is in respect that the Lord passed over the Houses of our Fathers in Egypt Then holdeth be up the bitter herbs in his hand and saith These bitter herbs which we eat are in respect that the Egyptians made the lives of our Fathers bitter in Egypt Then he holdeth up the unleavened bread in his hand and saith This unleavened bread which we eat is in respect that the dough of our Fathers had not time to be leavened when the Lord appeared unto them and redeemed them out of the hand of the Enemy and they baked unleavened Cakes of the dough which they brought out of Egypt Then be saith Therefore are we bound to Confess to Praise to Laud to Celebrate to Glorifie to Honour to Extol to Magnifie and to Ascribe Victory unto him that did unfreedom from sorrow to joy from darkness to great light and we say before him Hallelujah Hallelujab Praise O ye Servants of the Lord c. unto the end of the cxiv Psalm Then they bless the Lord which redeemed them and their Fathers out of Egypt and hath brought them unto that night to eat unleavened bread therein and bitter herbs And he blesseth God who Created the fruit of the Vine and drinketh the second Cup. After this he blesseth for the washing of hands and washeth his hands the second time and taketh two Cakes parteth one of them c. and blesseth God that bringeth bread out of the Earth Because it is said the Bread of Affliction or of Poverty Deut. xvi 3. As it is the manner of the Poor to have broken meat so here is a broken part Afterwards he wrappeth up of the unleavened bread and of the bitter herbs together and dippeth them in the sawce and blesseth God which commanded to eat unleavened bread and bitter herbs and they eat Then he blesseth God which commanded the eating of the Sacrifice and he eateth the flesh of the Feast-offering and again blesseth God which commanded the eating of the Passeover and then he eateth of the body of the Passeover After this they sit long at Supper and eat every one so much as he will and drink as much as they will drink Afterward he eateth of the flesh of the Passeover though it be but so much as an Olive and tasteth nothing at all after it that it may be the end of his supper and that the taste of the flesh of the Passeover may remain in his mouth After this he lifteth up his bands and blesseth for the third cup of Wine and drinketh it Then filleth he the fourth cup and accomplisheth for it the Praise or hymn and saith for it the blessing of the song which is All thy works praise thee O Lord c. Psal cxlv 10. and blesseth God that Created the fruit of the Vine and tasteth nothing at all after it all the night except water And he may fill the fifth cup saying for it is the great Hymn viz. Confess ye to the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Psal cxxxvi unto the end of that Psalm But he is not bound they say to that cup as to the four farmer cups For this he citeth Rabbi Maymoni and after addeth from the said Author but from another work of his That at the breaking and delivering of the unleavened bread they do use these words This is the Bread of Affliction which our Fathers did eat in the Land of Egypt Whosoever is hungry let him come and eat whosoever hath need let him come and keep the Passeover c. Compare the words which follow after viz. These observations of the Jews whilst their Common-wealth stood c. with those of Beza formerly remembred à primo in Chananitidem ingressu and then we have an Answer to the doubt which might be raised from the first words of Aynsworth in these observations which seem to intimate that this Order was not used by the Jews till the Ages following The Prayers the Praises and the Benedictions which are the points which Beza speaks of might be and were used by them at their first entrance on the Land of Canaan their frequent washings and reiterating of the Cup so often might not be introduced till the Ages following Here then we have set forms of Prayer and Praise and Benediction used at the Celebrating of the Jewish Sacrifices the Song of Moses made a part of the Jewish Liturgy the several rites and prescribed duties observed in the solemnity of the Jewish Passover and all of very great Antiquity even from the time of Moses saith the old Samaritan Chronicle à primo in Chananitidemingressu from their first entrance into the Promised Land as it is in Beza And for the instituting of these forms besides the power that God hath given unto his Church on the like occasions they had the president and example of the Lord himself who had prescribed in one kind binding the Priests unto a certain form of Benediction when he blessed the people and in a second place of Moses who had tied himself unto a certain form of words as often as he setled or removed the Ark. For we are told in holy Scripture that whensoever the Ark set forwards Moses said Rise up Lord and let thine Enemies he scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee And when it rested he said Return O Lord unto the many thousands of Israel Numb 10.35 And for the blessing of the people we find the form thereof prescribed by the Lord himself saying unto Aaron and his Sons On this wise shall ye bless the Children of Israel saying unto them The Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his Face to shine upon thee and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his Countenance upon thee and give thee peace Numb 10.23 24 25 26. And to this form the Priests were so precifely tied that they durst not vary from the same the Hebrew Doctors understanding the word thus or in this wise to imply both the matter and the manner as viz. Thus shall ye bless i.e. standing thus with the lifting up of hands thus in the holy tongue thus with your faces towards the faces of the people thus with an high voice thus by Gods expressed Name JEHOVAH if ye bless in the Sanctuary So that it was not lawful to the Priest in any place to add any blessing unto these three verses as to say like that of Deut. 1.11 The Lord God of your Fathers make you a thousand times so many more as you are or any the like Maymoni cited by Aynsw in Numb 6. Now for the manner wherewithal the Priests performed this office it was briefly thus The Priests went up unto the bank or stage after that they had finished the daily morning Service and lifted up their hands on high above their heads and their fingers spread abroad except the High-Priest who might not lift his hands higher than the Plate whereof see Exod. xxviii 36. and
next It is meet and right so to do And then the Bishop It is meet right and our bounden duty above all things to praise thee the true God who wast from all eternity before the foundation of the world was laid Finally this being done let the Bishop give unto the people the blessing of peace Id. l. 2. c. 57. And as Moses did command the Priests to bless the people in these words The Lord bless thee and keep thee the Lord make his Face to shine upon thee and grant thee peace So shall the Bishop use this Form Conserva Domine populum tuum incolumen c. Preserve O Lord thy people in safety and bless thine inheritance which thou possessest and hast purchased with the Blood of Christ and callest a Royal Priesthood and holy Nation Afterwards let him go to the Consecration all the people standing and praying softly to themselves and the Oblation being made let every one severally receive the Body and Blood of our Lord and Saviour coming in order thereunto and with fear and reverence the Women being also veiled or covered as becomes their Sex And whilst that this is doing let the doors of the Church be shut that neither any Infidel or Vnbaptized person be present at it So far and to this purpose Clemens or whosoever was the Author of the Constitutions which how it doth agree with the publick Forms still extant on record in the works and monuments of such Ancient Writers of whom there is no question amongst Learned men we shall see anon One thing must first be taken into consideration and that is whether in the reading of the holy Scripture the Minister was left to his own Election although not for the number of the Sections or Chapters as we call them now yet to read what and where he would without appointment of the Church A point which hath already been resolved by the Church of England declaring The Preface to the Book of Common Prayer How it was so ordered by the ancient Fathers that all the whole Bible or the greatest part thereof should be read over once every year intending thereby that the Clergy and especially such as were Ministers of the Congregation should by often reading and meditation of Gods words be stirred up to godliness themselves and be more ale to exhort others by wholesome Doctrine and to confute them that were Adversaries to the truth And further that the people by daily hearing of holy Scripture read in the Church should copntinually profit more and more in the knowledge of God and be the more inflamed with the love of his true Religion And certainly it was a good and godly institution savouring most abundantly of the primitive wisdom though now I know not how it comes to pass it be made a matter of no moment sive biennio sive triennio absolvatur lectio sacrae Scripturae Altare Damasc c. 10. p. 633. whether the Scriptures be read over in two years or three so it be read at all in the Congregation So little thanks or commendations hath this unhappy Church of England for labouring to revive the ancient orders of the Primitive times and to bring the people of the Lord to be acquainted with his holy Word But it is said that in the Primitive times there was no such custom but all was left both for the choice and number of the Lessons arbitrio Ecclesiae * Id. Ibid. to the discretion of the Church that is to say for nothing else can be the meaning to the discretion of the Minister And this they prove from that of Justin Martyr produced before where it is said that they did read the writings of the Prophets and Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. as they translate it quoad tempus fert as the time would bear But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if translated rightly is indeed quantum licet as much as is lawful and permitted which quite destroyeth their meaning and confirms the Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concedo admitto Hinc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impersonaliter exponitur licet locus est facultas est in the common Lexicon * v. Stephant Thesaurum And this appears further by the best classick Authors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non licebat manere in Xenophon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quam primum licuerit in Herodotus so in others also And that it was thus in the antient practice appeareth very plainly by that of Austin though of a later standing than the times we speak of where it is said that in the meeting or assembly for religious Worship scripturarum divinarum lecta sunt solennia †Augustin de civit Dei l. 22. cap. 8. the solemn and appointed Lessons out of holy Scripture were read unto the Congregation And if they were solennia then that is set out determined and appointed for times and seasons I cannot think thatthey were otherwise in these former days unless it were on extraordinary and great occasions in which that course might possibly be dispensed withal as in the times of persecution and the like extremities And so we come unto the third age of the Church and there we shall begin with Origen who grew into esteem and credit in the beginning of this Century and so continued till the midst By him it is observed and exceeding rightly in Ecclesiasticis observationibus nonnulla esse hujusmodi quae omnibus quidem facere necesse est nec tamen rationem eorum omnibus patere that in the usages of the Church there are many things which of necessary are to be done by every man although the reason of them be not known to all * Origen in Numer cap. 4. Homil 5. Which said in general he thus descends unto particulars Nam quod genua flectimus orantes quod ex omnibus coeli plagis ad solam Orientis partem conversi orationem fundimus non facile cuique puto ratione compertum Sed Eucharistiae sive percipiendae sive eo ritus quo geritur explicandae vel eorum quae geruntur in baptismo verborum gestorumque ordinum atuqe interrogationum ac responsionum quis facile explicet rationem Et tamen omnia haec operta relata portamus super humeros nostros cum ita implemus ea exequimur ut à magno Pontifice ab ejus filiis tradita commendata suscepimus For when we kneel saith he in the time of Prayer and that of all the points in Heaven we turn unto the East when we make our prayers I think the reason why we do so is not known to any Or who can readily assign a reason of those Rites and Ceremonies used both in the receiving of the Eucharist or at the consecrating of the same or of those many things which are done in baptism the words and gestures the order there observed the Interrogatories and the Answers And yet all these we undergo whether revealed
