the one hand many Bishops besides the first Twelve were called Apostles so Timothy Titus V. Bovii Scholia in constit Apost And Dr. Hammonds Praef. to St. James Clement and abundance more had the Title given them which is the ground of that conjecture of Albaspinaeus and others that the Canones Constitutiones Apostolorum were the Canons and Constitutions virorum Apostolicorum or of these Secundary Apostles so on the other hand the Primary or Twelve Apostles were looked upon to have been Bishops I am sure when St. Peter moved that one should be chosen to succeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 1. 20. in the Apostolate of Judas he look'd upon it as a Succession into his Bishoprick or Episcopal Office that was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the part of Apostleship which each of the Twelve had namely a Function and Power Episcopal And accordingly were the Epiph. lib. 1. cont Carpocr Ancients wont to style the Apostles Bishops So Epiphanius saith of Peter and Paul that they were Apostles in respect of their Mission and Bishops in respect of their charge And St. Cyprian bids Deacons to remember that our Lord chose Apostles Cypr. ep 65. ad Rogatianum id est Episcopos Praepositos that is Bishops and Governours and tells them moreover that the Apostles ordained Deacons to be Ministers to the Church and to them in the discharge of their Episcopal Office Episcopatûs sui Ecclesiae ministros And St. Austin is positive that when our Lord laid his hands Quaest in vet Nov. Test q. 97. upon the Apostles ordinavit eos Episcopos he ordained them Bishops Besides many more Testimonies to this purpose which are ready at hand and which yet I omit because this was evidently the Sence of the Ancients because they frequently affirm that Bishops are the Apostles successors that they hold their Place and are of their Degree and come after them in their Office and Function and the like which they would not have said had they not judged the Apostles themselves to have been I mean in their ordinary capacity no more and no less than Bishops 2. Which thing had it been well heeded might have prevented some Learned Tracts which have been written against the Divine Right of Episcopacy For to determin that Christ ordained not Episcopacy seemeth to me to be an Affirmation that He ordained not Apostles for they were invested with that Episcopal power which God be blessed hath continued in the Church hitherto notwithstanding all the gainsayings of Core Now this consideration leadeth us on to the next viz. That as the Apostles received this power themselves so it is proveable out of their Writings that they imparted it to others and invested them with their Apostolick or Episcopal Authority To shew this I shall make choice of three special Instances and they are these 1. First though the Scripture doth not expresly totidem verbis tell us that St. James was Bishop of V. Grot. in ep Ja. Jerusalem yet that he was so we are as certain as the most Ancient Records can make us And indeed St. Luke in his History of the Apostles Acts doth yield us such fair probabilities of this thing that the Testimonies of succeeding times seem to be unquestionably True For in Act. 21. 18. we read that when St. Paul was returned from his Circuit to Jerusalem the next day he and his company went in unto James and all the Elders were present Now certainly James would not have been named distinctly and by himself had he not had a preheminence over the College of Elders that were assembled with him St. Luke singles him out as the Person to whom St. Paul did after a particular manner address himself though all the Elders were there present yet they went in unto James intimating plainly that he was the President over that venerable Society And to confirm this it is likewise observable what is related of this St. James at the famous Convention at Jerusalem Act. 15. The occasion of that Synod was a Controversie about the Necessity and Use of Circumcision and great disputes there were about it at the Council But at last when Peter and the rest had given their Opinions of the matter St. James determins it and puts an end to the debate by his decisive Sentence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I determine Judge and give Sentence saith he vers 19. and in his Judgement and Determination all did acquiesce This is a plain Argument that St. James was then Bishop of Jerusalem For otherwise why did St. Paul so particularly apply himself to St. James and why did the other Apostles and even Peter himself rest in the Determination of St. James Nay why should St. James take upon him to decide the Controversie For it is certain that this James was not one of the Twelve Apostles All do agree that he had been a Disciple and some think he was our Lords Cousin others do conceive that he was our Lords Brother in Law the Son of Joseph by his former Wife He is called by way of distinction James the Just And if he was not Bishop of Jerusalem how is it imaginable Euseb l. 2. c. 1. that he should have had at those meetings of the Apostles such Eminence Precedency and Authority The Truth is Eusebius tells that the Apostles declined the Honour of being in the Chair and See of Jerusalem and gave it unto this James as for other Reasons so for this Because he was our Saviours near Relation and so he took the Government of the Church with the Apostles saith Eusebius which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some do understand as if he was only taken into the number of the Apostles having been a bare Disciple before but this is a palpable mistake touching the sence of Eusebius for saith he this James the Just was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bishop of Jerusalem and a World of Testimonies more there are to confirm it Secondly my next instance is in Timothy who was ordained by St. Paul himself the Presbytery concurring as Approvers of his Ordination That he was an Apostolical Prelate we have the Joint Testimonies of all the Primitive Authors which speak of him some affirming him to have been Metropolitan of Asia and all confessing him to have been Bishop of Ephesus Out of those two Epistles which St. Paul sent him it appears that he himself constituted and sixt him at Ephesus requiring him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to abide and settle there 1 Tim. 1. 3. Ephesus was the place of his Residence unless happily the necessities of the Church did oblige him to consult St. Paul for himself was young or the necessities of St. Paul required his attendance for he was his Convert 2. We find that he was to restrain Preachers within the boundaries of c. 1. 3. Truth and to charge some that they should teach no other c. 2. 1. 2. 10. 11. Doctrine He was
to order the public Service of God and to take care that decency and a grave decorum might be in Christian Assemblies He was to see that such as would be Bishops and Deacons should be rightly qualified c. 3. 2. and himself to keep up his Authority by being an Example of Believers He was to allot a double Portion of c. 4. 12. maintenance to Elders that Ruled well under him and c. 5. 17. laboured in the Word He was to take cognizance of the 19. irregularities of Presbyters but with this caution that he should not receive an Accusation against an Elder but before two or three Witnesses And such as sinned he was to Rebuke before all He was to hold Ordinations but with 20. this Proviso That he should lay bands suddainly on no man 22. Briefly St. Paul gave him a plenitude of that power which he had himself And if to Model Churches to prescribe Rules to confer holy O deus to command examin judge and reprehend O fenders Openly and even Presbyters themselves I say if these are parts of Episcopal Power then was Timothy a Bishop indeed And I should be loth to see half that Charter given to a single Presbyter as is here given to Timothy by this Great Apostle 3. The third instance to shew that the Apostles setled the Episcopal form of Government is Titus whom Antiquity acknowledgeth to have been Metropolitan of Crete an Island consistng of an hundred Cities and to have been intrusted with the power of Modelling and Governing of all the Churches there That St. Paul left him there is clear from his own words and Tit. 1. 5. questionless his design was that Titus should remain and continue there unless summoned away upon some Emergency and for a Time only and even then St. Paul promised to send either Artemas or Tychicus to be his Vicar and Procurator c. 3. 12. in his absence Now that Titus was indeed a Bishop superior in Authority to Presbyters and invested with a Superintendency and Power over all his Clergy doth plainly appear from the Authority he had both to Ordain and to Judge of so many Bishops as St. Chrysostom declares he had For this cause Chrysost Hom. in Tit. 1. it was that when the Apostle himself could not stay in Crete to put every thing into due Order but was obliged to be gone he left Titus behind him to set in order the things that Tit. 1. 5 11. c. 2. 10. were wanting and unsettled at S. Paul's departure to ordain Bishops and to dispose of them into Cities into every City one to provide against the heterodox Preaching of Deceivers to stop their mouths to silence them and to rebuke them sharply and to admonish Hereticks once and again and then to excommunicate them upon their Contumacy This was Titus his Office and this was plainly the Exercise of Episcopal Power and Jurisdiction And to confirm this further two things are observable First that this Authority was given to Titus alone not to a College of Presbyters which 't is presumable S. Paul appointed before his going away but to Titus singly for this cause left I thee in Crete that thou shouldest set things in order that thou shouldest ordain c. This argues a supreme and a sole Superintendency and Authority in Titus Secondly that there was a necessity for S. Paul's committing this Authority unto him for otherwise the things that were wanting could not be set in order nor could Ordinations or Censures be there for this cause left I thee in Crete Which is a manifest Argument that the Presbyters in Crete had no power either to ordain or to excommunicate or to do such acts of Jurisdiction for then why was Titus left to those purposes And yet we see S. Paul left him and for this cause left him so that unless we will offer violence to the Sence of Scripture we must confess that Titus was left and fix'd at Crete as Bishop and Metropolitan of the whole Island To these three Apostolical Bishops I might add many more Const Apost l. 7. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whose Names we meet with in Ecclesiastical Writers either occasionally and scatteringly mentioned as in Irenaeus Eusebius and divers others or more orderly collected as in the Book of Constitutions commonly called Apostolical But because the truth of this dependeth upon the Credit of Church History which yet we have no reason to question I shall forbear further Instances having already and I hope sufficiently shewed out of Scripture that the Order and Authority of Bishops was in being 〈◊〉 in the Apostles days and from them continued and transmitted to succeeding Ages 2. Having done then with the Proof of the Affirmative I proceed next with what brevity I can to answer that grand Argument usually brought to make good the Negative viz. that the Names of Bishop and Presbyter are indifferently and promiscuously used in the Apostolical Writings as if onely one Order of men were meant by them As for instance in Tit. 1. 2 5. Paul tells Titus that he left him in Crete as for other reasons so for this that he should Ordain Elders or Presbyters in every City Then ver 6. he layeth down the Qualifications of these Elders and as a reason for it he saith ver 7. for a Bishop must be blameless c. Here a Bishop and a Presbyter seem to be not two distinct Orders but one and the same and so some say that by a Presbyter is here meant a Bishop and others affirm that by a Bishop is here meant a Presbyter and hence are willing to conclude that in the Apostles time they were not thought to be two distinct Offices but Bishop and Presbyter to be one both in Name Order and Authority and so Prelacy must fall to the ground without any help from Scripture For the removing of this Difficulty three things are to be observed 1. That Aerius the Heretic was the first that ever found out or insisted on this Community and Identity of Names for the Writers before him in the first and second Age after the Apostles did not discourse at this rate could not discover such a promiscuous use of the words 2. The Catholick Writers after Aerius who thought as he did that the Names of Bishop and Presbyter were common in the Apostles days did not yet think as that Heretic did affirm that the Office and Order were ever the same No they held that though Bishops were sometimes called Presbyters and Presbyters Bishops yet Bishops were a rank of Ministers above Presbyters both in Degree and Authority even in the Age of the Apostles 3. But then there is one Observation more for which I must thank a very Learned Prelate of our Church viz. that notwithstanding Vindic. Epist Ignat. p. 184. this Construction and late Pretence of the Promiscuous use of the words yet it doth not appear that the Scripture gives the Titles of
