people still crying with a loud voice that God would deliver them from such and such evils And then they were called Litanies and Rogations Hence it is that Mamertus and others are said to have framed Litanies because they enlarged them and used them in manner aforesaid And hence it is that S. Basil told the Clergy of Neocaesaria that there were no Litanies in Gregory's days because that name and that use of them was not then known But yet it is as true that such Forms of supplication and earnest Prayer were very anciently in use and before the times either of Basil or Gregory and S. Chrysostome in his Homily upon Rom. 8. deriveth the Original of them from the Apostles times And truely the general use of them doth argue that this way of praying cannot well be derived from any other Fountain for it was an Vniversal as well as Ancient way Look into that old Liturgy used by the Christians in India and you shall find large Litanies that is Prayers Litany-wise call them what you will Look into the Aethiopian Liturgy called the Vniversal Canon and you shall find Litanies Look into the Mosarabe or Spanish Course and you shall find Litanies Look into the Ambrosian office and you shall find Litanies Look into the Jerusalem Liturgy and you shall find Litanies Look into S. Chrysostomes and S. Basils Liturgies and those other offices collected by Goar and you shall still find Litanies And look into that most Ancient Service-book Eucholog called the Constitutions of the Apostles and you shall find Litanies frequently used at ordinations and in their daily Service and Prayers for the Catechumeni for penitents for persons vexed with evil Spirits for such as were Baptized and afterwards at the Lords Table too for the whole Catholick Church and its Members before the Holy Communion Can any thing speak louder for the Ancient and Vniversal use of Litanies And whence should this come but from Apostolical practice For the Primitive Christians were not easie to be imposed upon or to be perswaded out of their old beaten way Witness for all the Condemnation of Petrus Gnapheus and his V. Can. 81. Concil sixti in Trullo una cum Balsam Blast followers for adding only a little Formula to that received and usual Hymn holy God holy and strong holy and immortal have mercy upon us To this they subjoyned another clause thou that wast Crucified for us have mercy on us and the sixth Council in Trullo condemned the Author of it for a wicked and vile Heretick and Anathematiz'd all that should use that Form for the future for their fear was lest by that Additament it should be intimated that our Saviour was a fourth person distinct from the three persons in the holy Trinity The Fathers of Old were wise and wary and fearful of Innovations in the publick Service And then how the general use of Litanies could be brought into the Church but by such practice as they took to be a safe and authentick Precedent I cannot well understand or imagine 3. The Antiquity of our Litany being thus cleared as to its Form and Contexture next I am to shew its Antiquity as to its matter and substance likewise Now this will easily appear by observing the strain of the Ancient Litanies which though I have already represented in part yet for the further information of the Vulgar sort I shall add that they began and ended as our Litany doth with Lord have mercy They prayed and that many times by the Mercies and Compassions as Lit. S. Basil Lit. S. Chrys we do by the Sufferings Cross Passion c. of our Saviour that God would deliver them from the snares of the Devil from the assaults of enemies from the unclean Spirit of Fornication Can. Vnivers from famine pestilence earthquakes inundations fire sword invasion and civil Wars from all affliction wrath danger and Lit. Basil distress from all sin and wickedness from an untimely end Orat. Lucern and sudden death They prayed that God would keep them Lit. S. Chrys every day in peace and without sin that he would grant them remission of their sins and pardon their transgressions that he Off. Muzar Eucholog Lit. S. Chrys would give them things that were good and beneficial to their souls that they might lead the residue of their lives in peace and repentance that they might persevere in the Faith to the end and that the end of their lives might be Christian and peaceable Lit. S. Jac. without torment and without shame They prayed for the peace Lit. S. Chrys and tranquility of the World and of all Churches for the holy Catholick Church from one end of the earth to the other for Lit. omnes Kings for Bishops Presbyters and Deacons for Virgins Orphans Off. Ambros Missa Christ apud Indos Clem. Consâ— and Widows for such as were in bonds and imprisonment for such as were in want necessity and affliction for married persons and women labouring of child for such as were sick and weak and in their last Agony for banished people and slaves for their enemies and persecuters for persons at Sea and travellers by Land for them that were without and such as erred from the Right way for Infants and young Children and for every Christian soul And to every of these particular supplications the Congregation did answer sometimes Lord Const lib. 8. Lit. S. Chrys have mercy sometimes Grant it us O Lord and sometimes we beseech thee O Lord hear us This was the constant general and most charitable way of praying in the first and purest Ages of Christianity and the way which the Church of England had a careful eye unto at the digestion of our Litany into its Form and Model and whosoever will but compare the most Ancient Litanies with ours will find that this of ours is not only answerable to the best and of the same strain and Spirit with the best but moreover that it contains the very marrow and quintessence of them all And so much touching the Antiquity of our Litany Proceed we now to the Office at the holy Communion which anciently was never Celebrated without premising the Lords Prayer for which reason it is used with us at the beginning of that Service After all the people were dismissed save onely those who intended to Communicate the Primitive Christians presented Offertory their Offerings which by the Minister were reverently laid upon the Lords Table These offerings were so large and liberal that they served to maintain the whole Body of the Clergy and were a good provision for Orphans and Widows for sick persons and such as were in bonds for strangers and for all that were in want This custome of making Offerings before the Sacrament is so Ancient that nothing can be more We find it in all Liturgies Justin M. Apolog. 2. and other Ancient Records as in Origen Tertullian Irenaeus
the Christian Churches were universally deceived in the Primitive Times and that in two Instances 1. They all believed that after the World was 6000 years old there would be a general Resurrection of the Dead and then that Christ would Reign on Earth a thousand Years Secondly It was an universal custom to give the Sacrament of the Lords Supper even to Infants after they were Baptized And if all the Anolent Churches were actually cheated in two things 't is probable that they were in more also at least nothing can be brought from the General Practice of those Churches to make their Customs venerable In Answer to the former Instance I have three things to offer briefly 1. That it was not matter of Fact or Discipline but matter of Opinion only in which the World might be more easily abused because points of Doctrin are not obvious to the Senses and are more hard to be retained in the Memories of men than things of Custom and Discipline And therefore Tradition is not allowed to be a safe Record of things concerning the Faith but the Scriptures only 2. That this Persuasion was not derived from the Apostles but came Originally from some Jews converted to Christianity who were mixed up and down in the Churches of Christ For such an old Tradition we read of called the Tradition of the House of Rabbi Elias that the World should continue 6000 Years and then that the Everlasting Sabbath should begin Which Fancy continuing in the Minds of most Christian Jews Papias and other Christians came by degrees to imbibe it by conversing with those of the Circumcision who were dispersed all Christendom over 3. And yet thirdly this was no universal Doctrine by your favour For Eusebius saith that Many Euseb Hist Eccl. lib. 3. in fine Ecclesiastical persons were abused with this Error And Justin Martyr tells us that though he himself and many others were of that Opinion yet there were many others men of pure and pious Judgments who did not think so And shew me if you can any such in those days that were against the received 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Dial. cum Tryph. Government and Discipline of the Church In Answer to the latter Instance we have reason to affirm that the giving of the Communion to Baptized Infants was not an universal custom in the Primitive Times whatever some Learned men have suggested to the contrary Such indeed was the exuberant Piety of those Ages that they would not fail in any thing which seemed to be a Duty and a security of their hopes and some did run away with a misconstruction of those words of our Saviour in Joh. 6. 53. But suppose that this was an usual Custom in some particular Churches it is not fair that one single Exception if yet it be an Exception should void a whole Rule and all that we can gather from it is that all their Customs were not of Apostolical Institution nor do we say they were onely Iurge that where their Customs were universal in the first Ages there is a fair probability that they came from good hands and a sufficient Argument for us to walk in a way which was so universally old But lastly in answer to both these Objections it is clear that as well the former Opinion as this Custom met in time with publick contradiction for the one was disown'd and the other was laid aside in following Ages and so the Instances do not reach us whose Establishments have passed all along without condemnation or censure nay with accessions and advantage till of late some indiscreet men resolved to run far enough from the Church of Rome ran themselves out of their wits and five senses and forgetting the Golden Mean took too quick a step out of Superstition into Confusion and now are in a fair way to run round again out of Confusion into Superstition 2. I hope that our Plea of Antiquity in defence of our Constitutions standeth yet fair notwithstanding this first Pretence The next is that even in the Apostles days the mystery of iniquity was working as S. Paul witnesseth 2 Thess 2. 7. For they who are not Friends to the way of the Church of England do generally but wrongfully understand by that Mystery of Iniquity a Spirit of Tyranny and Superstition even in the bowels of Christ's Spouse that was then setting up for Antichrist and laying the Foundations of Prelacy and a ceremonious pompous way of Worship and whatsoever else men will please to say For the voiding of this Pretence 1. We do aknowledge that there was a sort of men in S. Paul's days and the less wonder if there are such now that were like Moles blind and busie Creatures working under ground restless and mischievous notwithstanding their soft delicate and smooth Skin But then secondly we do utterly deny and 't is a marvel that any man of Learning should have the confidence to affirm that these were true Christians living in the communion of the Church and under the guidance and government of the Holy Apostles No they were the Sectaries of those times whom S. Paul meaneth by the Mystery of Iniquity a company of close Villains whose lewd designs were hid in the dark and whose abominable Practices were kept private under a Curtain and within the Walls of their Conventicles for it is a shame even to speak of those things which were done of them in secret Ephes 5. 12. The Apostles do point plainly unto these Miscreants throughout all their Epistles S. Paul gives them the Character of false Prophets deceitful Workers transforming themselves into the 2 Cor. 11. 13. Phil. 3. 2. Col. 2. 18. 1 Tim. 6. 20. 2 Tim. 3. 2 3 4 5. Apostles of Christ dogs evil workers the Concision that all good people should beware of men vainly puffed up by their fleshly minds and not holding the head pretending knowledge falsly so called lovers of their own selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without natural affection truce-breakers false accusers or Make-bates incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good traitors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof S. Peter calls 2 Pet. 2. 3 10. them false teachers that through covetousness with feigned words made merchandize of people despisers of government presumptuous self-willed that were not afraid to speak evil of dignities c. S. Jude Jude 4 8 9 16 describes them as men crept in unawares ungodly men turning the grace of God into lasciviousness filthy dreamers that despised dominion and spake evil of dignities and of those things which they knew not murmurers complainers c. Any man may perceive that those were the followers of Simon Magus the Gnosticks whom the Holy Writers did thus lash and expose to the World men who called themselves Christians and went under the Name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Mart.