them which is the moral part thereof A thing which God might please to leave unto the wisdom of his Church and the Rulers of it in that being moral duties and so by consequence imprinted in the minds of men by the stamp of nature there needed not so punctual and precise a prescription of them as of the outward ceremonies which were meerly legal Now that there were set forms of Prayers and Praises used in the celebratien of these legal Sacrifices even from the very times of Moses appeareth by a memorable passage in an old Samaritan Chronicle belonging once unto the Library of Joseph Scaliger now in the custody of the Learned Primate of Armagh In which Book after relation of the death of Adrian the Emperour whom the Jews curse with Conterat Deus ossa ejus as certainly he was a deadly enemy of theirs it followeth thus Quo tempore abstulit librum optimum qui penes illos fuit Clted by the L. B. of Exeter now B. of Norwich in his Answer to the Vindication jam inde à diebus illis tranquillis pacificis qui continebat cantiones preces sacrificiis praemissas Singulis enim Sacrificiis singulas praemiserunt cantiones jam tum diebus pacis usitatas quae omnia acourato conscripta in singulas transmissa subsequentes generationes à tempore Legati Mosis sc ad hunc usque diem per ministerium Pontificum Maximorum These are the words at large as I find them cited the substance of the which is this That after the decease of Adrian the High Priest then being took away that most excellent Book which had been kept amongst them ever since the calm and peaceable times of the Israelites which contained those Songs and Prayers which were ever used before their Sacrifices there being before every several Sacrifice some several Song or Hymn still used in those times of peace all which being accurately written had been transmitted to the subsequent generations from the time of Moses the Legat or Ambassador of God to that very time by the Ministry of the High Priests of the Jewish Nation A book to which the Chronicle aforesaid gives this ample testimony Eo libro historia nulla praeter Pentateuchum Mosis antiquior invenitur that there was not to be found a more antient piece except the Pentateuch of Moses And though some men no friends to Liturgy out of a mind and purpose to disgrace the evidence have told us that the most contained in the aforesaid book Smectymn Vindicat. p. 24. were only divine Hymns wherein there was always something of Prayer In saying so they have given up their verdict for us and confirmed our evidence For if there were set Hymns or Songs premised before every Sacrifice and if that every Hymn had somewhat in it of a Prayer there must be then set forms of Hymns and Prayers used at every Sacrifice which was the matter to be proved and by them denied But to descend unto particulars there was a Song composed and sung by Moses Exod. 15. on the defeat of Pharoah and the host of Egypt which is still extant in Gods book A song sung Quire-wise as it seemeth Moses as Chanter in that holy Anthem singing verse by verse and Mary the Prophetess Aaron's Sister and all the residue of the Women with Instruments of Musick in their hands saying or singing at each verses end CANTATE DOMINO Sing ye to the Lord for he hath triumphed gloriously the horse and the rider hath he thrown into the Sea vers 21. Aynsworth doth so conceive it in his Notes on Exodus and Lyra on the place differs little from it Egressae sunt mulieres quibus Maria praecinebat sec quod oportebat fieri aliae respondebant sicut solet fieri in tympanis choris eodem modo fecit Moyses respecu virorum Cajetan though he differ from them both in the manner of it yet he agrees upon the matter that this Hymn or Anthem was sung Quire-wise or alternatim it being his opinion that the Women singing some spiritual song to the praise of God Cajetan in Exod. c. 15.21 Mary to every verse made answer CANTATE DOMINO Innuitur saith he quod tot choris mulierum tanquam ex una parte canentibus aliquid in divinam laudem Maria sola tanquam ex altera parte canebat initium supra scripti Cantici that viz. which was sung by Moses But whatsoever manner there was used in the singing of it it seems the Jews did afterwards make Use thereof in their publick Liturgy For thus saith Hooker in his Book of Ecclesiastical Polity Hook Eccl. Pol. lib. 5. n. 26. That very Hymn of Moses whereof now we speak grew afterwards to be a part of the ordinary Jewish Liturgie and not that only but sundry others since invented their Books of Common prayer containing partly Hymns taken out of the holy Scriptures partly Thanksgivings Benedictions and Supplications penned by such as were from time to time the Governors of that Synagogue All which were sorted into several times and places some to begin the Service of God withal and some to end some to go before and some to follow after and some to be interlaced between the divine readings of the Law and Prophets Nor is there any thing more probable than that unto their custom of finishing the Passeover with certain Psalms the holy Evangelist doth evidently allude saying That after the Cup delivered by our Saviour unto his Apostles they sung and so went forth to the Mount of Olives What ground that eminent and learned man had for the first part of his Assertion viz That the song of Moses grew afterwards to be a part of the Jewish Liturgy although he hath not pleased to let us know yet I am confident he had good ground for what he said But for the latter part thereof that the Evangelist doth allude unto certain Psalms used at the finishing of the Jewish Passeover I think there is not any thing more clear and evident For proof whereof and that we may the better see with what set form of Prayers and Praises the Passeover was celebrated by the Jews of old Joseph Scalig. de emend Temp. 1.6 we will make bold to use the words of Joseph Scaliger who describes it thus All things being readily prepared and the guests assembled Offam azymam in Embamma intingebat Paterfamilias c. The Father of the Family or Master of the House dipped the unleavened bread into the sawce which was forthwith eaten Another part thereof being carefully reserved under a napkin was broke into as many pieces as there were several guests in the Paschal Chamber each piece being of the bigness of an Olive and each delivered severally to the guests as they sate in order That done he takes the Cup and having drank thereof gives it to the next he to a second and so in order to the rest till they all had
I and my House and the Sons of Aaron thy holy people have sinned and done wickedly c. I beseech thee now O Lord be merciful c. as in the other forms before delivered Finally as there was a form prescribed the Priests in which to make Confession of their own and the peoples sins to the Lord their God so if the people were Impenitent and neither would be brought unto repentance or amendment of life they had their forms of Excommunication also Witness the solemn form in use amongst them in Excommunicating the Samaritans In the denouncing of which censure they brought together 300 Priests and 300 Trumpets and 300 Books of the Law and 300 Boys and they blew with the Trumpets and the Levites singing accursed the Cuttbaeans or Samaritans in the name of Tetragrammaton or JEHOVAH and with the curses both of the higher and lower House of judicature and said Cursed is he who eats the bread of the Cutthaean and let no Cutthaean be a Proselyte in Israel Drusius in Seph Tanhuma neither have any part in the resurrection of the just Which Curse being wrote on Tables and sealed up was published over all the Coasts of Israel who multiplied this great Anathema or Curse upon them Nothing can be more plain than this that in almost all sacred and religious duties which were to be performed in publick the Jews had anciently their appointed and determinate forms as well as their appointed and determinate either times or places But against this it is objected out of Rabbi Maimony that from the time of Moses unto Ezra there was no stinted form of Prayer heard of in the Jewish Church but every man prayed according unto his ability Smectymn Vindicat. p. 25. To which the Answer is in brief that they who have produced this place out of Rabbi Maimony dare not stand upon it conceiving it to be no testimony to command belief Secondly that the Rabbi in the place alledged speaks not of publick but of private prayers And thirdly that the place is curtalled to make it serve the turn the better For look upon the place at large and we find it thus We are commanded to pray every day as it is written And ye shall serve the Lord your God Exod. xxiii 25. We have been taught that this Service is Prayer as it is written And to serve him with all your heart Our wise men have said what Service is this with the heart It is Prayer And there is no number of Prayers by the Law neither is there any set form of this Prayer by the Law nor any appointed time for prayer by the Law And therefore Women and Servants are bound to pray because it is a Commandment the time whereof is not determined But the duty of this Commandment is thus that a Man make Supplication and Prayer every day and shew forth the praise of the holy blessed God and afterward ask such things as be needful for him by request and by supplication and afterward give praise and thanks unto the Lord for his goodness which he abundantly ministreth unto him every one according to his might If he be accustomed unto it let him use such Supplication and Prayer and if he be of uncircumcised lips let him speak according as he is able at any time when he will and so they make Prayers every one according unto his ability This is the place at large in Rabbi Maimony Maymoni cited by Ayns Deut. 6.13 And who sees not that this must be interpreted of private prayer or else it will conclude as strongly against appointed times and places for the performance of this holy exercise as against the forms and then what will become of