〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And on Solemn dayes when there was a Sacrifice more then ordinary offered by the Law a third called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is over above Further n. 8. That as the limbes of the Evening Sacrifice were burning all night upon the Altar so in correspondence there was ordered a prayer at night which though not obligatory he saith was practised by all Israel Of the Service appointed for Fasting-dayes at closing in the Evening called therefore by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I need say nothing here C. ii n. 2. he declareth that because when the Eve of the Passeover fell upon the Friday the Evening Sacrifice was killed half an houre after noon therefore the time from which the Evening Sacrifice became due was from thence to half an houre after three which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great Evening Service the lesse being from thence to Sunne-set So that he who prayeth this Service from half an houre after twelve is disobliged of the debt of it And upon what terms it is said either at both these houres or at the one according to their orders it followeth there n. 3. Of these three Services the Ebrew Doctours Maimoni as afore Abenezra upon Psal iv 6. R. Saadiah upon Dan. vi 10. constantly expound the words of the Psalmist there Evening and Morning and at Noon will I pray and cry aloud and he shall heare my voice And that of Daniel He kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before God as afore time Whence it should seem that when S. Peter went up to pray upon the house top about the sixth houre Acts x. 9. his meaning was to observe the lawfull houre of the Evening Service half an houre after Noon though being at Jerusalem he went up into the Temple with John at the houre of Prayer being the ninth houre when this Service was performed there in the Assembly of the people The same which Judith observed as we reade Judith ix 1. About the time that the incense of that Evening was offered in Jerusalem in the house of the Lord Judith cried with a loud voice and said According to that of the Psalme Let my Prayer be set forth in thy sight as the incense and let the lifting up of my hands be an Evening Sacrifice as you heard afore that their prayers in the Temple were offered at the time of incense Thus the order of the Synagogue aimed at the Sacrifices which by the Law were offered in the Temple In the Church it was received of very ancient time to pray at nine at twelve and at three afternoon aiming it should seem at the practice of the Synagogue and of the Apostles according to it but with the difference you see that they prayed thrice in the day time whereas the Jews third Service was at going to bed as you have it in Maimoni as afore Tertullian De Jejun adv Psych C. x. sheweth that the houres of nine and twelve and three were customed for Prayer by the Christians of that time by proving it from the example of the Disciples assembled as S. Peter saith Acts ii 15. upon the third houre of the day of S. Peter that went up to pray at the sixth houre and of Peter and John that went up to the Temple at the houre of prayer being the ninth houre And then it followeth Quod etiam suadet Danielis quoque argumentum ter die orantis utique per aliquarum horarum exceptionem non aliarum autem quà m insigniorum exinde Apostolicarum tertiae sextae nonae Hinc itaque Petrum dicam ex vetere potiùs usu nonam observasse tertio orantem supremae orationis munere Which also Daniel his praying thrice a day argueth forsooth excepting some houres and those no other then these of the Apostles which thence were more notable the third sixth and ninth Hereupon I would say that Peter rather observed the ninth by ancient custome praying the third time as the last offering Here lieth the difference It is the third prayer of the day according to Tertullian which Peter and John offered at the time of Evening Sacrifice which these Ebrew Doctours make but the second Whatsoever become of this difference as concerning the houres of mens private prayers the publick houres of the Temple observed by the Apostles became a President to the Church for the Publick Service of God at their Assemblies In the Constitutions of the Apostles they are exhorted to pray the Lords Prayer thrice a day according to Tertullian vii 24. They are again exhorted to pray at other houres besides viii 36. But as concerning their Assemblies thus he instructeth the Bishop to teach the people just according to the practice of the Synagogue alledged out of Maimoni ii 58. