribed the Form of it (l) Tertul. de Bapt. cap. 13. So that Baptism doubtless was performed then by a certain and set Form and though our Adversary argues that Tertullian uses variety of Words concerning this Form (m) Discourse of Liturg. pag. 94. 95. yet it is to be noted that this is only in his discoursing concerning it where Tertullian doth not pretend to cite the words but mentions the thing occasionally As to the Laudatory part of the Service it appears from him that they sang Psalms and Hymns alternately and therefore in Forms (n) Tert. ad uxor lib. 2. pag. 172. one of which Forms was the Gloria Patri which he describes as Irenaeus did by the last words World without end Amen For he asks the Christians If they could give testimony to a Gladiator in the Theatre with that Mouth which said Amen in the Church or if they could say World without end to any but God or Christ (o) Ex ore que Amen in sanctum protuleris gladiatori testimonium reddere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alii omnino dicere nisi Deo Christo Tert. de spectac pag. 83. From whence we may infer that the Glory be to the Father c. which was a Form in the Gallican Church in Irenaeus his time was also a Form used in Tertullian's time in Africa and so may be justly taken for one of the primitive and universal Forms by which all Churches did glorifie God And it will be very hard for our Adversary to give a Reason why they might not use Forms in their Prayers as well as in their Praises He urges against this one passage of Tertullian where describing their Love-Feasts he saith After they have washed their hands and brought in Lights they called for some to sing either Psalms or somewhat of their own Composing (p) Tertul. Apol. cap. 39. Discourse of Liturg. p. 126 143. But if we look on the place we shall find this was after the public Worship was done at their common Meal and if this Hymn was taken out of the Psalms then it was a Form most certainly or if it were of their own Composing probably it was made at home however it will not follow that now those miraculous Gifts of Inspiration are ceased we may compose Extempore Hymns because they did it in an Age when many had those Gifts Some other slight Objections he raises out of this Author against Forms of Prayer As First That Christians then looked up to Heaven when they prayed (q) Tertul. Apol. cap. 30. Disc of Liturg. p. 9. But this was answered before and yet we must add that Tertullian affirms they did not always look up to Heaven in Prayer For sometimes he saith They did not look up with confidence toward Heaven but imitated the Publican who prayed with an humble and down-cast Countenance (r) Idem de Oratione c. 13. And S. Cyprian observes That the Christians did not impudently lift up their Eyes to Heaven (s) Cypr. de Orat. Dom. §. 4. p. 310 So that no Argument can be drawn from the one posture or the other But his main Objection out of Tertullian is that Phrase of Sine monitore quia de pectore viz. That the Christians prayed without a Monitor because they prayed out of their Breast
were used Morning and Evening for he tells us That the day began with Prayer and was closed up with Hymns (g) Idem in Psal 64. and blames those whose Lips murmured they knew not what and while their Thoughts roved and their Mind was busied about other things did not attend to the Office which they were reciting These and many other passages in him make it plain that the Gallican Church had Forms and a Liturgy in this Age. Yea it will appear That all Christian Churches had so if we consider the Method that Julian the Apostate Julian the Apostate An. Dom. 361. took to establish Paganism which was to accommodate it as much as possible to Christianity the Rites of which he saw were then very popular and taking And therefore he devised to make a Form of Prayers in parts for the Heathen Worship to set up Schools and Lectures of Philosophy and to enjoyn Penances to Offenders Which things saith Nazianzen are clearly agreeable to our good Order (h) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazian in Jul. Orat. 3 p. 102. And Sozomen relating the same thing saith That Julian designed to adorn his Gentile Temples with the Order of Christian-Worship and therefore among other things He appointed prescribed Prayers upon Set-days and Hours (i) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Zoz hist lib. 5. cap. 15. From whence it is as clear as the Sun That in Julian's Time the Christians generally used a Form of Prayer in parts so that the People could make their Responses and that they had proper Forms appointed for certain Days yea for the several Hours of Prayer in every Day and this was so grateful to the People of that Age that this ingenious Apostate in one of his Epistles yet extant advises his Pagan Priests to Pray thrice a day if possible or however Morning and Evening both in private and public and to learn the Hymns of the Gods which were made in older and in later Times adding that there was a Liturgy for these Priests and a Law directing them what to do in their Temples from which they might not vary (k) Julian Fragment Epistol in oper pag 552. So that he had actually brought the Christian Orders into the Service of the Heathen Gods and because Christians had Responses in their Prayers and sung their Hymns alternately so did he appoint the Pagans to pray and sing by such like Forms § 9. The next place must be assigned to the Council of Laodicea The Council of Laodicea An. Dom. 365. which is one of the earliest Synods after the setling of Christianity and its Canons have always been received by the Catholic Church And here we have many convincing proofs that the Christians then had written and prescribed Forms of Prayer and Praise and used a Liturgy in the Service of God First we find an order that the Hereticks who returned to the Church should learn the Creeds (l) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concil Laod. Can. 7. Bever Tom. 1. pag. 455. probably the Apostles and the Nicene Creed However they must be Set Forms or otherwise how could Men learn them Secondly In this Council we meet with Canonical Singers who sang out of written Books and none but they are allowed to Sing in the Church (m) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. Can. 15. p. 459. that is as Balsamon well Notes to begin the Hymns for the People were always allowed to follow them and Sing with and after them Now if they had Forms of Praise written in a Book why might they not have their Prayers written also in a Book T is certain they had no great esteem for Extempore composures nor for variety of Forms neither because they forbid the Reading of Psalms composed by private Men in the Church (n) Ibid. Can. â—â— p 480. And enjoyn the use of the same Office for the Evening Prayer at whatever hour of the Afternoon it was said which is the true meaning of that famous Canon about which our Adversary raiseth so much dust The Words of it are these That the very same Liturgy of Prayers ought to be used always both at three in the Afternoon and in the Evening (o) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 18. Bev. Tom. 1. p. 461. that is saith Balsamon they forbid Men to reject the Prayers which the Fathers had appointed for three in the Afternoon and to make new