the blessed Sabbath the day of Prayer or of the holy Temple the House of Prayer Must not they also be discharged on the self-same grounds Or were it meant of publick Prayer as it cannot be all that can be inferred is no more than this that God prescribed no set form or number of prayers in the Book of the Law which makes but little to the purpose For it was said and shewed before that Moses was more punctual and precise in laying down the form and matter of the legal Sacrifices by which the Jews were to be nourished in the faith of Christ and with the which they had not been acquainted in the former times than in prescribing forms of Prayer and Praises being moral duties in which they had been trained from their very infancy Now to this argument derived from the Authority of the Jewish Rabbins we must needs add another which is made against them and that is that the evidence of all this as also of much of that which followeth comes from no better Author than Maimonides Smectymn in Vindicat. p. 23. who wrote not till above a thousand years after Christ Against which weak objection for it is no other we have a very strong respondent even the famous Scaliger Who having made a full description of those rites and forms wherewith the Passeover was solemnized in the former times collected from the Writings of the Jewish Rabbins thinks it as idle and ridiculous to except against them because observed by Writers of a later date though from the best Records and Monuments of that scattered Nation as if a man reading the Pandects of the Civil Law composed in Justinians time should make a question whether those judgments and opinions ascribed unto Paepinian Paulus Vlpianus were theirs or not Quod nemo sanus dixerit Scaliger de emendat Temp. l. 6. Quod nemo sanus dixerit which none saith he except a mad-man would make question of And so these rubs being thus removed and in part anticipated we will go forwards with our search in the Name of God But first before we end this Chapter considering that there were set forms of Marriages and set rites of Burial and those of great Antiquity in the Jewish Church I will here put them down in the way of Corollary For though they were no part of the publick worship yet doubtless they were parts of the publick Liturgy and being performed with Prayer and Invocation of Gods holy Name they deserve place here And first for Marriage in the solemnities thereof they observed this form The time appointed being come the Bride and Bridegroom were conducted by their special Friends who are styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Children of the Bride-Chamber Mat. 9.15 in S. Matthews Gospel to the Marriage-house which from the Blessings and Thanksgivings which were used therein on these occasions was called Beth Hillula the House of Praise There in an Assembly of ten men at the least the Writing or Bill of Dowry being ratied before a Scrivener or publick Notary the Man thus said unto the Woman Esto mihi in uxorem secundum legem Mosis Israel Ego juxta verbum Dei colam te honorabo te With my body I thee worship alam
regam juxta morem qui colunt honorant regunt uxores fideliter Do autem tibi dotem virginitatis tuae ducentos aureos i.e. 50 siclos quin etiam alimentum tuum vestitum atque sufficientem necessitatem tuam Cornel. Bertram item cognitionem tui juxta consuetudinem universae terrae That is to say Be thou a Wife to me according to the Law of Moses and Israel and I shall worship and honour thee according to the Word of God I shall seed and govern thee according to the custom of those who worship honour and govern their Wives faithfully I give thee for the Dowry of thy Virginity two hundred pence i. e. 50 Shekels as also thy food cloathing and all sufficient necessaries and knowledge of thee according to the custom of the whole earth A Shekel was a piece of money among the Jews amounting in our coyn to 1 s. 3 d. Judg. 14.11 1 Sam. 18.25 Ruth 4.2 Much of which form as to the main and substance of it is exceeding Ancient For in the Marriage of Sampson we find the Children of the Bride-Chamber being the thirty young men his Companions as they are there called in that of David unto Michael the Daughter of Saul the bringing in of an hundred Foreskins of the Philistins in loco dotis as the Dowry-money in that of Ruth the presence of ten men to bear witness to it Nor was this done being a business of such moment without a special Benediction For at the Marriage of Boaz to Ruth the People and the Elders said The Lord make the Woman which is come into thine House like Rachel and like Leah which two did build the House of Israel and do thou worthily in Ephrata and be famous in Bethlehem and let thy House be like the House of Pharez of the Seed which the Lord will give thee of this young Woman Ruth 4.11 12. Upon this ground it was that Marriage was not solemnized amonst them without Prayers and Blessings the form whereof in the ensuing times was this as followeth Benedictus sis Domine Deus noster Rex universi c. Blessed be the Lord our God the King of the World who hath Created Man after his own Image according to the Image of his own likeness and hath thereby prepared unto himself an everlasting building Blessed be thou O Lord God who hast Created him Moses Aaron l. 6. cap. 4. Then followeth again Blessed be thou O Lord our God who hast Created joy and gladness the Bridegroom and the Bride Charity and Brotherly love Rejoycing and Pleasure Peace and Society I beseech thee O Lord let there be suddenly heard in the Cities of Judah and the Streets of Hierusalem the voice of joy and gladness the voice of the Bridegroom and the Bride the voice of exaltation in the Bride-Chamber is sweeter than any Feast and Children sweeter than the sweetness of a song Which Prayer thus ended one of the Bride-men or Companions took a cup having before been blessed in the wonted form and drinks unto the Married-couple As for the form and rites of Burial not to say any thing either of the washing or embalming of the Corps which was common unto them with other Nations Chiristan Synagogue l. 1. cap. 6. sict 8. Paraph. 15. Diat 1. their custom was after the body was interred to speak something of the justice of God and of mans sin which meriteth death and they prayed God in justice to remember mercy This said they gave a Cup of Consolation to the sad-hearted Finally on the grave or Tombstone they caused these words ensuing to be written Sit anima ejus in fasciculo vitae cum caeteris justis Amen Amen Selah That is to say let his soul be in the bundle of life with the rest of the just Amen Amen So be it These as they were the ancient forms and ceremonies used in their Marriages and Burials so after when they had erected Synagogues in convenient places they solemnized their Marriages in a Tent Maymon cited in Fishter's defence cap. 17. set upon four Pillars near their Synagogue which shews that there was something in it wherewith the Priest or Prophet was to intermeddle and that they did esteem it of a nature not so meerly civil but that the blessing of the Minister was required unto it But it is time I now go forward to the Ages following CHAP. III. Of the condition and estate of the Jewish Liturgy from the time of David unto Christ 1. Several hours of prayer used amongst the Jews and that the prayers then used were of prescribed forms 2. The great improvement of the Jewish Liturgie in the time of David by the addition of Psalms and Instruments of Musick 3. The form of Celebrating Gods publick Service according unto Davids Institutions described by the Jewish Rabbins 4. The solemn form used in the dedicating of the first and second Temples 5. The Temple principally built for an House of Prayer 6. The several and accustomed gestures used among the Jews in the performance of Gods publick worship 7. The weekly reading of the Law on the Sabbath days not used until the time of Ezra 8. The reading of the Law prescribed and regulated according to the number of the Sections by the care of Ezra and of the 18 Benedictions by him composed 9. The Exposition of the Law prescribed and ordered by the Authority of the Church 10. The first foundation of Synagogues and Oratories and for what employments 11. The Church of Jewry ordained Holy-days and prescribed forms of prayer to be used thereon 12. Set days for publick annual Feasts appointed by the Jewish Church with a set form of prayer agreeable to the occasion 13. The form of Celebrating Gods publick Service according as it is described by Jesus the Son of Syrac 14. Jesus the Son of God conforms himself unto the forms established in the Jewish Church 15. A transition from the forms received in the Jewish Church to those in Vse amongst the Gentiles THE Nation of the Jews being thus setled into an established Church by the hand of Moses and several forms of Prayer and Praise and Benediction prescribed unto them either immediately by the Lord himself or by the Church directed by the wisdom of Almighty God it was not long before that divers other points were added by the like Authority until the Liturgy thereof became full and absolute Of these the first in course of time was the deputing of certain and determinate hours in every day for the performance of those moral duties of Prayer and Praises in which Gods publick worship did consist especially which were the third the sixth and the ninth For clearer knowledge of the which we shall add thus much that the Jews did usually divide their day into four great parts hours of the Temple they were called that is to say the third hour which began at six of the Clock in the Morning and held on
the Law Levitical was given to Moses and all the Rites and ceremonies of the same prescribed and limited which plainly shews that Instrumental Musick in the celebrating of Gods publick worship is not derived at any hand from the Law of Moses or to be reckoned as a part of the Rites and Ceremonies of the Levitical Sacrifices And lest this intermixture of Songs and Musick in the officiating of the Moral worship of God might either be conceived to have been introduced by the Jews in the declining times of their zeal and piety or else ordained by David without good Authority and never practised in the purer times of the Jewish Church we will look into the Acts of Solomon Hezekiah Ezra Of Solomon and Ezra more anon Of Hezekiah this at present of whom it is recorded in the Book of Chronicles that in the restauration of Gods worship being much corrupted When the Burnt-offering began the Song of the Lord began also with Trumpets and with the Instruments ordained by David king of Israel And all the Congregation worshipped and the Singers sang and the Trumpeters sounded 2 Chron. 29.27 28. and all this continued till the Burnt-offering was finished Where note that this was some appointed and determinate song which had been formerly set out for the like occasions that which is here entituled the Song of the Lord or canticum Traditum as the word is rendred by Tremelius as also that the intermixture of Musical Instruments in Gods holy Service is referred to David And so 't is also in the Book of Nehemiah Neh. 12.46 where both the Singers and the songs are referred to him For in the days of David and Asaph of old there were chief of the Singers and songs of praise and thanksgiving unto God saith the holy Scripture Of Solomon and Ezra next the greatest and most memorable action of whose times was the building of the first and second Temples immensae opulentiae Templum Tacit. hist l. 5. as the last is called by the Historian For that of Solomon as soon as it was fitted and prepared for the Service of God that godly and religious Prince to whom the Lord had given a large and understanding heart as the Scripture tells us did not think fit to put it unto publick Use till he had dedicated the same to the Lord his God by Prayer and Sacrifice The pomp and order of the Dedication we may see at large 1 King viii To which add this considerable passage from the Book of Chronicles where it is said 2 Chron. 