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But in teaching O Bishop charge and instruct the people to be continually at Church Morning and Evening every day and not absent at all Whereas upon Lords dayes in the same place he remembreth three Services which seem to be those whereof the Canon of Laodicea speaketh where it appointeth the same Service of Prayers to be used both at three and at Evenings meaning upon Lords dayes according to these Constitutions It is not then this Authours judgement upon which I stand not but it is the Example of the Apostles and Primitive Disciples resorting to the Temple to serve God with the Jews in the Service there practised and that according to the custome of the Synagogue but it is the custome of the Church by him remembred and derived from their Example that must needs recommend with great weight unto us the order of this Church as concerning daily Morning and Evening Service And to the same purpose in the Reformation Calvine upon Acts iii. 1. Instituerat Dominus ut Sacrificium vesperi mane offerrent Hoc exercitio docebantur ab Invocatione cultu Dei incipere diem claudere God hath appointed the Jews to offer Sacrifice morning and evening By this exercise they were taught to begin and close the day with calling upon God and his Service A little after Primùm quòd statas horas Deus veteri populo esse voluit indè colligimus Ecclesiam non posse carere certâ disciplinâ Ac hodie nisi obstaret nimius torpor utile esset quotidie haberi tales conventus First whereas God appointed his ancient people set houres thence we gather that the Church cannot be without a certain discipline And at this day if too much dulnesse hindered not it were usefull every day to hold such Assemblies Of Festivals appointed by the Guides of the Synagogue not by the Law of Moses we have foure to my remembrance expressed in the Scriptures The first is that of Purim Esther ix 20. The second the Festivall of the Law upon Tisri xxiii observed still among the Jews for making an end of reading the
Law which they begin to reade over again the next Sabbath pointed at Nehem. viii 9. ix 1. as Scaliger De Emend Temp. vii Not. in Comp. Jud. hath excellently observed It is first to be known that the Festivals of the Law were appointed to be solemnized with mirth and gladnesse of heart wherefore they are called Num. x. 10. The dayes of your gladnesse And in the Psalme for the Sabbath xcii 4. the Psalmist in this respect For thou Lord hast made me glad through thy works saith he I will triumph in the works of thy hands expressing the subject of that gladnesse the remembrance of the Creation upon that day celebrated Though the observance of rest upon the Sabbath was strict yet when our Saviour went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath Luke xiv 1. this invitation and entertainment is argument enough that it was Festivall for the manner of observance Hereupon it is that the people falling to weep upon hearing the Law read the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles Nehem. viii 9. are forbidden to violate the Law of the Feast and commanded to observe the day in the right nature of it Whereas the people then being forbidden to mourn on the Festivall are said ix 1. to have fasted on the xxiiii of that moneth we have cause to presume with him that the Fast whereof they acknowledged the cause upon the first day of that Feast was deferred till the usuall Solemnities of it were past which by the Law ending upon the xxii and the Fast not kept till the xxiiii it is plain that the reason was the Festivall of the Law falling then and observed upon the xxiii as now not by the Law but by the Constitution of their Elders The third is the Feast of the wood-offering of which Nehem. x. 34. And we cast lots among the Priests the Levites and the People for the wood-offering to bring it into the house of our God after the houses of our fathers at times appointed yeare by yeare to burn upon the Altar of the Lord our God as it is written in the Law And xiii 31. And for the wood-offering at times appointed The same Scaliger conceiveth out of Josephus that this Festivall fell upon the xxii of the moneth Ab to which sense he referreth the words of Orach Hajim AB est rex quòd in eo caederent ligna in Sacrificium AB is a King among Moneths because upon it they cut wood for the Sacrifice But the truth is that which the Misna relateth Mass Taanith C. iv n. 5. that it was held for nine dayes of severall moneths whereof a great part fell in that moneth For this is that which the Scripture saith At times appointed yeare by yeare The last is the Dedication of the Temple by Judas Maccabeus which our Lord observed John x. 22. neither is it within the compasse of common sense to imagine that he did otherwise in the rest of the Solemnities which were then for certain in the Jews Calendar As for their times of Fasting the day of Atonement stood by the Law of Moses and the rest appointed for it as strict as that of the Sabbath but the nature of the observance quite otherwise with humiliation and afflicting the Soul There were divers other Fasts which that people took upon them to observe not upon the Law but upon publick Order and Custome upon set dayes of severall moneths as in their Calender is yet to be seen whereof some are remembred in the Scriptures Zach. vii 5. and viii 19. we reade of the Fasts of the fourth and fifth and seventh and tenth moneths in remembrance of those calamities which God had punished the sinnes of that people with upon those dayes most of them still remembred in their writings Besides that which is read in the Law of Moses Num. x. 9. And if you go to warre in your land with your enemies that distresse you then you shall blow an alarm with the Trumpets hath been from old time understood in the practice of that people of all distresses that came upon them for their sinnes and of Proclaiming Fasts for strict repentance and diverting Gods wrath Maimoni Taanioth C. i. num 1. The Order of which Fasts was grounded upon that which the words of the Pharisee point at Luke xviii 12. I fast twice in the week For without doubt the second and fifth day of the week Mundayes and Thursdayes were observed many ages afore that for the purposes which the same Rabbi specifieth Tephillah Ubircath Cohenim C. xii n. