Province who enjoyed nothing but that name and title his Episcopal See being by the Emperours Pragmatic erected into the dignity of a Metropolis He was only an Honorary Metropolitan without any real power and jurisdiction and had no other priviledge but that he took place above other ordinary Bishops in all things else equally subject with them to the Metropolitan of the Province as the Council of Chalcedon determines in this case When this Office of Metropolitan first began I find not only this we are sure of that the Council of Nice setling the just rights and priviledges of Metropolitan Bishops speaks of them as a thing of ancient date ushering in the Canon with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let ancient customs still take place The original of the institution seems to have been partly to comply with peoples occasions who oft resorted to the Metropolis for dispatch of their affairs and so might fitly discharge their Civil and Ecclesiastical concerns both at once and partly because of the great confluence of people to that City that the Bishop of it might have preheminence above the rest and the honour of the Church bear some proportion to that of the State After this sprang up another branch of the Episcopal Office as much superiour to that of Metropolitans as theirs was to ordinary Bishops these were called Primates and Patriarchs and had jurisdiction over many Provinces For the understanding of this it 's necessary to know that when Christianity came to be fully setled in the world they contrived to model the external Government of the Church as near as might be to the Civil Government of the Roman Empire the parallel most exactly drawn by an ingenious person of our own Nation the sum of it is this The whole Empire of Rome was divided into Thirteen Dioceces so they called those divisions these contained about one hundred and twenty Provinses and every Province several Cities Now as in every City there was a temporal Magistrate for the executing of justice and keeping peace both for that City and the Towns round about it so was there also a Bishop for spiritual order and Government whose jurisdiction was of like extent and latitude In every Province there was a Proconsul or President whose seat was usually at the Metropolis or chief City of the Province and hither all inferiour Cities came for judgment in matters of importance And in proportion to this there was in the same City an Archbishop or Metropolitan for matters of Ecclesiastical concernment Lastly in every Diocess the Emperours had their Vicarii or Lieutenants who dwelt in the principal City of the Diocess where all imperial Edicts were published and from whence they were sent abroad into the several Provinces and where was the chief Tribunal where all Causes not determinable elsewhere were decided And to answer this there was in the same City a Primate to whom the last determination of all appeals from all the Provinces in differences of the Clergie and the Soveraign care of all the Diocess for sundry points of spiritual Government did belong This in short is the sum of the account which that learned man gives of this matter So that the Patriarch as superiour to Metropolitans was to have under his jurisdiction not any one single Province but a whole Diocess in the old Roman notion of that word consisting of many Provinces To him belonged the ordination of all the Metropolitans that were under him as also the summoning them to Councils the correcting and reforming the misdemeanours they were guilty of and from his judgment and sentence in things properly within his cognizance there lay no appeal To this I shall only add what Salmasius has noted that as the Diocess that was governed by the Vicarius had many Provinces under it so the Praefectus Praetorio had several Diocesses under him and in proportion to this probably it was that Patriarchs were first brought in who if not superiour to Primates in jurisdiction and power were yet in honour by reason of the dignity of those Cities where their Sees were fixed as at Rome Constantinople Alexandria Antioch and Jerusalem a title and dignity which they retain to this day The next Office to Bishops was that of Presbyters to whom it belonged to preach to the people to administer Baptism consecrate the Eucharist and to be assistent to the Bishop both in publick ministrations and in dispatching the affairs of the Church The truth is the Presbyters of every great City were a kind of Ecclesiastical Senate under the care and presidency of the Bishop whose counsel and assistance he made use of in ruling those Societies of Christians that were under his charge and government and were accordingly reckoned next in place and power to him thus described by S. Gregory in his Iambics 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The venerable Senate of Presbyters that preside over the people and possess the second Throne i. e. the place next to the Bishop they are called Clerici superioris loci and otherwhiles unless we understand it of the Chorepiscopi Antistites in secundo ordine and accordingly in Churches had seats of eminency placed for them next to the Bishops Throne Whereby was implied says Zonaras that they ought to use a proportionable care and providence towards the people to inform and teach them to direct and guide them being appointed as Fellow-labourers with and Assistants to the Bishop But though Presbyters by their ordination had a power conferred upon them to administer holy things yet after that the Church was setled upon foundations of order and regularity they did not usually exercise this power within any Diocess without leave and authority