5.12 13. with reverence unto Davids Institution that the Levites which were the Singers all of them of Asaph of Heman of Jeduthun with their Sons and their Brethren being arayed in white linen having Cymbals and Psalteries and Harps stood at the East end of the Altar and with them an hundred and twenty Priests sounding with Trumpets And that it came to pass as the Trumpeters and Singers were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord that they lift vp their voice with the Trumpets and Cymbals and Instruments of Musick and praised the Lord saying For he is good for his mercy endureth for ever In which we may observe two things first that in Celebrating Gods publick worship and in that part thereof which was meerly moral the Levites were arayed in a white linnen Rayment such as the Surplice now in Use in the Church of England And secondly that they were prescribed what song or Psalm they were to sing being the 136. of Davids Psalms beginning with Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus quoniam in aeternum misericordia ejus And this we may the rather think to be a certain and prescribed Hymn not taken up at the discretion of the Priests and Levites because we find the same expresly in laying the foundation of the second Temple For we are told in the book of Ezra Ezr. 3.10 11. that when the Builders laid the foundation of the Temple of the Lord they set the Priests in their Apparel with Trumpets and the Levites the Sons of Asaph with Cymbals to praise the Lord after the Ordinance of David the King of Israel where not that still this Institution is referred to David And they sung together by course Quire-wise in praising and giving thanks unto the Lord because he is good for his mercy endureth for ever toward Israel Lyra observes upon the place that the Psalm here sung ab ipso Davide factum ad hoc ordinatum was made by David for this very purpose Lyr. in Ezr. cap. 3. v. 1. 1 Chron. 28. who had not only left command to Solomon about the building of the Temple but gave him patterns of the work and much of the materials for the same Add finally that at the Dedication of each Temple there was a great and sumptuous Feast provided for the People of God whereof see 1 King viii 65. and Ezra vi 16. Which as it was the ground of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Feast of Dedication established after by the Maccabees so gave it no small hint unto the Christians to institute the like Feasts on the like occasions whereof more hereafter In the mean time to look a little back on Solomon if question should be made to what particular end he did erect that magnificent Structure I answer that it was most specially for an House of Prayer The legal Sacrifices were all of them performed in the outward Courts and there were all the utensils and vessels which did pertain unto the same The Priest that offered Sacrifice came not thither he had no place nor portion in it 'T is true there was an Altar in it but 't was the Altar of Incense not the Altar for Sacrifices That stood indeed within the Temple as at the first by Gods own Ordinance and appointment within the Tabernacle where it was placed before the Veil Exod. 30.6 7 8. And it was placed there to this end and purpose that Aaron might burn Incense on it every morning when he dressed the lamps and when he lighted them at even By this was figured the offering up of the Prayers of the Saints to the Lord their God We find it so expresly in the Revelation Apocal. 8.3 4. And another Angel saith the Text came and stood at the Altar having a golden Censer and there was given unto him much Incense that he should offer is with the Prayers of all Saints upon the golden Altar that was before the Throne and the smoak of the Incense which came with the Prayers of the Saints ascended up before God out of the Angels hand And hereto David doth allude in the book of Psalms Let my prayer saith he be set forth before thee as Incense and the lifting up of my hand as the Evening Sacrifice Psal 141.2 1 King 8. But that which makes the matter most clear and evident is the whole scope of Solomons
as he makes very ancient Joseph Scaliger de emendat Temp. 1.7 cujus cultus institutio vetustissima est as his own words are grounding the same upon the reading of the Law in the time of Ezra So I conceive their form of worship on the same was no less ancient than those times For whereas Ezra is confessed by those who approve not Liturgies to be the Author of those 18 Benedictions Smectymn Vindicat. p. 26. so much in Use amongst the Jews of the second Temple some of those Benedictions seem to me to be composed for the Meridian of this feast though they might elso serve at other times as occasion was Of which take this as most agreeable to the intention of the festival Cited by H. Thorndike c. 10 of his Religious Assembl Blessed art thou O Lord our God the King of the world that hast sanctified us with thy Precepts and given us command concerning the matters of the Law And sweeten O Lord the words of the Law in our mouths and in the mouth of thy people the house of Israel and make us all and our Children and our Childrens Children knowers of thy Name and learners of thy Law for it self Blessed art thou O Lord which teachest thy people Israel the Law So far the very words of the Benediction a Benediction made by the self same Author who as it is conceived by Scaliger did ordain the Festival The like Authority was exercised by the Jewish Church in Instituting set and appointed Fasts for the chastising of the body and the afflicting of the soul that so Gods worship might go forward with the greater fervour Of these we find some mentioned in the Prophecy of the Prophet Zachary as viz. the Fasts of the fifth and seventh moneth cap. vii v. 5. The Fasts of the fourth and tenth moneths cap. viii v. 19. The several occasions of the which you may see elsewhere Besides which Annual Fasts they used to fast upon the Monday and the Thursday Jejuno his in Sabbato said the Vain-glorious Pharisee in S. Lukes Gospel and many times they did impose upon themselves a seven days Fast the better to profess their sorrow and bewail their sins Luk. 18.12 For which consult 1 Sam. xxxi 13. 1 Chron. x. 12. 2 Esdras v. 13 20. And we have reason to believe that there were certain and determinate forms of publick worship for all the residue because we find them on those last What was the course observed in reading of the Law upon the second and fifth days of the week we have seen before and shall add only this at present that they Assembled in those days in their several Synagogues not only in the greater Towns but the smaller Villages Maimon in Megillah c. 1. n. 6. ap H. Thorndike as the Rabbins tell us But for the seven days Fast the form and order of the same according as it was performed by those which dwelt in Hierusalem was this as followeth When they prayed after this order in Hierusalem they went into the Mountain of the Temple against the East gate And when the Apostle of the Congregation the same who in S. Luke is called the Minister cap. iv 20. was come unto the prayer which began with this He that heard Abraham c. and ended with these words viz. Blessed be thou O Lord God our God the God of Israel from generation to generation The People answered Blessed be the name of his glorious Kingdom to all generations and for evermore Then said the Officer of the Synagogue unto the Priests which blew the Trumpets Sound ye the Sons of Aaron sound and then prayed again And though it seemeth by the Rabbin Id. in Tanaioth c. 4. n. 14. cited by Mr. Thorndike cap. of his Religious Assemblies c. that this prescribed form was fitted only to the Meridian of Hierusalem yet there is little question to be made but that it served also for all the Synagogues about Judaea there being no imaginable reason why a prescript form of publick worship conceive me in the moral parts thereof which was observed in the Temple should not be used in the Synagogues which in performance of Gods service was to take pattern from the Temple Only some difference there was in the present case but such a difference as is a matter of meer nicety not of any moment For when this form was used in the Synagogue the People answered Amen at the end of the Prayer But when they used it in the Mountain of the Temple that is within the outmost compass of it their Answer was Blessed be the name of his glorious Kingdom c. as before was said it being not usual with the People as the Rabbins note cited ibid. c. 7. to answer Amen within the Mountain of the Temple So punctual were they in their forms as not to vary in a word or title from that which was prescribed in their publick Liturgies And finally that they had a prescribed form of words for their solemn and occasional Feasts is evident by that of Abel cap. ii 17. where the words occur But to look back upon the Celebration of the daily Sacrifices besides the testimonies of the Rabbins and that of the Samaritan Chronicle produced before we have it thus described by Jesus the Son of Syrac an Author of unquestionable credit to the point in hand Speaking of Simon the Son of Onias who was the High Priest at the time and his officiating at the Altar he proceeds as followeth Ecclus. 50.14 And finishing the Service at the Altar that he might adorn the Offering of the most high Almighty he stretched out his hand to the Cup wherewith the Drink-offering was to be made and poured of the blood of the Grape he poured out at the foot of the Altar a sweet smelling savour unto the most high King of all Then shouted the Sons of Aaron and sounded the silver Trumpets and made a great noise to be heard for a remembrance before the most High Then all the People hasted together and fell down to the Earth upon their faces towards the Lord God Almighty the most High The Singers also sung praises with their voices with great variety of sounds was there made sweet melody And the People besought the Lord most High by prayer before him that is merciful till the Solemnity of the Lord was ended and they had finished his Service Then went he down and lifted up his hands over the whole Congregation of the Children of Israel to give the blessing of the Lord with his lips and to rejoyce in his Name And they bowed themselves down to worship the second time that they might receive a blessing from the most High So far the Author of Ecclesiasticus who lived in the latter end of Ptolemy Euergetes King of Egypt as himself tells us in his Preface Now in these words of his if we mark them well we find particularly all the parts
