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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70471	A treatise of the episcopacy, liturgies, and ecclesiastical ceremonies of the primitive times and of the mutations which happened to them in the succeeding ages gathered out of the works of the ancient fathers and doctors of the church / by John Lloyd, B.D., presbyter of the church of North-Mimmes in Hertfordshire.	Lloyd, John, Presbyter of the Church of North-Mimmes.	1660 (1660)	Wing L2655A; ESTC R21763	79,334	101

A TREATISE OF THE EPISCOPACY LITURGIES AND ECCLESIASTICAL CEREMONIES OF THE PRIMITIVE TIMES AND Of the mutations which happened to them in the fucceeding Ages GATHERED Out of the Works of the ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Church By John Lloyd B. D. Presbyter of the Church of North-Mimmes in Hertfordshire Let your moderation be known unto all men the Lord is at hand Phil. 4.5 Multum sacerdotalis officii meritum splendescit ubi sic summorum servatur auctoritas ut in nu●● inferiorum putatur imminuta libertas Leonis Epist 61. Episcopi sacerdotes se esse noverint non Dominos honorent clericos quafi clericos ut ipsis à clericis quasi Episcopis honor deferatur Hierom. ad Nepotianum De vita clericorum LONDON Printed by W. G. for John Sherley at the Sign of the Pelican and Robert Littlebury at the Sign of the Unicorn in Little Britain M.DC.LX TO The Right Reverend Father in God IOHN LORD BISHOP OF EXCESTER MY LORD WHen the dark night of our confusions was by Gods wonderful mercy never to be forgotten well nigh at an end by the near approaching of our Sun the breath of our nostrils our dread Soveraign Lord the Kings Majesty unto the horizon of his paenitent and loyal Subjects in his hereditary Kingdomes and Dominions whereby all began to be revived to be prepared for the receiving all good impressions in this beginning of our happiness considering with my self by what best means men of different apprehensions concerning Ecclesiastical things might be brought unto godly unity and meet uniformity therein I thought that the knowledge of the state of the Church of Christ in the Apostles dayes and in the four Centuries following their times as to the form of Ecclesiastical Government Discipline Liturgy and Rites used in them would very much conduce to the attainment of that blessed end For in those dayes many thousands of holy Confessors and Martyrs flourished in those times lived the most reverend Fathers of the first four general Councils of Nice Constantinople Ephesus and Chalcedon celebrated over all the Christian world of whose wisdome and godly care to do nothing in those particulars against the institutions of Christ and his Apostles but rather to do all things as might be most pleasing to God and most conducing to the edification of the Church no prudent and charitable man can entertain the least doubt Men they were and might erre but that so many men of extraordinary holinesse and wisdome compared to the best men of these latter Centuries should unanimously agree for the space of two three or four hundred years in setting up and practising superstition is incredible to them who believe that God hath promised to teach the humble his way and shew his covenant to them that fear him and not to forsake them which have not first forsaken him Having therefore reason and religion to assure me that all understanding and sober men if they could once see the form of Church-government with the Liturgies and Rites used by those Primitive Churches demonstrated by undeniable testimonies of pure antiquity would easily be induced to embrace them so far as they should appear to be convenient for Christian unity and edification in the present circumstances of time place and persons whereof not private men but the Governours Civil and Ecclesiastical are the onely Judges on earth I made what inquiry I could if any book were extant in the English tongue containing a brief full and plain demonstration of all the said Ecclesiastical things which might be had at a cheap rate soon read over and easily understood by all men of indifferent capacity whereby the knowledge of those things might be the more divulged But after diligent inquiry finding none I resolved being the work was within the limits of my vocation and in reading the ancient writers I had with no small diligence noted the passages conducing thereto invocato Dei Opt. Max. Nomine to use my poor talent with my best indevour to write such a little book which should comprehend in it the sum and substance of all the matters above specified as briefly fully and plainly as I could And this was the beginning of this small Treatise which being ended in convenient time was offered to worthy men of excellent indowments to be perused by them in hope that one or other of them knowing the usefulness of the matter treated of and observing the too plain low and uneven manner of writing would be moved to put forth a work upon that subject which being replenished with good variety of well ordered matters adorned with convenient eloquence and commended by the worthy name of an