Prayers of their own on pretence they used them at the time of the Evening Hymns And Zonaras saith The Council rejects new Prayers and allows none but such as had been approved in a Synod nor would they permit Men to use Prayers of their own making in public but the same Prayers which had been delivered down to them were to be said in every Assembly (p) Balsam Zonar apud Beveâ—eg ibid. To which I will only add this That the whole day being divided by the hours of Prayer as it had formerly been among the Jews the Morning hour took in the time from Six till Nine The Noon-hour of Prayer was said any time between Nine and Three and The Evening-hour Prayer might be said between Three in the Afternoon and Six at Night soon after which was the time for Singing those Hymns at the first lighting of Candles and it seems some put these two last Offices together and having said the usual Forms for Evening Prayer at Three of the Clock when they were to Sing the Evening Hymns at Candles lighting Composed new Forms of Evening Prayer and used them in the Church which the Synod forbids and enjoyns the same Liturgy or Forms of Prayer which had been used in the Afternoon to be repeated over again with the Hymns in the Evening Now this Canon made in the Eastern Church where Liturgies were then commonly used must be expounded of a Set and prescribed Form and therefore divers of the Presbyterian persuasion have confessed that Liturgies have been used for at least 1300 years (q) See Falkner's Vindic. of Liturg. pag. 140. And Smectymnuus derives the use of them from this Canon and believes the sense of it to be that none should vary but always use the same Form (r) Smectym Answer to remonstr p. 7. But our Adversary resolves right or wrong that Liturgies shall not be grounded upon this Canon Wherefore first he Assigns a date to the Council later than he ought for he saith it was in the latter end of the fourth Century (s) Disc of Lituâ—g p. 61. whereas it was held soon after the middle of it Secondly He reserves this Canon to the latter end of his Book not daring to produce it till he had prepossessed his Reader with a false Notion That there were no Liturgies in this Age (t) Ibid. p. 155. Then he recites the Words of it wrong putting the Evening before the Ninth hour (u) Ibid p. 156. And in another place he brings in Caranzas false Translation of this Canon who leaves
out the main Words the same Liturgy and only Reads it That supplications ought always to be Celebrated at the Ninth hour and in the Evening (w) Caranz in the Disc of Liturg. p. 162. But not trusting to any of these shifts he spends five or six Pages together in Labouring to pervert the Sense of it and I must beg the Readers patience while I follow him His first device is that The same Liturgy of Prayers may signify only the same Prayers used often but the Words not prescribed or imposed on them by others I Reply the Words of the Canon are not used often but the same Liturgy of Prayers to be used always So that if he grant us as here he seems to do that they were the same Prayers then it will follow that the Synod imposed and prescribed them to be used always And there is nothing in the Canon to import that these Prayers were of their own composing no such Word as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or de pectore yea we see Balsamon and Zonaras say this Canon expresly forbids such Prayers and yet if the Priests of that Age had made them the Council enjoyns them never to make any more but always to use the same Prayers but if they had been at Liberty to make new Forms these could not be called the same Prayers But Secondly He shews all his learning to prove that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did not then signify a Book or Model of prescribed Forms of Prayer But he might have spared all those Quotations which are brought to make out that it signifies The Administration of a public Function or Office since we grant that is the general signification of this Word But we are to consider it only as it is applied to Prayers and Praises and then I affirm it signifies a Form of Prayer Thus Causabon tells us that beside the general Notion of a public Function it also signifies The prescribed Order for Celebrating divine Offices of which kind are those published under the Titles of Peter James Andrew Basil and Chrysostom partly true and partly false The Latins call it The Order or Office the Greeks sometimes the Method c. (x) Causab exercit in Baron xvi p. 384. And since it doth signify a prescribed Order sometimes we may reasonably judge it doth so in this Council because we see the Hymns which were a great part of the public Service were written Forms as the xvth Canon cited before shews and because Liturgies were then very usual in the Eastern Church where this Council was held And we can prove 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was used for a prescribed Form of Service not only after this Council but before it So when Flavianus sung Davids Psalms alternately at Antioch before this Council the Bishop desired That the same Liturgy might be used in the Church (y) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tâ—eoâ—â—ret lib. 2. cap. 2. which may fitly be interpreted that they would bring those Psalters so distinguished for alternate Singing and use them in the Church And in the Council of Sardica An. 347. a Bishop coming to a strange City is ordered To assemble and perform his Liturgy there (z) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con. Sard. Can. 12. Here saith Balsamon Liturgy is not put for Prayers And Zonaras saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to send up the accustomed Hymns to God (a) Balsam Zonar in Loc. Bever Tom. 1. pag. 500. Our Adversary also grants that the Heathens had written Forms and prayed out of a Book yet Julian calls the Times when they officiated in their Temples by these Forms The time of their performing Liturgies And when their course was expired that he calls The time when they were not using Liturgy in the Temples (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Julian ep Fragm pag 552. So we may explain Nazianzen whose Father as we shall prove prayed by a Form that he was very ill when he came to Church and was often cured only by saying his Liturgy (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Orat. 19. pag. 313. and thus we must explain Synesius where he saith Andronicus made him so unfit to pray that he was forced to omit the Liturgy of the Altar (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Synes epist 57. pag 193. that is the Communion Office which was usually performed there In the Acts of the Council of Ephesus An. 431 we read of The Morning and Evening Liturgy which can be meant of nothing else but the Forms of Prayer appointed for public Assemblies in the Morning and Evening (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concil Ephes Bâ—n Tom. 1. par 2. So also in an ancient Ecclesiastical Historian a Bishop beginning the Prayers is said To begin his Liturgy (f) Theâ—dor Lect. pag. 188. And in Theodoret That place of S. Paul's Epistles viz. The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ c. (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Theodorâ—t p. 128. epist 46. vâ—xit An. 423. is said to