made up of converted Gentiles Now over each of these Churches there did preside a Bishop with his Deacons so that frequently you shall find in Church-History two several Bishops in one City 2. Secondly that these and the Neighbouring Bishops were wont to convene and meet together to consult concerning the ordering and management of Ecclesiastical Matters 3. And thirdly that the necessities and condition of places were such in the beginning that all Churches were not so compleatly and perfectly modelled at the first as they were in process of time For as Churches were greater or less in proportion so were Church-Officers more or fewer in number Where the multitude of Christians was not great there a Bishop and his Deacon were enough to discharge the work of the Ministry where the numbers of Christians did increase there Presbyters were appointed to assist the Bishop and to act under him and where an Apostle thought good not to fix any Bishop but to hold the Government of a Church immediately in his own hands there he did commonly appoint a College or Bench of Presbyters to perform Ministerial Offices as his Proxies in his absence and by his Authority derived and delegated unto them For so did St. Paul keep the Superintendency over the Church of Corinth in his own hands as their immediate and sole Bishop because he had converted them to the Faith and what the Presbyters did in excommunicating that incestuous person they did it by St. Paul's Spirit that is by 1 Cor. 5. 4. his Episcopal Authority and Power committed unto him by Christ I verily as absent in Body but present in Spirit or by my Authority have judged already concerning him saith the Apostle This Observation will give us to understand the meaning Epiph. haeres 75. of that which we collect out of Epiphanius that in one Church there were Bishops and Deacons only where the numbers of Converts were small in another there were Presbyters without any Bishops besides an Apostle where there was need of many Ministers and yet one could not be found that was so fit for the Bishoprick in others agen there were Bishops Presbyters and Deacons too where the condition of the place did require it and the worth and abilities of the Men did admit of it Now then to come to the Objection St. Paul gives Timothy an 1 Tim. 3. account of the Qualifications necessary in Bishops and this questionless was in order to their Ordination But how doth it appear that Presbyters are meant by the word Bishops Were Presbyters now to be Ordained Did the word of God Act. 19. 20. grow and prevail so mightily in the Ephesian Churches and yet no Presbyters in them Was St. Paul among them for the space of three years preaching disputing and converting so many Act. 20. 31. Multitudes to the Faith and yet ordained no Presbyters to water what he had so prosperously planted And if Presbyters were ordained were setled in the Churches of Ephesus before the Apostles departure to Macedonia what necessity was there for him to send his Son Timothy Instructions concerning the Ordination of Presbyters especially when he hoped to return unto him shortly Divines conceive that this Epistle was sent by 1 Tim. 3. 14. him soon after he departed from Ephesus and were all the Presbyters dead in that little time 'T is hardly to be believed that Presbyters were wanting but Bishops were For hitherto St. Paul had been with the Ephesians for the most part in his own person he had governed them in his own person and had exercised his Episcopal Authority in his own person But now he was gone leaving Timothy in his room he was the first Bishop that was fixt at Ephesus and the only Bishop indeed now and yet but a young Man that had need of other Bishops to concur with him and help him in his Office and considering that St. Paul was uncertain when he should see him 1 Tim. 3. 15. again there was an urgent necessity for him to write speedily to his Son that other Bishops might be ordained that other Churches might be guarded from the Gnostic Seducers as well as Ephesus it self the great Metropolis There is no necessity then for us to conceive that St. Paul in his Epistle to Timothy did mean Presbyters when he spake of Bishops but rather that he gave directions for the Ordination of those who were to be Bishops indeed to be invested with Episcopal Power and to preside over other Cities as Timothy did over Ephesus in St. Paul's own Chair Again the Apostle saluteth the Saints at Philippi with the Bishops and Deacons Phil. 1. 1. But there is no Demonstrative Reason to constrain nor probable Argument to induce us to believe that he directed his salutation to Presbyters much less that he gave them the Title of Bishops For there are several fair accounts to be given of this matter either as some conceive that there were two Bishops over two Churches in Philippi Jewish and Gentile Christians as 't was usual in other places or as others are of Opinion that the Neighbouring Bishops were now assembled at Philippi as 't was usual at other times or as others are persuaded that the Salutation is sent not to but from the Bishops and Deacons and so the words are to be read thus with a Parenthesis Paul and Timotheus the Servants of Jesus Christ to all the Saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with the Bishops and Deacons Grace be unto you c. But which way soever we interpret the Text we are so far from finding any Presbyters in the Salutation that there is no argument to prove that they were at all in the City whither the Salutation was sent For Epiphanius tells us that many Churches at the first were ordered by Bishops and Deacons only and then why not the Churches of Philippi also Thus their whole Argument fails them who would prove the Office and Order of Bishop and Presbyter to have been the same in the Apostles days because forsooth the Name is given to both in Scripture Though the Consequence would not be good should their grand Principle be granted yet there is no solid reason for us to grant the Principle it self And therefore I shall not stick to conclude peremptorily That the Order of Bishops both as to name and thing is so far from being either an Antichristian or an Ecclesiastical Ordinance that it was instituted by Christ himself and founded in the Apostles of Christ and by them so establish'd and continued in all the Churches of Christ that for 1500 years together no Church in the world being perfectly and rightly form'd was ever under any other sort of Government but that the Episcopal Office and Authority hath through a continual Succession of Ages been communicated transmitted and handed down to the whole Catholick Church even from the most primitive and infant times of Christianity and consequently that this way of Government
praise thee we sing unto thee we bless thee we glorifie thee we worship thee through our Great High-Priest thee the very true God the unbegotten inaccessible Being for thy great glory O Lord heavenly King God the Father Almighty O Lord God the Father of Christ that spotless Lamb that taketh away the sin of the World receive our prayer thou that sittest upon the Cherubims For thou only art holy thou only O Jesus art the Lord the anointed of God our King to whom be Glory Honor and Worship ascribed This was that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 morning Prayer or Hymn so called in the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Constitutions and 't was usual at the close of the holy Sacrament And if it was not this Hymn which Pliny mean't some other of the like nature it was which he pointed to And so from all these Testimonies put together I do conclude that in the Apostles days there were certain set Forms of praise which was one main part of the ordinary Service then in their peculiar and select Assemblies 2 As touching Prayers which made up the other part of Gods Worship S. Paul saith to Timothy 1 Tim. 2. 1 2. I exhort that first of all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of Thanks be made for all men for Kings and for all that are in authority c. 1. Here it is clear that the Apostle doth enumerate several sorts kinds and parts of devotion making a plain distinction and difference between supplications against all evil things and Prayers for all good things and Intercessions for others as well for themselves and Tanksgivings for mercies already received There is no doubt but he meaneth several distinct offices unless we be so impudent as to affirm that S. Paul heaped up many words to no purpose 2. It is clear that he required that these several offices should be observed these distinct Acts of Devotion should be performed in the Christian Church and to shew the necessity of it the Apostle exhorteth Timothy to take care of it first of all 3. It is as clear that the whole Church of Christ hath conceived and taken for granted in all Ages that the Apostle in this place did intend to fix a certain Rule of Devotion and did order a Platform and Model to be observed in all publick Services and especially at the Celebration of the holy Communion Indeed the words of S. Paul do not force us to believe that he required Prayers to be composed and digested into a certain Form although that expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may bear that sense but yet the Judgement of the Church was that the Apostle did design and intend to have a standing Rule and Model of Devotion set up S. Chrysostome puts the Question what doth the Apostle mean when he saith I exhort that first of all supplications prayers c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith that excellent and Ancient Father S. Paul meaneth that this must be done in our daily services and this saith he we do daily both at Morning and S Chrysost in 1 Tim. 2. 