Scripture there is no question made amongst Learned men but they were Obligatory to the Church for succeeding Ages The blessing of the Bread the breaking of it and the distributing thereof unto his Apostles the blessing of the Cup and the communicating of the same to all the Company those formal Energetical words Take eat this is my Body and drink ye all of this this is the Cup c. and all this to be done in remembrance of me Are rites and actions so determined words so prescribed and so precisely to be used that it is not in the Churches power unless she mean to set up a Religion of her own devising for to change the same And this I take it is agreed on by all Learned Protestants Certain I am it was so in the Churches practice from the first beginning as may appear to any one who will take the pains to compare the Rites and Form of administration used by S. Paul and his Associates in the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 11.24.25 with that which was both done and prescribed by Christ according as it is related in the holy Gospel A further proof hereof we shall e're long Nor find I any difference considerable amongst moderate men touching the Priest or Minister ordained by Christ for the perpetuating of this Sacrament for the commemoratingof his death and passion until his coming unto judgement The publick exercises of Religion would be but ill performed without a Priesthood and that would soon be brought to nothing at least reduced unto contempt and scorn if every one that listeth might invade the Office Our Saviour therefore when he did institute this Sacrament or as the Fathers called it without offence in those pious times the Sacrifice of the blessed Eucharist Cum novi Testamenti novam docuit oblationem Prenaeus cont hares l. 4. c. 32. to use the words of Irenaeus give an hoc facite unto his Apostles a faculty to them and their successors in the Evangelical Priesthood to do as he had done before that is to take the Bread to bless to break it and to distribute it amongst the Faithful to sanctifie the Cup and then to give it to the Congregation Men of on Orders in the Church may edere bibere as the Lord appointed and happy 't is they are permitted to enjoy such sweet refection But for hoc facere that 's the Priests peculiar And take they heed who do usurp upon the Office lest the Lord strike them with a fouler Leprosie than he did Vzzah 2 Chron. 26.20 when he usurped upon the Priesthood and would needs offer Incense in the House of God These points are little controverted amongst sober men The matter most in question which concerns this business is whether our Redeemer used any other either Prayers or Blessings when he did institute this blessed Sacrament than what were formerly in use amongst the Jews when they did celebrate their Passeover and if he did then whether he commended them unto his Apostles or left them to themselves to compose such Prayers as the necessities of the Church required and might seem best to them and the Holy Ghost This we shall best discover by the following practice in which it will appear on a careful search that the Apostles in their times and the Church afterwards by their example did use and institute such Forms of Prayer and Praise and Benedictions in the Solemnities of the blessed Sacrament of which there is no constat in the Book of God that they were used at that time by our Saviour Christ And if they kept themselves to a prescript Form in celebration of the Eucharist as we shall shortly see they did then we may easily believe it was not long before they did the like in all the acts of publick Worship according as the Church increased and the Believers were disposed of into Congregations And first beginning with the Apostles it is delivered by the Ancients that in the Consecration of the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood they used to say the Lords Prayer Hierom. adv Pelagium l. 3. There is a place in Hierome which may seem to intimate that this was done by Christs appointment Sic docuit Apostolos suos saith that Reverend Father ut quotidie in corporis illius sacrificio credentes audeant loqui Pater noster c. Whether his words will bear that meaning I can hardly say Certain I am they are alledged to this purpose by a late Learned writer Steph. Durantes de ritibus Ecelesiae Cathol l. 2. c. 46. who saying first Eam i. e. orationem Dominicam in Missae sacro dicendam Christus ipse Apostolos docuit that Christ instructed his Apostles to say the Lords Prayer in the Celebration of that Sacrament or in the Sacrifice of the Mass as he calls it there doth for the proof thereof vouch these words of Hierome But whether it were so or not most sure it is that the Apostles are reported to have used that Prayer as often as they Celebrated the Communion Mos fuit Apostolorum saith S. Gregory ut ad ipsam solummodo orationem Dominicam oblationis hostiam consecrarent It was Gregor M. Epist l. 7. Ep. 54. V. Bellarm. de Missa l. 2. c. 19. Durand Ration divinorum l. 4. saith he the use or custom of the Apostles to Consecrate the Host or Sacrament with reciting only the Lords Prayer Which passage if he took from that of Hierome as some think he did the one may not unfitly serve to explain the other The like saith Durand in his Rationale The Lord saith he did institute the Sacrament with no other words than those of Consecration only Quibus Apostoli adjecerunt orationem Dominicam to which the Apostles added the Lords Prayer And in this wise did Peter first say Mass you must understand him of the Sacrament in the Eastern parts Platina in vita Sixti Platina saith the like as to S. PETER Eum ubi consecraverit oratione Pater noster usum esse That in the Consecration of the Sacrament he used to say the Lords Prayer or the Pater noster See to this purpose Antonius tit 5. cap. 2. § 1. Martinus Polonus in his Chronicon and some later Writers By which as it is clear and evident that the Apostles used the Lords Prayer in the Celebration of the holy Mysteries which is a most strong argument that it was given them to be used or said not to be imitated only So it may seem by Gregories solummodo that they used the Lords Prayer and nothing else And therefore that of Gregory must be understood either that they used no other Prayer in the very act of Consecration or that they closed the Form of Consecration with that Prayer of Christs which may well be without excluding of the words of Consecration which our Saviour used or such preparatory Prayers as were devised by the Apostles for that great solemnity For certainly
we must not take the words of Gregory to be so exclusive as to shut out the words of Institution or any of those Prayers or Benedictions which our Saviour used or the Apostles guided by the Lords example might think fit to imitate To think that willingly or rather wilfully they should omit the words of their Lord and Master which were so Operative and Energetical would prove too great a scandal to those blessed spirits And therefore Ambrose when he puts the question touching the Consecration of the Elements Ambr. de Sacramentis l. 4. c. 4. Consecratio igitur quibus verbis est cujus sermonibus by what words and by whose it is made or celebrated makes answer Domini JESV by the words of the Lord Jesus And if the Elements are to be Consecrated by no other words as the continual practice of the Church of Christ seems to say they may not there is no question to be made but that the Apostles used those words of Consecration which they had heard before delivered from our blessed Saviour We could not say they did hoc facere according to the Lords injunction if it had been otherwise And no less probable it is that in a work of so great consequence they fell not presently upon the words of Institution making a bare recital of them and no more than so and used not some preparatory Prayers to set an edge on the devotions of Gods people according as the Lord had done before who blessed the Bread before be brake it and therefore of necessity before he gave it Certain I am Rabanus Maurus de Institut Cler. l. 32. that so it is affirmed by Rabanus Maurus Cum benedictione gratiarum actione primum Dominus corporis sanguinis sui sacramenta dedicavit Apostolis tradidit quod exinde Apostoli imitati fecere successores suos facere docuerunt quod nunc per totum orbem terrarum generaliter tota custodit Ecclesia The Lord saith he first dedicated or ordained the Sacrament of his Body and Blood with Benediction and Thanksgiving and gave the same to his Apostles which the Apostles after imitating did both do themselves and taught their successors to do it also so that it is now generally practised by the Church throughout the world Here then we take it pro confesso that in the Celebration of the blessed Sacrament besides the words of Consecration which our Saviour used the Apostles added the Lords Prayer And we conceive it to be probable that they used certain Prayers and Benedictions by way of preparation to so great a business of which more anon For further proof whereof that such preparatory Prayers and Benedictions were used originally in the Celebration of this Sacrament we will first see what ground is laid by the Apostles and after look upon the building which hath been raised on the same by the holy Fathers First the Apostle layeth this ground 1 Tim. 2.1 2 3. I exhort therefore that firstof all Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of Thanks be made for all men for Kings and for all that are in Authority that we may lead a quiet and a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour Which words are generally understood not of private Prayers but those which are made publickly in the Congregation Calv. Estius in 1. ad Tim. c. 2. Calvin doth so expound it for the Protestant Writers and so doth Estius for the Pontificians as is elsewhere noted And that the Western Church may not stand alone Theophylact and Oecumenius do both expound the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the daily service Theophyl Oecumen in 1. ad Tim. which from the first beginning had been Celebrated in the Church of God This I premise as granted without more adoe Which being so premised and granted and the ground thus layed we are to look upon the building as before was said raised by the Fathers on the place And here we will begin with S. Austin first as one that hath more punctually observed the place and traversed the whole ground and each part thereof than any one that went before him who writing to Paulinus doth thus build upon it August ad Panlinum Epist 59. Multa hinc quippe dici possunt quae improbanda non sunt sed eligo in his verbis hoc intelligere quo omnis vel paene omnis frequentat Ecclesia ut precationes accipiamus dictas quas facimus in celebratione Sacramentorum antequam illud quod est in mensa Domini incipiat benedici Orationes cum benedicitur sanctificatur ad distribuendum comminuitur quam tot am petitionem fere omnis Ecclesia DOMINICA ORATIONE concludit Interpellationes autem five ut nostri codices habent postulationes fiunt cum populus benedicitur tunc enim Antistites velut advocati susceptos suos per manus impositionem misericordissimae offerunt potestati Quibus peractis participato tanto sacramento Gratiarum actio cuncta concludit quam in his etiam verbis ultimam commendavit Apostolus I have put down the words at large because they are so full an Exposition of the several words used by the Apostles and not an Exposition only but an Application according to the several parts of the publick Liturgies The sense and meaning of them is as followeth Many things may be hence inferred saith he not to be distliked but I choose raher so to understand the same according unto that which I find observed in every or at least every Church almost that is to say that here by Supplications we mean those Petitions which we make in Celebration of the Sacraments before we come unto the consecration of the Elements by Prayers the sanctifying and blessing of the Bread and Wine when it is put into a readiness to be distributed unto the people which action or Petition every Church almost concludeth with the Lords Prayer Where by the way we may observe what place the Lords Prayer had of old in the Celebration The Intercessions are made then when the people do partake of the publick blessing for then the Prelates of the Church like Advocates or Sureties do by the laying on of hands present them to the merciful protection of the Lord their God Which ended and the people being made partakers of so great a Sacrament all is concluded or shut up with giving thanks which therefore is last spoken of by the Apostle So far the words of Austin and it is worthy the noting that Venerable Bede making a Commentary on S. Paul's Epistles collected out of several passages of this Fathers works puts down these words at large as before recited Ven. Beda Comment in 1. ad Tim. c. 2. for the full meaning of the place And if S. Austin was not out in his Exposition as I have heard of none that do charge him with it we have