be The Preface of the Mystical Liturgy and accordingly we find it in the Apostolical Constitutions placed just in the beginning of the Communion-Service or in Theodoret's Phrase of the Liturgy for the Sacrament I confess I cannot but wonder at my Adversaries citing Justinian also as if Liturgy in him did not signifie a Form of Prayer though all men know the Greek Church had a Form of Liturgy in his time and the very places cited by him have that signification As when he allows the Nuns one grave old Man to make the necessary Responses and One Priest to perform the Liturgy and give them the Holy Communion (h) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God no â— tit 3. de Episc Câ—â—r L. 44. So also to sing the Night the Morning and Evening Prayers and Hymns which were in prescribed Forms then is called the performing the Divine Liturgies (i) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ibid. L. 43. And this is distin guished in another Law from private Devotions where he permits men to have a place in their Houses for Prayers Provided they do none of those things there which the holy Liturgy doth prescribe (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Authent coll 5 tit 13. Nov. 58. where the Holy Liturgy can mean nothing else but the Book or Office wherein the Forms of administring the Holy Sacraments was contained and therefore my politick Adversary only names this place but durst not cite it at large But those places which he doth quote may properly enough be so expounded For to exclude a Clerk from the Liturgy (l) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cod. lib. 1. tit 4. L. 33. is to suspend him from saying the Public or Common Prayer And the penalty upon those who disturb Mysteries or Liturgy (m) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Authent coll 9. tit 6. Nov. 123. cap. 31. is no doubt to be inflicted upon those who disturb a Priest in administring
Instance truly represented That Nazianzen's Father always used a Liturgy in the Church and that the Son means those public prescribed Forms when he tells us He was always better when he could get to the Church for the bare saying of the Liturgy cured him (q) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Naz. Orat. 19. pag. 313. And this may suffice for Gregory Nazianzen S â—ASIâ— An Dom. 370. § 13. His contemporary and dear Friend was S. Basil who is not only a good Evidence for Liturgies but composed one himself so that our Adversary is forced first to conceal most of his Proofs for Publick Forms and then to hunt about for Objections against both Forms in general and his Liturgy in particular but with how little success shall now be shewed in this Method First we will produce the Proofs which he hath suppressed or laboured to pervert Secondly we will reply to his Objections and Thirdly justifie the main part of his Liturgy to be a genuine composure of S. Basils First We begin with his Evidence for Public Forms and the first shall be his vindication of that way of praising God which he had set up at Naeocesarea which we will give at large in its due place because our Adversary hath but an imperfect account of it and places it in the latter end of his Book (r) Discourse of Liturg. p. 166. The Words are these As to the Psalmody for which we are accused I answer That the Custom now set up is consonant and agreeable to all the Churches of God for the People rising while it is yet Night go early to the House of Prayer and with much pains and trouble yea with many Tears make their Confession to God and afterwards rising from Prayer they stand up to sing Psalms being divided into two parts they sing by Turns answering one another Then they comfort themselves by considering Gods Word and casting away all vain thoughts mind this alone After this one is ordered to begin the Hymn and the rest follow and thus with variety of Psalms and Prayers intermixed the Night is spent As soon as Day appears they offer to the Lord a Psalm of Confession all as it were with one Mouth and one Heart every one making these Penitential Words to be his own And if you reject this you must reject the Aegyptians those in both Lybia's in Thebais and Palestina the Arabians Phenicians Syrians and those near Euphrates yea in a word all among whom Watchings Prayers and common Psalmody is used (s) D. Basil Epist 63. ad Clor. Naeocâ—sar pag. 843 844. Now from hence it is plain that the People joyned with the Priest in the Prayers as well as in Singing of Psalms and Hymns and Bishop Bilson alledges this place to prove That the Service was common to the Priests and People and parted between them by Verses and Responds 〈◊〉 of Christ Subject paâ— 4 pag. 434. with pag. 453. But Extempore Praying and Singing cannot be performed by alternate Responses therefore these Christians had known and prescribed Forms both for their Prayers and Hymns Yet Secondly This Very way of Praying was used then in most Churches of the Christian World Therefore Thirdly Most Churches in the World had Used Liturgies before S Basil's time and he highly approved that way of public Worship It may be some will object However this shews that there was no Liturgy at Naeocesarea before I Answer if it were so That was a particular Church and this was not above Forty five year after the setling of Christianity But if the Reader look back into the last Century it will appear they had a Form of Prayers and Hymns in this very Church above an Hundred year before even in the days of Gregory Thaumaturgus and S. Basil did not so much alter the Method or Words of that Liturgy as the way of Singing and Saying it and this the Clergy of Naeocesarea Accused him for Secondly In this very Epistle S. Basil mentions a Litany with Approbation which was brought into the Church of Naeocesarea long before his Time though after the days of Gregory Thaumaturgus so that in this Age that Litany probably might be near one Hundred year old (u) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil ep 63. pag. 844. But Litanies were Forms of Supplication for pardon of Sin and averting Judgments wherein the People always bare a part and to which they Answered Lord have mercy on us c. or Lord hear us or Grant this good Lord yea there are two Passages of this very Litany or some other as ancient which are mentioned in S. Basil's Epistles The first is this We pray that the rest of our Days may continue in peace We request that our Death may also be in peace (w) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil ep 68. pag. 856. We cannot be certain these are the very Words of the public Form because they are only occasionally spoken of in a Letter but they are certainly in the Litanick way and if we compare them with the Ancient Litanies we shall find them come so near the Words there used that we cannot doubt but he refers to some of these Forms Wherein they pray That they may pass the rest of their Life in peace and request That at their Death they may make a Christian end (x) Liturg. D. 〈◊〉 lio â—atr pâ—g 4 5. Liturg. 