Justin Martyr Ignatius and other the most Primitive Writers so that without all peradventure this custome is founded upon Apostolical Institution and exactly agreeable to this most Ancient and Christian custome is that Offertory appointed in our English Service-book Next follows the Prayer for the whole state of Christ's Church Militant here in earth which is highly consonant to the practice The Prayer for the Catholick Church of the Vniversal Church in all Ages in respect both of its order and matter For first before the reception of the Sacrament a Prayer of this Nature was ever offered and that saith S. Ambros according to the Rule delivered by S. Paul In some places I Comment on 1 Tim. 2. find that this Prayer was used once before the Consecration of the Elements the Deacon inditing it and the people answering Litanywise Lord have mercy and after Consecration it was repeated Clem. Const lib. 8. S. Cyril Catech 5. Justin Mart. Apol. 2. Ambros de Sac. lib. 4. c. 4. again by him that Ministred in chief the people answering only Amen But never was the Sacrament administred without supplications in the first place for the people for Kings and for the rest as St. Ambrose speaks And to the same purpose St. Cyril tells us that the Spiritual Sacrifice being prepared they went solemnly to prayer for the common peace of the Churches for the tranquillity of the World for Kings for their Armies and Allies for Cyril Catech 5. sick and afflicted people and for all that stood in need of help And of the truth of this all Liturgies extant are an abundant proof 2. Then as touching the particular matter of this excellent and Catholick Prayer it is observable 1. That our Church calleth the things laid upon the Lords Table not only Alms but Oblations and so did the Ancients call Clem. ep ad Cor. p. 52. them even S. Clement himself S. Pauls fellow-labourer For the old Christians conceived themselves obliged to make Offerings of Praise and Thanksgiving under the Gospel as well as Abel did before the Law and the Jews did under the Law The Species of Sacrifice was changed indeed for they offered not Bullocks and Goats but they did not think that all kinds of Offerings were abolisht but that they were bound to present Eucharistical Oblations unto God that they might be found thankful unto the Maker of the Vniverse as Irenaeus speaks So that in lieu of bloudy Sacrifices they presented Bread and Wine Iren. lib. 4. c. 34. V. Mede's Christian Sacrifice and the first fruits of their increase besides sums of money And these were called Oblations gifts whereby they acknowledg'd Gods right and propriety unto all their Possessions that the Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof not as if he needed these gifts but as humble Thanksgivings unto his Offerimus non quasi indigenti sed gratias agentes dominationi ejus Iren. ut suprá Soveraignty And so they were wont to profess in those days 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord we restore unto thee some of thine own things 2. Our Church prayeth that God would accept these our Alms and Oblations which is perfectly answerable to the old custome for so the first Christians did beseech God that in mercy Clem. Const lib. 8. he would look upon their offerings and accept them as a sweet Odour through the Intercession of Christ 3. Then our Church goes on praying for the Vniversal Church for Kings Princes and Magistrates for the Clergy and the rest And thus did all the Churches of old pray for the holy Catholick Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from end to end for Kings Id. ibid. and all in Authority that they may be at peace with us and that we living in all quietness and concord may glorifie thee all our days through Jesus Christ for all holy Bishops rightly dividing the word of truth for all Presbyters and Deacons for all thy people and all that are in want and distress c. 4. Last of all it is customary with us at the end of this Prayer to make mention of the Saints departed and so 't was ever customary with all the Churches of old to bless God for their Faith Perseverance and Martyrdomes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Const lib. 8. beseeching that they might be made partakers of their conflicts and with them might have their perfect Consummation and bliss This was the first design of these memorials of the dead In fide morientium devotè memoriam agimus tam illorum refrigerio gaudentes quam etiam nobis piam consummationem in fide postulantes Origen lib. 3. in Job p. 274. Ed. Par. See Bishop Vshers Ans to the Challenge which latter Ages corrupted adding Prayers for the release of souls out of a pretended Purgatory But this conceit and practice was never known in the Ancient and best times And therfore our honest Church resolving to bring things to their first stay threw out of her Prayers this dross and litter and filthy stuff retaining that which was pure and Primitive Among those things which have been corrupted in the old Liturgies as we now have them there are some things which have passed all along untouched As that salutation of the Minister the Dominus Vobiscum Lord be with you and the peoples Answer and with thy Spirit it is every where to be found in the ancientest Monuments And so that other sursum corda lift up your hearts with the return we lift them up unto the Lord we find it in S. Cyprian and S. Cyril and in every Liturgy As also the following exhortation let Cypr. de Orat. Dom. us give thanks unto our Lord God and the subsequent acknowledgement it is meet and right so to do the Minister going on Sursum Corda c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is very meet right and our bounden duty c. these Forms are still entire in all Service-books that they may rationally be concluded to have sprang from Apostolical practice And so the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all the company of Heaven c. together with the Trisagium following which was joyntly repeated by the whole Congregation Holy holy holy Lord God of Host c. they are Forms which were very anciently and universally V. Lit. Jacob. Marc. Petri. Aethiop Mosar Christian apud Ind. Clem. Constit cum multis aliis used at this time but somewhat more largely and with a little inconsiderable difference for thus they said of old before thee do stand praising and worshipping thee numberless Hosts of Angels Arch-angels Thrones Dominions Principalities and Powers the Cherubim and the six-winged Scraphim with two wings covering their feet and with two wings covering their faces and with two wings flying and crying continually and incessantly with thousands and thousands of Arch-angels and with myriads and myriads of Angels Holy holy holy Lord God of
though inconsiderable Piece to your Patronage Every Creature would lay its young in a secure place and so would I mine And though that be enough to excuse me in point of prudence for seeking the best shelter yet my obligations to your Lorship do moreover require me in point of Duty to express my Gratitude in some little measure though I confess 't is much more easie to contract a new debt to your Lordship then to make any tollerable acknowledgement of an old one That God would preserve your Lordship in honor and safety and make your great cares and indeavours successful to the good of this poor Church that is to your Lordships own hearts desire as it ought to be the Prayer of every honest and sincere Protestant so it is especially of him who is Particularly bound to your Lordship in all Observance and Duty EDWARD PELLING Octob. 13th 1679. The General Contents Pag. Â THe Occasion and Scope of this discourse 1. Reasons for observing the Old Way 8. and Objections answered 17. Advantages to be gotten by observing the Old Way 22. The Conformity of the Church of England to the Old Way shewed in its Government 26. The Antiquity of Episcopacy in the Primitive Time cleared and vindicated 27. The Government of Episcopacy in the Apostles Times 33. Objections against it removed 41. The Conformity of our Church in her way of Worship the Antiquity of Set Forms in General 49. among the Jews 50. among the Old Christians 54. and in the Apostles days 62. The Antiquity of the English Liturgy in particular 73. and of its parts 74. The Antiquity of our Rites and Customes 88. of the Cross c. 89. Mischiefs occasioned by forsaking the Old Way 102. It has hindred the Gospel 103. bred Schisms 105. occasioned Atheism 106. served the Interest of Papists 108. Innovators poysoned with Jesuitical Principles 111. and Acted by Jesuites in their Practices 122. The Conclusion 127. The Good Old Way OR A Discourse offered to the Consideration of all True-hearted Protestants c. SInce these fresh Confusions and Distractions have broke in upon us by occasion whereof this our poor Nation like a distemper'd Body is all on a Ferment several bad humours striving to be predominant and all conspiring to stifle that which is indeed the life and safety of the whole I have often thought upon the dangerous condition which the Jews were in under the Reign of good Josiah and upon that excellent Advice which was given them for the prevention of their Ruine Now thus it was For many years backward there had been an unhappy division and breach among the Of-spring of Jacob the Nation was divided into two Bodies the People became two distinct Houses and the Twelve Tribes that came peaceably together out of Egypt were now broken into two great Parties and so srael was against Judah Throne against Throne and Altar against Altar This Rent began under Jeroboam the Son of Nebat who was the Head of the Ten Tribes and caused them to revolt from Rehoboam the Son of Solomon During which unhappy Breach neither party Prospered yet Israel that made the Breach first prosper'd least and was undone first Of twenty Kings that reigned over Israel successively there was scarce one I think we may say not so much as one that served God with an upright and sincere heart and of these Hoshea was the last in whose days Israel for their Transgressions were captivated and brought in subjection to a forein Power Now what was done to the House of Israel was threatned to be done also to the House of Judah because that unnatural Breach had occasioned the growth of Idolatry throughout the whole Land Lo said God I will call all the families of the Kingdoms of the North and they shall come and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem c. Jer. 1. 15 16. To prevent which great evil if it were possible good Jostah setteth himself withall his heart to reform Religion and to set the Worship of God to rights He burneth all the vessels of Baal pulleth down the Idolatrous Priests breaketh inpieces the Idol which was in the Temple defileth Tophet and the like Acts he did as we read at large in 2 Kings 23. And God was so well pleased with the King 's Zele even when the Reformation of Religion was in his intention and purpose onely that he promis'd him that because his Heart was tender and he humbled himself before him the evils threatned should not befall Jerusalem in his days Thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace saith the Lord to his Anointed and thine eyes shall not see the evil which I will bring upon this place 2 Kings 22. 20. Thus far God was gracious to the People of Judah that for good Josiah's sake he determined to defer at least their destruction for a time the King's Life was yet between them and ruin as long as Josiah should live no alteration was to be but things should go with them after a tolerable good sort but when once their King should be taken away they were then to expect nothing but Desolation and a Curse unless they did repent themselves seriously and in time according to Josiah's Example It was at this time that the Prophet Jeremy was inspir'd and sent by Almighty God to tell all the People their Transgressions and to call them to repentance and to acquaint them before hand with their certain doom if they continued in obstinacy and hardness Return saith he ye backsliding children and if ye will return and put away your abominations then shall you not remove out of the Land Circumcise your selves therefore to the Lord and take away the fore-skin of your hearts ye men of Judah wash your hearts from wickedness thar ye may be saved Be instructed O Jerusalem lest the Soul of God depart from thee lest he make thee desolate a land not inhabited These and such as these were the general Lectures which Jeremy preached in the ears of the people But then he goes on to give them more particular Directions he shews them the steps of their Forefathers he bids them tread as the Saints and Servants of God did tread in the days of old he requires them to lay aside their love of Novelty and new-fangled Devices and to go hand in hand all of them unanimously and together in that ancient way which did lead men to Heaven when Religion was in its purity Nothing but this could prevent Jerusalem's Downfall and the whole Nation 's ruin for all those by-paths which their Fancies had hitherto found out or made did lead onely unto Mischief and Destruction there was no way of setting things to rights or of giving them security but to return to that sound good and holy Religion which had been established in the beginning Thus saith the Lord Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths where the good