1. Evening Service such Supplications Prayers Intercessions and Thanksgivings they had prescribed and fixt and in using them they did conceive that they answered the Apostles design and did according to his Order Directions and Appointment To the same purpose S. Ambrose upon Haec Regula Ecclesiastica est tradita a Magistro Gintilium qua utuntur sacerdotes nostri ut pro omnibus supplicent c. Ambros Comment the place saith This is an Ecclesiastical Law delivered by the Doctor of the Gentiles and observed by our Priests to pray for all men and particuarly for Kings c. Questionless the good man conceived that the Church was obliged by virtue of this Apostolical precept to use some constant Forms of Prayer for all men in general and especially for such as were in Authority And though this was done frequently in the time of Publick Service for fear they should fall short of their duty yet S. Austin was of opinion that S. Paul In hujus Sacramenti Sanctificatione distributionis preparatione existimo Apostolum jussisse proprie fieri 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est Orationes S. Aug. ep 59. ad Paulin. Sol. q. 5. had an eye chiefly to the time when the Blessed Sacrament was celebrated and that then these charitable Prayers were commanded to be made as in their proper and fit place And to confirm S. Austins opinion I observe of the Church of England that though Prayers for all men and for Kings be directed by her to be made in several places of her Liturgy yet in the prayer for the whole Church before the Communion particular mention is made of this command of the Apostles as if in her judgement S. Paul required such Prayers to be used at that time chiefly In a word the manifest agreement of all Liturgies in this particular and the constant uniform and universal practise of all Christians from the beginning all along using certain Forms of Supplication Prayer Intercession and Thanksgiving for all men and for Kings especially and that too in the Communion-office is a loud and clear argument to me that they conceived this their practice to have been according to the Apostles order and those their Forms to have been according to the Apostles mind And hence I conclude that either the whole Catholick Church hath not yet understood St. Pauls sense but has been clearly mistaken in his meaning which I hope will never be granted or else that that carries much truth in it which Durantus Cites out of Haymo viz. that the Blessed Apostle Durant de Rit Eccl. lib. 2. c. 33. directing his words to Timothy did in and by him deliver unto all Bishops and Presbyters and to every Church a Form how they should celebrate the Sacrament and pray for all men which Form or Model the whole Church doth observe From all which the least that we can gather is that certain Forms of Divine service were allowed and approved of even in the Apostles time But to speak freely it seems very probable that the holy Apostles did in their ordinary Ministrations observe Forms of Prayer themselves notwithstanding those extroardinary assistances of the Spirit which they were blest with I do not say that they Prayed by Book as they did in following Ages Nor do I mean that they tied themselves to words as they did when the miraculous Gifts of the holy Ghost ceased but this I do affirm as highly probable that the Apostles used a certain Form or Method and that the matter and substance of their ordinary services was for the most part the same My reasons are these three chiefly 1. Because St. Paul advised Timothy who was gifted as well as others 1 Tim. 4. 14. to a fixt Rule Model and Form of Publick Devotion which advice it is not likely that he would have given unto him had not he himself and his
seemeth to be as groundless an Assertion as the former For the Devisor of that Custom was either an Heretic or a Catholic First then suppose he was a known deceiver suppose he had fair opportunities of going into all parts and great ability of speaking all Languages and a strong design of corrupting the Simplicity of Religion yet it is impossible that so many wise and watchful Fathers of the Church could sleep all that time and suffer every Province and Countrey to be overrun with Superstition and Innovation in a trice Consider seriously but this one following Instance Montanus was a very early Impostor for Tertullian at last became a Proselyte to his Party This man pretended to have been inspired and profess'd greater Sanctity of Life than other men insomuch that his Adherents called all sober and regular Christians by the name of Psychici that is Animal or Carnal Gospellers He condemned all second Marriages and would have a Euseb Eccles Hist lib. 3. enacted Laws of Fasting and endeavoured to introduce a Custom of observing more Lents than one b Hieron Epist ad Marcel in a year The Christians at that time were very severe in their times and manner of Abstinence and were ready enough to comply with any usual though never so austere kinds of Discipline But yet when Montanus went about to impose upon them his attempting an Innovation gave such an Alarm to the Bishops that the Church rose up against him as one man and condemn'd him for an Heretic though if Tertullian c Non quòd aliquam fidei aut spei regulam evertant scil Montanus Maximilla sed quòd planè doceant saepiùs jejunare quà m nubere Tert. adv Psychicos may be believed he did not Innovate in any matters pertaining unto the Faith Now when we consider this single Instance can we be so unreasonable as to imagin that a Government which was set up every where was a new-fangled device Or that a Discipline which was received every where was a private Invention and of a Seducer too Or that Forms and Rituals which were used every where were Brats begotten by some doating Head and superstitious Brain and then thrown into the Bosom and forc'd into the Embraces of every Church in the World 2. Well to mend the matter a little suppose this Author of these Customs to have been a Person of Note and Eminence in the Church yet we are much mistaken if we think that the Governours of the Church were such tame easie and flexible men as to receive and admit of new Customs upon the Recommendation of a single or private Person though of unquestionable Integrity for they refus'd Offers made them by whole Churches For instance The difference about the keeping of Easter is as famous as it was old The Churches of Asia observed it on the day of the Jews Passover on whatsoever day of the week that happened The Western Churches observed upon the day when our Lord rose from the dead This Variety of Observation was from the beginning if there be any truth in Ecclesiastical History and in a little time it begat a Controversie first between two Bishops Anicetus of Rome and Polycarpus of Smyrna S. John's Disciple The matter was debated between them but neither could Polycarpus persuade Anicetus to recede from his Custom nor could Anicetus persuade Polycarpus to recede from his So they parted good Friends Almost thirty years after this Controversie Euseb Eccles Hist l. 5. c. 23 24. was revived between whole Churches in the time of Polycrates Bishop of Ephesus and Victor of Rome Several Provincial Synods were summoned to consider of the matter and on each hand Tradition was urged The Western Churches insisted upon a Tradition which they had received from some of the Apostles the Churches of Asia pleaded a Tradition which they had received from S. John who 't is likely recommended that Custom to them to gratifie the Jews And perhaps the Plea on both sides was good But so stiff they were on each hand that no Arguments could prevail with either Party to relinquish their old Custom and to take up the other so that Victor in a great heat would have cut off tot tantas Ecclesias Dei so many and such eminent Churches of God from his Communion had not the great Prelate of Lyons Irenaeus stood in the gap and reprehended Victor for his rashness Now he that shall seriously consider this story with all its Circumstances cannot with reason believe that the Ancient Churches were easie to be impos'd upon or to be corrupted with Superstition when they stood out so resolutely against an innocent Tradition Much less is it credible that a few Persons though of Repute and Dignity could possibly leven all Churches in Christendom with their private Inventions And therefore when we consider how all Churches of old did conspire as in the same Faith so in the same Government in the same Ministrations and generally in the same Rites too and those now in use with us here we must needs be startled in our thoughts and be posed to conceive how these things could arise all at once of themselves without any hand like so many Mushromes that start out of the Earth in a Night or how they could be disseminated by any Private hand Rather it seemeth reasonable to impute them to the Special Providence of God and to the Institution of the first Ministers of Religion who probably did recommend these usages as things useful or convenient though they did not Ordain or Impose them as things simply and universally Necessary I do not pretend peremptorily to derive all our Customes from Apostolical Practice although there are such fair evidences of the Antiquity of many of them that we might strongly argue that point if the Ancient Christians may be allowed what is allowed Jews and Heathens to be good Witnesses of matters of Fact But my purpose is to prove that our present Establishments in the Church of England are of a very Venerable date and for that Reason to contend that they ought not to give place to Novelties as if they were of no moment or to be kick'd down as if they are Despicable So that if better Arguments may be setch'd from Antiquity on their behalf than can be brought against them I have obtained my Ends and in order to that I urge the General as well as Ancient usage of them For certainly one Church ought to have regard to the Constitutions of other and especially the Ancient Catholick Churches or else St. Paul's Argument is trifling in 1 Cor. 11. 16. where condemning the covering of Mens Heads and the uncovering of Womens in Religious Assemblies he confronts the Practice by urging the custom observed in all Places besides Corinth We have no such custom neither the Churches of God And in St. Paul's Judgment that was enough to determine the Controversie Two things may be objected against what hath been spoken First That
Orders were distinct especially as to some things as that of Ordination and they all taught that even in the Apostles times or at least before S. John's death there were three several Degrees of Ministers in the Church and Tert. de Bapt. Orig. hom 7. in Jer. in Mat. tract 24. Clem. Alex. de Gnost that as Presbyters were superiour to Deacons so Bishops were superiour to both Those Writers of the second Century after the Apostles as Tertullian Origen and if you will reckon him Clemens Alexandrinus do make express mention of three ranks of Clergy-men in their days viz. Bishops Presbyters and Deacons and of these the Bishops to have been in chief Lastly though it is suppos'd that the Testimonies of Antiquity touching the Constitution of the Church be most of all wanting in that Age which was the very next to the Holy Apostles yet by the plain and pregnant evidences out of Ireneus Iren. lib. 3. c. 3. Hegesip in Euseb Hist Eccles lib. 4. c. 22. Id. de Dionys c. 23. Clem. Rom. Ep. ad Cor. Hegesippus Dionysius of Corinth Clement of Rome and out of those Canons which go under the Name of the Apostles many whereof were framed and observed in that Age it doth appear to any considerate and indifferent person that certain particular Men called Bishops were in those early days of Christianity entrusted with the Superintendency and Authority over whole Churches But above all the Epistles of Ignatius a Contemporary of the Apostles themselves yield us so many and such strong Arguments of this matter that they who have been Schismaticks from the Catholic Church in this particular of Government have used all their Art and Skill to decry those Epistles as spurious and fictitious though the late Reverend Dr. Hammond and the present Bishop of Chester have laboured Dissertationes vindiciae with so much Learning and Success to prove those Epistles to be the genuine issue of St. Ignatius that they have said enough to lay this whole Controversie asleep unless Men will expect that an Angel from Heaven shall Preach to us to bury our Disputes as well as Summon us with the sound of a Trumpet to come out of our Graves Briefly the most ancient Ecclesiastical writers where they reckon up the Orders of those who were intrusted with the work of the Ministry do so carefully distinguish between Bishops as the first Order and Presbyters as the second that the most Learned of that Party who are no good friends to Episcopal Government have been forced to confess that Episcopacy was the only Government of the Church in the most Primitive times that is in the very next Age to the Apostles but that Age they do except and we shall see the Practice of that Age too anon In the mean time it may be Objected that Antiquity is an incompetent witness to prove that Episcopacy was the setled form of Government in the first Ages and that upon these three accounts 1. Because we have no clear and particular account of the uniformity of Episcopal Government in all Apostolical Plantations so that for ought we know it might vary in some places But this is a fallacious way of arguing because a Negative is not to be proved from the silence of Antiquity as to the constitution of some parts of Christendom Though we have no exact Records of what St. Thomas did in Parthia or St. Andrew in Scythia or some other Apostles in their respective 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dioceses and Jurisdictions yet it doth not follow that they either did or might set up another form of Government different from that in other Churches When by the joint-Testimony of the first writers and their followers we find that Episcopal Chairs were set up in all the Western parts of Asia and in sundry other Countries Provinces and Cities when Ireneus who was Polycarp's Disciple and but one remove from the Apostles tells us Hier. in Catal. Iren. lib. 3. c. 3. plainly and peremptorily that Bishops were instituted by the Apostles and that he was able to enumerate but that he should be too prolix Omnium Ecclesiarum Successiones those Bishops who succeeded the Apostles in all Churches and when St. Clement who was St. Paul's fellow-labourer tells us expresly that Phil. 4. 