〈◊〉 â—â—d pag 70. Câ—â—râ—â—t Apostol â—iâ— 8. ca. 43. which are almost the very same Expressions differ no more than the Liturgies of several Churches are wont to do The second place in S. Basil is in an Epistle which he writ to a Friend that was gone into Seythia who feared he should be forgot in his Prayers S. Basil tells him This was impossible unless he should forget the Work which God appointed him for And you saith he being one of the Faithful cannot but remember the Offices of the Church wherein we intercede for our Brethren who are gone to Travel for the Souldiers for those who profess Christs Name and for them who bring fâ—rth the Spiritual fruit of good Works (y) 〈…〉 141. pag. 1014. Now all that are acquainted with the Ancient Forms of Litany know they always pray'd for Christians travelling in strange Countries for such as believed in Christ and for those who brought forth the fruit of good Works for the whole Army c. (z) Liturg. Jaâ—â—â— ut suâ—r â—â—g 89. item Condit Apoâ—â— â— 8. cap. 13. cap. 18. Lit. 〈◊〉 Chris 'T is true these are mixt with divers other Intercessions but S. Basil picks out those Passages of the Litany which belonged to this Mans circumstances who seems to have been a Souldier gone on an Expedition into Scythia and to have been not only a Christian but to have been eminent for Charity and good Works Our Adversary indeed boldly affirms this Passage is not sufficient to prove the Use of Forms (a) Discourse of Liturg. p. 137. 138. But
when we consider the exact agreement betwixt this and the ancient Litanies this eminent Instance out of the genuine Works of so great a Bishop in these early Times wherein we see he refers his Friend to known and public Offices both proves those parts of the ancient Litanies to have been Primitive and shews that there was a Litany in S. Basil's time Thirdly There are many Evidences that he approved of Forms of Prayer for he commends the way of praying by conjoyned Voices in Responses where he saith That a Prayer wherein there are not conjoyned Voices is not half so strong as otherwise it would be (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil Ep. 68. pag. 856. So that he thought Forms of Prayer in which the People joyned their Responses to the Priests Words were the most effectual way of praying and he saith Their bearing a part or share in any Prayer made it far more profitable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas Ep. 392. pag. 1174. Therefore he esteemed this way of praying which can only be performed in prescribed Forms would be soonest heard by Almighty God And for this Reason he made a Canon or Form of Prayer for his Monks charging them whensoever they prayed to use their Voices and also to continue until the last Prayer of the Canon (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas asciet Tom. 2. p. 243 244. and he orders them to reject those thoughts whith took off their Minds from the Canon of Prayer that is the prescribed Form which was to be the Canon or Rule by which he appointed they should always pray And so great a lover he was of Forms that he ordered those Monks should be rejected who would not learn the Psalms by Heart (e) Basil regul brev pag. 549. which no question were to be some of their Forms of Prayer and Praises We will conclude with one Observation viz. That our Adversary grants there was an Hymn for Candle-lighting in S. Basil's time (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See Disc of Liturg p. 361. but he omits that the Father there saith It was a certain Form of Words used by the People so long before his time that he knew not which of the Ancients composed it but yet none blamed the People for using this old Form which was Let us praise the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit of God (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil de Sp. Sancto cap. 29. pag. 220. All which Passages do abundantly prove the Use of Forms in S. Basil's Time but this Author concealing most of these and misrepresenting the rest hath sought out some other places of S. Basil by which he would confute this our Assertion § 14. Which Objections we will first fairly produce and then plainly answer Objection first S. Basil saith he was against writing down Mysteries and so could not be for written Forms and this he proves by his Epistle to Meletius wherein S. Basil saith he will not fully write his Message having a trusty Messenger who might relate it (h) Disc of Liturg. p. 37. I reply This was only private business to a friend and no way concerns Divine Offices wherefore the Allegation is impertinent Secondly He cites his Book de Spiritu Sancto where he saith The words of Consecration upon the taking up of the Eucharistical Bread and the Cup of Blessing which of the Saints hath left in writing We are not content with that which is Recorded in the Apostle and Gospels but we say other things before and after as having great efficacy in the Mystery taking these things from unwritten Tradition (i) Basil de Sp. Sancto cap. 27. Tom. 2. p. 210. 211. And hence he infers that there were no written Forms in S. Basil's time yea he calls this direct Evidence that there could be no such Forms in writing and repeats this fraudulent Argument four several times according to his custom when he thinks he hath gotten a considerable testimony (k) Dâ—sâ— of Lituâ—g p. 38. pag. 73. pag. 7â— pag. 109. wherefore I shall answer it fully And First it doth not well become our Adversary who gives such Odious names to those who cite any spurious Writings to lay such mighty stress upon a Tract which he himself suspects to be none of S. Basils works (l) Ibid p. 110. and which all those Authors whom he cites to prove his Liturgy to be Forged do generally reject as a Forged piece (m) Eraâ—m praes ad suam veâ—s istius libri loci censura p. 121. Riveâ—i censur p. 305. Scultet medul pag. 1054. Ush e Dailè in isto Authore pag. 110. it is no great proof of his own sincerity to fetch his topping Argument and urge it over and over till the repetition become Nauseous out of a Tract that he believed to be suspicious at least But Secondly I will take no advantage from hence for after all I see no Reason to deny the piece to be Genuin but let it be as he pleases it maks nothing for his purpose For S. Basil doth not affirm that these Eucharistical Prayers were not written in his time but that they were derived from an unwritten Tradition Now this sufficiently proves that anciently they were Forms because it is impossible for an Extempore Prayer that is to be daily or often varied to be conveied down from our Fore-Fathers by Tradition whatever is so delivered must be a Form of words either written or learned by heart and so taught by the Elder to the younger Priests Wherefore even in this Sense these additional Prayers in the Sacramental Administrations were Forms made by the most Primitive Fathers and taught to their Successors and so conveyed down by oral Tradition But Thirdly this is his Fallacious perverting of S. Basils Words and not the true Sense of them For the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unwritten Traditions here spoken of by S. Basil are not things which never were written down by the Fathers as he falsly pretends Because both he and divers of the Ancients had written about many of the Rites and Usages which he there calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unwrirten Traditions an Hundred times As for instance about the hours of Prayer turning to the East when they prayed and about the Prefaces before the Eucharist c. But S. Basil only saith these things were not written in Scripture they were not enjoyned there those Saints or holy Men viz. the Apostles and Evangelists had not left Orders in Scripture for these Rites and Forms which must be his meaning because he goes on and saith We are not content with that which is Recorded in the Apostles and the Gospels That is besides the words of institution there were Forms of Prayer and Praise before and after in the Sacraments delivered down from the Primitive Fathers which he doth not say were never writ down by them but were not writ in Scripture For S. Basil calls the Scripture by