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Lord Moses appointed Israel to reade the Law at morning Prayer upon the Sabbath and the second and the fifth that they might not rest three dayes from hearing the Law and Esra appointed to reade it at evening Prayer upon the Sabbath because of idle persons And he ordered that three men should reade upon the second and fifth and not lesse then ten verses And in Megillah C. i. num 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those that dwell in villages that Assemble not in the Synagogues but upon the second and the fifth These are his words by which it appeareth that these dayes were more solemn for Assemblies then the rest of the week seeing that in villages they Assembled upon them in the Synagogues which upon every day they did not The words of the Pharisee bear further that they were observed with fasting and besides Epiphanius their own writers have delivered no lesse But the observance without doubt was not so strict upon them else could not the Pharisee have alledged it for his own praise And the Order of proclaimed Fasts whereof I began to speak argueth no lesse It was at the least for three dayes beginning at the Munday and so on the Thursday and Munday next Maimoni Taanioth C. i. n. 5. But if seven dayes of fasting were appointed then they went on interchangeably from the first Munday C. iii. n. 5. So the Congregation fasted not on Sabbaths or Festivals neither did they begin fasting on New-moons or the Dedication or Purim or the working day of a Feast that is the dayes that come between the first and last of the Passeover and Tabernacles but if they had begun afore they went on upon these dayes C. i. n. 6 7. If these dayes then had been fasted ordinarily with such strict observance then could not the extraordinary Fasts which were purposely cast upon the same dayes have been perceived The institution and observation of these Solemnities in the Synagogue as it regarded no Ceremoniall Service which figured things to come but the Service of God by publick Prayers and the Praises of God with hearing his Word upon the remembrance of his blessings or of our misdeeds was a due President for the Church to follow according to the chief occasions ministred by the Principles of our Faith The Resurrection of our Lord in the first place Who can
drink on the Sabbath by his words there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pag. 65. line 19. after words adde of P. 84. l. 7. reade case I truly have judged Pag. 87. line 19. after to the people adde The words of S. Augustine contra Epist Parmen iii. 2. Tunc etiam ille timore percutitur pudore sanatur cùm ab universa Ecclesia se anathematizatum videns sociam turbam cum qua in delicto suo gaudeat bonis insultet non potest invenire Then also is he both struck with fear and healed with shame when seeing himself anathematized by the whole Congregation he can find no rout to bear him company wherewith to exult in his fault and insult over the good Shall I believe that in S. Augustines time the sentence of Anathema came from the Congregation which Tertullian so long afore hath appropriated to the Ecclesiasticall Order when he saith de pudicit c. xiiii Hoc enim non à Deo postularetur quod erat in Praesident is officio For that would not be desired of God which was part of the Presidents Office speaking of delivering to Satan the incestuous person at Corinth yet neverthelesse S. Augustine saith that a man is anathematized by the whole Congregation in regard of the execution and effect which the sentence of the Bishop or Ecclesiastical Order then found by consent of the people when the Law inforced it not Which is the very case of the Apostle alledged afore Pag. 90. l. 22. after right adde and charge P. 91. l. 17. aft whole adde The dependance indeed of particular Congregations upon Episcopall Churches is clearly derived from the Institution of the Apostles related in the Scriptures as must be observed afterwards But it must also be said that the dependance of Episcopall Churches is frō humane right Pag. 93. l. 1. after obedience adde from the secular Powers Pag. 104. l. 22. after evil spirit adde to persist in their counterfeiting Pag. 117. l. 13. after Ecclesiasticall Writers adde as of Ministers of Churches it shall be oserved indeed that sometimes Lay men were licensed to teach the people in the Primitive times but those are never called or accounted Doctours of Churches that we should suppose them to be the remains of those Ministers of Churches which the Apostle calleth Doctours Pag. 123. l. 12. for But that all Presbyters were Prophets or all Prophets Presbyters reade But that all Prophets were Presbyters is more then I can resolve By the Apostles description it should seem that they had their place with the Bench of the Church Walo Messalinus out of Ruffinus hath remembred to us Ordinem Propheticum the Rank or Bench of Prophets as a Ministery by themselves Ireneus Justine Martyr and