3. Clem. Ep. p. 54. the Apostles preaching through Countries and Cities ordained the first Fruits of them to be Bishops and Deacons for those who should afterwards believe we have no reason to doubt but that Episcopal Government was erected every where though by the iniquity of times some Records of particular Churches are lost unto us which were extant in former Ages They who argue from the defect of Testimonies that another Government there might be would do well to shew us from Testimonies extant that another Government there was 2. It may be pretended that Antiquity is no competent witness of Episcopal Government setled in the first Ages because those Testimonies we have do not give us a particular Catalogue of those Bishops who succeeded the Apostles And to this purpose is urged that of Eusebius that it is not easie to Euseb l. 3. c. 4. tell what or who they were that were appointed to feed the Church setting aside those whom we pick out of the writings of St. Paul Now to this Allegation there are four things in Answer 1. That Eusebius speaks only of the Bishops in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia 2. That he declared it not altogether impossible but somewhat hard meaning for him who was at some considerable distance from the first Age to give account of the Apostles Successors in all those Churches 3. That the difficulty was not as to the Succession it self but as to the particular Names of the succeeding Bishops for so Ruffinus his Interpreter did understand Quorum nomina non est facilè explicare per singulos it 4. But all this is nothing to our present purpose because Eusebius could not readily tell all the Names of the Bishops which had been before him it doth not follow that there had been no such thing as a setled Episcopacy For who can reasonably expect that there should be an exact Register of the Names of all the Bishops in the World Though in the Age next to the Apostles we find Ignatius Bishop of Antioch and Polycarp of Smyrna and Onesimus of Ephesus and Dama of Magnesia and Polybius at Trallis and Papias of Hierapolis and Melito of Sardis and Symeon the Son of Cleophas of Jerusalem and Palmeas of Amastris and Thraseas of Eumenia and Sagaris of Laodicea yet 't is not to be wondred at if we meet not with the Names of many more who presided over other Churches in those parts of Asia and yet 't is easie to gather from Polycrates his Epistle to Victor Bishop of Rome that all the Asiatic Euseb Eccles Hist l. 5. c. 24. Churches were under the Government of Episcopacy Again though in the same
Age we find Pothinus to have been Bishop of Lyons and Clement of Rome and Denys the Areopagite of Athens and another Denys of Corinth who mentions Philippus Bishop of Gortina and Pinytus Bishop of Gnossus I say though the Names of these and other Primitive Bishops in the very next Century to the Apostles do still stand upon good Record yet 't is not modest ingenuous or reasonable for any Man to require us either to nominate every one of the Apostles Successors in all parts of the World or to lay down our pretensions of a setled Episcopacy in the Ages next to them especially since Ireneus hath told us that he was able though Iren. ubi suprà Idem affirmat Tertullianus de Praesc Adv. Her we are not to reckon up the Bishops who succeeded the Apostles in all the Churches Were there no exact List of the former Prelates of England yet I hope it would not follow that these Churches have not been all along under the Government of Episcopacy It will trouble the best Antiquary to tell us all the old Bishops among the ancient Britains and Scots and yet we know that they had Bishops before the Saxons came in hither which was about Anno 450 and many Ages before the Bishops of Rome claimed any Jurisdiction in this Island 3. But then supposing a Succession of Bishops in the Apostolical Churches nevertheless it is Objected Thirdly that Antiquity is no sufficient witness of a setled Episcopacy in the first Ages because the Ancients speak ambiguously and doubtfully of those Bishops calling them sometimes Presbyters so that we have no certain account whether those Men were superiour to Presbyters in Order Power and Authority or whether they were above them only in a Degree of Honour like the Chair-men in Assemblies or like the Archontes at Athens and the Ephori at Sparta who had an equal power but gave a deference of Honour and Dignity to one above the rest Now I cannot but wonder that Men should invent doubts where there are none for nothing is more clear then that the Bishops thus succeeding the Apostles had a Superiority of Power over the rest of the Clergy not only to ordain but also to judge and censure them without any Authority given them by a Bench of Presbyters though not always without their Aid and Advice For the removing of this third Scruple then these five things are to be noted 1. That in many of the writers of the first and second Age after Apostles we find a plain distinction between Bishops Presbyters and Deacons as three distinct Orders 2. That in not one of these writers can we find that this Superiority of Bishops over Presbyters was thought then what ever was imagined in after-times to be founded on any act vote or consent of the Church as bestowing this Power upon them 3. But on the contrary that the care of all Ecclesiastical Can. Ap. 39. matters was acknowledged then to belong to the Bishops that Presbyters were charged to obey the Bishops in all things and to do nothing without them or contrary to their Sentence is plain and evident out of Ignatius and other writers of that Age and all this was grounded upon the Sacredness and Superiority of their Power which they all owned to have been derived to them not from the Presbytery but from God and Christ by Divine appointment and institution and through the hands of the Apostles who left them for their Successors Suum ipsorum locum Magisterii tradentes as Ireneus said delivering to Iren. l. 3. c. 3. them their own Office Power and Authority 4. Therefore whereas it is alleaged that a Father or two of that Age do sometimes comprehend Bishops under the general Name of Presbyters it is granted that the Prelates were so humble and modest as upon occasion to stile themselves Presbyters thereby giving a deference of Honour to those as were such only But yet they looked upon the Offices to be distinct and saith St. Clemens Ep. ad Cor. pag 57. the Apostles fore-seeing that a contention would arise about the Name of Episcopacy for that reason they appointed the Orders aforesaid and divided their parts and Offices among them meaning to the Bishop his Office and to the Presbyter his that they being dead other fit Men might succeed them in their Ministry Office or Apostolic function Now how all this can consist with that novel pretence that Presbyters had an equall Power with Bishops and that Bishops had only an Honorary Dignity above Presbyters seemeth to me to be altogether unimaginable 5. But fifthly to put all out of doubt we are beholding to a very Learned Prelate of our Church for Two useful and choice Vindic. Epist Ignat. p. 2. c. 13. Observations which we may well take upon his Credit First that no writer of that Age next to the Apostles did so promiscuously use the Names of Bishop and Presbyter as to give the Name of Bishop to one who was only a Presbyter of the second Order Though Bishops were sometimes called Presbyters the greater Office including the less yet that a bare Presbyter was ever then called a Bishop is not to be proved by any one instance out of the Monuments of those times Secondly that no writer of that Age did ever give the Name of Presbyter to a Bishop when he reckoned up the Degrees and Orders of Church-men and where he spake of some single Minister then living So that as you shall never find a Presbyer called Bishop so you shall rarely find Bishops called Presbyters and where they are so the writer mentioneth things in a lump not counting up the Degrees orderly nor speaking of one single person of his time With these two positive Assertions I shall rest 'till I see some body to have either the confidence to contradict or the Learning to confute them By what has been briefly said it may appear to any unprejudiced person that in the earliest and first times when Christianity was but green in the World the Churches were under the Government of Bishops We find innumerable instances of it in those Churches planted by St. Paul St. Peter St. John and other Apostles We find in undoubted Monuments of the best Antiquity the very Names mentioned of several Primitive Bishops who presided over some Apostolical Churches and a certain Succession avowed of other Bishops in other Churches whose particular Names do not occur We find that these Bishops were then looked upon as a distinct Order from the rest of the Clergy sometimes called Bishops in contra-distinction to Presbyters and always own'd as Superiour unto them not by any Ecclesiastical consent or grant for the avoiding of confusion only but by an Antecedent Charter derived to them from the Apostles All which do abundantly satisfie me of the Truth of that declaration of the Church of England that it is evident to all Men diligently reading Holy Scripture and Pref. to the form of
making or ordaining Bishops c. ancient Authors that from the Apostles time there have been these Orders of Ministers in Christs Church Bishops Priests and Deacons And in that our Church mentioneth the reading of Holy Scripture it is clear that in her account she taketh in the very times of the Apostles and meaneth that from the Scripture it may be proved that Episcopacy was erected while the Apostles were living Which shall give me warrant to take one step more backward from the Age next to the Apostles to the Apostolical Age it self and to affirm that even then there was such a Sacred Order of men as we now call properly strictly and by way of eminence and distinction Bishops Now that we meet with the Name frequently in our Translation and oftner in the Original is altogether out of doubt The grand Question is about the thing whether in those days the Office Power and Order of a Bishop was distinct from and in any respect superiour unto the Office Power and Order of a Presbyter And though the Sence and Practice of the succeeding Age be enough to make us morally certain that it was so because it cannot be reasonably suppos'd that men so harassed by Persecution so zealous for Truth and Honesty and so careful to observe the Apostles orders even in the least things could or would conspire together to make an universal defection from so main a part of Christianity as the Government of the Church is yet setting aside that consideration to me it seemeth obvious and certain that Christ the great Bishop of our Souls erected an Episcopal Power and that the Apostles continued and propagated it I mean still a Power above that belonging to Presbyters This I shall endeavour briefly to shew 1. By making good the Affirmative and then Secondly By clearing up those difficulties which are usually brought from Scripture to prove the Negative 1. For probation of Episcopacy we begin with the Ordination of the Twelve Apostles which evidently differ'd from the Mission of the Seventy two Disciples in whom 't is conceived that the Office and Power of Presbyters was founded Now the Twelve Apostles were indeed Bishops though they were not clenched to any particular Sees and Chairs which the necessities of those times would not give way to For the clearing of this it is observable that the Mission of the Twelve Apostles as to their own Persons was extraordinary and that which none could pretend to in following Ages because they were sent immediately by Christ himself and had a common jurisdiction and care over all the Churches that should be and were endowed with a Power of working Miracles to confirm the Truth of their Doctrin But then their Authority and Charge as to their Function was an ordinary and standing Power that was not to dye with them nor to cease as Miracles did after a little interval but such as was to be transmitted to others from time to time and so to continue to the Worlds end Now if it doth appear First that the Twelve had a Superiour power over Presbyters Secondly that this Power was to be imparted and communicated to their Successors for ever Thirdly that this was no other than the Ordinary Episcopal Power Then this will suffice to shew that the Twelve Apostles were truly and indeed Bishops in their ordinary capacity and consequently that Episcopal Power was erected in their Time First then That the Twelve Apostles had a Superior power over Presbyters appeareth not only from the Extent of their Commission which compared with that given to the Seventy two Disciples was much larger for as the Father sent Joh. 20. 