way of Eminence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and all Rites and Forms not set down there though they were writ down by the Fathers he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not written things which is further clear by the occasion of this whole Chapter wherein S. Basil is vindicating himself for using a Phrase and Form of Doxology which was not written in Scripture and his Argument is That the Church used many Rites and Forms which were not written in the Bible such as renouncing the Devil and Praying toward the East and the Forms used in Sacramental Administrations Now Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian Cyprian and many others as we have shewed had written concerning every one of these things but still they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not written in Scripture but derived from Tradition and therefore they ought not saith S. Basil to blame me if I used a Form of Doxology not written in Scripture Now this clear exposition of the place alledged shews our Authors base disingenuity who to serve a turn and patch up an Argument against Liturgies wilfully perverts S. Basil's words which being rightly understood are so far from condemning Forms or proving they were not written that they prove they were composed long before S Basil's time and then owned for Catholic Traditions Finally whereas he insinuates that S. Bosil counts these Forms to be Mysteries not to be published and thence infers that to write them down was to publish them and therefore doubtless they were not written down I reply That these Forms were daily used among the Faithful and they were not nice to publish them to these it was only the Catechumens and Infidels from whom they kept these Mysteries and considering the charge they laid upon the Faithful and the Priests not to divulge them to those who were without the Church there was no need to be afraid to write them down since the Books were only in their custody who then believed it was a damnable Sin to let the Unbaptized see these Books or hear the words of them And he hath answered this Argument himself by shewing us that the Heathens who also counted their Forms of worship to be Mysteries not to be divulged to the uninitiated did write these Forms in Books which were kept by their Priests (n) Compare Disc of Liturg. pag. 28 with 122. 123. Therefore writing is very consistent with concealing Mysteries from Strangers And there is nothing in this place of S. Basil which proves there were no written Prayers in his time Thirdly He alledges that S. Basil in Prayer with the People used the Doxology two ways both Glory be to God and the Father with the Son and with the holy Ghost and by the Son in the holy Ghost (o) Basil de Sp. Sanct cap. 1. pag. 144. and though the same Father say that the Form of Baptizing the Creed and the Doxology ought to agree yet he varied this short Form twice in one day from whence he infers more than once that S. Basil would not be bound up by any Form (p) Disc of Liturgies pag. 104. pag. 130. I answer This Objection is taken out of the same suspected Tract but I will let that pass and observe that though S. Basil saith this was done in the Prayers with the People yet it doth not follow that this was in any part of the Office it might be in the conclusion of his Forenoon and Afternoon Homily which being performed at the usual hours of Morning and Evening Prayers and when the People were met to Pray yea the Prayers both going before and following the Homily he may properly enough say this was done in the Prayers with the People Now these Homilies or Sermons being S. Basil's own composures he thought he might vary the Doxology there as he used to do at other times but fortuning to use an expression that savoured of the Arian Heresy The Orthodox People who had been used to a right Form of Doxology in their Liturgy ever since the days of Gregory Thaumaturgus as was shewed before were able by that to censure these new and strange ways of expressing himself (q) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil dc Sp. S. cap. 1. And were so angry at him for this Variation that he was forced to write this Book to vindicate those Phrases Wherefore this variety of Doxology being not used in the Liturgy but the Sermons or Homilies is nothing to his purpose nor will it prove that S. Basil varied from the prescribed Forms much less will it make out there were no prescribed Forms since our Clergy use variety of Doxologies at the end of their Sermons but it would be Ridiculous to Argue from thence that they will not be bound to say the Gloria Patri in that Form wherein it is set down in the Liturgy If it be again objected that S. Basil hath great variety of Doxologies yet extant in the end of his Homilies and therefore had this variation been after Sermons the People could hardly have perceived it I answer The latter of these Forms was used by the Arians in a very ill Sense to intimate the inequality of the Father and the Son and though no doubt S. Basil meant well yet it did so evidently tend towards Heresy and was so very different from the Old Orthodox Form in the Liturgy that the People who could digest various Phrases in unprescribed Composures provided the Sense was Orthodox took check at this dangerous Variation and by the way we may learn from hence how great a security it is to the Faith for the People to be accustomed to Orthodox Forms which doth enable them to observe yea and correct any kind of dangerous Innovations But if my Adversaries will not allow this variation to have been any where but in the Prayers though there is no Reason to allow that yet supposing it were so Then this was an Action of S. Basil which is not to be imitated and since he had like to have run into Heresy by taking this undue liberty it will make nothing for the Credit of Extempore Prayers that they expose such as use them to the danger at least of venting Heretical expressions involuntarily And S. Basils being forced to beg Pardon for it shews it ought not to be quoted for a Precedent yet after all it this variation were in the Prayers it shews there were then Forms well known to the People and confirms us in the necessity of prescribing and imposing such Forms to prevent Heresy from creeping into the Church which otherwise may get ground even by the well meant expressions of some Eminent Extempore Man Fourthly He affirms that S. Basil did not teach his Monks to pray by any Liturgy but to choose their Expressions out of Scripture (r) Basil Constit monast cap. 1. p. 668. 669. I answer Divers of the learned deny this Book to be genuin (s) Scultet medul p. 1056. See Discourse of Liturg. p. 120.