Tertullian have left mention of the Grace of Prophets as extant in their time but of the use of it for the ordinary Ministery of the Church in teaching the people they have said nothing to my knowledge Pag. 131. l. 9. reade required at their Prophets hands by the way we may perceive c Pag. 138. l. 30. reade in a strange language it shall here be declared c. P. 161. l. 4. after done If this please not or if it seem not generall enough to satisfie the meaning of the Apostles words it may be said in larger terms that all that which the Prophets by help of humane discourse conceived and uttered for and in their publick Assemblies upon the grounds of their particular revelations is here called the Spirits of the Prophets Which therefore must needs be subject to the judgement of other Prophets P. 169. l. 1. reade to make it his own Cxvii when he singeth O praise God all ye people praise him all ye Nations the Apostle c. P. 212. l. 4. reade by whom it speaketh that is a mistake which c. P. 232. l. 11. reade the head of the Captives of the linage c. ibid. l. 22. after professe adde And from that first title of the Misna we have enough to convince this whole point if Scaligers judgement may take place For there we have divers cases concerning the very formall words of divers of those Prayers which still they use resolved by Doctours that lived not long after our Lords time And Scaligers judgement is VI. De Emend Temp. that there is no more question to be made whether those resolutions be the resolutions of those Doctours to whom they are intitled there then whether the resolutions of the old Romane Sages preserved in the digests of the Civil Law be their own or not Thus must needs those Prayers be farre more ancient then the time of our Lord concerning the formall terms whereof cases new disputed at that time see the Misna Beracoth C. iv 3. v. 2. P. 236. l. ult after by heart adde There is a reason why the heathen had prompters to suggest unto them the devotions which they addressed to severall Deities because they counted severall Deities properly able to bestow severall blessings and accordingly held severall rites proper for their Service which it was Sacriledge to perform otherwise Arnobius contra Gentes iii. Vsque adeòres exigit propriatim Deos scire nec ambigere nec dubitare de uniuscujusque vi nomine ut cùm altenis ritibus appellationibus fuerint invocati aures habeant structas piaculis nos teneant inexpiabilibus obligatos So farre it concerns particularly to know the Gods without ambiguitie or doubt of the virtue and name of each that when they are called upon by the rites and names of others both they have their ears stopped and hold us insnared with inexpiable sacriledges See there afore So Tertullian according to this sense makes a very pertinent opposition between the Heathen that prayed as they were prompted and the Heathen that prayed by heart P. 241. l. 25. after Solemn adde Which question perhaps need not be asked if we consider that S. Cyprian spake in his Masters terms who when he nameth Dominica solennia and again post transacta solennia De Anima C. i. x. must needs be understood to mean the same to wit the solemn Prayers which the Eucharist was celebrated with For indeed the latter of those two passages of S. Cyprian I think is out of a Work intitled to him but none of his own P. 245. l. 30. after hold adde To the same purpose Conc. Gerund Can. 1. P. 282. l. 7. after those adde things Pag. 283. l. ult reade a schisme in the Church c. P. 298. l. 22. reade minds are best in tune c. P. 313. l. 32. Therefore in that they require that publick Order be not exacted in respect to the weak they acknowledge the thing lawfull by acknowledging him weak that doubts of it though in truth it concerneth them rather to inform the weak of the lawfulnesse of those things which publick Order requireth at their hands then to continue them in their weaknesse and thereupon pretend that publick Order ought not to be exacted at their hands P. 362. l. 23. after to the purpose of it adde Let a man look over the benedictions which they use before and after the Lesson of Heare O Israel Deut. vi in the morning Let a man look over the xviii benedictions which they say every day morning evening and at night the antiquite whereof may in some sort be valued by that which hath been said afore C. vii and it shall easily appear that they contain Prayers as well as Praises or Thanksgivings to God though called Benedictions because they begin or end or both with Blessed art thou O God specifying something concerning the subject of each Pag. 386. l. 14. after ignorance breedeth adde In the Anaphora of S. Peter in the Maronites Missall this Prayer is made for forgivenesse of sinnes In the Jesuite Kircherus his Prodromus Captus for an essay of that language I remember there is produced a form of this Prayer as ministred by the Deacon out of some of their Liturgies The books are not in my hand for the present Faults escaped in Printing Pag. 72. l. 26. for swell reade smell p. 98. l. 22. Sculletus r. Scultetus p. 108. l. 9. vers 8. r. vers 28. p. 176. l. 13. Parmenians r. Parmenianus p. 223. l. 19. for Prike alwayes reade Pirke p. 248. l. 23. Sciatach r. Scialach l. 24. Velseius r. Velserus p. 252. l. 13. Preacher r. practice p. 253. l. 16. in r. it