21. Christ so Christ sent them with full power to Teach and Govern the Church according to God's Will and to ordain Successors and in all respects to execute that power which he was invested with and had delegated unto them but moreover it is clear from the Exercise of this their Authority for they ordained Deacons Act. 6. They Ordained Matthias and took Act. 1. him into the number of Apostles who before was one of the Seventy two as Eusebius tells us twice they made Decrees Euseb lib. 2. c. 1. and sent them abroad to be observed in all Churches Act. 16. They had power of Censure and Jurisdiction every single Apostle had over inferiour Presbyters for St. John threatned ambitious Diotrephes that when he came he would remember his deeds meaning that he would correct him with the Rod of 3 Joh. his Apostolical Power And so were Hymenâ—us and Alexander delivered unto Satan by St. Paul after that he was ordained an Apostle This is enough to shew the Superiority of the Apostles 1 Tim. 1. 20. power 2. Again This power of theirs was no Temporary thing that was to vanish with their breath but that which was to be communicated to others to be transmitted unto Posterity and to hold as long as there should be need of it that is as long as the World should hold For so the promise of Christ runs Lo I am with you always even unto the end of Matt. 28. 20. the World Here our Lord did engage not to be with their Persons alone for they were to dye within a short time but to be with their Successors too that is to assist their Function for ever And truly had not Christ assisted it marvellously it would have fallen e're now since it hath been so lustily beav'd at especially in these last Ages 'T is plain that our Saviour intended that the Apostles power should continue to the Worlds end I mean their Ordinary power which was for the Regiment of the Church For their Extraordinary power of speaking all Languages and working Miracles which was for the Planting of the Church was not to last long but to cease after a while So that it was their ordinary and standing power to Administer Sacraments to Preach to Govern to Ordain and to exercise the power of the Keys this was that which was to hold to be delivered and banded down from Generation to Generation Now if there be any truth in that Promise of Christ this Apostolic Power and Office doth last and still continue and is even at this hour in the World 3. Thirdly then this Power we speak of is really that which we now call Episcopacy The Apostles Function is part of it in Deacons more of it in Presbyters and all of it in Bishops there the whole Ordinary power centers and is united The Twelve were called as their immediate Successors were many times also called Apostles in respect of their Mission and Authority from Christ but in respect of their Office and Inspection over Christ's Church they were indeed Bishops They were the first possessors of Episcopacy and the Bishops now are their Successors to the Apostolate 'T is plain that they themselves and the Church following them understood them to be no more than Bishops in their ordinary capacity For as on
Bishop and Presbyter indifferently and promiscuously to those of both Orders There is no necessity for us to admit of a community of Names because those places which seem to infer this Community may be fairly understood though we do appropriate the name of Bishop to a Bishop and the name of Presbyter to a Presbyter This will appear from a particular view of the several Texts which if we can understand without being obliged to confound Names then farwell that grand Principle which the Classical Divines have taken for granted and which is the main and sole Argument to prove a parity and equality of power among all Church Officers above the Degree of Deacons One famous place alleaged is Acts 20. 17. there S. Paul sends to Ephesus and calls the Elders or Presbyters of the Church to him at Miletus and then he saith ver 28. Take heed unto your selves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 overseers or as it should be rendered Bishops Here say they the Names of Presbyters and Bishops is given to the same men and so the Office and Power of these men was the same But I pray my Masters why so What necessity is there for this positive Assertion Were none with S. Paul at this time but Presbyters Yes Irenaeus who lived near the Apostles time will tell you Iren. adv Haer. l. 1. c. 14. that S. Paul called together both Bishops and Presbyters Were none there but the Clergy of the City of Ephesus Yes the same ancient Writer tells you that the Clergy of all the Cities round about were there too In Mileto convocatis Episcopis Presbyteris qui erant ab Epheso à reliquis proximis civit atibus The Bishops and Presbyters were called from Ephesus and from other neighbouring Cities And indeed S. Pauls words do intimate thus much for saith he ver 18. Ye know from the first day I tame into Asia after what manner I have been with you at all seasons Now S. Paul had been with the Bishops and Presbyters of other Cities in Asia besides Ephesus and S. Paul's speaking to them and appealing to their Knowledge of his Behaviour doth plainly argue that they were with him now and that this Convention did consist of very many of the Asiatic Bishops and Presbyters There is then neither necessity nor reason to imagine that onely the inferiour sort of Clergy appeared at the Apostle's Summons much less that he should call them Bishops Rather it is presumable that as he spake to all in general so that he directed his speech chiefly to the most honourable and principal part of that Reverend Assembly and that he called them Bishops who were so in truth and told them that the Holy Ghost had made them Bishops over their respective Charges so addressing himself immediately and more particularly to them whose Office it was to superintend the Flock of Christ and to obviate the Incursion of Wolves And thus this place may be fairly understood without confounding of Names without offering violence to History or without robbing the Bishops to give their Title and Honour unto Presbyters because it is reasonable to conceive that the Apostle convened Bishops and Presbyters too and spake directly and immediately to the Prelates of whom 't is likely that Timothy was the chief and to the rest accommodating himself collaterally secundarily and by Grot. in loc way of reflexion Another place which has been hotly urged in this Controversie is that mentioned before in Tit. 1. 5 6 7. where Titus is left in Crete 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that he might constitute Presbyters city by city if any were blameless the husband of one wife for a bishop must be blameless saith the Apostle Now they who accuse Bishops as Corah did Moses and Aaron for taking too much upon them triumph mightily Num. 16. from this Text as if the Names of Bishop and Presbyter were clearly synonimous But upon due examination we find that the Apostle's Sence doth not at all carry it this way much less is there a necessity for us to understand him after this manner For all that S. Paul requires of Titus here seemeth to be this that he would advance the Presbyters which were under him and ordain them Bishops and dispose of them into Cities fixing each of them to a certain Cure that is such of them as were approved men for a Bishop must be blameless This Sence is easie and the thing is probable For questionless there were many Presbyters now in Crete whether ordain'd by S. Paul before his departure or by Titus himself afterwards I will not dispute but many Presbyters there were it being impossible for Titus to take a due care of so considerable an Island without Assistants 'T is likely therefore that when S. Paul was going away either he left Presbyters behind him or appointed Titus to ordain some to take part of his burthen and advised him not to prefer them hastily but to prove them first and then to ordain them Bishops having made sufficient experiment of their Abilities and Fitness for so great a Trust And in this Epistle sent to him from Nicopolis he minds him of that which he order'd him before viz. that upon proof and tryal made of his Presbyters he should promote them and set them over Cities over every City one for saith he a Bishop must be blameless So that according to this easie and fair Construction there can be no pretence of any confusion of Names because the Apostle doth not mean that Titus should take Deacons or Laymen into the Order of Presbyters but that he should advance such as were Presbyters already into the superiour Order of Bishops and having first consecrated and ordained them to assign each of them his Diocese and City that they might be invested with their Episcopal Authority and Jurisdiction too And this seems to be that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Constitution or Promotion of Presbyters which the Apostle requireth here Other places there are where St. Paul speaketh of Bishops and Deacons only without taking notice of an intermediate rank of Clergy as 1 Tim. 3. he gives instructions for the Ordination of Bishops and Deacons And in Phil. 1. 1. he saluteth the Saints at Philippi with the Bishops and Deacons Whence the Adversaries of Episcopacy do conclude that by Bishops there Presbyters are intended otherwise we must suppose them to be past over wholly which is not to be conceived the Apostle would do But by their good leave I do assert that where the Apostle mentioneth Bishops he ever meaneth such as are truly and properly Bishops not including Presbyters under that Notion And for the clearing of the Objection three things are observable 1. First that when Churches began to be gathered many Epiph. haeres 68. times it happened that two Churches were in one and the same City the one consisting of believing Jews the other