or you remember the Words of my Prayer this day Twelve-month or indeed this day Seven-night Under this Head we may place all his needless Quotations to prove that Catechumens and Penitents were excluded from these Mysteries (c) Discourse of Lit. p. 35. c. For we grant the Matter of Fact but the natural Inference from thence is not that they durst not write Forms as he weakly pretends but that they used constant Forms and these being Mysteries above the Capacity of the Unbaptized they feared by often hearing they might learn them which they fancied was a profanation of their Mysteries But had their Prayers been in new Phrases every day there had been no need to exclude any Body they might have challenged them all that were present to remember any thing if they could This silence and secrecy therefore was to secure their Forms from the knowledge of the Unbaptized Though as the Heathens writ their Mysterious Prayers and yet concealed them by charging the Priests to keep both Books and Forms from the knowledge of the Un-iniated so might the Christians also well enough keep their Written Forms secret by charging the Priests and Faithful not to discover them and excluding the Catechumens whensoever these Forms were used Secondly He would prove that he who Officiated was left to his liberty by some general Expressions in S. Chrysostom â—â—scourse of 〈◊〉 pag. 66. viz. The Priest in the Mysteries offered up Prayers for them (e) Chrysost Hom. 41. in 1 Câ—r p. 524. and The Priest of God stands to offer the Prayers of all he trembles when he offers up Prayers for thee (f) Id. hom 15. in Hebr. p. 515. I Answer That S. Chrysostom in the former place cites the Words of those Prayers and in the second evidently supposeth a Set Form And when he hath made it clear there can be no Prayers offered up to God but Extempore then this will be an Argument till then it is extremely frivolous Thirdly He thinks the Prayers at the Eucharist were not written and could not be gotten by heart being ordinarily very long which he proves by Chrysostom's saying The Priest stands not bringing Fire but the holy Spirit and makes a long Supplication that the Grace of God might fall upon the Sacrifice (g) Chrysost de Sacerd. Orat. 3. p 16. To which I Reply that it is nothing to the purpose how long this Prayer was because it is certain it was a Form and was written in so many Words in the Apostolical Constitutions where we find this very Petition to which S. Chrysostom alludes placed in the middle of the Prayer of Consecration That God would send his Holy Spirit upon this Sacrifice (h) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Constit Apost lib. 8. cap. 17. Lit. Chrysost in Eucholog p. 77 Lit. Basil ibid. pag. 169. which is also in S. Cyril and both in the Liturgy of S. Chrysostom and S. Basil So that this Long Prayer being written before Chrysostom's Time need not to be got by Heart and therefore all his Inferences from that false Supposition do fall to the ground Nor can he pretend that the Priests bringing the Holy Spirit here mentioned is meant of his praying by the Spirit that is as he thinks Extempoâ—è because the Spirit here is the thing prayed for and that which the Priests Prayers brought down upon the Christian Sacrifice as Elijah's Prayer of old brought down Fire upon the Legal Sacrifice Fourthly He tells us that S Chrysostom saith It required greater confidence than Moses and Elias had to pray over this Sacrifice from whence he gathers that there was no need of such Confidence if their Prayer were written in a Book before them (i) Discourse of Liturg. pag. 75. But if the Reader consult the place in the Father (k) Chryâ—â—st de Sacerd. lib. 6. Tâ—m 6. pag. 46 He will easily discern how this Passage is perverted to serve an ill Cause S. Chrysostom is setting out the dignity of the Gospel Priesthood who are to intercede with God to have Mercy not upon one City but upon the whole World even upon all Men. Now he thinks that the confidence of Moses and Elias who prayed but for one Nation would not suffice to fit a Man for this Intercession alluding to the Litany where as he notes they pray That Wars may cease in all places and all Troubles be removed and that Peace and Prosperity and a deliverance from all Evils public and private may be obtained (l) Chrysost ibid. Who afterwards treats of the Priests praying over the Sacrament These are plainly Litanick Supplications which were written down long before this Age as we have shewed and therefore the Confidence was not needful to invent Words Extempore but to enable a Mortal sinful Man to ask so many and so great things from so glorious a God for so many persons As for the Confidence of his Party it is indeed greater than that of Moses and Elias for they were really inspired miraculously and so might intercede for the Jews for ought I know Extempore on some extraordinary occasions but these Men who are not inspired dare upon ordinary occasions daily vent their Extempore Conceits before God and their Congregation but whether there be not more Boldness than Prudence in this let him judge who considers that Solomon saith Be not rash with thy Mouth and let not thine Heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in Heaven and thou upon Earth (m) Eccles V. 2. Fifthly He cites a place of S. Chrysostom where he shews what is meant by the Cup of Blessing and reckoning up some of the Heads of those things for which they gave Thanks He adds with these and other such like Thanksgivings we approach whence he infers That the Priests enlarged themselves in such like particulars according to discretion (n) Discourse of Liturg. pag. 76. But first he was forced to translate the place falsly or else it would not have been for his purpose S. Chrysostom saith after he had reckoned up divers general Heads of Mercies For these and all such things as these giving Thanks so we approach (o) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom. 24. in 1 Cor pag. 396. He doth not say With these and other such like Thanksgivings that is his perverting the Father Secondly S. Chrysostom being making a popular Discourse doth not repeat any part of the Thanksgivings but describes some of those Mercies for which they gave Thanks at the Sacrament One principal Head of which was For delivering Mankind from Error and for bringing them to be Heirs of his Kingdom Which is one of those Heads for which God is praised in that large Form of Thanksgiving in the Constitutions (p) Non permisit genus humanum perire Constit Apost lib. 8. cap. 17. as it is also in the Liturgy of S. Chrysostom (q) Liturg. Chrysost Euchol p. 75 Therefore they were Forms of
