solemne service of God because our Redeemer arose on that day and therefore it is called ever since dies Dominicus the Lords day ex illo caepit habere festivitatem and from the very Apostles time and from their constitution it began to be kept as a festivall day A festivall day what meane you by that Why à sanctis patribus constitutum mandatum saies the same Father it is a constitution and command received from our holy Fathers S. Aug serm 251. de temp that men should leave all worldly businesse on Saints daves maximè diebus Dominicis and especially on the Lords day that they may betake themselves wholly to the Lords service The first day of the week then is the Lords day appointed to be kept as a holy feast for the Lords service by the Apostles themselves in their owne time And this day which the Apostles call the Lords day S. Justin ora◠ad Anton St. Justine Martyr an Apostolike man calls Sunday Solis autem die communiter omnes conventum agimus ad preces supplicationes on Sunday we all meet together to prayers and supplications because that is primus dies the first day on which our Saviour arose For he was crucified pridiè Saturni diei the day before Saturday and the next day after Saturday qui sc Solis est dies which is Sunday Apostolis Discipulis suis apparuit he appeared to his Apostles and Disciples And hereupon his Apostles and Disciples thought fit to appoint and command this day to be kept holy The Lords day then is by the Apostles so called and by this Apostolike man named Sunday and may fitly so be called because saies Saint Ambrose in eo ortus Sol justitiae illuminat S. Amb ser 61. the Sun of righteousnesse then arose that enlightneth every one of us The first day of the weeke then is the Lords day and Sunday And the Lords day was by the Apostles themselves in their owne time appointed for holy assemblies to meet on as on a feast day dedicated to the Lords service And so hath that day beene called and used ever since in the true Catholike Church of God for 1554. yeares together without interruption both in the Greeke and Latine Church What shall we thinke then of Knox and Whittingham Troubles at 〈◊〉 pag. 30. and their fellowes that in their letter to Calvin depart from the constitution ordinance and practice of the Apostles and Apostolike men and call not this day the Lords day or Sunday but with the pietie of Jeroboam make such a day of it as they have devised in their owne hearts to serve their owne turne and anabaptizing of it after the mind of some Jew hired to be the god-father thereof call it the Sabbath and so disguised with that name become both the first that so called it and the Testators that have so bequeathed it to their Disciples and Proselites to be observed accordingly It was full thirtie yeares before their children could turne their tongues from Sunday to hit on Sabbath and if the Gileadites that met with the Ephraimites before they could frame to pronounce Shibboleth had snapt these too before they had got their Sabbath by the end their counsell had brought much peace to the Church For this name Sabbath is not a bare name like a spot in their foreheads to know Labans sheepe from Jacobs but indeed it is a mysterie of iniquitie intended against the Church For allow them but their Sabbath and you must allow them the service that belongs to their Sabbath Then must you have no Letanie for that is no service for their Sabbath containing suffrages devised by Pope Gregory but for Sundayes nay Troubles at Frankf pag. 30. for Wednesdayes and Fridayes which must not so be used for sixe dayes thou must labour nay you must have no part of the Service in the Communion booke used for that is Service also for holy dayes Welph detemp◠l. 2. c. 4. which are abominated as idolatricall being dedicated to Saints Well then the Sabbath must be yeelded them otherwise there will be no day left for God to be served on What Service then must you allow them for their Sabbath Why nothing but preaching How shall that be knowne Why out of their owne mouthes Thus soone after the Conventicle in London in 84. about the 31th yeare of the Sabbaths nativitie writeth one of them in his letter to some Superintendent amongst them to whom he gives an account of his Sabbaths exercise Ego singulis Sabbath is si non alius adveniens locum suppleat cum praescriptà Leiturgeias formulâ nihil habens commercit in caetu concionem habeo idque reverendorum fratrum consilio I preach every Sabbath in the congregation having nothing at all to doe with the order prescribed in the booke of Common Prayer and this he does not of his owne head but by the counsell of the reverend brethren delivered doubtlesse in that late Synode Now you see the Common Prayer booke which the Kings Majesties authority in causes Ecclesiasticall with the Convocation house have appointed and the Parliament the reunto assented is clean cast out