any thing can be found among us that is either in genere fidei untrue or in genere morum unlawful For Custom though never so gray-headed cannot be any Prescription in Bar of Truth Cypr. ep 73 74. and without Truth it is nothing else but an inveterate Error But God be blessed this reacheth not to the prejudice of the Church of England because as nothing can be found in our Doctrine which is really false so nothing can be found in our Discipline which is really and in the nature of the thing evil Instead of those many whiffling Pretensions which peevish and ignorant men have used against our Government our Rites and our Way of Worship if they could shew us but one Masculine Reason to prove our Establishments to be contrary to God's Word the Debate would soon be at an end and we would give up our Cause and our Lives also as well as our Livings to please them But this Advantage we have that many great and famous Divines in the Reformed Churches abroad who have searched into our Constitutions with more Impartiality that is with better Eyes and Judgments and Spirits than our own Brethren could never yet discover any thing in them that is repugnant to the Scriptures In former Ages Bucer and Peter Martyr and Zanchius and Melanchthon and several excellent Writers more have delivered their Sence much in favour of our side Nay the Learned Calvin himself though he was constrain'd by the necessities of Times to erect a New Discipline at Geneva yet was he far from condemning the way of this Church In an Epistle to the Duke of Somerset he did acknowledge that God had made him an especial Instrument of restoring purum sincerum suum cultum in regno Angliae his pure and sincere Worship in the Kingdom of England and he severely condemned those Seditious and Brain-sick People for so he call'd them who under colour of the Gospel would have brought in Disorder and Confusion In an Epistle to those Englishmen at Frankfurt who would have alter'd our Settlements he intimates that there was no manifest Impiety in them and therefore advised them not to be stiff and capricious above measure And in an Epistle to Bullinger he doth confess that he himself persuaded Bishop Hooper to Conformity And in this last Age the great H. Grotius who for Learning and Moderation Grot. ep ad Gedeon à Boeâ—sel was the Phoenix almost of his time look'd upon the way of the Church of England with admiration as that which came nearest to the Primitive Simplicity And among the present Dissenters if such as are more sober and judicious than the rest would but please to speak out they must needs do us right too and confess that however some of our Usages are not point-vise just as they would have them and suitable to their humours and who can tell what will or can be so yet none of them are indeed naturally and intrinsecally unlawful Nay it is much to be suspected that those wayward and hot Spirits among us who are profest Patrons of Separation would not find much fault neither if their former Declamations against our way were but forgotten and their Books burnt and their Interest and Credit in the world were but secure at least if their own Hands had but been concern'd in settling this way They would have been well pleas'd could they but have said Lo this is the Bethel that we have built But because this beautiful Fabrick was erected by other Hands now nothing will serve their turn unless it be said Lo this is the Babel that we have helped to pull down The summe is this that though the Plea of Antiquity be not sufficient to justifie those Ecclesiastical Constitutions which either tend not to Edification or are used after a Superstitious manner and to Superstitious ends or are bad and sinful in themselves yet if the Constitutions be such as have been originally occasioned by some Scripture-hints and intimations if they be such as are retained and used for some solid lasting and perpetual Reasons if they be such as serve to Decency in God's Worship to Order Peace and Unity among Christians and if they be such too as are not offensive scandalous or evil in their own nature then I say the Plea and Súffrage of Antiquity doth add that gloss and advantage unto them that they ought not to be laid aside for mens Humour 's sake but should be esteemed venerable safe and worthy of all acceptation Now this we conceive to be our Case in every particular and therefore supposing the usefulness reasonableness and lawfulness of our Constitutions which many Learned Divines have abundantly proved if it be further made to appear and I shall endeavour to shew it in the Process of this Discourse that these our Constitutions were observed in the Ancient Church of Christ and that this was the old path wherein Millions of blessed Saints walked while Religion continued fresh and fair within its Inclosure then more will not be needful to convince any rational serious and sober man that this is a good as well as old way wherein we also may and ought to walk notwithstanding the Pretences of those who love to walk irregularly and by themselves 1. For it is to be considered that if there be any safe and good way certainly it must be found among the Ancient Christians and the Stream of Religion must needs be still purer and purer the nearer we come to the Fountain Ex ipso ordine manifestatur id esse Dominicum verum quod sit priùs traditum id autem extraneum falsum quod sit posteriùs immissum Tertul. de Praescript adv Haeret. Head I speak now of things concerning the Government and Discipline of the Church And questionless those things could not but be in a very good posture in the first Ages when the Minds of Christians were full of Simplicity when their Quando Domini nostri adhuc calebat cruor fervebat recens in credentibus fides Hieron ep ad Demetriad Spirits were holy their Designs honest and their Factions few and their Interests united When the Bloud of Christ was yet warm in their hearts and their Faith was so fresh and sprightly that they chose to die rather than they would depart from the Rule that had been fix'd by the Apostles When Persecutions were so rife that Christians had other things to do than to study or think of Innovations in Religion and let me add also when they had such an account as was clear and certain in comparison of that which later Ages have had touching the Original and Institution of things which came so lately to their hands We indeed cannot certainly tell what were Apostolical Traditions but such as we find in Scripture because we want many good Records which were written in the early days of Christianity Nay in S. Jerom's time they were posed to tell certainly what Vnaquaeque
Provincia abundet in sensu suo praecepta majorum leges Apostolicas arbitretur Hieron ad Lucian Rites were of Apostolical Appointment and they did generally call the Customs of the Church and the Injunctions of their Ancestors by the name of Apostolical Traditions But yet 't is reasonable to believe that Christians of the second and third Century who gave diligence to search into and had means to find out the Original of many Ecclesiastical Observations were able to give a very fair and satisfactory account what had been transmitted to them from the Apostles and what not For some of them conversed with the Apostles themselves or with some of them as Polycarp Ignatius and S. Clement of Rome Others again as Irenaeus and Justin Martyr were acquainted with Apostolical men And others were so near to these as Clemens of Alexandria Origen Tertullian Cyril c. that it was not very hard for them to know whether the Ordinances and Customs then used in the Church did owe their birth to the first Preachers of Religion or whether they were postnate to the Age of the Apostles Do not we know by the Acts and Monuments of former times what the Governours of our Church did and appointed in the beginning of the Reformation under King Henry the Eighth Why it is very probable then that what the Apostles did and instituted at the Planting of Religion under Nero Vespasian and Domitian might be easily known to those Fathers of the Church who lived and flourished some ten some thirty years after them and others onward to an hundred or say two hundred years successively So that if it shall hereafter appear that the outward Frame of Religion which is establish'd in the present Church of England was the very same Model for the most part which was used anciently in other Churches in the days of those primitive Writers and the very Model which they professed to have received from Christ's immediate Successors then I cannot imagine what just reason any man can have against the asking for and the walking in a way so ancient so laudable and so safe If he will not grant that our Establishments were instituted by the holy Apostles which yet in probability is true that they were appointed by them as things useful decent and convenient though not as necessary in every particular he must needs grant that they were appointed by due Authority that is by Apostolical Persons and so may claim veneration and observance at our hands Besides it is to be consider'd that not to the Apostles onely but to their lawful Successors also was that Promise of our blessed Saviour made that he would be with them always even unto the end of the world Matth. 28. 20. and that other Promise that he would send his Spirit to guide them into all truth John 16. 13. Now though that Promise requireth certain conditions of us and extends it self chiefly to the necessaria fidei matters of faith and necessary matters too yet 't is altogether improbable that Christ and his Spirit should take so little care of his Church in reference to its Polity and Discipline as to forsake her in the very next age or to leave her to be abused by the Fancies of Dreamers and to be imposed upon by men of foolish and degenerous Spirits and to be defaced and spoiled of her pristine Beauty by the frothy Conceptions of men of corrupt minds I pray whither went the Spirit of Christ from the old Christians to speak unto us after the space of Fifteen hundred years How came he to suspend his Influences from those who lived Saints and died Martyrs and at last came to breathe afresh into dry bones and to restore Religion which had been lost in a long interval of Time and succession of Ages Can any but Franticks conceive that the Church was never pure till an hundred years ago Or that for so many Centuries she needed to be swept and yet a Besom could never be found till the DIsciplinarian started up and made one and swept at such a rate that with us Order Decency and Religion were quite flung out of doors and Hypocrisie and Oppression were set up in its room 2. Zanchius profest that he had rather drink old Wine than Vorst ad Theolog Heidelb in Epist Ecclesiasticis new meaning that he preferred the Sense of the Ancients above that of Modern Divines in all Points not determined in Scripture He said like a wise man and 't would be much for the Peace of Christendom if all Christians would resolve in matters of Opinion to follow the Judgment and in matters of Discipline to observe the Practice of the ancient Church But some Palats are for new Wine onely not because it is so good for the old is better but because it is new And I am not likely to persuade such to conform to the Establishments of our Church by this Argument because they are ancient Establishments Yet I would beseech them to consider in the second place that the way we plead for is not onely an old but a good way also We must not think that the Contrivers of our Constitutions and Usages were so many Fools how low soever they may lie in the esteem of men who have less Wisdom and worse Manners and value a little Serpentine Craft above the Dove's Innocence A Church being gather'd it was impossible that without Laws that Society should hold together or answer the ends of its Foundation and therefore Government was necessary and of all sorts of Government that by Bishops was thought most convenient and fitting because presumed to be the best Defensative against Faction Schism and Disorder and the Experience of all Ages hath found it to be so Again since the Church is a Collection of men learned and unlearned who are set apart to worship God and do hold their Title unto Christ by their Faith in him it was judg'd very expedient that Set Forms of Publick Prayer should be prescrib'd both as a Repository of wholsom and sound Doctrines and likewise as a Provision for the necessities of the ignorant and moreover as a Preservative of Order Unity and Peace among Christians Lastly considering that the Worship of God is to be celebrated with solemn Decency and Comliness suitable in some degree to the Greatness of that Majesty which is to be adored certain outward Rites and Ceremonies were appointed as good means to conduct 1 Cor. 14. 40. men to a sense of Religion and to the exercise of Godliness and to create and stir up the Devotion of the Mind and the Reverence of the Heart For by the Judgment and Practice of the whole World it doth appear that an external Solemnity and Observance of Circumstances such as Habits Ornaments Gestures c. do bring a mighty respect to all secular Transactions and the Grandeur of Princes Courts of Courts of Judicature and of Civil Corporations is much upheld and Government becomes venerable