from the Bishop much less take upon them to preach in his presence This custom however it might be otherwise in the Eastern Church we are sure was constantly observed in the Churches of Afric till the time of Valerius S. Augustine's Predecessor in the See of Hippo. Who being a Greek and by reason of his little skill in the Latine tongue unable to preach to the edification of the people admitted S. Augustine whom he had lately ordained Presbyter to preach before him Which though at first 't was ill resented by some Bishops in those parts yet quickly became a president for other Churches to follow after After these came Deacons What the duty of their place was appears from their primitive election the Apostles setting them apart to serve or minister to the Tables i.e. to attend upon and take charge of those daily provisions that were made for poor indigent Christians but certainly it implies also their being destinated to a peculiar attendance at the service of the Lords Table And both these may be very well meant in that place it being the custom of Christians then to meet every day at the
there describes the very form and fashion of it and in another place speaking of their going into the water to be baptized he tells us they were wont first to go into the Church to make their solemn renunciation before the Bishop About this time in the Reign of Alexander Severus the Emperour who began his Reign about the year 222. the Heathen Historian tells us that when there was a contest between the Christians and the Vintners about a certain publick place which the Christians had seiz'd and challenged for theirs the Emperour gave the cause for the Christians against the Vintners saying ' t was much better that God should be worshipped there any ways than that the Vintners should possess it If it shall be said that the Heathens of those times generally accused the Christians for having no Temples and charged it upon them as a piece of atheism and impiety and that the Christian Apologists did not deny it as will appear to any that will take the pains to examine the places alledged in the margin to this the answer in short depends upon the notion which they had of a Temple by which the Gentiles understood the places devoted to their gods and wherein their Deities were inclosed and shut up places adorned with Statues and Images with fine Altars and ornaments and for such Temples as these they freely confessed they had none no nor ought to have for that the true God did not as the Heathens supposed theirs dwell in Temples made with hands nor either needed nor could possibly be honoured by them and therefore they purposely abstained from the word Temple and I do not remember that 't is used by any Christian Writer for the place of the Christian Assemblies for the best part of the first three hundred years and yet those very Writers who deny Christians to have had any Temples do at the same time acknowledge that they had their meeting places for divine Worship their conventicula as Arnobius calls them and complains they were furiously demolished by their Enemies If any desire to know more concerning this as also that Christians had appropriate places of Worship for the greatest part of the three first Centuries let him read a Discourse purposely written upon this subject by a most learned man of our own Nation nor indeed should I have said so much as I have about it but that I had noted most of these things before I read his Discourse upon that subject Afterwards their Churches began to rise apace according as they met with more quiet and favourable times especially under Valerian Gallienus Claudius Aurelian and some other Emperours of which times Eusebius tells us that the Bishops met with the highest respect and kindness both from people and Governours and adds but who shall be able to reckon up the innumerable multitudes that daily flocked to the Faith of Christ the number of Congregations in every City those famous meetings of theirs in their Oratories or sacred places so great that not being content with those old Buildings which they had before they erected from the very foundations more fair and spacious Churches in every City This was several years before the times of Constantine and yet even then they had their Churches of ancient date This indeed was a very serene and Sun-shiny season but alas it begun to darken again and the clouds returned after rain for in the very next Chapter he tells us that in the Reign of Dioclesian there came out Imperial Edicts commanding all Christians to be persecuted the Bishops to be imprisoned the holy Bible to be burnt and their Churches to be demolished and laid level with the ground which how many they were may be guessed at by this that as Optatus tells us there were about this time above forty Basilicae or Churches in Rome only Upon Constantines coming into a partnership of the Empire the Clouds began to dispense and scatter and Maximiâ—us who then govern'd the Eastern parts of the Empire a bitter Enemy to Christians was yet forced by a publick Edict to give Christians the free liberty of their Religion and leave to repair and rebuild 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Churches which shortly after they every where set upon raising their Churches from the ground to a vast height and to a far greater splendour and glory than those which they had before the Emperours giving all possible encouragement to it by frequent Laws and Constitutions the Christians also themselves contributing towards it with the greatest chearfulness and liberality even to a magnificence comparable to that of the Jewish Princes towards the building of Solomons Temple