holy Trinity than by this Form and in the constant uniformity of that antient Gesture which hath been recommended to us from the purest Ages and the most glorious lights of the Christian World CHAP. VIII Touching the Dedication of Churches and the Anniversary Feasts thereby occasioned 1. Dedication of Religious places used antiently by all Nations and the Reasons why 2. A Repetition of some things that were said before with reference and application to the point in hand 3. The Tabernacle consecrated by Gods own appointment and the consequents of it 4. Antiquity of the like Dedications amongst the Romans and by whom performed 5. The Form and Ceremonies used in those Dedications by the Antient Romans 6. The Antiquity and constant usage of such Dedications in the Church of Christ 7. Titulus and Encoenia what they signifie in the Ecclesiastical notion 8. The great Solemnities and Feasts used by the Jews and Gentiles in the Dedication of their Temples 9. As also by the Primitive Christians 10. Dedication Feasts made Anniversary by the Roman Gentiles 11. And by the Christians in the times of their greatest purity 12. Continued till our times in the Church of England 13. The Conclusion of the whole and the Authors submission of it to the Supreme Powers HAving thus found out Liturgies and set Forms of Worship in the best and purest times of the Christian Church together with certain places and appointed times for the performance of those Offices of Religious Worship in the said Liturgies prescribed It remains now that we speak somewhat as by way of Corollary touching the Dedication of those places in which those Acts and Offices of Religious Worship were to be performed it being consonant to Reason that holy Actions should be celebrated in an holy place and places are not otherwise hallowed than by the Dedication of them unto holy Use For howsoever in themselves they be but ordinary Houses made of Lime and Stone and may be put to any use which the Founder pleaseth yet being once consecrated by the Word and prayer they become forthwith Holy Ground and carry with them such an awful reverence in Religious minds as is not given to other houses houses to eat and drink in as the Scripture calleth them And so we are to understand that of Thomas Aquinas who in the stating of this Question hath resolved it thus Quod Ecclesia Altare alia hujusmodi inanimata consecrantur non quia sunt gratiae susceptiva Thom. 3. par qu. 83. Artic. 3. sed quia ex consecratione adipiscuntur quandam spiritalem virtutem per quam apta redduntur divino cultui Churches saith he Altars and things inanimate are not therefore consecrated because they are susceptible of any divine Grace conferred upon them but because they do obtain thereby some spiritual fitness which before they had not and which doth render them more proper for Religious Offices Besides which influence which they gain by these Consecrations on the minds of such who piously refort unto them they are thereby exempted also from the power of those by whom they were first built or founded who otherwise might challenge a propriety in them That which the ground and charge of building made the house of Man is made by Consecration the House of God and being once dedicated to his holy Service the property thereof is vested in him and in him alone The Founder cannot take it back or reserve any part of it for his own private use or pleasure without sin and sacriledg Such was that of Ananias Acts 5.2 who when he sold his House kept back part of the money as if he would divide the sum betwixt God and himself The Gentiles by the light of Nature had discerned thus much and therefore in the Consecration of their Temples they did use these words Se ex profano usu humano jure Templum cellam Alex. ab Alex. Gen. Dier l. 6. c. 14. mensas arulas quaeque eo pertinent eximere That is to say That they exempt from the right of Men and all profane and common usage the Temple Table Vaults and Altars and all things which pertained unto them appropriating them unto the service of that God to whom the Fabrick was intended in the Dedication A matter of such general use that it was commonly observed both by the Patriarchs before the Law by the Jews under the Law by the Gentiles without the Law and finally by the Christians being a body made up both of Jews and Gentiles in the times of the Gospel In looking over whose proceedings touching this particular and thereby justifying the right use of those Dedications we will first search into the Antiquity Universality and first Authors of them next into the great Solemnities and magnificent Feasts accustomably observed in them and finally on the Annual Revolution of those solemn Feasts appointed by all sorts of Men in memorial of them And first for laying down the Antiquity and first Authors of them it is necessary that we look back on something which was said before touching the practice of the Patriarchs and some of the godly Princes of the House of Jacob. And first whereas the Scripture telleth us of Abraham that he planted a Grove in Beersheba and called there on the Name of the Lord Gen. 21.33 the everlasting God The meaning of which place is by Expositors left uncertain as before we noted yet the succeding practice both of Jews and Gentiles in consecrating Groves for superstitious and Idolatrous Uses mention whereof is very frequent in the Scriptures makes it plain and evident that they concdeived this planting of a Grove by Abraham was but the consecrating of it to the service of God for invocating on the Name of the Lord Jehovah Greater Antiquity than this as we need not seek so a more holy Author of those Dedications we can hardly find And yet the practice and Authority of Jacob is not much short of it either in point of reputation or respect of time of whom it is recorded that he took the Stone which he had put for his Pillow Gen. 28.17 and set it up for a Pillar and poured Oyl on the top of it and then and not till then that it was thus consecrated he called the name of the place BETHEL which by interpretation is the House of God Look what effect this Act of Jacob did produce and we shall find first that God took unto himself the name of the God of Bethel as a place dedicated for his Worship Gen. 31. v. 13. And secondly that in reference to this Consecration it was thought the fittest place for Jacob even by God himself to offer sacrifice to the Lord and to pay his vows Gen. 35.16 Nor can I doubt but that when Jeroboam the Son of Nebat made choice of Bethel 1 Kings 12.9 to be the seat for one of his Golden Calves he had respect unto the consecration of this place by the
Epist ad Corinth p. 62. There find we the good man complaining that the Church of Corinth so ancient and well grounded in the faith of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should for the sake of one or two contentious persons tumultuate against their Presbyters and that the scandal of their functions should come unto the ears of Infidels to the dishonour of the Lord. Nor did the faction rest in the people only Ibid. p. 58. though it proceeded to that height as the ejecting of those Presbyters whom they had distasted but it had taken too deep sooting amongst the Presbyters themselves encroaching with too high an hand on the Bishops Office or wilfully neglecting his authority Part. 1. ch 5. For whereas in those times as before was shewn the blessed Eucharist regularly and according to the Churches Orders could not be celebrated but by the Bishop by his leave at least and that it did pertain to him to appoint the Presbyters what turns and courses they should have in that ministration these men perverting all good order neither observed the time and place appointed for that sacred Action nor kept themselves unto those turns and courses in the performance of the same which were assigned them by their Bishop Certain I am that the discourse of Clemens in the said Epistle doth militate as well against the one as against the other blaming as well the Presbyters for their irregular proceeding in their ministration as censuring the People for their insolency in the ejecting of their Presbyters So that we have two factions at this time in the Church of Corinth one of some inconformable Presbyters so far averse from being regulated by their Bishop as they ought to be Clem. p. 57. that they opposed the very Calling raising contentions and disputes about the Name and Office of Episcopacy another of the people against the Presbyters and that pursued with no less acrimony and despite than the former was For the repressing of these factions at this present time and the preventing of the like in the times to come the good old man doth thus proceed Beginning with the Presbyters Id. p. 48. he first presents unto them the obedience that Souldiers yield to their Commanders shewing them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how orderly how readily and with what subjection they execute the several Commands imposed upon them by their Leaders that since all of them are not Generals Collonels Captains or in other Office every one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his rank or station is to obey the charge imposed upon him by the King or Emperour and his Commanders in the Field Then represents he to them the condition of the natural Body Id. 49. in which the Head can do but little without the ministery of the Feet the Feet as little out of question without direction from the Head that even the least parts of the body are not only profitable but also necessary concurring all of them together to the preservation of the whole Which ground so laid he thus proceeds in his Discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Id. p. 52 c. These things being thus declared and manifested looking into the depth of heavenly knowledg we ought to do those things in their proper order the People in the tendring of their Oblations the Presbyters in the celebrating of the Liturgy according to the times and seasons by the Lord appointed who would not have these sacred Matters done either rashly or disorderly but at appointed times and hours and by such Persons as he hath thereunto designed by his supream Will that being done devoutly and Religiously they might be the more grateful to him They therefore who upon the times presixed make their Oblations to the Lord are