Author famous for his learning eloquence and vertues would be by all readily entertained greedily read and would sweetly convey the things desired to be published to the knowledge of all men But herein my hope failed me For those worthy persons were so imployed in the high and weighty affaires of the Church that they had no leisure to go about this although an useful work yet of less profit to the Church and less proportionable to their great abilities then the sublime imployment wherein their time was spent What remained then but that either that needful work must be altogether wanting or this poor treatise so void of due ornaments must be suffred to go abroad I had indeed once in a manner resolved to bury it in my study but an occasion bringing the matterr into a new debate I suffered some reasons to prevaile with me to give it leave to present it self to the view of the world yet not without some honourable Patron the glorious lustre of whose great learning Excellent Vertues and pretious name might both illumminate it and conciliate for the mean and obscure author some room in the good esteem and affection of learned and good men For which end I thought it most convenient to make choise of one of those very bright stars which his Majesties wisdome and goodness had been pleased to set in the firmament of our Church among whom your Lordship was first presented to my thoughts in your very learned elegant and eloquent works especially both in your testification of your great and very remarkable zeal for the now most blessed and glorious Saint and Martyr our late glorious King CHARLS the first and in your no less zealous fidelity to our most dear and dread Soveraign Lord King CHARLES the second manifested in times of greatest peril and also in your sighs groans complaints and prayers for and of the Church of England in her deep distress in your prudent indefatigable endevours for her restauration in those parts of your Lordships most learned writings wherein as in exceeding fair monuments more lasting then brasse you consecrate the blessed Memories of many very precious names viz. of the right reverend Fathers Bishop Andrews Bishop Morton Bishop Potter Bishop Hall Bishop Brownrigg and other honourable persons never to be remembred without

against the Canons and that they will be obedient to the Bishop c. which oath because it is dangerous we do all with one consent ordain that it be prohibited A Canon of a Council celebrated an 1355 comes to my mind which saith lest the faithful whō the divine piety was mercifully pleased to put under a light burthen and a sweet yoke should be burthened with the weight of sin by reason of their transgressions against the Canons we ordain that the provincial constitutions of our predecessors and those which shall be hereafter made oblige not the trangressors to sin ad culpam but onely to punishment ad paenam Whether the moderation of these Synods be worthy of imitation I leave to others to judge Many have entertained a great fear Sect. 15. which hath alienated their minds from all Episcopacy namely that an innumerable company of unnecessary and burthensome ceremonies be inseparable concomitants of Episcopal government Indeed the fear is not vain and without ground if we respect the degenerated Episcopacy as it is if we regard the primitive which hath and will be contented with very few if need be Witness Gregory the great who saith that it was the custome of the Apostles Greg. Epist l. T. Ep. 63. to consecrate the Eucharist using only the Lords prayer with him agrees Walifridus Strabus it is the relation of our Ancestors saith he that the Mass was wont to be made in the first times as now in the Good Friday De rebus Eccl. c. 22. i. e. after the Lords Prayer and the commemoration of Christs passion as himself hath taught us the communion of the body and blood of our Lord was given to all that were prepared About forty years after the death of St. John the Apostle Justin Martyr relates In Apolog. ad Auton that when the people of the City and Countrey adjacent met together on the Lords day the Reader read out of the Apostles and Prophets and then the President made a Sermon upon the Scripture then read which ended all stood up to prayer which done they kissed one another then bread and wine and water were offered to the President which he having received prayed again and gave thanks as he was able which ended the people said amen Then the Deacons gave the consecrated bread wine and water to every one present to receive and they carried the same to the absent Here we have the substance of the ancient Liturgy of the Church in use at that time short and sweet Where the Lords prayer was not alone used in the consecration as in the Apostles time but also the Bishops prayer whereof the words as he was able may imply either that he prayed as well as his memory would serve him to utter a premeditated prayer without book or that he prayed as devoutly as he could which is the best construction of them So that hence it may not appear whether it was a read or a premeditated and memorially delivered prayer The same old