of their Sabbath and no service allowed or used but preaching Marvaile not then at the casting out of lawfull sports their zeale could and did dispence with them well enough for a long time together as they of Genevah and the Low-countries even sitting the Synode of Dort did and still doe But the plot with us will not beare them for they must gaine elbow roome for their Sabbaths exercise or preaching falsely so called being for the most part as their hearers will justifie but violent discourses and personall invectives against the present State and settled lawes of the Land with the Governours thereby to get themselves magnified for the great power of God with Simon that having cryed downe all Lawes Ecclesiasticall and Temporall too in time that sute not with their Sabbath doctrine they may be able making their reliance on their inveigled thousands whereof they bragge to put their hands to their mouthes Mar. ju epiles and to say with him in the story Petition to his Majestie in 1603. Richard 2◠Behold the fountaine from whence all lawes for governement of Church and Common wealth must shortly spring You see then what the plot was that bred and still keepes the name of Sabbath on foot that if St. John or the Apostles that first called and appointed the Lords day should come amongst them and happen to call it the Lords day they would quickly finde him to be none of their Tribe nor for their turne being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without his watch word of the Sabbath But if Justin that blessed Martyr should be so profane as to call it Sunday he would be in danger under their discipline to be martyred the second time for not adoring their idoll Sabbath as he was under Antonius for not worshipping Jupiter
guilefull zeale to be thought to speake the Scripture phrase when indeed the dregs of Ashdod flow from their mouthes For that day which they nickname the Sabbath is either no day at all or not the day that they meane It were well therefore that they would forbeare to speake strange languages in the Church for Saint Pauls sake and use them then when they all meet together in new England amongst them that understand the language for with us the Sabbath is Saturday and no day else No ancient Father Father Nay no learned man Heathen or Christian tooke it otherwise from the beginning of the world till the beginning of their schisme in 1554. And if wee finde the word otherwise used in some writings that of late come unto our hands blame not the Clerkes good men for it nor intitle the misprision any higher or otherwise than to these pretenders to pietie who for their owne ends have for a long time deceived the world with their zealous and most ignorant or cunning clamours and rung the name of Sabbath so commonly into all mens eares that not Clerkes onely but men of judgement learning and vertue not heeding peradventure so much as is requisite what crafty and wicked device may be menaged under the vaile of a faire word used in Gods law doe likewise suffer the same often to scape the doore of their lips that detest the drift of the devisers in the closet of their hearts I will now shut up this point in Saint Hilaries words S. Hilar. l. 6. Non sum nescius difficillimo me asperrimoque tempore haec disserere multis jam per omnes fermè Romani Imperii provincias Ecclesiis morbo pestiferae hujus praedicationis infectis velut ad piae fidei hujus malà usurpatam persuasionem longo doctrinae usu ementito nomine verae religionis imbutis non ignorans difficilem esse ad emendationis profectum voluntatem quam in erroris sui studio per plurimorum assensum authoritas publicae sententiae contineret Gravis enim est periculosus error inplurimis multorum lapsus etiamsi se intellig at tamen exurgendi pudore authoritatem sibi praesumit ex numero habens hoc impudentiae ut quod errat intelligentiam esse veritatis asserat dum minus erroris esse existimatur in multis There are so many that see so little benefit will be suckt out of the constitutions of the Apostles practice and tradition of holy Church doctrine of godly and learned Fathers that they have got themselves heapes of teachers that to serve their owne turnes will call and keep the Lords day as a Sabbath and so proclaime it with such lowd outcries that the voice of truth will become silence and her selfe made errour and so made to beleeve of her selfe or to forgoe her owne modesty and to beleeve none but her selfe But with Moses liberavi animam meam being called hither very unwillingly I have set before you good and evill light and darknesse life and death the doctrine and practice of the Church of God and the leaven of Pharisees and fashion of Schismatickes and Novellists chuse which you will and the Lord be your guide Onely of this be you well assured that if you will have Manna rained downe unto you you must forgoe your Sabbath and sticke