their Time were to be prayed for but the New Editions of these Liturgies have no Emperours or Bishops Name at all only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leaving it to the Priest to add the Names as Persons changed To conclude I have not seen one solid Objection against the main Body of S. Chrysostom's Liturgy and there is enough of that which we defend and is genuine to shew that Liturgies were used in this Age and there is clear Evidence and good Reason to believe not only that S. Chrysostom approved of Forms but that he Corrected the Ancient Office and made all that is Essential pure and primitive in this very Liturgy which now goes by his Name And this may suffice for this Father § 21. At the same time when S Chrysostom was Famous in the East S. Augustin S. Augustin An Dom. 3â— flourished in the African Church and He also is a good Witness for us in this Age For it is impossible he could be against Forms of Prayer written in a Book and to be read out of it because he affirms That Christ therefore left us a Form of Prayer in writing knowing Words were necessary to moveâ— us and that we might look upon that which we ask (a) Nobis ergo necessarâ—a sunt Verba quibus commoveanâ—ur inspiciamus quid pâ—tamuâ— Aug. ad Prob. Ep. 121. p. 129. Now for the Church to imitate Christ and write down our Prayers in a Book could not be a fault in the opinion of S. Augustin who owns the Lords Prayer to be a Form and in divers places affirms that the Faithful repeated it every day (b) Aug. de verb. Ap. Ser. 31. Item hom 42. alibi And therefore he will not grant that any Christians wanted the Spirit to help them with Words and Expressions that he saith cannot be the meaning of our not knowing what to Pray for as we ought Rom. viii 26. because it is not Credible that either the Apostle or those to whom he Writ were Ignorant of the Lords Prayer (c) Id. ad Prob. Ep. 121. pag 129. And therefore he goes on to expound the Spirits helping our infirmities of the Spirits giving us Patience so that we do not pray absolutely to be delivered out of our Afflictions as naturally we should do if the Spirit did not convince us they were for our good So that S. Augustin takes away the main Text on which our Adversaries ground their Extempore Prayers and thinks there is no need for the Spirit to furnish us with expressions We have now seen by other Fathers that they had a Liturgy in every Church by which care was taken for proper expressions and S. Augustin seems to have believed that the Original of these Liturgies the most essential parts wherein almost all Churches agreed was from S. Paul himself for he saith as my Adversary cites him (d) Disc of Liturg. Marg. pag. 173. The Apostle speaking of the Eucharist presently adds The rest will I set in order when I come giving us to understand that though it was too long for an Epistle to intimate all that order of Administration which the Vniversal Church observes yet he did ordain that which is every where observed without Variation (e) Aug. ad Januar. Ep. 118. p. 116. Now the use of Forms was every where observed and though there was some little variety in the Longer Forms of Prayer and Thanksgiving which were made afterwards yet the use of the Lords Prayer the Prefaces the Prayer of Consecration as to the Evangelical Words and some of the Hymns All which were Forms and of Universal use these S. Augustin affirms were ordered and ordained by the Apostle when he came to Corinth so that he maks the Original of using Forms of Prayer and Praise in the Sacrament to be Apostolical And the same thing he affirms in another place where he is arguing against Hereticks Let us look saith he upon the Mysteries of the Ecclesiastical Prayers which the whole World hath received by Tradition from the Apostles and which are uniformly Celebrated in every Orthodox Church that the Rule for our Prayers may fix the Rule of our Faith (f) Oâ—secratiâ—â—rum quoque sacerdâ—talium Sacramenta respiciamus quae ab Apostolis tradita in tâ—to modo atque in omni Catholicâ Ecclesiâ Uniformiter Celebrantur â—â— legem credendi lex statuat supplicanâ— Aug. de Eccles dog cap. â—â— Tom. 3. pag. 4â— He must mean this of Forms Extompore Prayers being invisible but these might be looked on yet these he saith were derived from Apostolical Tradition and uniformly Celebrated therefore there was then a written Liturgy appointed at first by the Apostles as S. Augustin thought and used by all Christians to the Words of which he appeals for Evidence against Hereticks in matters of Faith Now if the Prayers had been daily varied by the Extempore Gift he could not have appealed to the Words of them and if these Forms had been composed but a little before this time of S. Augustin he could not have urged their Authority in matters of dispute with Hereticks or others Therefore they had Forms written in former Ages and by their Antiquity become of great Authority in this Century Whereupon the same Father wishes that such as are weak and doubtful in the Question of perseverance would look upon those Prayers of theirs which the Church always had and ever will have (g) ut intuerentur Orationes suas quas semper habuit habebit Ecclesia Aug. de bon persev lib. 2. Tom. 7. pag. 279. That is upon the public Liturgy from the certain Words of which he draws Arguments to satisfy their doubts not fearing they would question the Authority of those Prayers which the Church ever had used from the beginning And therefore he boldly challenges Vitalis who hâ—ed some Erroneous Opinions to dispute if he saw fit against the Prayers of the Church when he heard the Priest of God at the Altar Exhorting his People to Pray so and so c. (h) Aug. ad Vital Ep. 107. pag. 102. which shews not only that there were Forms because Extempore Prayers can never be urged for or alledged against the Church But it shews that these Forms were by long usage become so venerable that their Authority was esteemed sacred and indisputable And they were accounted the best Evidence of Apostolical Tradition after the holy Scripture The particulars of this African service agreeable to the parts of the Greek Liturgy S. Augustin saith were these The Singing of Hymns reading of Lessons and Sermons the Prayers made by the Bishop in an audible Voice and the Common-Prayer enjoyned by the Deacon (i) aut Antâ—stâ—tes clara voce deprecantuâ— aut communis Oratio v ce Diaconi indicitur Aug. ad Januar. Ep. 11â— p. 119. That is the Collects and the Litany to the First of which the People answered Amen To the Second they made Responses at the end of every Petition