as Eusebius tells them in his Oration at the dedication of the famous Church at Tyre And no sooner was the whole Empire devolved upon Constantine but he published two Laws one to prohibite Pagan Worship the other commanding Churches to be built of a nobler size and capacity than before to which purpose he directed his Letters to Eusebius and the rest of the Bishops to see it done within their several jurisdictions charging also the Governours of Provinces to be assisting to them and to furnish them with whatever was necessary and convenient insomuch that in a short time the world was beautified with Churches and sacred Oratories both in Cities and Villages and in the most barbarous and desart places called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the Historian from whence our Kirk and Church the Lords Houses because erected not to men but to the honour of our Lord and Saviour 'T were needless to insist any longer upon the piety of Christians in building Churches in and after the times of Constantine the instances being so vastly numerous only I cannot omit what Nazianzen reports of his own Father who though Bishop of a very small and inconsiderable Diocess yet built a famous Church almost wholly at his own charge Thus we have seen that from the very infancy of the Gospel the Christians always had their setled and determinate places of divine Worship for the form and fashion of their Churches it was for the most part oblong to keep say some the better correspondence with the fashion of a Ship the common notion and metaphor by which the Church was wont to be represented and to put us in mind that we are tossed up and down in the world as upon a stormy and tempestuous Sea and that out of the Church there 's no safe passage to Heaven the Country we all hope to arrive at They were generally built towards the East towards which also they performed the more solemn parts of their Worship the reasons whereof we shall see afterwards in its due place following herein the Custom of the Gentiles though upon far other grounds than they did and this seems to have obtained from the first Ages of Christianity sure I am 't was so in Tertullian's time who
his particular lot and portion comprehending the body of the people in general But afterwards this title was confin'd to narrower bounds and became appropriate to that Tribe which God had made choice of to stand before him to wait at his Altar and to minister in the services of his Worship And after the expiration of their Oeconomy was accordingly used to denote the ministry of the Gospel the persons peculiarly consecrated and devoted to the service of God in the Christian Church the Clergie being those qui divino cultui ministeria religionis impendunt as they are defin'd in a Law of the Emperour Constantine who are set apart for the ministeries of Religion in matters relating to the Divine Worship Now the whole 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 't is often called in the Apostles Canons the roll of the Clergie of the ancient Church taking it within the compass of its first four hundred years consisted of two sorts of persons the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who were peculiarly consecrated to the more proper and immediate acts of the Worship of God and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as were set apart only for the more mean and common services of the Church Of the first sort were these three Bishops Presbyters and Deacons The first and principal Officer of the Church was the President or Bishop usually chosen out of the Presbyters I shall not here concern my self in the disputes whether Episcopacy as a superior order to Presbytery was of divine institution a controversie sufficiently ventilated in the late times it being enough to my purpose what is acknowledged both by Blondel and Salmasius the most learned defenders of Presbytery that Bishops were distinct from and superior to Presbyters in the second Century or the next Age to the Apostles The main work and office of a Bishop was to teach and instruct the people to administer the Sacraments to absolve Penitents to eject and excommunicate obstinate and incorrigible offenders to preside in the Assemblies of the Clergy to ordain inferiour Officers in the Church to call them to account and to suspend or deal with them according to the nature of the offence to urge the observance of Ecclesiastical Laws and to appoint and institute such indifferent Rites as were for the decent and orderly administration of his Church In short according to the notation of his name he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Watchman and Sentinal and therefore oblig'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diligently and carefully to inspect and observe to superintend and provide for those that were under his charge This Zonaras tells us was implied in the Bishops Throne being placed on high in the most eminent part of the Church to denote how much 't was his duty from thence to overlook and very diligently to observe the people that were under him These and many more were the unquestionable rights and duties of the Episcopal Office which because it was very difficult and troublesom for one man to discharge especially where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Diocess as we now call it was any thing large therefore upon the multiplying of Country Churches it was thought fit to take in a subordinate sort of Bishops called Chorepiscopi Country or as amongst us they have been called suffragan Bishops whose business it was to superintend and inspect the Churches in the Country that lay more remote from the City