fellow Apostles observed the same course 2. It is observable that there is such a marvellous Harmony and Correspondence between all ancient Liturgies in the materia substrata matter body and substance of them that it is not imaginable by men that will give their impartial Judgement how there could be that harmony without a general consent or how there could be that general consent without the Apostles directions Some indeed have been forward to expose the Errors of the ancient Fathers and as forward to expose the Corruptions of the Ancient Service-books and we aswell as they do acknowledge those Service-books to have been tainted since they were first compiled but yet I never saw any one sufficient Argument to prove that the main frame of those Liturgies was not founded upon the practice of the Apostles nay it is very probable that the old Compilers of those Liturgies took their measures from the Practice of the Apostles 3. For Thirdly S. Chrysostome speaking of the Constitution of S. Chrysost in Rom. 8. 26. Hom. 14. the Apostles times tells us that among other extroardinary Gifts of the Holy Ghost then there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gift of Prayer that this Gift was not bestowed upon all but upon some one a few in comparison that the persons thus inspired did pray for all the rest and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with much compunction and with many groans and moreover that they taught others to pray also Now a man that would be nice might make it a question what S. Chrysostome means when he saith that these gifted men taught others to pray and whether his sense be not this that they dictated prayers to the Congregation by calling upon them to join their suffrages for such and such Mercies If so then here is an account of the Original reason and use of those Allocutory Forms of Prayer which were so anciently and so universally received And that de facto it Was so seemeth to be probable from a following passage in St. Chrysostome where he tells us that the manner of Deacons praying in his time did which resemble and was correspondent to the way after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those inspired persons prayed in the Apostolick Age now that was Litany-wise and it was a very ancient and very usual way of teaching people to pray as was noted before out of Justine Martyr and others and that it is not unlike to the style and strain of Gods Spirit shall be shewed hereafter In the mean time if there be any truth in S. Chrysostomes account of this matter we must couclude that the men who were thus enabled to Pray did teach others either by propounding prayers to them that they might give their consent to them saying Lord have mercy or some such Form or by using the same prayers frequently so that by the often repetition of them they might the better be fixed in peoples memories or by committing those Prayers which they had conceived to writing that they might be of constant use unto the whole Church in their ordinary services Which way soever we pitch upon it is very unlikely that the Apostles who ordered all things unto edification would not order the Worship of God so that all people might go along with them in it with their hearts and with their tongues too It is unlikely that they who did insist so much upon order and decency would not be careful rather of that which is most material It is unlikely that they who would not indure any Confusion any Irreverence any Vncomliness not so much as a mans Head to be covered in the Service of God would not settle the service it self and cast it into such a Model that all Christians might bear a part in it The Learned and Judicious Dr. Hammond was clearly of opinion View of the New Directory that such as had the Gift of prayer in the Apostles days did first conceive and then did frequently use some special Forms of Prayer for daily and constant wants and that these Forms were received and kept by Apostolical men who had so benefited under them And it seemeth reasonable to believe that this was the Original of those Ancient Liturgies which go under the names of S. James S. Peter S. Mark c. should it not be allowed that they were the Pen-men and Compilers of any Service-books yet there are fair Arguments to perswade that these and other inspired persons did conceive indite and utter many admirable Forms of Prayer which are still in being as to the matter and substance of them and that these Forms were methodized and cast together into several Bodies by some Apostolical men to be the standing Church-service For the extroardinary Gift of Prayer beginning to fail there was a necessity for certain fixt and prescript Forms and what better Forms could they use then what had been used by the Apostles themselves and which they remembred and knew and kept upon Record And so I conceive the Ancient Liturgies came to be compiled and perfected by the pious diligence of holy and good men who made what Collections they could of this and that Apostles prayers and added others where it was needful For it was some considerable time before these Liturgies were perfectly compleated because some Doctors of the Church were ever and anon desirous of prescribing new Forms of their own and of adding them to the old stock And this was a thing so usual in those early times that some Councels were fain to V. Concil Milevit Can. 12. Carthag Can. 23. Zonar in Can. 18. Concilii Laodiceni interpose and restrain men from adding Prayers of their own at their pleasure The Reason of this was founded on the Practice of the Apostles and Apostolical persons their Co-temporaries and Followers 't was in imitation and by example of them that Bishops in succeeding Ages did prescribe certain special prayers of their composing because they had observed that many Forms had been conceived heretofore by S. James for the use of the Churches of Jerusalem and that the like had been done not onely by other Apostles for the use of other Churches but also by the Apostles immediate successors who had collected many Prayers composed by their Predecessors and added more of their own Conception which gave encouragemant to others to do so too till Liturgies did swell so that S. Basil and S. Chrysostome thought it convenient to abridge them All this framing composing and prescribing of Forms of Prayer was originally occasioned by Apostolical practice And for what the Holy Apostles did in this matter there are such precedents as are beyond all manner of exception For so did David and other inspired persons of old conceive prescribe and deliver Forms of Service unto the Church under the Law So did S. John the Baptist in Christs time teach his Disciples to pray by giving them a Form Nay so did Christ himself teach the very Apostles
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
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
by the use of Rites and Ceremonies though little in their own nature In like manner the use of Ceremonies in the Service of God and in all Sacred Transactions doth make a great impression on mens Minds it commandeth Reverence which is the security of Religion and conveyeth through our senses into our hearts an awful regard of what we are about and as apparel upon our bodies serveth to maintain the vital heat within so do these outward Appendages help to preserve the very heart of Religion which consisteth in true Piety and Devotion This is enough to shew the wisdom of those who first chalked out unto us this old way for which we now plead And before men cry out against this way they should do well to consider whether they can direct us to a better But our Dissenters could never yet do this They could pull down our Government and throw out our Liturgy which yet was quite contrary to their Solemn Declaration they could abolish our Declarat of April 9. 1642. Ceremonies and destroy our Discipline and any Child or Dunce can spoil a Model which none but an Artist can set together But though they had the confidence to mar things yet they had not amongst them all the wit to mend them Government which sate easie upon the Shoulders of unprejudiced people before became an intolerable burthen to all by their pretended Reformation Though at first the World was in love with their new Trangum yet 't was soon weary of it and in a little time threw it away with scorn and indignation What a grave decorum was there in all Churches before and what intolerabiles ineptiae Fooleries and Ridicules succeeded them Were not the Houses of God turned into Theatres Was not Religion turned into a Comedy And were not all sacred Offices brought into contempt so that men abhorred the offering of the Lord Why 't is strange that those men who in a fit of good nature are so kind as to pity the weakness of their Forefathers and are so silly as to be puffed up with a windy conceit of their own knowledge will not be so modest and just as to allow the Ancient Assertors and Props of Christianity the due Credit of having been wise men 't is strange I say since these Starters aside from the old Paths never altered those Establishments which our Fathers left us but still they altered them for the worse What a thin pitiful and impertinent business was the Directory in comparison of our Service-book And yet that was the onely thing that was like a Platform and that did not very well please themselves And since His Majesty's Restauration a new Liturgy was offered to the World for a Tryal of Skill and yet it would not pass the Contrivers of it could not satisfie either us or their own Party by it And if you will go back to former times you will find that they were Bunglers from the beginning To which purpose the story is observable which the Learned and Excellent Dr. Hammond relates of those four Classes View of the new Directory of Reformers in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth who had set themselves up in this Kingdom These had made complaint to the Lord Burleigh against our Liturgy and entertained hopes of obtaining his Favour in that business about the Year 1585. He demanded of them whether they desired the taking away of all Liturgy They answered No. He then required them to make a better such as they should desire to have settled instead of this The first Classis did accordingly frame a new one which I suppose was that Book of Common Prayers mentioned by Bishop Bancroft but it was according Bang Pos B. 3. c. 10. to the Geneva Form But this the second Classis disliked and altered in 600 particulars That again had the fate to be quarrell'd by the third Classis and what the third resolved on by the fourth And the dissenting of those Brethren as the division of Tongues at Babel was a fair means to keep that Tower then from advancing any higher Thus he Now certainly that outward Frame and Constitution of Religion was very wisely contrived which Clubs of peevish and restless Spirits have been pecking at for these hundred years together and yet are at a loss how to raise any tolerable good Fabrick upon the ruins of the old one And then I appeal to any indifferent person whether it be not the safest course for men to walk in that way which taking it from one end to the other and in the main is so good condition'd that either you need not or cannot mend it 3. And yet besides what has been said already there is a third very considerable Argument to shew what great Reason we have to stick to our Establishments and it is this that our Way is not onely Ancient in respect of it self and incomparably useful in respect of its ends but is also that which was generally used by all Professors of Christianity in the beginning Had our Government and Discipline been Local and set up in this Church of England alone there might have been some room for an Impeachment of Singularity But you shall see that the Way which is settled among us was for the most part the great and common Road which all Saints and Martyrs observed of old so that we do not onely plead Prescription but we plead it from the joynt consent of all Christendom and our Constitutions carry as great Countenance and Authority as the Catholic Church can give them Scarcely shall you find any ancient Records of either the Asiatic or African or European Churches but we can fetch Testimonies out of them touching the universal use of most of our Establishments if not all And can we reasonably think that a Platform so received all Christendom over without contradiction and handed down unto us from the Practice of all Natious so separated by distances of place and so divided by differences of language could be an Imposture or Corruption Is it not rather to be presumed as a thing probable and likely at least that it came originally from the hands of those who first planted Christianity in the several Quarters of the World It is a Rule in Tertullian that quod Tert. de Praescr adv Haret apud multos unum invenitur non est erratum sed traditum That Religion which did so consent with it self up and down in so many places was derived from the Apostles or Apostolick men who scatter'd themselves into all Nations and resolved to teach people but one general Way To say that the beginning of many Usages in the Church is unknown is a plain confession of their Antiquity and just ground for a suspicion that they bear Date with the first Publishing of Christianity To say that every one of our Customs was at first the fancy of some private person which by continuance and contagion came at length to be a public Rite
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.