day Chant or Sing their public Prayers as we do in our Cathedrals Now this Book contains their Canticles and Hymns as also the Versicles Responses and Collects for every Sunday and Holy-day in the year very like to those in our Common-Prayer and a Litany exactly agreeing with ours in the Petitions the Order and the Responses And all these Offices are paraphrased by Cornerus (o) Cantica selâ—cta cum Hymnâ— Collectâ—s purâ—â—ribus c. per â—â—r Cornâ—rum 〈◊〉 1588. To which Litany aforesaid I doubt but not Rivius alludes in his directions to a Parish-Priest when as to Praying in times of Calamity he saith you have ready a Litany in the Vulgar Tongue which you may use on that occasion for all that is necessary to be asked both in public and private are briefly contained there (p) Jo. Râ—vii opera Lib. de Officio pastorali pag. 705. Besides I have also lately seen another Book published by Jo. Federus with this Title A Book containing the Doctrine Administration of the Sacraments and Ecclesiastical Rites c. used in the Territories of the Dukes of Mecklenburg (q) Liber continens Doctrinam Adminâ—strat Sacram. c. in ditione Duc. Megapolensium â—rancfera An. 1562. In which there are Forms of Prayer and Praise and prescribed Offices for all sorts of Christian Service especially under the Title of Ceremonies (r) Ibid. pag. 189 c. And in a word all the Lutheran Churches every where impose and constantly use these Set Forms in their public Worship and their most Eminent Divines approve of this as may be seen in Melanchton who enjoyns the reciting the express Words of the Holy Forms (s) Melancht oper Tom. 3. exp in 6 Math. pag. 323. Chemnitius saith The Romanists unjustly condemn our Churches because in the Celebration of the Lords Supper they choose as did the Ancients to use Forms of Prayer which are Analogous to the Faith and tend to edifie the Church suitably to these Times in which are comprehended all the substantial things which were used in the Prayers of the Ancients (t) Mart. Chemnitii exam Concil Trid. par 2. pag. 91. He grants indeed they are not the very same with the Primitive Liturgies in all things but affirms that they agree with them in the Essential parts I will name but one more viz. a Learned Danish Divine who hath writ a general System of Theology And he upon this Question Whether it be lawful to use prescribed Forms of Prayer Determines That it is lawful for all and necessary for many to use a certain and prescribed Form of Words in Prayer (u) Caspari Brochmondi Theol. System vniv Par. 2. cap. 3. Casu 15. pag. 494. To go on The Protestant Churches in Poland and Lithuania in two Synods held there Ann. 1633. 1634. enjoyned one certain Liturgy to be used in all those Dominions The Preface to which is printed at large by Mons Durell (w) Durel vt suâ—â— in appâ—nd pag. 321. to which Author I shall also refer the Reader for an account of the several Liturgies used in Bremen Hessen Transilvania Hungary Bohemia c. (x) Id ibid. Sâ—â— 1. Num. 3. 37 â—8 39 c. p. â— p. 34â—â—5 c. And I will only add that Memorable passage in the Confession of Augsburgh All those Rites are to be observed which can be performed without Sin and which conduce to good Order in the Church such as certain Holy days certain Holy things to be Sung and other such Rites (y) Câ—nfâ—ss 〈◊〉 Art 15. pag. 25. By Holy things to be Sung They mean their Prayers which are all Sung in the Lutheran Churches as we noted but now § 3. But perhaps some may Imagin that those Churches who were Reformed by Calvin Zuinglius or others are not so much for prescribed Forms as the Lutherans I will therefore here add a brief account of the Churches and Divines of Geneva France Helvetia Holland c. I begin with the Famous Calvin whose words have been often repeated but must be set down once more because our obstinate Adversaries who pretend so much Reverence for him do not regard them As to the Form of Prayer and Ecclesiastical Rites I do highly approve it should be certain from which it may not be lawful for any Minister to vary in the exercise of his Function as well in Consideration of the Weakness and Ignorance of some as that it may more certainly appear how all the Churches agree among themselves And lastly that there may be a stop put to the giddy Lightness of some who affect some kind of Novelties and I have shewed before that a Form of Catechism also is good on the same account So therefore There ought to be A stated Form of Catechizing a stated Form of Administring the Sacraments and a public Form of Prayers (z) Calvin ad Protect Angl. Epist 87. pag. 165. This was Calvins advice to the great Manager of the Reformation in England under the Pious King Edward 6th Whereby we may discern that he highly approves of making and strictly imposing one certain Liturgy and gives three weighty Reasons why it must be imposed upon all the Clergy which Reasons continue in full force even to this very day and therefore if our Adversaries will allow him for an Umpire in this Case they must conform to this Liturgy which is much more pure now than it was in Calvins days and all those Tolerabiles ineptiae as he boldly called them are now wholly left out But to proceed Calvin himself also made a Form of Divine Service which is used to this day in the Churches of France and in that of Geneva and their Ministers are bound to the use of those Forms in all their public Administrations And I observe that Beza cites this Form of Prayer and particularly that part of it which is concerning the Ministration of the Lords Supper made as he tells us by Mr. Calvin wherein he saith they had retained the Primitive Form Lift up your Hearts with a proper Paraphrase upon it and also kept many ancient Rites (a) Theodor. Ieâ— â—esp ad â—ranc bald inter Tract Theol Tom II. pag. 229. And Moses Amyraldus speaks of this Liturgy when he saith And here for Example sake I will Commemorate that great Wisdom and Temper with which those public Forms of public Prayer were first composed which the Churches of France and Geneva do use so that the very Papists have put some of them into those several little Prayer Books which they publish in the Vulgar Tongue and deliver to their own People (b) Amyrald de secess ab Eccles p. 225. assuring us he had seen this with his own Eies otherwise he could scarce have believed it And a little before this Author wishes that all Reformed Churches would contribute their several Symbols so as all Protestants might agree in one Common Form of Prayer (c) Id. ibid. p.