blessed and very welcom unto him from whose commands they do not vary 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For to the High-Priest was assigned his particular function the Priest had his peculiar ministery prescribed unto him and the Levites theirs the Laymen being left unto Lay-imployments Therefore let every one of you my brethren in his Rank and Station offer to God the blessed Eucharist with a good Conscience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 53. keeping within the bounds of his ministration appointed to him by the Canon For so I take it is his meaning For not in every place was it permitted to the Jews to offer up the daily and perpetual Sacrifices whether they were Sin-offerings or Eucharistical Oblations but at Hierusalem alone nor there in any place indifferently but only in the Court of the Temple at the Altar the Sacrifice being first viewed and approved of both by the High Priest and the foresaid Ministers They that did any thing herein otherwise than agreeable to his will and pleasure were to die the Death you see my brethren that as we are endued with a greater knowledg so are we made obnoxious to the greater danger The Apostles have Preached the Gospel unto us from Christ JESUS Christ from God Christ being sent by God as the Apostles were by Christ and both proceeding orderly therein according to his holy Will For having received his Commands and being strengthened by the Resurrection of our Lord JESUS Christ and confirmed by the Word of God they spread themselves abroad in full assurance of the Holy Ghost publishing the coming of the Kingdom of God and having Preached the Word throughout many Regions and several Cities they constituted and ordained the first fruits of their labours such whom in spirit they approved of to be Bishops and Deacons unto those that afterwards were to believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. p. 54.55 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 55. Nor was this any new device it being written many ages since in the book of God Esay 60. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. I will appoint them Bishops in Righteousness and Deacons in Faith Afterwards laying down the History of Aarons Rod budding and thereby the miraculous confirmation of his Election he adds that the Apostles knowing by our Lord JESUS Christ the contention that would arise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the name or function of Episcopacy Id. p. 57. take it which you will and being for this very cause endued with a perfect foresight of that which afterwards should happen ordained the aforesaid Ministers and left to every one their appointed Offices that whensoever they should die other approved men should succeed in their several places and execute their several parts in the Ministration Those therefore which were either ordained by them or by those famous and renowned men that followed after them with the consent and approbation of the Church and have accordingly served unblameably in the fold of Christ with all humility and meekness and kept themselves from baseness and corruption and have a long time carried a good testimony from all men those we conceive cannot without much injury be deprived of their place and service it being
more unto other men than you had just reason It is my chief ende avour as it is my prayer that possibly I may behold Jerusalem in prosperity all my life long Nor doubt I by the grace of God to reduce some of you at the least to such conformity with the practice of the Catholick Church that even your hands may also labour in the advancement and promotion of that full prosperity which I so desire This that I may the better do I shall present you as I said with the true story of the Sabbath and therein lay before your eyes both what the Doctrine was and what the practice of all former times and how it stands in both respects with all Gods Churches at this present First for the Sabbath I shall shew you that it was not instituted by the Lord in Paradise nor naturally imprinted in the soul of man nor ever kept by any of the Antient Fathers before Moses time And this not generally said and no more but so but proved particularly and successively in a continued descent of times and men Next that being given unto the Jews by Moses it was not so observed or reckoned of as any of the moral precepts but sometimes kept and sometimes not according as mens private businesses or the necessities of the state might give way unto it and finally was for ever abrogated with the other Ceremonies at the destruction of the Temple As for the Gentiles all this while it shall hereby appear that they took no more notice of it except a little at the latter end of the Jewish State than to deride both it and all them that kept it Then for the Lords day that it was not instituted by our Saviour Christ commanded by the Apostles or ordained first by any other Authority than the voluntary Consecration of it by the Church to religious uses and being Consecrated to those uses was not advanced to that esteem which it now enjoys but liesurely and by degrees partly by the Edicts of secular Princes partly by Canons of particular Councils and finally by the Decretals of several Popes and Orders of inferiour Prelates and being so advanced is subject still as many Protestant Doctors say to the Authority of the Church to be retained or changed as the Church thinks fit Finally that in all Ages heretofore and in all Churches at this present it neither was nor is esteemed of as a Sabbath day nor reckoned of so near a kin to the former Sabbath but that at all such leisure times as were not destinate by the Church to Gods publick service men might apply their minds and bestow their thoughts either about their businesses or upon their pleasures such as are lawful in themselves and not prohibited by those powers under which they lived Which shewed and manifestly proved unto you I doubt not but those Paper-walls which have been raised heretofore to defend these Doctrines how sair soever they may seem to the outward eye and whatsoever colours have been laid upon them will in the end appear unto you to be but Paper-walls indeed some beaten down by the report only of those many Canons which have successively been mounted in the Church of God either to fortifie the Lords day which it self did institute or cast down those Jewish fancies which some had laboured to restore Such passages as occurred concerning England I purposely have deferred till the two last Chapters that you may look upon the actions of our Ancestors with a clearer eye both those who lived at the first planting of Religion and those who had so great an hand in the reforming of the same And yet not look upon them only but by comparing your new Doctrines with those which were delivered in the former times your severe practice with the innocent liberty which they used amongst them You may the better see your errours and what strange Incense you have offered in the Church of God A way in which I have the rather made choice to walk that by the practice of the Church in general you may the better judge of those Texts of Scripture which seem to you to speak in the behalf of that new Divinity which you have preached unto the People and by the practice of this Church particularly it may with greater ease be shewed you that you did never suck these Doctrines from your Mothers Breasts It is an observation and a rule in Law that custom is the best interpreter of a doubtful statute and we are lesson'd thereupon to cast our eyes in all such questionable matters unto the practice of the state in the self-same case Si de interpretatione legis quaeritur imprimis inspiciendnm est quo jure civitas retro in hujusmodi casibus usa fuit Consuetudo enim optima interpretatio legis est De legib longa consuet If you submit unto this rule and stand unto the Plea which you oft have made I verily persuade my self that you will quickly find your errour and that withal you will discover how to abet a new and dangerous Doctrine you have deserted the whole practice of the Christian Church which for the space of 1600 years hath been embraced and followed by all godly men These are the hopes which we project unto our selves The cause of this our undertaking was your Information and the chief end we aim at is your Reformation Your selves my Brethren and your good if I may procure it are the occasion and the recompence of these poor endeavours Pretiumque causa laboris in the Poets language Nor would I you should think it any blemish to your reputation should you desert a cause which with so vehement affections you have first mainteined or that the world would censure you of too deep a folly should you retract what you have either taught or written in the times before Rather the world and all good men shall praise both your integrity and ingenuity in that you think it no disparagement to yield the better unto truth whensoever you find it Being men conceive it not impossible but that you may be in an errour and having erred think it your greatest Victory that you are conquered by the truth which being mighty will prevail and either here or elsewhere enforce all of us to confess the great powers thereof S. Austin and the Cardinal two as great Clerks as almost any in their times have herein shewed the way unto you one in his Retractations the other in his Recognitions nor did it ever turn unto their disgrace Therefore abandoning all such fond conceits as enemies unto the truth which I trust you seek and above all things wish to find let me beseech you to possess your souls with desire of knowledge and that you would not shut your eyes against the tendry of those truths which either here or elsewhere are presented to you for your information Which that you may the better do I do adjure you in the name and for the