yet by their notorious and unparallell'd wickedness brought a reproach upon Religion and caused the Name of Christ to be blasphemed by the Gentiles But the Apostles have taken most particular notice of their separation from the Church of Christ These are they saith S. Paul which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins 2 Tim. 3. 6. They went out from us but were not of us saith S. John 1 Joh. 2. 19. These be they who separate themselves saith S. Jude ver 19. which have forsaken the right way saith S. Peter and are gone astray following the 2 Pet. 2. 15. way of Balaam By which plain Testimonies it doth appear that the Schismaticks of that Age are they which S. Paul meant by the Mystery of Iniquity the high-flown stubborn seditious and contentious Gnosticks they that forsook the Regular Assemblies that spurn'd at Government they that were set against the Hierarchy and lifted up their unholy Claws to pull down the Constitutions of the Church These were that Mystery of Iniquity which was then working and factoring for Antichrist And what is this to the true Church For there was no evil then working within the Church there was no preparing of Materials for the Kingdom of the Devil within the Church there was no Idolatry in the Mint nor Superstition upon the Anvil within the Church but indeed without there was hard working sweating and toiling so that after the death of the Apostles many Errors were scatter'd by these Preachers of Hegesippus in Euseb Eccl. Hist l. 3. c. 32. Knowledge falsly so called who counterfeited themselves Christians and lurked among those who were Christians in truth and reality But shall we be unjust and wicked like the Pagans reviling the whole ancient Church for the sake of these old villanous Sectaries Shall our Ecclesiastical Constitutions be depraved by reason of the Schismatical and Diabolical Practices of the Gnosticks If Samaria doth transgress there is no reason that Judah should suffer for it unless she be a Confederate Now it would be to the purpose if it could be proved that the Gnosticks that Mystery of Iniquity were the founders of our Prelacy or the Authors of our Discipline and Ceremonies But it is obvious that they were the first though not the last the hated and oppos'd Episcopal Authority and that they used quite different and most monstrous Rites in their filthy Assemblies and as soon it may be proved that their and our Faith is the same whereas it is known that they denied the Reality of Christ's Incarnation and Passion and for that reason came not to the Christian Communion and that their Creed was a confused Mess of Heathen Mythology concerning S. Ignat. ep ad Smyr 1 Tim. 1. 4. Aeones and Genealogies of Gods which afterwards Valentinus the Heretick digested into some kind of Form Briefly then If the way Establish'd in this Church of England be the old Christian way if it be so excellently contrived that no other Constitution can be better or so well framed to answer the ends of Christianity if it be that way which for the greatest if not in every part thereof is that which was universally observed for very many Centuries all along from the Pure and Primitive Times of Christiantiy then have we reason to believe that it was originally laid out not by the Invention of a Private Person or two or by the Confederacy of crafty Impostors but by the wisdom of just and competent Authority whose business it was to set things in order in the 1 Cor. 11. 34. Churches of Christ To be sure we have then great Reason to ask for this old Path where the good Way is and to walk therein notwithstanding the desires and endeavours of those which are given to changes And thus the first thing is dispatch'd which I propounded to discourse of 2. The second Consideration now followeth that it would be a thing greatly useful and advantageous unto us as well as just in it self if we would but unanimously agree to walk steddily in this Good old way And truly many excellent ends there are to which the Practice of this thing would be highly serviceable 1. As first it would put that Lustre and Beauty upon Religion which by our Distractions and Innovations is manifestly and in an high degree defaced it would restore it to that Decorum and Order which made it venerable and lovely in the days of Old Among other things which St. Paul rejoiced to see in the Collossians this was one that he beheld their Order Col. 2. 9. For this very much helpeth to bring Religion into Request and extorteth a Confession from its very Enemies that of a truth God is in them that do profess it whereas Confusion and Disorders in a Church either for want of a sixt Rule or by the neglect of it doth but expose Religion to Reproach and its Professors to Scorn If there come in into irregular Congregations those that are unlearned or unbelievers will they not say that ye are mad As the Apostle speaks pertinently to my purpose 1 Cor. 14. 23. 2. To walk together in the good Old Path would be an excellent means as to put an Outward Gloss upon Religion so also to recover that Inward Life of it which consisteth in Charity and brotherly Love Scarcely is any thing so much wanting among us as Charity though the Holy Ghost doth up and down command us to be rooted and grounded to walk and to be knit together to abound and continue in and to provoke one another unto Love Mens forsaking of the good Old Way has been the Occasion and Rise of all that uncharitableness which is the Monstrous Sin and the Characteristical note of this Age when instead of being Lambs and Doves some count it a piece of Religion to be worse than wolves and Vultures ready to devour one another For in the Primitive Times when Christians could dispute well and live better the very Heathens could not but observe with Admiration how they loved one another Men have ceased to be our Friends since they refused to go the usual way with us into the House of God and parted from us into different and by-roads And that ill-natur'd Sect which first divided from us is justly rewarded with Ishmaels doom Gen. 16. 12. That his hand is against every man and every mans hand against him And as far as I can see things are likely to go on still at this rate 'till men will be so kind to themselves and so just to us as to quit those Novel courses and uncouth paths in which Pride and Singularity and a Spirit of Contradiction together with base respects to their Secular Interest have caused them to wander hitherto 3. A thing which is the more desirable especially at this juncture and nick of time because thirdly it would infinitely serve to the general Quiet and Safety of us All. It would unite our Interests as well as our
Affections 't would compose our Minds and our Affairs too 't would not only make us live together with one mind in an House but moreover it would establish our House and make it strong and firm and safe over our Heads For 't is not every difference in Opinion that exposeth a Church or a Nation to danger but 't is fighting and quarrelling about the Main way that ruins all We know that among the Turks there are several Sects and Parties and different persuasions and yet the Ottoman Empire holds though it be a most Arbitrary and Tyrannical Policy and the Interest of Mahomet is carried on though it be a most palpable and fulsome Imposture because though they jangle in matters of lesser moment yet they are true to their Common Interest and agree in the Main and closely adhere to their general Model of Government Religion and Worship In like manner among the Romanists themselves who boast so much of the Unity of their Church there are many very Considerable Divisions and more perhaps than there are among Us and those as hotly maintained and yet Herod and Pilate know how to agree against Christ the Scotists and Thomists the Molinists and Jansenists the Dominicans and Jesuits and the rest are wise enough to hang together under the Laws of their Church they go quietly and hand in hand in the main way they conspire in one Common Form they are tite to their Government and keep close to their Rubricks and Establishments and as long as the Pope can but keep things in this Channel either by the Terrours of the Inquisition or by other Politick Arts he knows that his and his Churches Interest is safe and he needs not make use of his pretended Infallibility to determine those points which are controverted I wish that we would learn so much wit of the Adversaries of True Religion as not to fall out there where the safety of us all is concern'd but walk together like Friends in that plain way which the Ancient Church hath beaten out before us and the Laws of our Land have fenced in for differences in matters of Speculation and points disputable could not hurt us or lay us open to danger if some among us were but True to our Common Interest if they would but stick to our Establishments which are the Rampiers and Bullwarks of the Church if they would but be as zealous for Christ as the Turk is for Mahomet or as the Jesuit is for Him whom some suppose to be Antichrist Nothing in all Probability can give us Rest to our Souls and Security to our Nation and Prosperity to our Religion but this one thing to seek after the good Old Way Men may please themselves with Fancies and try many fruitless Conclusions and make experiments of this and of that Expedient but the World will see in the end that nothing but the observing of the Old Path will put us into a good posture 4. But yet fourthly there is one huge Advantage more which the performance of this matter would bring unto us and that indeed which I shall chiefly insist on and it is this That it would justifie our whole Cause before all the World and cut off all just occasion from those who wrongfully upbraid us all for Innovators and under that pretence trepan many a Soul Where say they was your Religion before Luther Now the Dissenter is not able to answer this Question truly throughly or to satisfaction because a great part of his Religion was no where in the world no not in Luther's days and so the Romanists have a continual and unanswerable Objection to fling in his teeth But the Church of England as it is establish'd hath a fair and full Plea that her whole Religion was long before Popery that it was in the world in the days of the Apostles that it was in the Liturgies of the primitive Churches that it is to be seen still in the Tomes of the Greek and Latin Fathers nay she can justifie her Cause out of those very Writers in communion with the Roman Church both before and since the time of Luther whose Books they like dishonest men have corrected purged and mangled by the Expurgatory Indices lest they should tell tales I do not intend now to vindicate the Doctrine of our Church in this respect for that is not so much to my present purpose and our Faith hath been by others abundantly proved to be exactly consonant to the Sence of Scripture and to the Faith of all Orthodox Christians in the purest and best Ages and by this we are ready to stand or fall let the Papist bark at us till his Tongue and his Heart aketh But my purpose is to justifie the Government and Discipline of our Church to be the same which was used in Christian Churches from the beginning and that against a sort of men among our selves who accuse us of Superstition as the Papists do accuse us of Schism though God be blessed we are guilty of neither We tell our Dissenting Brethren that our way which they have forsaken is indeed the old Path we affirm our Government to have been Primitive and Apostolical and we say too that our Discipline Rites and way of Worship is the same generally which was establish'd in the first and best times and this I shall endeavour now to prove in some measure by instancing in particulars that men who desire satisfaction herein may see that the Frame of our Religion is de facto very ancient and that on that account besides many others it ought to be upheld and maintain'd which is the thing I have already argued for and withall that our Charge of Innovation would be unjust and ridiculous did we but unanimously resolve to tread in this Path our Brethren then would be free from guilt as well as our selves 1. The first thing to be spoken to is our Form of Government I mean our Episcopacy the thing that is such an Eye-sore to Papists Atheists and Schismaticks It is clear that for 1500 years it was the onely kind of Government in the Church And whatever some Learned men have pretended I believe you can scarcely instance in any ancient Churches perfectly and completely formed that were not under the care and government of Bishops in our present Sence of the word Bishops presiding over them either in person or by their Authority Those great Luminaries of the Church to whom the World hath been and is so much beholding the Austins Cyprians Chrysostoms Basils Cyrils Gregories and Ambroses were famous and renowned Prelates some of them Metropolitanes some Patriarchs all of them Bishops Those Fathers of the third Century after the Apostles as Theodoret Jerom and others who thought the Names of Bishop and Presbyter to be indifferently and promiscuously used in the Scripture did not mean to impair the just honour and dignity of Bishops for they acknowledged that though the Names were in common yet the Office Power and