author saith concerning Baptism as many as believe those things to be true which have been told and taught them by us and promise to live accordingly are instructed to pray fasting for the pardon of their sins we fasting and praying with them and then they are by us brought to the water and regenerated as we our selves were in the name of the Father and our Saviour Jesus Christ and of the Holy Ghost being washed in the water Then we bring them to the Brethren who are met together making common prayers for themselves the baptized and all other wheresoever c. We are to note that he mentions a Reader which whether he were a Presbyter or a Deacon or a distinct degree instituted by the Church cannot be gathered from his writings which are now extant In the end of the second Century the Reader appears to be a distinct degree the ordinations of Haereticks saith Tertull. are rash light unconstant therefore one is with them to day a Bishop and another to morrow De praescript haeret c. 41. he is to day a Deacon which shall be the next day a Reader he is to day a presbyter which is the next day a Laick And it is to be seen in Cyprian about the year 250 2. Epist 5. l. 3. Ep. 22. that he ordained Aurelius and Saturus Readers in his Church and Optatus a subdeacon At the same time Cornelius Bishop of Rome writing to Fabius saith Apud Euseb l. 6. c. 42. that in the Church of Rome there were of Presbyters forty six of Deacons seven of sub-deacons seven of Acolythes 42 of Exorcists Readers and Porters 52 of Widows and Poor above 1500 all which the Church fed Here we find Exorcists and Readers both which were in Justin Martyrs time about the year 150 to be reckoned among the Clergy of the Church of Rome and the Reader distinguished from the Presbyter and Deacons After this about the year 400 the distinct ordinations of Bishops of Presbyters of Deacons of Sub-deacons of Acolythes of Exorcists or Readers and of Porters or Dore-keepers and of Singers are set down in the fourth Council of Carthage Conc. Carth. 4. c. 1. ad 10. It must not be imagined that any of these besides a Presbyter and Dore-keeper was in every Parochial Church but only in the Cathedral or mother Church of the Diocess and in some such parochial Churches as were able to maintain a greater or lesser number of them And therefore it seems hard to lay upon one minister in the parish Church the burthen of all the offices to be born by himself alone which in the Cathedral were executed by many As to read every Lords day all the service first and second being a thing above the strength of most if the Sermon be not omitted as the Bishops and Presbyters bordering upon the times of the Apostles with the peoples consent committed the office of reading the holy Scriptures in the Churches to men of an inferior ordination so their successors shortly after committed the office of teaching the Catechumens to the like persons but more learned and apt to teach Both these as also some others were separated from the Laicks and destinated for the Presbytery They were the Bishops and Presbyters Scholars bred up by them for the high and sacred ministery and advanced thereto if they became capable and the Church had need of them So that Readers and Catechisers were incomplete preachers of the Gospel until by the higher and divine ordination Christ breathed upon them giving them the Holy Ghost which made them complete preachers who do not perform a complete act of preaching unless with the publishing of the text wherein the Readers help them they also publish an exposition and exhortation thereupon as Justin Martyr did and the succeeding ancient Fathers who grounded their Homilies or Sermons upon a portion of the Scriptures then read before them One ordinance of God is not to

* in 2 Cor. hom 18. in Ep. ad Coloss hom 3. Peace be unto you and that the people answered And with thy spirit The same author relating how the people did in another part of the Service answer the minister saying Let us give thanks to our Lord God it is meet and right say the people so to do addeth † Chrysost in 2 Cor. hom 18. in 2. Epist ad Corinth hom 2. why should any marvel that the people should thus in the publick prayers speak with the Priest seeing they send up unto Heaven with the Cherubims and Caelestial powers those holy Hymnes one reason of this is in the same place intimated by Chrysostome which is to manifest unto the people that the prayers of the Church are not proper to the minister but theirs also by joyning with him in them which is more fully testified by their proper prolation of some part of them then onely by their presence and saying Amen Another reason may be the same which the same Father giveth of the Deacons exciting the people saying Let us pray and let us pray more fervently and the reason is because the Soul is wont to slumber in a long prayer T●● Fathers of the Council of Bracar require the Bishop or Pr●●●yter to salute the people in due place in the Divine service saying the Lord be with you to which the people should answer and with thy Spirit which ceremony saith the Council all the East retained as delivered