where the Episcopal See was and which the Bishop could not always inspect and oversee in his own person These were the Vicarii Episcoporum as they are called in Isidores Version of the thirteenth Canon both of the Ancyran and Neocaesarean Council the Bishops Deputies chosen out of the fittest and gravest persons In the Canon of the last mentioned Council they are said to be chosen in imitation of the seventy not the seventy Elders which Moses took in to bear part of the Government as some have glossed the words of that Canon but of the seventy Disciples whom our Lord made choice of to send up and down the Countries to preach the Gospel as both Zonaras and Balsamon understand it and thereupon by reason of their great care and pains are commanded to be esteemed very honourable Their authority was much greater than that of Presbyters and yet much inferior to the Bishop Bishops really they were though their power confin'd within narrow limits they were not allowed to ordain either Presbyters or Deacons unless peculiarly licens'd to it by the Bishop of the Diocess though they might ordain sub-Deacons Readers and any inferiour Officers under them They were to be assistant to the Bishop might be present at Synods and Councils to many whereof we find their subscriptions and had power to give Letters of peace i. e. such Letters whereby the Bishop of one Diocess was wont to recommend any of his Clergy to the Bishop of another that so a fair understanding and correspondence might be maintained between them a priviledge expresly denied to any Presbyter whatsoever But lest this wandring employment of the Chorepiscopi should reflect any dishonour upon the Episcopal Office there were certain Presbyters appointed in their room called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Visiters often mentioned in the ancient Canons and Acts of Councils who being tied to no certain place were to go up and down the Country to observe and correct what was amiss And these doubtless were those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spoken of in the thirteenth Canon of the Neocaesarean Council those rural Presbyters who are there forbid to consecrate the Eucharist in the City Church in the presence of the Bishop or the Presbyters of the City As Christianity encreased and overspread all parts and especially the Cities of the Empire it was found necessary yet farther to enlarge the Episcopal Office and as there was commonly a Bishop in every great City so in the Metropolis as the Romans called it the Mother City of every Province wherein they had Courts of Civil Judicature there was an Archbishop or a Metropolitan who had Ecclesiastical jurisdiction over all the Churches within that Province He was superior to all the Bishops within those limits to him it belonged either to ordain or to ratifie the elections and ordinations of all the Bishops within his Province insomuch that without his confirmation they were looked upon as null and void Once at least every year he was to summon the Bishops under him to a Synod to enquire into and direct the Ecclesiastical affairs within that Province to inspect the lives and manners the opinions and principles of his Bishops to admonish reprove and suspend them that were disorderly and irregular if any controversies or contentions happened between any of them he was to have the hearing and determination of them and indeed no matter of moment was done within the whole Province without first consulting him in the case Besides this Metropolitan there was many times another in the same
Father who was Bishop of but a little Diocess lay very sick and all other remedies proved unsuccessful the people generally flocked to Church and though it was then the joyful time of Easter broke out into mournful and passionate complaints and with the most earnest prayers and tears besought God for his life And of Basil Bishop of Caesarea he tell us that when he lay a dying the whole City came about him not able to bear his departure from them praying as if they would have laid hands upon his soul and by force detained it in his body they were says he even distracted with the thoughts of so great a loss nor was there any who would not have been willing to have been deprived of part of his own life might it have added unto his His Funeral was solemnized with all possible testimonies of love and honourable attendance and with the abundant tears not only of Christians but of Jews and Heathens the confluence so vast that many were pressed to death in the crowd and sent to bear him company to his long home And that we may see that their respect did not lye meerly in a few kind words or external protestations they made it good in more real and evident demonstrations by providing liberal maintenance for them parting at first with their own estates to supply the uses of the Church and after that making no less large than frequent contributions which could not but amount to very considerable sums the piety of Christians daily adding to their liberality of which we may make some estimate by what the Heathen Historian with a little kind of envy relates only of the Church of Rome and doubtless it was so in some proportion in other places that the profits of the Clergie arising from oblations chiefly was so great as to enable them to live in a Prince-like state and plenty And not long after it became the object not only of admiration but envy insomuch that Chrysostom was forced to make one whole Sermon against those that envied the wealth of the Clergie It was also the great care of those times to free them from what might be either scandalous or burthensom to their calling Constantine decreed