made up of converted Gentiles Now over each of these Churches there did preside a Bishop with his Deacons so that frequently you shall find in Church-History two several Bishops in one City 2. Secondly that these and the Neighbouring Bishops were wont to convene and meet together to consult concerning the ordering and management of Ecclesiastical Matters 3. And thirdly that the necessities and condition of places were such in the beginning that all Churches were not so compleatly and perfectly modelled at the first as they were in process of time For as Churches were greater or less in proportion so were Church-Officers more or fewer in number Where the multitude of Christians was not great there a Bishop and his Deacon were enough to discharge the work of the Ministry where the numbers of Christians did increase there Presbyters were appointed to assist the Bishop and to act under him and where an Apostle thought good not to fix any Bishop but to hold the Government of a Church immediately in his own hands there he did commonly appoint a College or Bench of Presbyters to perform Ministerial Offices as his Proxies in his absence and by his Authority derived and delegated unto them For so did St. Paul keep the Superintendency over the Church of Corinth in his own hands as their immediate and sole Bishop because he had converted them to the Faith and what the Presbyters did in excommunicating that incestuous person they did it by St. Paul's Spirit that is by 1 Cor. 5. 4. his Episcopal Authority and Power committed unto him by Christ I verily as absent in Body but present in Spirit or by my Authority have judged already concerning him saith the Apostle This Observation will give us to understand the meaning Epiph. haeres 75. of that which we collect out of Epiphanius that in one Church there were Bishops and Deacons only where the numbers of Converts were small in another there were Presbyters without any Bishops besides an Apostle where there was need of many Ministers and yet one could not be found that was so fit for the Bishoprick in others agen there were Bishops Presbyters and Deacons too where the condition of the place did require it and the worth and abilities of the Men did admit of it Now then to come to the Objection St. Paul gives Timothy an 1 Tim. 3. account of the Qualifications necessary in Bishops and this questionless was in order to their Ordination But how doth it appear that Presbyters are meant by the word Bishops Were Presbyters now to be Ordained Did the word of God Act. 19. 20. grow and prevail so mightily in the Ephesian Churches and yet no Presbyters in them Was St. Paul among them for the space of three years preaching disputing and converting so many Act. 20. 31. Multitudes to the Faith and yet ordained no Presbyters to water what he had so prosperously planted And if Presbyters were ordained were setled in the Churches of Ephesus before the Apostles departure to Macedonia what necessity was there for him to send his Son Timothy Instructions concerning the Ordination of Presbyters especially when he hoped to return unto him shortly Divines conceive that this Epistle was sent by 1 Tim. 3. 14. him soon after he departed from Ephesus and were all the Presbyters dead in that little time 'T is hardly to be believed that Presbyters were wanting but Bishops were For hitherto St. Paul had been with the Ephesians for the most part in his own person he had governed them in his own person and had exercised his Episcopal Authority in his own person But now he was gone leaving Timothy in his room he was the first Bishop that was fixt at Ephesus and the only Bishop indeed now and yet but a young Man that had need of other Bishops to concur with him and help him in his Office and considering that St. Paul was uncertain when he should see him 1 Tim. 3. 15. again there was an urgent necessity for him to write speedily to his Son that other Bishops might be ordained that other Churches might be guarded from the Gnostic Seducers as well as Ephesus it self the great Metropolis There is no necessity then for us to conceive that St. Paul in his Epistle to Timothy did mean Presbyters when he spake of Bishops but rather that he gave directions for the Ordination of those who were to be Bishops indeed to be invested with Episcopal Power and to preside over other Cities as Timothy did over Ephesus in St. Paul's own Chair Again the Apostle saluteth the Saints at Philippi with the Bishops and Deacons Phil. 1. 1. But there is no Demonstrative Reason to constrain nor probable Argument to induce us to believe that he directed his salutation to Presbyters much less that he gave them the Title of Bishops For there are several fair accounts to be given of this matter either as some conceive that there were two Bishops over two Churches in Philippi Jewish and Gentile Christians as 't was usual in other places or as others are of Opinion that the Neighbouring Bishops were now assembled at Philippi as 't was usual at other times or as others are persuaded that the Salutation is sent not to but from the Bishops and Deacons and so the words are to be read thus with a Parenthesis Paul and Timotheus the Servants of Jesus Christ to all the Saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with the Bishops and Deacons Grace be unto you c. But which way soever we interpret the Text we are so far from finding any Presbyters in the Salutation that there is no argument to prove that they were at all in the City whither the Salutation was sent For Epiphanius tells us that many Churches at the first were ordered by Bishops and Deacons only and then why not the Churches of Philippi also Thus their whole Argument fails them who would prove the Office and Order of Bishop and Presbyter to have been the same in the Apostles days because forsooth the Name is given to both in Scripture Though the Consequence would not be good should their grand Principle be granted yet there is no solid reason for us to grant the Principle it self And therefore I shall not stick to conclude peremptorily That the Order of Bishops both as to name and thing is so far from being either an Antichristian or an Ecclesiastical Ordinance that it was instituted by Christ himself and founded in the Apostles of Christ and by them so establish'd and continued in all the Churches of Christ that for 1500 years together no Church in the world being perfectly and rightly form'd was ever under any other sort of Government but that the Episcopal Office and Authority hath through a continual Succession of Ages been communicated transmitted and handed down to the whole Catholick Church even from the most primitive and infant times of Christianity and consequently that this way of Government
went out into the Mount of Olives Matth. 26. 30. 2. Having thus cleared the first thing that set Forms of Divine Service were in use among the Ancient Jews I proceed to make good the second Position viz. that such Forms were likewise used by the Primitive Christians Here no man of learning can deny 1. That Prescript Forms of worship have been establisht in the Christian world for above these 1200 years last past For 't is now 1312 yeares since the Council at Laodicea Can. 18. and then it was Decreed that the Choristors should sing by Book and that the same Prayers should serve for Noon and for Evening-service 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can. 15. Aristen in Epit canonis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Balsamon and for every Synaxis or Assembly nor should any Prayers be read but what were received and establisht having been delivered unto them by their fore-fathers Like unto this was that Canon of Can. 23. Balsam in Can. 18. Concil Laodic the Council at Carthage which was 1284 years ago that if any man did compose any Prayers he should not presume to use them till he had consulted the most knowing men in the Church The intent of which Decree was that none should have the liberty to use what forms of Prayer he pleased but that such onely should be said as had been ratified by due Authority and ancient custom Lastly t is 1277 years since the Can. 12. Council at Milevis and then it was provided that no manner of Prayers should be used in the Church but what had been approved of by a Synod and I cannot but observe the reason of this Canon ne forte aliquid contra fidem vel per ignorantiam vel per minus studium sit compositum said those wise Fathers lest new Prayers should containe that which was contrary to the true Faith either through the Ignorance or through the carelesness of the Composer It was one great Reason among many others why Publick Liturgies were compiled of old that they might be Repositories of sound Doctrine and Preservatives of the Catholick Faith and the Ancients were wont to dispute against Heriticks not only out of Scripture but out of the Churches Service-books too For these were Antidotes to keep Christians from being poisoned with Erroneous and rotten Principles as our English Liturgy is at this day an Excellent amulet against infection from Papists Sōcinians Pelagians and other modern seducers and perhaps this is the grand reason why the Bell-weathers of Faction hate our Common-Prayer Book because it stinteth their extravagant Spirits who can sow Heresie and Sedition by their Praying as well Preachments this I am certain of that many gross errors which now prevail especially in the Church of Rome have been greatly occasioned by the base Arts of men who have time after time altered and corrupted the Ancient Service-Books thereby insensibly insinuating into mens breasts such things as belong not to Christianity But I will not digress further To return to our purpose it cannot be denyed secondly that in the dayes of St. Basil and St. Chrysostom which was about 380 years after our Lords birth Liturgies were generally used in the Churches of Christ for at this hour there are Liturgies extant under the Names of those Great men and though we do not think that these are the very same which they used because latter ages have defaced them and foisted many Heterogeneous things into them yet 't is rediculous to imagine that St. Basil and St. Chrysostom did not compile any or that nothing of these was of their composing And yet what they did in this business was not a New thing they were not the first divisers of these Forms no they framed their Liturgies out of old Materials and did fit and suit them to their own times For it cannot be denyed thirdly that Liturgies were used before ever these men were born For the Ancients did conceive that St. James the first Bishop of Jerusalem and S. Mark the Evangelist did both of them frame Liturgies for the use of their respective Churches and though I dare not say that this conceit is undoubtedly true much less that the Liturgies which are now called by their Names and as we have them were composed by them yet this I will affirm that in the early days of Christianity set Forms of Divine Service were used in the Churches of Jerusalem and Alexandria Nay if we consider well of that Form of Service in the Constitutions of Clement which questionless is a most ancient one and then compare those Liturgies we find in the Bibliothcca Patrum called S. Peters for Rome S. Thomas's for the Indians S. Matthew's for the Aethiopians and the Mosarabe for the Spaniards though we confess that these as well as others have suffered many alterations yet in all of them we may see such plain foot-steps of prime Antiquity that we may rationally conclude Liturgies were used in the very next ages to the Apostles over all parts of Christendom I know this will be looked upon as a very high and bold assertion and therefore I am bound to be the more punctual in this matter and for proof thereof I shall appeal to such Testimonies as are Authentick and which being compared with the Liturgies before-mentioned will satisfie any indifferent man that such and such Forms were used by Christians in the first Ages and so that in all probability they were directed by the Apostles or Apostolical Persons S. Cyprian speaks of solemn offices which cannot otherwise be understood then of customary Forms of Prayer especially considering that he elsewhere Solemnibus adimpletis Cypr. de lapsis De Orat. Dom. mentions a Preface used even then and still retained by us before the Commuion the Priest saying sursum corda lift up your hearts and the People answering Habemus ad Dominum we lift them up unto the Lord. When Demetrian the Proconsul of Asrick charged all the Wars Famines Plagues and Droughts upon the Christians S. Cyprian then Bishop of Charthage answered him to this purpose we pour out our Prayers and Supplications Ad Dem. for deliverance from enemies for rains and for the removal or the abatement of all evills and day and night we pray continually and earnestly for your Peace and safety Now what should he mean by these continual and constant Prayers Why no doubt those charitable Forms which they used in the ordinary course of their morning and evening-service For such we find in all the old Liturgies and particularly in that ascribed to S. Mark which Cyprian perhaps might refer to there is a Collect after the Reading of the Gospel where the Minister saith Be pleased O Lord to send wholesome showres upon every thirsty Land of thy Mercy give us fountains of waters increase and bless the fruits of the earth preserve the Kingdom of thy Servant whom thou hast thought fit to set over us in peace righteousness and tranquility and