onely to the Lords day for in nostrâ Dominicâ die semper Dominus pluit Manna Orig. super 15. Exod. hom 7. in Sabbatho non pluit The last point touching the day of meeting is When doth the Lords day begin Resp I answer S. Ambra in Ps â—7 out of Saint Ambrose The first day of the weeke began when the Sabbath ended The Sabbath ended when Christ arose Christ the true light arose with the light and spring of the morning for vesperi Sabbathi quae lucescit in primam Sabbathi are Saint Matthews words Nihil pulchrius nihil expressius saith hee this place is as fit and pat for our purpose as may be The Sabbaths evening is in the light of the first day of the weeke So Saint Leo resolveth Dioscorus Patriarch of Alexandria vespera Sabbathi initium diei Dominici S. Leo epist â—d Diosc the beginning of the Lords day is in the end of the Sabbath The end of the Sabbath is in the light of the first day of the weeke Looke then for Jacobs hand on Esau's heele or the beginning of the Lords day in the end of the Sabbath But Saint Nyssen is more punctuall and cleere S. Nyssen deresur orat 2. the Lords day saith he begins at Cock-crowing atque in hoc ipso articulo temporis and at that very knot and joint of time For then end we our Sabbaths or Saturdaies fast and then begin we nos oblectare laetari to keepe our Sundayes feast and that by an ancient custome which all are bound to observe For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he doth not signifie the evening or that part of the night which is post occasum Solis after Sun set but the rise of the morning with which the Sabbath ended Yet for all this the Church by way of preparation for the better sanctification of the Lords day hath prudently and piously appointed holy offices to be used on the Eve before And in obedience to this positive constitution of holy Church Saint Augustine would have his hearers to observe the Lords day S. Aug. ser de tem 25. à vesperâ ad vesperam from Even to Even sicut antiquis praeceptum est de Sabbatho as it was also commanded the Jewes concerning the Sabbath And therefore saith he look that from Saturday at Even us que ad vesperam diei Dominici till the Lords day at even we set aside all rurall and worldly businesse ut solo divino culiui vacemus that we may attend onely on the Lords service and begin to repaire to the Church to evening prayer on Saturday nights and he that cannot so doe let him be sure to pray at home Remember then that you which will needs have the Lords day a Sabbath doe set aside all businesse and flocke to the Church to say or heare Service on Saturday Evens which hitherto you have not done notwithstanding the order of the Church which prescribeth that part of that day to prepare us for the more devout observation of the Lords day Thus much of the day of meeting The first day of the weeke 2 In the next place we have in the next words to consider of the persons that then met These were not Jewes for then the Sabbath had beene the day of their meeting but Gentiles Asians Macedonians Thessalonians Paul with his companions and Disciples Now Paul had ordered before this time in Galatia and in Corinth that his Disciples were to have their meetings on the first day of the weeke whereunto they submitted themselves For on the first day of the week they now met and so did the whole Church
pergentibus S Aug. Ser. de tem 251. when others goe to Church or in such sort that publicum impediunt ministerium as Chemnitius speakes they hinder them from the publicke service of God Chem. de Fest p. 4. Those also are profaners of the Lords day as Origen saies qui sacris lectionibus terga vertunt Orig. hom 11. in Jer. that make base account of Scripture read and such as Saint Cyrill sayes that will not Ecclesiastico officio interesse S. Cyril in Je l. 8. c. 5. come to Church till Service be ended and the Sermon to begin and such as St. Austine sayes that cogunt Sacerdotem ut abbreviet missam make the Priest to curtaile divine Service S. Aug. Ser. de tem 251. aut ut ad eorum libitum cantet or sing or say it after their fancy not antiphonatim the Priest one verse and the people another which factious disposition St. Basil reproves in some Clergie men of Neocaesarea S. Basil ep 45◠that being against the practice of the universall Church continued from Ignatius who was directed thereunto by an Angell as Socrates affirmeth Those yet are worse profaners of the Lords day Socrat. l. 6. c. 8. that will not reade the Letanie on it for excitavit Diabolus saies St. Chrysostome in plaine termes the Divell himselfe and no body else S. Chrys Ser. antequam iret in exil Bed his l. 1. c. 25. hath stirred up those that make brabbles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 about the Letanie to bring it into contempt which was the meanes of the first conversion of our English Nation Trypho the Jew alledgeth Isa 58.13 to prove Justin