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
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
meet and right that we should praise thee the very true God who art before all of whom the whole Family in Heaven and Earth is named the only Being without production without beginning and so on he goes rehearsing the Divine Attributes which I conceive is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or praise which Justine speaks of Then he largely mentioneth Gods Creating the World and all things in it his goodness to the first Man both before and after his fall his providence towards the Sons of Adam before and under the Law his particular favour to the seed of Abraham their redemption from Egypt c. for all which mercies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Cyri◠Catech. ◠Glory be unto thee O Lord Almighty there is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned by Justine After this he proceeds to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 blessing God for the wonderful work of the World's Redemption by Christ for his Conception Incarnation Birth Life Doctrine Miracles Passion Resurrection and Ascension into Glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we give thanks to thee O Almighty God not as we ought but as we can and we fulfil thy Commandment for in the same night that he was betrayed he took Bread c. where the Minister repeates at large the History and words of the Institution of the Sacrament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril ubi supra beseeching God to send down the Holy Ghost upon the offerings and so at last at the close of this long prayer of Consecration he proceeds to pray as the Deacon did before for the holy Catholick Church and for all its Members at the end whereof the Congregation answered Amen So it was in the book of Constitutions and so Justine affirms that the President did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 send up prayers again in a like manner the same after a sort with what had been sent up before and so that Ancient Writer S. Cyril tells us that after Consecration they did pray for the general peace of the Church for the quiet of the World for Kings c. In a word all the Old Liturgies gives us a plain full and concurrent account of this matter and whosoever shall seriously weigh and impartially consider the joynt suffrage and agreement of Antiquity as to this matter he must either betray his weakness or filthily belie his own Judgement if he doth not conclude that prescribed and set Forms of Divine Service were in use universally in Justine Martyrs time nay that Justine doth manifestly point to that Form in S. James Liturgies or Clements Constitutions such a clear agreement and correspondence there is between the account we find in him and in those other Records 3. This thing then being cleared that there were prescript Forms of Divine Service in the Primitive times of Christianity and even in that Age which was the very next to the Apostles I proceed to shew the third thing viz. that in the Holy Apostles time and in that interval between the burial of the Synagogue and the setling of the Christian Church set Forms of Divine Service were allowed also For confirmation whereof I think no Considerate man will deny that the Apostles and their Disciples conformed to the innocent Rites and Customes among the Jews and joyned with them in the ordinary moral service of God which was appointed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Chrys in Act. 2. 46. to be used daily 1. For first S. Luke tells us Luk. 24. 53. that after our Lords Ascension they were continually in the Temple praising and blessing God Though they had frequent peculiar coetus or Assemblies of their own yet they never withdrew themselves from the solemn Congregation of the Jews that they might not scandalize any but they continued daily in the Temple with one accord Act. 2. 46. That was the place whither they constantly resorted to Morning and Evening service For that being Moral it was utterly repugnant to the designe of Christianity to have destroyed it Some other offices indeed such as the Celebration of the Lords Supper as being proper to their Profession were to the Super-added to the ordinary service and for that purpose their custome was to adjourn from the Temple to the Caenaculum Sion or that upper room mentioned Act. 1. 13. The House was hard by the Temple if not part of it and there they brake bread in that House not as we render it House by House but in the House because they See Dr Hammond in loc and Mr. Medes Disc on 1 Cor. 11. 22. were not permitted to celebrate this Mystery in the Temple but yet the Temple was the place of their ordinary Devotion and there the service was by prescript Form In like manner we read of Peter and John that they went up together into the Temple at the hour of Prayer being the ninth hour Act. 3. 1. And from the whole History of the Apostles Acts it appears that S. Paul and others were wont ever to resort to the Synagogues at the usual days and hours and as it is improbable that they would have been so punctual as to the time and place of publick service had they not Conformed to the service it self so it is incredible that they should have found such easie access had not the Elders of the Jews lookt upon them as men of the same piece with themselves saving only in those points touching the Messiah's coming and the Necessity of such Ceremonies as were Typical or shaddows of better things 2. Again it is clear that the Apostles were very careful as far as it was consistent with their duty to give no offence unto the unbeleiving Jews but by all possible ways of compliance to gain them over unto Christianity in somuch that St. Paul who was one of the most stickling Apostles profest before Festus Act. 25. 8. that neither against the law of the Jews nor against the Temple had he offended any thing at all He declared before Foelix Act. 24. 12 that they never found him in the Temple disputing with any Man neither raising up the people neither in the Synagogues nor in the City And he told the Jews at Rome Act. 28. 17. that he had committed nothing against the people or customes of their Fathers In a word he allowed the Jews the use of Circumcision thought it was needless and he circumcised Timothy with his own Hands though it seemed extra-regular and in every particular they all went Act. 16. 3 as far as the Laws of Christianity would give leave that they might not exasperate any Now is it imaginable that men who were so willing to abate of their Liberty and to comply with the Jews even in things that were Ceremonial and Transitory should hold off in things that were their Duty and oppose that service of God which was substantial and permanent I mean the received Prayers Praises and Thanksgivings 3. But
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
to pray by delivering to them a most perfect Form of his own conception And then that the Apostles themselves who were acted by the same Spirit should likewise conceive and give unto Christians Forms also I think no wise man will wonder and that they used not the Lords prayer themselves in all their Services I think none but a mad man will have the confidence to assert All which things being duely considered I will take upon me to affirm that as Set Forms of Divine Service were used by the Jews before and in the life-time of our Saviour and by all Christians after the Age of the Apostles so in that intermediate juncture of time between the Ascention of our Saviour and the setling of Christianity set Forms of divine service were for certain allowed and in all probability practised used and transmitted unto the Church by the Apostles themselves and their Fellow-labourers whose names were written in the Book of life And so the first thing is dispatched which I undertook to make out touching the Ancient use of Set Forms of Divine Service in General Thus far to be sure we tread in the old ways in that we worship the God of our Father as our old Fathers did by a set and prescript Form 2. Next I proceed to speak of this form in particular I mean our English Liturgy about which there have been longer contentions then were once between the Angel and the Divel disputing about the Body of Moses I shall not insist either upon Jude 9. the Order or the Expressions contained in our Service-book because all Churches of old have taken the liberty of varying somewhat in these respects though the main Body of their Liturgies was in a manner the same But my intent is to take notice of the substance of our Service-book and to observe what an Eye our Learned and pious Reformers had to the Ancient Model when they compiled this and to shew how agreeable our standing and ordinary offices are to those of Old in their general Frame and Contexture The incomparably Learned and Moderate Grotius though he was a Foreigner Grot. Ep. ad Gedeon a â—oet yet did us the right to affirm as a thing that was clear and certain that the Liturgy of the Church of England was sufficiently correspondent to the usages of the Ancient-Church And if knowing men would but take the pains to consider and compare the particulars they would find that our Liturgy is not onely agreeable to the oldest and Best but moreover that it is the most pure and most perfect Liturgy that is now known to be in the whole world We begin as it becometh sinners and Penitents with an The Confession De Missa lib. 1. c. 3. humble and hearty confession of our offences And if the Noble Du Plessis may be credited so did the Jews begin their service to which the Apostles and their Disciples did all conform The same was the custome of Christians in following times So the Authour de Autoritate ordine Officii Muzarabici tells us of the Christians in Spain who were mingled with the Arabs that they began their Service with a General Confession And so we find in the Rubrick at the beginning of the service on the Feast of St. De Aut. Et Ord. Off. Muzar c. 37. James faciâ prius confessione uti fit in Missis Latinis juxta usum Toletanum antiquum dicitur Introitus Confession being first made as in the Latine services it is usually done according to the Ancient use of Toledo the Introit is said In like manner Cassander tells Cassand Liturgic Cap. 1. 2. us of the Armenians that their Priest having put on his habits said the Confession before the Altar with bended knees and his head bowed down according to the custome of the Latines In both these Testimonis mention is made of the custome of the Latine Churches that the Confession of the Spanish course was according to the way of the Latines and that the Confession in the Armenian course was according to the custome of the Latines so that in the Latine Churches as well as in these Service was begun as with us with a general confession Now as for the Greek Church St. Basil tells us that Basil ep 63. ad Cler. Neocaesar in his time they did rise betimes a good while before day and went to the house of prayer and there with pain and affliction and incessant tears made Confession unto God and that with one mouth and with one heart every one professing his Repentance with his own tongue Indeed St. Basil saith that when this first course was over at break of day they made Confession again using a Penitential Psalm and so doth our Church order the one and fiftieth Psalm to be used after Morning Prayer and Litany on the first day of Lent and on other special days of See the Commination Fasting but 't is clear from his words that the first thing the Greeks did was to joyn in a solemn and devout Confession of their sins at their publick meeting together In like manner the Lords Prayer is constantly used in the The Lords Prayer â—nirance to our Morning and Evening Service And this is agreeable to the Ancient practice of the Church We meet together saith Tertullian that we may offer holy violence unto Tertul. Apol. c. 39. God besieging him by prayer there Prayer is intimated to have been their first business But then he saith elsewhere that the Lords Prayer was premised and used first as the foundation of their Devotion to which they Premissâ Iegitimae ordinaria oratione quasi fundamento accidentium jus est desideriornm jus est superstruendi c. Tert. de Oratione might add and on which they might build other occasional prayers having used that before And as touching our frequent use of the Lords prayer any man that consults the Ancient Liturgies may see how agreeable it is to the old way That short Address O Lord open thou our lips together with the Response And our mouth shall shew forth thy praise are part of Psal 51. 15. And it has been noted before that The Versicles the Jews used that Form before their Prayers and that Christians continued the use of it and is still to be seen in the Liturgy ascribed to S. James and in S. Chrysostomes The Doxology is a short Confession of our Faith in the The Gloria Patri Blessed Trinity and an Act of Adoration and Worship and moreover an Argument of the holiness of our purposes and therefore is fit to be used often as a signification that all our confessions praises prayers c. are intended and directed all of them to the Glory of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost That it was of Ancient and Vniversal use both in the Eastern and Western Churches is most certain and that it was used at the ends of Psalms before the fourth Council