that the Orthodox Clergy should be exempt from all Civil Offices or whatever might hinder their attendance upon the services of the Church his Son Constantius that Bishops in many cases should not be chargeable in the secular Courts but be tryed in an Assembly of Bishops which privilege was extended by Honorius to all the Clergie that they should be tryed before their Bishops before whom also he ordained that all causes properly belonging to Religion should be brought and be determined by them and by another constitution that for the veneration that is due to the Church all Ecclesiastical causes should be decided with all possible speed And to name no more that the persons of Ministers might be secured from foreign attempts he and his Colleague Arcadius made a Law that whosoever did offer any violence to them should upon conviction or confession of the fact be punished with death and that the ministers of Civil justice should not stay till the Bishop complained of the injury that was done it being probable that he would rather incline to mercy and forgiveness but that every one in this case should be admitted and encouraged to prefer and prosecute the charge and in case the rude multitude should by arms or otherwise obstruct execution and that the powers of that place could not see it done that then they should call in the assistance of the Governour of the Province to see Justice put into execution And because next to his person nothing is so dear to a Clergie-man as his credit and reputation therefore the Emperour Honorius took care by a Law that whosoever be he a person of the highest rank should charge any Clergie-man with Crimes which he was not able to make good he himself should be publickly accounted vile and infamous it being but just and equal says the Law that as guilt should be punished and offenders reckoned as spots and blemishes to the Church so that injured innocency should be righted and maintained How infinitely tender the first general Council of Constantinople was in this case to secure the honour and good name of Bishops and Clergie-men against the malicious insinuations and charges of false accusers may appear by the large provision which they make about it in the sixth Canon of that Council and because it sometimes so happens that a mans enemies are those of his own house therefore the Apostolical Canons ordain that if any Clergy-man reproach and defame a Bishop he shall be deposed from his Ministry for thou mayest not says the Canon speak evil of the Ruler of thy people but if it be a Presbyter or Deacon whom he thus reproaches he shall be suspended from the execution of his Office So sacred and venerable did they then account the persons and concernments of those who ministred in the affairs of Divine Worship CHAP. IX Of their usual Worship both private and publick The Christians worship of God in their Families discovered Their usual times of prayer Praying before and after meals Singing of Psalms and reading the Scriptures at the same time Frequency in prayer noted in divers instances Their great reverence for the holy Scriptures in reading expounding committing them to memory Several instances of it Their care in instructing their Families in divine things Singing of Psalms mixed with their usual labours An account of their publick Worship The order of the Service in their Assemblies Prayer Reading the Scriptures Two Lessons out of each Testament Clemens his Epistle and the Writings of other pious men read in the Church Singing a part of the publick Service How ancient What those Hymns were The Sermon or discourse upon what subject usually Such discourses called Tractatus and why More Sermons than one at the same time Sermons preached in the afternoon as well as in the morning The mighty concourse and confluence of people to these publick Solemnities The departure of the Catechumens Penitents c. The Missa Catechumenorum what The Missa Fidelium The word missa or masse whence and how used in the Writers of those times The singular reverence they shewed in these Duties Great modesty and humility Praying with hands lift up in the form of a Cross why They prayed either kneeling or standing Sitting in prayer noted as a posture of great irreverence Praying towards the East The universality of this Custom The reasons of it enquired into Their reverence in hearing Gods Word The people generally stood Standing up at the Gospels The remarkable piety and devotion of Constantine the Great No departing the Congregation till the blessing was given THus far we have discovered the piety of those ancient times as to those necessary circumstances that relate to the
they held not in the morning only but likewise in the afternoon at some times at least when they had their publick Prayers and Sermons to the people This Chrysostom assures us of in an Homily upon this very subject in commendation of those who came to Church after Dinner and that as he tells them in greater numbers than before who instead of sleeping after Dinner came to hear the divine Laws expounded to them instead of walking upon the Exchange and entertaining themselves with idle and unprofitable chat came and stood amongst their brethren to converse with the discourses of the Prophets And this he tells them he put them in mind of not that it was a reproach to eat and to drink but that having done so it was a shame to stay at home and deprive themseâ—ves of those religious Solemnities The same 't were easie to make good from several passages in S. Basil S. Augustine and others who frequently refer to those Sermons which they had preached in the morning But how many soever the discourses were the people were