the whole Congregation and therefore Tertullian calls them very elegantly Petitiones delegatas Petitions that were left to the Minister to offer up in the Name of the rest as the Delegate and Assigne of the whole Congregation so that whereas they did bear a great part in other Prayers these were repeated entirely by him that did officiate Many such Forms we meet with in all the ancient Liturgies and people were wont to get several of them by heart and to use them in their private Devotion And so Tertullian tells us in another place that they all prayed for all Emperours that they might have a long life a safe Empire puissant Tertul. Apol. c. 30. Armies faithful Councils good Subjects and a quiet World I do not doubt but this Ancient Writer had an eye to some Form of Prayer which was then to that purpose and in which all Christians did joyn And such a kind of Collect is still extant in S. Mark 's Liturgy where the Minister exhorts the People to pray for the King and the People having answered Lord have mercy Lord have mercy Lord have mercy the Minister proceedeth thus O Lord of Lords thou God Almighty and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ we pray and beseech thee to keep our King in Peace fortitude and righteousness Subdue O God all his foes and enemies Lay hold of the Shield and Buckler and stand up to help him O God make him victorious that he may apply his mind to those things which tend to our Peace and to the honour of thy holy name that under him we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty through the merits of thine onely begotten Son Amen Such Collects as this the Primitive Christians borrowed of the Church and repeated them by heart even in their retirements And this I take to be the meaning of that passage in Tertullian which hath made such a noise where he saith we pray for our Governours sine Monitore quia de Pectore without a Monitor or Prompter for we pray by heart By a Monitor here very probably he means the Deacon or Minister that was wont in their publick Assemblies to stir them up to pray for the cheif Ruler and to call upon them in those Allocutory Forms before-mentioned And Tertullian tells the Heathens that he and his fellow-Christians did this sine Minitore when no Minister was present to prompt them to it they had certain Prayers to this purpose which they used by heart in private so that they ought not to be looked upon as men that flattered their Prince menâ—iti vota ad evadendam scilicet vim pretending to pray for him that they Apol. c. 31 might not be persecuted but this they did heartily and conscientiously in their private as well as publick Devotions at home of themselves as well as in the face of the World by the directions of their Minister This is an easie and fair construction of the words and by the whole strain and tenour of Tertullians discourse it seems to be out of Question what I am now proving that set Forms of Divine Worship were observed in his days But we have one very Ancient Writer more to appeal to who will give us much more light into this matter matter still 't is Justine Martyr who lived about thirty years after the death of the Apostle St. John and as his Writings are unquestionably Authentick so the Age he liv'd in was so pure that what customes prevailed in Christian Churches then must needs make a great impression upon all indifferent persons now and for that reason I shall consider what he tells us the more particularly and largely In his second Apology for the Christians he gives the Heathens a Apol. â— plain account of the usages which were then generally observed in the Churches of Christ Concerning persons which were to be Baptised commonly called the Catechemum he saith that they were taught to pray and with fastings to beg of God remission of their sins and that believers did pray with them and fast with them at their publick Assemblies Then that as many as did believe and were perswaded of the truth of those things which were preached and delivered unto them and did promise and undertake to lead their lives accordingly were bad to the place where the water stood which by the way was at the West end and entrance of the Church and there were Regenerate being Baptiz'd in the name of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Afterwards he tells us that the persons thus believing thus professing and thus washed were had again to the Congregation of the faithful and that this Congregation did make Common prayers for themselves and for the Baptized Parties and for all men in all places with much earnestness and zeal Further he saith that the day when these things were performed was the Sunday and that on that day Christians that dwelt in City and Country did meet together that the writings of the Prophets and Apostles were read unto them that when the Reader had done the chief Minister made a Sermon and that being ended then all did unanimously rise up and offered up prayers i. e. the Prayers fore-mentioned for themselves for all estates and conditions of men in the World Then that these prayers being ended they saluted one another with an holy kiss and offered Bread and Wine c. which the President or cheif Minister having received at their hands went to the like prayers again and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gave praise and glory to the Father of the Vniverse for his mercies and offered up thanksgivings in a Copious and Large manner and with all his might meaning with all possible Zeal Ardour and Fervency of Spirit and these prayers and thanksgivings being concluded the people jointly cryed out Amen Then followed the distribution of the Elements which saith he was no longer common Bread or common Drink c. Now I confess in all this History of things Justine Martyr doth not tell us in express words that they used prescript and set Forms of Prayer for that was beside his purpose But yet it shall appear that they did For by the whole procedure of the Relation it is clear that they observed a certain constant method in their Ministrations and if we compare the particulars he gives us in with the particulars we find in other very Ancient Records we shall see that Justine Martyr gives us a summary but a pretty fully account of several prescript Forms which were universally used of Old as will evidently appear by taking a view of the particulars 1. He says the Catechumeni were taught to pray the Cogregagation of Believers praying with them And what can we understand by this teaching to pray but those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Allocutory Forms before-mentioned when the Deacons did put words into their mouths and dictated matter to them calling upon them with a loud
that which fully clears this matter is that even the converted Jews were extreamly shy of letting go any of their Rituals though they had been better informed of the Designe and Nature of Christianity then others were we find Act. 21. 20 21. that there were many Myriads of Jews which believed and they were all zealous of the Law and when they had but an incling that S. Paul taught the Proselites abroad to forsake Moses and not to walk after the Rites and customes of their Fathers they were so moved Vid. Bezam in loc at it that the Bretheren at Jerusalem were fain to advise him to purifie himself and to satisfie them that he walked orderly And since they did so pertinaciously insist upon Punctilio's can we conceive that they would not insist rather upon weighty matters would they suffer the whole frame of their Religion to be altered when they would not endure any part of it to be changed or omitted Certainly had the Apostles gone about to take away their Sacrifices and their Service-book too and to destroy their Legal and Moral observances both it would have been concluded that their design was to make havock of all Religion and to turn the World upside down and such a Rupture would have been made hereby that Men would have crowded out of the Church with greater zeal than ever they went into it And therefore it is unquestionably clear that the Apostles and their Disciples did at their publick and common Assemblies carefully keep to that way of worship which was then establisht which as hath been proved was Prescript and according to Form 2. The great Question is what their way of worship was in their peculiar and more private Assemblies when they met together to perform such proper Exercises of Christianity as they were not permitted to perform either in the Temple or at the Synagogue That these Services were transacted without premeditation and Form is strongly believed and confidently asserted by some And it must be acknowledged that their occasional Prayers were uttered after that manner such as that Prayer mentioned Act. 4. And should it be granted that their whole Devotion was of sudden conception then it would be no prejudice to the use of Set Forms now because the Apostles were immediately inspired whereas those miraculous afflations of the Holy Ghost are ceased long ago and the Question is not whether unpremeditated Prayers are simply unlawful but whether they are so fit and convenient for the publick since our wants and weaknesses are so great and the best of us can pretend but to the ordinary assistance of Gods Spirit upon our humane Endeavours But I must confess that I am not at all satisfied of the Truth of that conceit that in the Christian Assemblies in the Apostles dayes there were no manner of Forms or that their ordinary or standing Services were performed wholly by extemporaneous suggestion Indeed the Scripture gives us but little account of this matter and therefore what is determin'd about it must be concluded by the help of Reason and some Collateral evidence To the point then The service of God consisteth of Praises and Prayers Now that the Christians in the Apostles time had composed and set Forms of praising and glorifying God seemeth highly probable from 1 Cor. 14. 26. where St. Paul saith that when they came together every one of them had a Psalm This is a general word comprehending both Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs to the use whereof St. Paul adviseth Christians twice elsewhere once in Ephes 5. 19. and again Col. 3. 16. Now 't is hard to believe that these several wayes of extolling Gods name were conceived in the Church on a sudden by the whole Congregation Rather it is credible that they came ready furnished with suitable Forms either with those which had been formerly compos'd by David or with some that had been lately framed by Men inspired or with both which is most likely For the same Spirit which moved the Prophets of old did breath upon the Church now and 't is probable that as David and others did by the dictates of the Holy Ghost compose Forms of praising God for the use of the whole Congregation so in the Apostles time many were moved by the same Spirit to compose the like Christian Hymns for the use of the whole Church So St. Chrysostome tells us positively that in those ancient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Chrys in 1 Cor. 14. 26. times they did frame Psalms by the Gift of the Holy Ghost And since the Apostle doth distinguish between these Psalms and those Revelations which were given in an instant at the Church it seemeth to be clear that such Formes were conceived at home by such as had the Gift of Tongues and then being rendered into a Language which they understood were communicated to the People to be used by them at their solemn Meetings and so they had or came provided of Psalms when they came together For the scope of the Apostle there is to shew that every thing should be done in the Church that others might receive benefit by it And whereas some had the gift of speaking in strange Languages and were apt to boast of their abilities St. Paul in that Chapter proveth that the Service of God should be performed in a known Tongue that every Christian might bear a part in it and so he concludeth that even the Psalms which were composed by Persons inspired should be first made intelligible before they were used in their publick Assemblies because all things were to be done to edisying And truely that there were such divine Songs frequently used in the Apostles dayes seemeth to be clear from a testimony in Eusebius For speaking of several eminent Catholick Writers under Euseb Hist Eccl. lib. 5. cap. 28. the Emperour Severus he saith that in confuting the Heresie of Artâ—â—â—on who denied the Godhead of our Saviour they appealed to those Psalms and Hymns which had been written in the beginning of Christianity by the Faithful in which Hymns they confessed Christ to be the Word of God and worshipped him as God To which I shall add that account given by Pliny the Heathen who lived about St. John's time For writing to Trajan the Emperour he informed him of the Christians That they were Plinius Trajano a sort of People that on a certain day were wont to meet together early in the morning and did sing a Hymn unto Christ as unto God and did bind themselves in a Sacrament not to steal not to commit adultery c. Questionless this Hymn was some set Form of Praise which was used by the whole Congregation at the Communion Office And if I may be allowed my conjecture I conceive it might be that Hymn which we find still in Clements Constitutions the Clem. Const lib. 7. in fine Tenor whereof is this Glory be to God in the Highest Peace on Earth good will among men We