by the Apostles The Song of the three Children was generally received into the Liturgies of the Churches in this fourth Century Conc. toletam Ep. c. 13. It is a tradition that the Hymne Te Deum landamus c. We praise thee O God We acknowledge thee to be the Lord c. was comdosed by Ambrose and sung by Ambrose and Augustine after his Baptism Anastasius Bishop of Rome enjoyned all to stand at the reading of the Gospel after which followed the custome of standing at the reading of the Creed Hierome writing against Vigilantius affirmeth that in all the Churches of the East when the Gospel was to be read candles were lighted the sun shining not surely to drive away darkness but for a sign of gladness In the time of these last named Doctors the Feasts of Saints were more in number and celebrated with more solemnity then in former times Therein the Feast of our Saviours Nativity was generally observed and in the ancient Fathers sense said to be instituted by the Apostles whereas no approved Author of the former Centuries make mention of it Chrysostome in a sermon of his preached by him not long before the year 400 affirmeth Chrysost serm in natalem that Feast not to have come to the knowledge of the Churches among which he lived but ten within years before the preaching of that Sermon Tert. de idololatria c. 14. Vide Georgium in locum alios And many Learned men collect from Tertullian that in his time no other Feasts were commanded to be celebrated in the Churches that he knew of save onely the Lords day Easter and Pentecost I say not this out of any dislike of this holy Feast Ubi multorum strages jacet subtrahendum est aliquid severitati ut addatur amplius charitati vide conc Rom. 3. an 1099. or any other which we receive from those ancient times which without the adherent abuses I do heartily wish to be celebrated with due solemnity but by this example to shew that every thing had not a beginning in the Apostles time which is affirmed to be thence derived and descended by the testimony of some Fathers who were both in this matter and other things deceived by the counterfeited Canons and constitutions and other writings bearing the names of the Apostles 〈◊〉 Clemens Romanus or Dionysius Areopag whereof none ●●re written before the year 300 yet being not well examined were received as genuine by Epiphanius and some other old Doctors of the Church We read in this fourth Century of divers consecrations and benedictions which we do not read to be used in the former times Sect. 16. as of consecrated Churches Altars Paschal Wax-candles c. and we find therein more regard and honour given to a Chrysost in Epist ad Rom. hom 32. relicks of Saints to the sign of the Cross to the b Nazianz in laudem Gorgoniae in laudem Basilii Altar or Communion Table the Bible and the c Chrysost in Eph. hom 3. In Epist ad Orthodox in apoleg 2. Vessels used in the Divine Service and the like then we can see to be given them in former ages yet piously without passing the bounds which in those things Christian religion had determined excepting perhaps in some particulars which humane frailty might extort from them Willingly to break the holy Communion Cup who can say but that it is a very great offence it was as it was said in Athanasius to do impiously against Christ to commit a sin then which none was greater Against the Carelesseness of these times in the administration of the Lords Supper August hom 26. ex 50. Et Cyrill Gatech Mystagog 5. the faying of Augustine is worthy of observation with what care or solicitude saith he do we observe when the body of Christ is ministred unto us that nothing of it fall to the ground from our hands It is likely that Tertullian spake before him to the same purpose we take it heavily saith he that any of our Cup or Bread fall to the ground Gregory Nazianz. treating of the Birth of our blessed Saviour saith Adore the Manger wherein he was laid 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz. orat in Christi nativitatem Hieron ad Marcellam ut commigret Hieros idem in Epitaph Paulae The cross and the sign were had in no less honour Without the sign of the Cross saith Augustine neither Baptism nor Confirmation nor the Lords Supper can be rightly as to the customes and Canons of the Church in those times performed The Cross was kissed people fell down before it d Paulinus l. 2. Epist 3. Chrysost in act hom 12. adored it yet Ambrose saith of Helene the mother of Constantine the great that she found the title of the Cross and adored the King Christ surely not the wood that is the errour of the Gentiles Minutius long before Ambrose said in the name of all Christians we do not worship the Cross We see then that in those days the Cross was adored by Christians and yet that it was not adored by them It was adored by an Ecclesiastical adoration which was wont to be exhibited to things or persons accounted excellent by reason of some dignity and notable usefulness in being occasions causes or instruments of some very singular benefit it was not adored by an adoration proper to God Aug contra Faustum Manich l. 20. c. 21. Super Genes quoest 60.