should be sanctified when it was ordered and appointed by the Law of Moses And this he calls Commentum ineptum contra literam ipsam contra ipsius Moseos declarationem A foolish and absurd conceit contrary unto Moses words and to his meaning Yet the same Catharin doth affirm in the self-same Book Scripturis frequentissimum esse multa per anticipationem narrare that nothing is more frequent in the holy Scriptures than these anticipations And in particular that whereas it is said in the former Chapter male and female created he them per anticipationem dictum esse non est dubitandum that without doubt it is so said by anticipation the Woman not being made as he is of opinion till the next day after which was the Sabbath For the Anticipation he cites St. Chrysostom who indeed tells us on that Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold saith he how that which was not done as yet is here related as if done already He might have added for that purpose Origen on the first of Genesis and Gregory the Great Moral lib. 32. cap. 9. both which take notice of a Prolepsis or Anticipation in that place of Moses For the creation of the Woman he brings in St. Jerom who in his Tract against the Jews expresly saith mulierem conditam fuisse die septimo that the Woman was created on the seventh day or Sabbath to which this Catharin assents and thinks that thereupon the Lord is said to have finished all his works on the seventh day that being the last that he created This seems indeed to be the old Tradition if it be lawful for me to digress a little it being supposed that Adam being wearied in giving names unto all creatures on the sixth day in the end whereof he was created did fall that night into a deep and heavy sleep and that upon the Sabbath or the seventh day morning his side was opened and a rib took thence for the creation of the Woman Aug. Steuchius in Gen. 2. So Augustinus Steuchius reports the Legend And this I have the rather noted to meet with Catharinus at his own weapon For whereas he concludes from the rest of God that without doubt the institution of the Sabbath began upon that very day wherein God rested it seems by him God did not rest on that day and so we either must have no Sabbath to be kept at all or else it will be lawful for us by the Lords example to do whatever works we have to do upon that day and after sanctifie the remainder And yet I needs must say withal that Catharinus was not the only he that thought God wrought upon the Sabbath Aretius also so conceived it Dies itaque tota non fuit quiete transacta Problem loc 55. sed perfecto opere ejus deinceps quievit ut Hebraeus contextus habet Mercer a man well skilled in Hebrew denieth not but the Hebrew Text will bear that meaning Who thereupon conceives that the seventy Elders in the translation of that place did purposely translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that on the sixth day God finished all the work that he had made and after rested on the seventh And this they did saith he ut omnem dubitandi occasionem tollerent to take away all hint of collecting thence that God did any kind of work upon that day For if he finished all his works on the seventh day it may be thought faith he that God wrought upon it Saint Hierom noted this before that the Greek Text was herein different from the Hebrew and turns it as an argument against the Jews and their rigid keeping of the Sabbath Artabimus igitur Judaeos qui de ocio Sabbati gloriantur Q◠Hebraicae in Gen. quod jam tunc in principio Sabbatum dissolutum sit dum Deus operatur in Sabbato complens opera sua in eo benedicens ipst diei quia in ipso universa compleverat If so if God himself did break the Sabbath as St. Hierom turns upon the Jews we have small cause to think that he should at that very time impose the Sabbath as a Law upon his creatures But to proceed Others that have took part with Catharinus against Tostatus have had as ill success as he in being forced either to grant the use of Anticipation in the holy Scripture or else to run upon a Tenet wherein they are not like to have any seconds I will instance only in two particulars both Englishmen and both exceeding zealous in the present cause The first is Doctor Bound who first of all did set afoot these sabbatarian speculations in the Church of England 2. Edit p. 10. wherewith the Church is still disquieted He determines thus I deny not saith he but that the Scripture speaketh often of things as though they had been so before because they were so then when the things were written As when it is said of Abraham that he removed unto a Mountain Eastward of Bethel whereas it was not called Bethel till above a hundred years after The like may be said of another place in the Book of Judges called Bochin c. yet in this place of Genesis it is not so And why not so in this as well as those Because saith he Moses entreateth there of the sanctification of the Sabbath not only because it was so then when he wrote that Book but specially because it was so even from the Creation Medulla Theol. l. 2. c. 15. § 9. Which by his leave is not so much a reason of his opinion as a plain begging of the question The second Doctor Ames the first I take it that sowed Bounds doctrine of the Sabbath in the Netherlands Who saith expresly first and in general terms hujusmodi prolepseos exemplum nullum in tota scriptura dari posse that no example of the like anticipation can be found in Scripture the contrary whereof is already proved After more warily and in particular de hujusmodi institutione Proleptica that no such institution is set down in Scripture by way of a Prolepsis or Anticipation either in that Book or in any other And herein as before I said he is not like to find any seconds We find it in the sixteenth of Exodus that thus Moses said This is the thing which the Lord commandeth Verse 32 Fill an Omer of it of the Mannah to be kept for your generations that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the Wilderness when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt It followeth in the Text that as the Lord commanded Moses Verse 34 so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony to be kept Here is an Ordinance of Gods an institution of the Lords and this related in the same manner by anticipation as the former was Lyra upon the place affirms expresly that it is spoken there per anticipationem and so doth Vatablus too in his Annotations on that Scripture But
Musick used in the Congregation it grew more exquisite in these times than it had been formerly that which before was only a melodious kind of pronunciation being now ordered into a more exact and artificial Harmony This change was principally occasioned by a Canon of the Council of Laodicea in the first entrance of this Age. For where before it was permitted unto all promiscuously to sing in the Church it was observed that in such dissonancy of Voices and most of them unskilful in the notes of Musick there was no small jarring and unpleasant sounds This Council thereupon ordained Conc. Laodic Can. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that none should sing hereafter in the Congregation but such as were Canonically appointed to it and skilful in it By means whereof before the shutting up of this fourth Century the Musick of the Church became very perfect and harmonious suavi artificiosa voce cantata Confess l. 10. cap. 33. as St. Austin tells us So perfect and harmonious that it did work exceedingly on the affections of the Hearers and did movere animos ardentius in flammam pietatis inflame their minds with a more lively flame of Piety taking them Prisoners by the ears and so conducting them unto the glories of Gods Kingdom Ibid. Saint Austin attributes a great cause of Conversion to the power thereof calling to mind those frequent tears quas fudi ad cantus Ecclesiae tuae which had been drawn from him by this sacred Musick by which his soul was humbled and his affections raised to an height of godliness The like he also tells us in his ninth Book of Confessions and sixth Chapter Nor doubt we but it did produce the same effect on divers others who coming to the Churches as he then did to be partakers of the Musick return'd prepared in mind and well disposed in their intentions to be converted unto God Now that the Church might be frequented at the times appointed and so all secret Conventicles stopped in these divided times wherein so many Heresies did domineer and that the itching ears of men might not persuade them to such Churches where God had not placed them so to discourage their own proper Minister it pleased the Fathers in the Council of Saragossa Anno 368. â—an 2. or thereabouts to decree it thus First Ne latibulis cubiculorum montium habitent qui in suspicionibus perseverent that none who were suspected of Priscillianism which was the humour that then reigned should lurk in secret corners either in Houses or in Hills but follow the example and direction of the Priests of God And secondly ad alienas villas agendorum conventuum causa non conveniant that none should go to other places under pretence of joyning there to the Assembly but keep themselves unto their own Which prudent Constitutions upon the self-same pious grounds are still preserved amongst us in the Church of England Thus do we see upon what grounds the Lords day stands on custom first and voluntary consecration of it to religious Meetings that custom countenanced by the Authority of the Church of God which tacitely approved the same and finally confirmed and ratified by Christian Princes throughout their Empires And as the day so rest from Labours and restraint from Business upon that day received its greatest strength from the supream Magistrate as long as he reteined that Power which to him belonged as after from the Canons and decrees of Councils the Decretals of Popes and Orders of particular Prelates when the sole managing of Ecclesiastical affairs was committed to them I hope it was not so with the former Sabbath which neither took original from custom that people being not so forward to give God a day nor required any countenance or authority from the Kings of Israel to confirm and ratifie it The Lord had spoken the word that he would have one day in seven precisely the seventh day from the Worlds Creation to be a day of rest unto all his people which said there was no more to do but gladly to submit and obey his pleasure nec quicquam reliquum erat praeter obsequii gloriam in the greatest Prince And this done all at once not by degrees by little and little as he could see the people affected to it or as he found it fittest for them like a probation Law made to continue till the next Session and then on further liking to hold good for ever but by a plain and peremptory Order that it should be so without further trial But thus it was not done in our present Business The Lords day had no such command that it should be sanctified but was left plainly to Gods people to pitch on this or any other for the publick use And being taken up amongst them and made a day of meeting in the Congregation for religious Exercises yet for 300 years there was neither Law to bind them to it nor any rest from labour or from worldly businesses required upon it And when it seemed good unto Christian Princes the nursing Fathers of Gods Church to lay restraints upon their people yet at the first they were not general but only thus that certain men in cetrain places should lay aside their ordinary and daily works to attend Gods service in the Church those whose employments were most toilsome and most repugnant to the true nature of a Sabbath being allowed to follow and pursue their labours because most necessary to the Common-wealth And in following times when as the Prince and Prelate in their several places indeavoured to restrain them from that also which formerly they had permitted and interdicted almost all kind of bodily labour upon that day it was not brought about without much strugling and on opposition of the People more than a thousand years being past after Christs Ascension before the Lords day had attained that state in which now it standeth as will appear at full in the following story And being brought unto that state wherein now it stands it doth not stand so firmly and on such sure grounds but that those powers which raised it up may take it lower if they please yea take it quite away as unto the time and settle it on any other day as to them seems best which is the doctrine of some School-men and divers Protestant Writers of great name and credit in the world A power which no man will presume to say was ever challenged by the Jews over the Sabbath Besides all things are plainly contrary in these two days as to the purpose and intent of the Institution For in the Sabbath that which was principally aimed at was rest from labour that neither they nor any that belonged unto them should do any manner of work upon that day but sit still and rest themselves Their meditating on Gods Word or on his goodness manifested in the worlds Creation was to that an accessory and as for reading of