universal over all the Christian World that unless we fix the Original of it in the Apostles time we shall never tell in what Age it began 2. The Second is the worshipping of God with the face towards the East which the Centuriators themselves Antiquus hic mos est oraâ—â— facie conversa ad Orientem Cent. 2. c. 6. Origen Hom. 9. in Lev. in lib. 1. Job p. 233. Hom. 5. in Num. confess to have been a very ancient custome for it was a Primitive and Catholick observation in the very dawning of Christianity Several of the Fathers have given several different Reasons of this Rite But Origen tho in some places he seemeth to render some account of it yet elsewhere he reckons it amongst those ancient Customes of which no clear Reason was commonly given However as to matter of Fact the Custom is acknowledged to to have been general in the first Ages and both Origen and Ibid. Basil de Spir. Sancto c. 23. Respons 118. Basil and the Author of the Questions and Answers ad Orthodoxos do all fetch this Practise of the Church from the directions of the Apostles Briefly 't was such an ancient and universal usage that the old Heathens fancied the Christians to have taken up the Persian Religion and to have worshipped the Sun The occasion of this suspicion is saith Tertullian because it is known that we pray towards the East just such another fancy and groundless suspicion Indè suspitio quòd innotuerit nos ad Orientis regionem precari Tertul Apol. c. 16. Lent as some have taken up of Vs now that we worship the Lords Table because we worship towards the East part of the Church where the Table standeth 3. A third Custome we have but very ruinous and of which there are now but few and scattering Monuments but what we find in our Liturgy and in the Ancients and 't is the Fast of Lent And 't is a sign that Christianity is becom decrepite that Men are so peevish and touchy as to quarrel with one of the most excellent Observations that was ever recommended to the Church I know it has been the Subject of many great Disputes But 't is a great marvel that if it were an Innovation and much rather if it were a piece of Superstition no learned Man should yet have the luck to light upon its Author or the Time when it did commence for that 't was instituted by Telesphorus is an idle dream It seemeth unquestionably true that a solemn Fast before Easter was religiously observed by all Christians from the very beginning For we do not only meet with such a Fast in the Writers of the third and fourth Century but even Origen tells us that in his time They had the days of Lent set a part for Fastings And Tertullian then a Montanist and disputing against the Habemus Quadragesimae dies jejuniis consecratos Hom. 10. in Levitic Illos dies jejuniis determinatos putant in quibus ablatus est Sponsus c. Tertul. adv Psychic Church upon the point of Fasting tells us that his Adversaires the Catholicks did conceive That those dayes whereon the Bridegroom was taken away meaning Friday and Saturday before Easter were determined or ordered to be fasting dayes and that the Apostles themselves observed those dayes and laid the same yoke upon all others and tho saith he you look upon these as the only appointed dayes whereon you are bound to fast Convenio vos praeter Pascha jejunantes citra illos dies quibus ablatus est Sponsus yet here I meet with you and urge against you that ye Fast on other days too besides or as it should be rendred before the Fast on Good Friday He So the word citra is rendred by Dr. Beveredge Cod. Can. Vindic. c. 3. lib. 6. doth not tell us how many dayes they did observe besides the two last dayes of Lent because in those Times Christians did not all observe an equal number And so Irenaeus in his Letter to Victor concerning that Controversie about Euseb lib. 5. c. 24. Hist Eccl. keeping of Easter which was even in Polycarps dayes St. John's Scholar tells him that the dispute was not onely about Easter-day but moreover about the Fast before it for some thought themselves obliged to fast one day onely viz. on Friday others again did it two dayes viz. on Saturday also others kept more dayes Thus far we are sure and by these last words of Irenaeus I conceive that some Christians kept ten dayes in Lent because Lucian scoffs at them for their Ten-dayes Fast which might give occasion to Montanus to prescribe the like number 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lucian in Philopat tho the Catholicks opposed him because what was onely customary and Arbitrarious before he would have turned into a Law and made necessary thereby ensnaring Mens Consciences But 't is observable what Irenaeus tells us yet further that as some kept more than one or two dayes of this Paschal Fast so others kept forty for so Ruffinus and others do understand him and that this variety of observance was long before his Time and that it was occasioned by the negligence or the unskilfulness of some who declined from the old Way when 't was delivered first Now Irenaeus was Polycarps familiar acquaintaince and lived in the Age next to the Apostles So that when he saith that this variety in keeping Lent was long before his Time we must conclude that kept it was a long time before and that he must needs point to the Times Apostolical and that he intimates moreover that the regular way of keeping it was to observe forty dayes as that which came nearest to the Apostolick Tradition But this is clear that this Solemn Time was very anciently observed and very probably recommended by the Holy Apostles as a very useful Fast with respect to Persons and Places and so indeed St. * Nos unam quadragesimam secundum Traditionem Apostolorum toto anno tempore nobis congruo jejunamus Hieron ep ad Marcel Adv. Montanum Jerome and other of the Ancients did look upon it as an Apostolick Tradition and considering its Antiquity and Vniversality we cannot well derive it from any other Fountain And if any man desires a full accout of this matter he may read the Annotations of my reverend Friend that Learned Antiquary Dr. Beveredge upon the 69th Apostolical Canon where the observation of Lent is required and his Vindication of the Codex Canonum lib. 3. 4. Another custome we have or at least have had and should have still viz. to serve God publickly with Fastings and Can. 15. Prayers upon the Wednesdays and Fridays of the whole year And is there any Ecclesiastical usage which has been more Anciently Const Apost lib. 7. c. 22. and more Vniversally observed The Primitive Christians considering how the Redeemer of their Souls was on the Wednesday Wednesday and
Friday betrayed and on the Friday murther'd sequestred these dayes weekly to their solemn Devotion spending the time in reading of the Scriptures with Prayers Tears Almsdeeds and Fastings from the beginning of the day till three in the afternoon We find continual mention made of these dayes by the Greeks under the Names of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fourth day the preparation the day before the Sabbath or Saturday The Latine Fathers call them generally the Quarta sexta Feria and Tertullian Tertul. de jejunio sometimes stationum Semi-jejunia the stationary half-fasts because their abstinence at this time was not so long as in Lent and on other occasional days of humiliation when they fasted until night And Epiphanius tells us that these dayes were constantly observed all the world over and that the Original of this custome Epiphan lib. 3. adv Haer. Haeres 77. adv Aerium was owing to Apostolick Tradition It is most likely that it was so if any Credit in the World may be given to Antiquity But instead of disputing and quarrelling about that it would be for the Interest of Religion and for the great good of the World if men would buckle in good earnest to that Piety which is humble grave and serious and not give occasion to the old fashioned Christians to tell them that the cross-grain Spirit of Aerius hath undone all and to upbraid them that their Belly is their God and a Kitchin their Church 5. As times of Fasting so days of Festivity and joy were very Anciently kept by the Church for they celebrated not only the weekly day of Christs Resurrection but also the Anniversary day of Easter and the day of the Nativity and of the descent of the holy Festivals V. Euseb Eccl. His l. 5. c. 24. Ghost and indeed all that course of fifty days from Easter to Whitsunday And not those onely but moreover they honoured Cur Pascha celebramus annuo circulo in mense primo cur quinquaginta exinde diebus in omni exultatione decurrimus Tert. adv Psych Martyrum Passiones Dies anniversariâ commemoratione celebramus Cyprian ep 34. v. Pamelii Annotat. Memorias Sanctorum facimus Origne in Joh. lib. 3. Harum sc Innocentium memoria semper ut dignum est in Ecclesiis celebratur secundum integrum ordinem Sanctorum ut primorum Martyrum Id. Hom. 3. in diversos tom 2. p. 282. Oblationes pro Natalitiis annua dii facimus Tertull. de Cor. Mil. those days whereon the holy Martyrs did suffer commemorating their Lives and Sufferings and offering up Thanksgivings to God for their Faith Constancy and good Examples and calling the days of their Martyrdom their Birth-days when they entred into Life Eternal The Church of England in observing this custom doth but follow the steps of the Catholick Church of old And in mine opinion men do greatly wound the Protestant Cause when they call this and other ancient Customs by the names of Popery and Superstition For they do the Church of Rome too much honour in calling things which are ancient and Catholick Popery We know that Popery is of a late and a base Extraction and this hath abundantly been proved by Church of England-men And how do the Dissenters contradict us and justifie the Romanists when they say that this and that Observation whatever is laudable ancient and of Catholick usage is Popery Herein they befriend the Pope and give Arguments and Encouragements to the Papists more than perhaps they are aware of 6. We are required in the time of Sacred Ministrations to be clothed with a white Vesture This forsooth giveth much Surplice offence and is a great eye-sore to some now And yet for many hundreds of years before it was not offensive when men had very good eyes and Consciences too that were very tender but not galled The old Fathers startled at the very name of Perjury Rebellion and Dishonesty but they were not frighted at the sight of a Surplice but lookt upon it as a decent Habit and fit to be used in Ministerial Offices because it did resemble those Robes wherein the Angels those Ministring Spirits were wont to appear This is clear that the custom of wearing a white Garment in time of Divine-Service and S. Hieron Com. in Ezek. 44. lib. 1. adv Pelag. S. Chrys Hom. 60. ad pop Antioch Clem. Const lib. 8. especially at the Administration of the Sacrament is as old as St. Hierom in the Latin Churches and as St. Chrysostom in the Greek and that is 1300 years ago and in the most flourishing times of the Church It may be much older for ought we know to the contrary however I am sure that there is more to be said for its Antiquity than can with reason be pleaded against its Vse 7. Our standing up at the reading of the Holy Gospel is an act Standing at the Gospel Expressive of our great Reverence unto it and Significative of our Readiness to observe and obey it And questionless this Custom was originally derived from the Jews as many other Christian Customs were for at the reading of the Law this posture was used by the Congregation Ezra opened the Book in the sight of all the people for he was above all the people and when he opened it all the people stood up Nehem. 8. 5. Now seeing it was more reasonable for Christians to do Honour unto Christ than for the Jews to do it unto Moses it came to be an universal Custom even from the beginning to stand Durant de Rit lib. 2. c. 23. Constit Apost lib. 2. c. 57. up at the hearing of our Saviours Doctrine and Life and to bless God for it So the Apostolical Constitutions require When the Gospel is read let the Presbyters and Deacons and all the people stand with all quietness for it is written Hear O Israel and keep silence And accordingly St. Chrysostome witnesseth S. Chrysost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that when the Deacon opened the Book of the Gospel and began to read they all stood up and cryed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glory be to thee O Lord. 8. It is order'd by our Church that for persons to be Baptiz'd there shall be Sureties whose Office it is to call upon Sureties them to hear Sermons to see them Catechiz'd and vertuously brought up And surely by the Laws of our Religion every man is to be his brothers Keeper And what these Sureties do binde themselves to by a Particular and Personal Obligation every Neighbour is bound to by the General Rule of Love In my opinion among all the Constitutions of our Church this is one of the most Charitable and most Profitable Constitutions and that which thousands have been beholding to for their Christian Education And were it only for the Motherly Care and Tenderness of our Church in this particular she might well claim a dutiful Observance at the hands of all her Children but that St. Paul