of Toledo and in Cassians time which was above twelve hundred years ago is as certain The only question is about the time when it was first appointed and commonly it has been said that the Fathers of the Nicene Council ordered it which yet was about the year three hundred twenty five But Questionless the use of it is much Elder For the Arrians corrupted and altered it saying Glory be to the Father by the Son in the Holy Ghost But had it been an Hymn newly appointed at Nice instead of altering they would have utterly rejected it But the Hymn was in use long before for we find it in Clemens Alexandrinus who lived about Anno 190. And 't is likely that 't was derived from an higher Fountain though Clem. Alex. Poedag that 's high enough and if the three hundred and eighteen Fathers at Nice ordered a constant use of it at the end of every Psalm and in other parts of Liturgy to secure Religion from the poyson of the old Arrians methinks it should be as Religiously observed now to secure our Faith from the poyson of Socinians Quakers and other Modern and Blasphemous impugners of the Doctrine of the ever Blessed and most Glorious Trinity It has been likewise an old and general custome at the opening of the Service and before the set repetitions of Davids Psalms to sing some Hymn which was called the Introit or The Introit Entrance Hymn The reason of the Appellation is given by Rhenanus in his Notes upon Tertullian as he is Cited by Durantus Durant de rit lib. 2. cap. 11. because it was sung while people were entring into the Church and before the Congregation was quite full And Rhenanus saith that it was a Psalm of David In the book concerning the order of the Musarabe 't is said that Judica me Deus did follow the Confession I suppose the twenty sixth Psalm is there meant But our Church useth the ninety fifth as being a solomn Invitation to stir up mens Devotion and to inflame their zeal and to prepare their hearts for the due performance of the rest of the Service and for that reason was intended by the Psalmist for Publick Assemblies And in this matter the Church of England followeth the steps of Pious Antiquity For Cassander speaking of the order of Cassand Liturgic c. 7. S. Chrysostomes Liturgy tells us that about the beginning of the Service the Readers did say or sing that Psalm Entituled Venite exultemus And by what we find in the Ritual of Jacobus Goar it is evident that this Psalm was generally used throughout the Eastern Churches Consequent to this are the Psalms of David A Book never to be used enough because it containeth the marrow and flour of holy Scripture and is the Repository of Devotion The Psalms and Lessons Therefore it made up a great part of the Jewish Liturgy as it doth of ours and all Christians in all Ages have had this admirable Exercise in such esteem that the Service of God was never performed without it St. Paul and S. James mention it as an excellent piece of Divine Service in their times and by all Records of Antiquity in following Ages we find that Christians were wonderfully zealous in this point that they were wont for the most part to sing them that they spent much time in this Divine and Heavenly exercise and that they Sang not some ends and shreds but whole Psalms and a great portion of the Psalter at a time insomuch that Lucian that old Scoffer at Christ and Christianity jeered the Church for spending a great part of the night in singing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Hymns or Psalms For St. Basil tells us that they did rise to it very early and very long before day and having made solemn Confession of their sins they did rise from prayer and fall as we do especially in Cathedral and Collegiate Luc. in Philop Basil ep 63. Precibus subinde intersertis noctem superant Id. ibid. Laod. Concil Can. 17. Churches to the singing of Psalms and so spent the remaining part of the night The truth is so intent and earnest they were upon this matter that to make it the less tiresome they did insert Prayers between whiles yea and read some Chapters and Lessons out of the Scriptures and then fall to singing again So it was appointed by the Laodicean Council that between the Psalms there should be Lessons read for which Balsamon and Aristenus give this Constit lib. 2. Cap. 57. reason least people should be tired with continued Singings And before that Council we find it prescribed in the Apostles Constitutions that two Lessons should be read out of the old Testament and then that they should sing again and then other portions of Scripture out of the New Testament likewise And correspondent to this is the usage of the Church of England interlacing Hymns and chiefly some Psalms of David between Lesson and Lesson Of which Hymns the Te Deum is the first which is certainly The Hymns as old as St. Ambrose and some have confidently told us that assoon as that great Luminary of the Church S. Austin had been baptized by S. Ambrose both of them did in a Divine Rapture break forth into this Form of Praise The truth of the story must depend upon the Credit of its Authours But this is plain that ever since it has been used by the whole Vniversal Church and when I consider its admirable strain and other excellencies I am apt to think that the Spirit of God moved upon the face of those Waters where it was conceived The Song of the three Children commonly called the Benedicite is but a larger Edition of the one hundred forty eigth Psalm and was framed in imitation of the style of Psalm 136. And that it was used above a thousand years ago by the whole Catholick Church all over the World we have the Can. 13. whole Council of Toledo to bear us witness besides other single Testimonies of the use of it in the first Ages of Christianity The rest of our Hymns are all of Divine composure and as old as our Saviours time And why they may not be Sung being parts of Scripture as well as other Psalms and Hymns passeth my skill to know For if they whom S. Apol. 15. 3. John saw in Heaven did sing the Song of Moses what hinders but we on Earth may sing the Song of the Holy Virgin or the Song of Zachany or the Song of Simeon Certainly we cannot follow a better Pattern than what was shewed on the Mount Our Service concludes as it did of old both in the Jewish and Christian Church with several Prayers And though The Prayers these Prayers are not to be found in any Ancient Liturgies in so many express words except that excellent Prayer of S. Chrysostome yet the substance and matter of them is to be found in all For nothing is
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
Sabaoth Heaven and Earth are full of thy glory Blessed be thou unto all Ages world without End Amen In like manner the Prayer of Consecration which comes next is very agreeablee to that Form which was of most ancient usage The Prayer of Consecration only it is shorter than that old affectionate and devout Prayer wherein they commemorated the wonderful love of God and Christ to an undone world and made mention of his Humility Incarnation Birth Life Miracles Passion Death and Burial then thanked God for the Redemption of the World by these methods of Love and Wisdome then proceeded to the History of this Sacraments Institution using the same words as we do who in the same night that he was betray'd took Bread c. and likewise the Cup saying c. and at last prayed unto the Father of Lights that he would look favourably upon the Elements and send his holy Spirit to Const lib. 8. sanctifie them so that whosoever did partake thereof might be confirmed in Religion and receive remission of sins and be filled with the holy Ghost These things done and all having received they proceeded Post Communion even as we do to a Prayer of Thanksgiving which as we find it in the Book of Constitutions did so resemble for the most part of it that second Prayer after the Communion prescribed in our Liturgy as if it were none other than a Copy and Translation of it After that they used that Angelical Hymn Glory to God on High c. concerning which I cannot but observe the Conjecture of the Learned Dr. Hammond that it is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Hymn View of the Direct in Philopat which Lucian the Heathen Scoffer pointed to when speaking in the person of Triephon who represents the Christian he saith let those words alone beginning your prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the Father and adding in the end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that famous Ode or Hymn full of Synonymous and repeated words The Doctor concieves that by the former is intended the Pater Noster with which both now and anciently the Communion-Service was begun and that by the latter is meant that Hymn of ours Glory be to God on high we praise thee we bless thee with which that Service ends having nothing but the Benediction after it which being so powerful and importunate repetition of O Lord God Heavenly King and O Lord God Lamb of God c. is most properly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the notion that it was used in among the Heathen Writers Now if this opinion of Dr. Hammonds be right we have a most pregnant account of the Antiquity of this Hymn because Lucian lived about S. John the Evangelists time but however we find it in Clements Constitutions I have insisted the longer and the more particularly upon the Antiquity of our Service-book to satisfie the World that it was not taken out of the Roman mint neither is a late invention without good Authority and Precedent but that it hath the practice of the Old Apostolical Churches and times to warrant and patronize it however it is new slighted and hated by a sort of people among us who either cannot or will not distinguish between an invaluable Jewel and the dry harsh husk of a sorry Barley-corn I shall conclude this whole matter with that known story of Arch-Bishop Cranmer in the reign of Queen Mary how he offered the Queen if he might be permitted to take unto him Peter Martyr and four or five more to prove that the Communion-office set Foxes's Martyrol Anno 1554 in his purgation out by King Edward the sixth was conformable to that which Christ commanded and which the Apostles and Primitive Church used many years And that the whole Order of Divine Service then used by the Church of England was the same meaning in effect and substance that had been used in the Catholick Church for fifteen hundred years past By what has been said hitherto it doth appear that the Zealous Prelate spake not without good Reason But the Challenge would not be accepted because the Learned sorts of Papists knew that the thing could be made out And though some ignorant and some malicious men among our selves have been pleased to say that our Liturgy was taken out of the Mass-Book yet the most judicious and most unprejudiced Protestants have looked upon it to be as in Truth it is a most strong Bullwark and Fence against Popery And indeed the Papists themselves know it to be so and therefore upon the restoring of Popery in Queen Maries time they did with all haste and fury throw our Excellent Liturgy and the wise Compilers of it into the Fire and surely none but Mad men and Fools would have served their friends so The Antiquity of our Rites Customes and Vsages comes to be confidered in the next place And truely there are some Ecclesiastical Observations which we meet with in the most Ancient Writers of the Greek and Latine Churches of whose Birth and Original I believe the Learnedst men in Christendom cannot shew us the particular time by the help of their best readings nor can they who dislike them shew us when they came first into the Church 1. The first is the use of the Cross especially at the time of Baptism Of the Cross Mercerus Vticensis in his additions to the Hieroglyphicks of Orus Apollo tells us that the Cross among the old Aegyptians was an Emblem of the Life to come What their reason was I Eccl. Hist lib. 11. c. 29. am not to enquire But Ruffinus relates the same thing and moreover tells us that the Aegyptians and especially their Priests who understood their Mysteries best the more willingly embraced the Christian Religion for the Cross sake calling to mind its ancient signification The Ancient Christians though they Min. Fel. never worshipped the Cross yet they used the sign of it as an outward badge of their Profession and all that were received into the Church received this sign upon their foreheads in token that they were not ashamed of a Crucified Saviour 'T is recorded of the Gnosticks those first Hereticks who denied the reality of Christs Incarnation and Passion that they branded their Proselytes with an hot Iron in the upper part of their right ear Iren. lib. 1. and some conjecture that S. Paul restected upon that custome of theirs where he saith that they had Consciences seared with an hot Iron meaning as well as their ears But in all probability this custome was taken up in opposition to the true Christians 1 Tim. 4. 2. who were marked with the sign of the Cross upon their foreheads S. Basil I am sure reckons it in the first place among S. Basil de Spiritu Sanctu c. 27. the Ecclesiastical Constitutions which were derived by Tradition from the holy Apostles and indeed the use of the Cross was so ancient and so