ready enough to entertain them flocking to them as to their spiritual meals and banquets We meet together says Tertullian to hear the holy Scriptures rehearsed to us that so according to the quality of the times we may be either forewarned or corrected by them for certainly with these holy words we nourish our Faith erect our hope seal our confidence and by these inculcations are the better established in obedience to the divine commands Nazianzen tells us what vast numbers used to meet in his Church at Constantinople of all Sexes of all sorts and ranks of persons rich and poor honourable and ignoble learned and simple Governours and People Souldiers and Tradesmen all here unanimously conspiring together and greedily desirous to learn the knowledge of divine things The like Chrysostom reports of the Church at Antioch that they would set aside all affairs at home to come and hear Sermons at Church he tells them 't was the great honour of the City not so much that it had large Suburbs and vast numbers of people or brave houses with gilded Dining-Rooms as that it had a diligent and attentive people And elsewhere that 't was the great encouragement of his ministry to see such a famous and chearful concourse a people so well ordered and desirous to hear that 't was this advanced their City above the honour of a Senate or the Office of Consul or the variety of Statues or ornaments or the plenty of its Merchandise or the commodiousness of its scituation in that its people were so earnest to hear and learn its Churches so thronged and crowded and all persons inflamed with such an insatiable desire of the word that was preached to them yea that this it was that adorned the City even above Rome it self And indeed the commendation is the greater in that commonness did not breed contempt it being usual in that Church as Chrysostom often intimates for a good part of the year to have Sermons every day Well Sermon being ended prayers were made with and for the Catechumens Penitents Possessed and the like according to their respective capacities and qualifications the persons that were in every rank departing as soon as the prayer that particularly concerned them was done first the Catechumens and then the Penitents as is prescribed in the nineteenth Canon of the Laodicean Council for no sooner was the service thus far performed but all that were under baptism or under the discipline of penance i. e. all that might not communicate at the Lords Table were commanded to depart the Deacon crying aloud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those that are Catechumens go out in the Latine Church the form was ITE MISSA EST depart there is a dismission of you missa being the same with missio as remissa oft used in some Writers for remissio and so the word missa is used by Cassian even in his time for the dismission of the Congregation Hence it was that the whole Service from the beginning of it till the time that the Hearers were dismissed came to be called Missa Catechumenorum the Mass or Service of the Catechumens as that which was performed afterwards at the celebration of the Eucharist was called Missa Fidelium the Mass or Service of the Faithful because none but they were present at it and in these notions and no other the word is often to be met with in Tertullian and other ancient Writers of the Church 't is true that in process of time as the discipline of the Catechumens wore out so that title which belonged to the first part of the Service was forgotten and the name missa was appropriated to the Service of the Lords Supper and accordingly was made use of by the Church of Rome to denote that which they peculiarly call the Mass or the propitiatory Sacrifice of the Altar at this day and the more plausibly to impose this delusion upon the people they do with a great deal of confidence muster up all those places of the Fathers where the word missa is to be found and apply it to their Mass though it would puzle them to produce but one place where the word is used in the same sense as they use it now out of any genuine and approved Writer of the Church for at least the first four hundred years But to return the Catechumens c. being departed and the Church doors shut they proceeded to the Lords Supper at which the Faithful only might be present wherein they prayed for all states and ranks of men gave the the Kiss of charity prayed for consecration of the Eucharist then received the sacramental Elements made their Offerings and such like of which I do not now speak particularly because I intend to treat distinctly of the Sacraments afterwards for the same reason I say nothing concerning their admonitions Church-censures absolutions c. because these will come under consideration in another place as also because though managed at their publick Assemblies were yet only accidental to them and no setled parts of the Divine Service This in short was the general form of publick Worship in those ancient times which although it might vary somewhat according to times and places did yet for the main and the substance of it hold in all That which remains is a little to remarque how the Christians carried themselves in the discharge of these solemn duties which certainly was with singular reverence and devotion such gestures and actions as they conceived might express the greatest piety and humility Let both men and women says Clemens of Alexandria come to Church in comely apparel with a grave pace with a modest silence with a love unfeigned chast both in body and mind and so as they may be fit to put up prayers to God Let our speech in prayer says Cyprian be under discipline observing a decorous calmness