tells it us as a Sign and Ingredient of perilous times that in the last days some great Professors of Religion would be disobedient to Parents without 2 Tim. 3. natural Affection and unthankful But in former Ages this Custom was justly accounted a good security to Religion And we finde it not onely in the Canon Vniversalis but even in Tertullian himself Habemus per benedictionem eosdem Arbitros fidei quos Sponsores salutis Tert. de Bapt. Quid necesse est Sponsores etiam periculo ingeri qui ipsi per mortalitatem destituere promissiones suas possint Id. ibid. Inde suscepti c. Id. de Cor. milit who frequently mentions it And so doth the pretended Dionysius Areopagita and the Author of the Questions and Answers ascribed to Justin Martyr And though it be acknowledged that those Books were not written by those men yet none doubts but they are ancient Records And 't is as certain that this Custom is much elder than those Authors Plat. in vita Hygini Magd. cent 2. c. 6. whosoever they were for it is confest that it prevailed in the time of Hyginus who was Justin Martyr's Co-temporary and lived within sixty years after S. John's decease 9. And so for baptismal Interrogatories and Stipulations and Vows of renouncing the Devil and all his works c. they Tertul. Cyril Just Mart. cum multis aliis are so manifestly ancient by the joynt Consent of all the most Primitive Writers that I dare say They bear date from the Apostles times And generally learned men do conceive that St. Peter alludes to that Custom 1 Pet. 3. 21. where he calleth Baptism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Answer or the Promise and Stipulation V. Grotium in loc of a good Conscience towards God 10. The repeating of Psalms and Hymns by turns by Minister Antiphonae and People is a very useful good course to keep peoples minds from rambling and to imprint holy things in their memories And this hath been customary in the ancient Church though as St. Basil tells us there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 variety Basil Ep. 63. ad Cler. Neocaes in singing For sometimes the Minister began one verse and was seconded by the whole Congregation as is the custom still in many of our Parochial Churches and sometimes the Quire was divided into two parts which alternately answered each other from side to side as 't is usual in our Colledges and Cathedrals At the close of each Psalm or Hymn they commonly had some End versicles called by Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De vitâ Contempl Const lib. 2. c. 57. and in Clements Constitutions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answerable to our Gloria Patri and these were recited by turns too Certain it is that the people were ever wont to bear their part in praising and blessing God which was one reason that Eusebius took those Therapeutae in Egypt for Christians because Eccl. Hist l. 2. c. 17. among other Christian Customs they had this And if he was mistaken in his opinion yet it argues that this was a general custom among Christians in his time And so indeed St. Basil assures us that it prevailed universally in the Eastern Churches Cassiodore affirms that Flavianus and Diodorus Tripart Hist l. 5. c. 32. brought in the Alternate singing of Psalms But this certainly is a mistake for this was most usual long before their days Socrates and others fetch it as high as from the holy Martyr Socrat. l. 6. c. 8. Ignatius who was no less than an Apostolical Bishop and this Trip. Hist l. 10. c. 9. is yielded by Cassiodore himself elsewhere But though Ignatius might have introduced this custom at Antioch yet in probability 't was originally borrowed of the Jews and so continued among Christians from the beginning This is evident that Pliny writing to the Emperour Trajan in whose days St. John died saith of the Christians that they were wont early in a morning to meet together which comes near to St. Basil's account and to sing Carmen Christo a Hymn to Christ and that secum invicem by course by turns or one after another 11. As concerning the posture of the body at the receiving Kneeling at the Sacrament of the Holy Sacrament it is clear that the sitting posture was never used unless by the Arrians who denied our Saviour's Divinity All the Catholicks did receive with all imaginable Reverence and in St. Cyril's time they did it in a worshipping Cyril Catech. Myst 5. and adoring gesture the Adoration being directed to God and Christ but not to the Elements 12. 'T is customary with us especially in some places to read the second Service at the Lords Table which some are pleased to look upon as a mighty piece of Superstition though it be nothing else but an innocent usage conformable to the Practice of the most Primitive times which is still preserved not onely in the Eastern parts but in the Lutheran Churches also For as Mr. Mede hath well observed this was the place Christian Sacrifice cap. 5. Ep. 56. to Dr. Twisse alibi where the Ancients offered up all their Prayers unto God and because the Passion of Christ is commemorated and his Death represented there they thought it the most fit and proper place for Divine-Service and so were wont to call upon God at the Altar signifying hereby that they offered up their Prayers in the Name and through the Merits of their crucified Saviour For the Readers further satisfaction I shall refer him to the Observations of that learned man and onely adde That that Phrase in Ignatius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be within the Altar is a plain allusion to this Ancient and Primitive custom and signifies to joyn with the Bishop in those Ministrations which were performed and in those Prayers which were offered up at the Altar And the like Phrase we finde in Clements Constitutions Const l. 7. c. 41. where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to partake of holy Mysteries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is explained afterwards to communicate in holy Ordinances In fine whosoever will give himself the trouble to search and will do us the right to speak impartially he must needs confess that those Constitutions of ours which are establisht by Law and those Rites which are preserved by Custom have had their Rise and Original from the best and most authentick Antiquity I have instanced in several particulars and a longer account might be given if that would do our business effectually But I hope what hath been already shewed will satisfie all indifferent and sober persons that our Church is free from all charge of Superstition and Novelty I would to God she were as free from danger too danger which is now threatned her not only by those who never were in her bosom but by those also to whom she like an indulgent Mother hath held
persecutes the Church or disturbs the peace of Christians or is an Heretick or Schismatick or is a favourer or a defender of Hereticks and Schismaticks then saith he that Prince must down and if you read Histories you will finde that it has been a common thing for Kings to be dethroned And he instanceth in the Scots that have been Rebels and Traytors from the beginning In uno Scotiae regno multos Reges legimus Lib. 11. c. 5. Nobilium Populi communi consensu è regno pulsos that is In that one Kingdom of Scotland we read of many Kings whose Crowns have been pulled off their heads by the Nobles and Commonalty Ergo the thing is very lawful And truly this is De jure regni pag. 53. Buchanan's own Argument Possum annumerare duodecem aut etiam amplius Reges c. I could says he reckon up twelve Kings of Scotland or more who have been either imprisoned or banisht or slain out-right by their Subjects for their Crimes Truly 't is a fine Honour for that Nation and though it be a most pitiful and scandalous Argument yet 't is remarkable how these two men did jump in their way of arguing there is such an Harmonia Evangelica such a sweet Harmony between these two great Evangelists that it may be questioned whether Buchanan was not a Jesuit or Azorius a Presbyterian 6. The King-killing Doctrine is justly laid at the Jesuits door for 't is his own dear Brat onely some have modestly doubted whether a Prince who is counted a Tyrant may be executed by any private hand till he has been heard and condemned by the judicial Sentence of the Nation But never let this Doctrine be laid at the Jesuits door onely For hath it not been held hath it not been put in practice by many pretended Anti papists in this Island Give me Buchanan for my money who scorns to mince the matter as others do till they have the Power in their hands for speaking of Tyrants and any Prince that pleaseth not them shall be esteem'd a Tyrant If I saith he were to make a Law I would have such men carried De Jure Reg. away into Deserts or drowned in the Sea and I would have such as kill them to be lustily rewarded not by single men but by the whole Commonwealth even as they are publickly rewarded that kill Wolves or Bears or take their Whelps There 's a man to be a Prince's Tutor but the Jesuits were his Tutors first For what brave fellows were Clement and Ravaillac in their estimation and had they liv'd would have been made Cardinals For what is more meritorious with them than to dispatch a King that is their Enemy Did not Ehud kill King Eglon saith Aquinas Did not the Captains kill Queen Athalia saith Bellarmine Yes surely they did but these instances do not reach the Case However some King-killing Protestants have urged these very Examples which were urged by the King-killing Romanists and by this we See Dang Posit B. 2. c. 1. may know what hands they were which cut off K. Charles's head and by whom they were influenced and set on work 7. But how will men answer God for these horrid Villanies Doth not our Saviour say Resist not evil Doth not St. Paul say He that resisteth shall receive to himself damnation And did not the good old Christians in the Primitive times quietly submit to the Emperours though they were Infidels Hereticks Persecutors O saith Buchanan and his Loyal De Jure Reg. p. 50 51. Brethren of the new cut you must consider the condition of those times the Church then was in its Infancy and Christians were low in Fortunes and few in number and void of Arms yet the ancient Fathers tell us the contrary and therefore 't was necessary for St. Paul to advise them to be quiet as if saith he one should now write to the poor Christians under the Turk he would advise them to be quiet because they cannot help it though the Apostle said Ye must needs be subject not onely for Wrath but also for Conscience sake But saith Buchanan if St. Paul lived now in these times he would say otherwise From this shift the Magistrate may observe how dangerous it is to indulge men of these Principles till they grow numerous strong opulent and heady for then Conscience will hang at the hilts of their Swords but that which I observe is that this Evasion is down-right Jesuitism So Cardinal Bellarmine affirm'd That the reason why Christians De Rom. Pont. l. 5. c. 7. did not depose Nero or Diocletian or Julian or Valens and the like wicked Emperours was quia deerant vires Temporales Christianis because they wanted strength And the same Evasion Parsons the Jesuit used in Q. Elizabeth's days but 't was such a pitiful Evasion that Father Watson who then hated the Jesuits was asham'd of it and did largely confute it Quodlibet 9. Art 4. I might take notice of several more Principles yet which have been entertain'd by our Sectaries and as like unto Jesuitical Principles as one Apple is like another As that when they please they can dispense with Oaths though never so lawful and lawfully impos'd such as the Oath of Allegiance Supremacy Canonical Obedience c. these have been swallowed and gone down glib when an unlawful Oath like a Jesuits Vow sticks and is ready to choak them Likewise that they make Obedience to the Civil Magistrate due with certain limitations and conditions viz. if he stick to that Religion which they suppose to be true This is a Jesuitical Principle and so Bellarmine tells us That Princes are received Vbi sup into the Church upon an Express or tacit Compact that they will submit their Scepters unto Christ and defend and preserve the Faith but if once they warp their Subjects are free from their Oaths of Obedience Exactly answerable hereunto was the Tenor of the Scotch Covenant wherein they Solemn League and Covenant Art 3. swore to preserve and defend the Kings Majesties Person and Authority not absolutely but with this limitation and restriction in the preservation and defence they are Bellarmine's very words of the true Religion Let a Prince please them and he shall be their King and so far the rankest Jesuit will be a good Subject but if he be not of their Opinion or for their Interest farewel Loyalty and let the poor Prince look to himself Moreover they thought as the Jesuits do that any Arts of Dissimulation and Equivocation were lawful Of which the late times have afforded us so many pregnant Instances that for twenty years together Hypocrisie seem'd God be merciful unto us to have ran through all proceedings like an Anima Mundi to give life and spirit to every Action But I cannot well omit one very memorable Instance when the House of Commons did solemnly declare on April 9. 1642. That they intended onely a due and necessary Reformation