Martyr a breaker of the Sabbath who tells him that the Prophet I say requireth no more than was before commanded by Moses in the law S. Just in Tryph. Tom. 2. whereunto he had given his answer This very place of Scripture our zealous Sabbatarians his issue borrow of that Jew and use as a sword to cut off all sports and recreations on their Sabbath with all other actions of our owne because we are forbidden to doe our owne will or to speake our owne words or vaine words on the Sabbath But let them beware that with Saul they fall not upon their owne sword For I pray you deale clearely and say whether those that will neither preach pray catechise administer the Sacraments nor performe any part of divine Service as Gods Magistrate appoints doe not their owne wills His I am sure they doe not And when they make new glosses and expositions of Scripture never received in the Church of God nor delivered by any ancient Father whom by Canon they are bound to follow and call the Lords day a Sabbath Lib. Can. An. 1571. Can. 19. whether they doe not speake their owne words And when they use vaine repetitions and babling in their prayers and preaching saying Lord Lord oftener in one prayer than there are words in all the Lords prayer doe not use vaine words and take the Lords name in vaine and be not punctually those whom our Saviour reproves by Saint Marke cap. 7. ver 7. In vanum me colunt they honour me with vaine words vaine glosses and expositions vaine babling and repetitions crying Lord Lord and all in vaine for they doe not the thing that I say For I say when you pray say Our Father c. and thus you will not doe but will pray an houre together before a Sermon yet though Christ and his Church command them to say it they will not doe it He that can say Corban and cry up the Sabbath the Sabbath it is a sufficient Supersedeas it is duty and piety enough though he neither honour Father nor Mother Christ nor the King his Vicegerent nor the Church his Spouse Let those then that are so violent against such as recreate themselves civilly and modestly in such wise as Gods Magistrate doth allow to prove them Sabbath breakers which is no sin at all look they be not found such as with an high hand and stiffe neck profane the Lords day in despite of Authority and so adde drunkennesse to thirst namely to their open profanation rebellion or disobedience which is as the sinne of witchcraft From which leprosie washing seven times in Jordan will not cleanse them unlesse they can prove Gods Magistrate Nebuchodonosor and themselves the three children Sure I am their disobedient and scornfull contempt of our Church Liturgie is to many godly and learned men farre their Superiours in these respects very scandalous and may drive many that reverence antiquity with us and for that cause stand well affected to our Church to withdraw themselves from us That it is not to be wondred at if Recusants should increase but rather it is a wonder that there are no more For how can any man of judgement and discretion like that Liturgie and forme of divine Service which our selves they say contemne scorne mangle and misuse as we list and some reject utterly as unlawfull and Antichristian Doe we tell them it is poison and doe they see us cast it out of our hands and doe we wonder that they will not run and take it up and eat it or that they refuse the use of it as we doe or rather forbeare the Church till it be used They will use no Crosse forsooth nor Surplice meet no coarse at the Church gate Church no women read no Service on Wednesdayes Fridayes Saturdayes Holy dayes nor on their Eeves will not stand at the Creed nor Gospel kneele at the Communion nor bowe the knee at the blessed name of the Lord JESUS nor goe in procession or keep their perambulations nor doe any thing at all as the Church appoints yet the worst is they would be esteemed members nay pillars of the Church whereas indeed they are neither the one nor the other but a disease a fretting canker a dangerous faction in the Church They are wandring starres and disasterous planets who have and doe blast the most flourishing and glorious Church under the cope of Heaven were it not that these withered branches doe appeare her onely spots of disgrace And because they are such hence it is that the Church for her owne safety is faine to renounce all defence of them and their doctrines against the Romanists Therefore she ought not in right to be upbraided or deserted for any thing they say or doe The Church knoweth and every member thereof of seeth that this generation had eaten out her bowels long since like Vipers and become her destruction but that by Gods providence they have as sufficiently discovered their malicious projects to be bent alike for the casting downe of Crownes and Scepters and lawes of the Land and the Professours thereof as for the trampling under their feet of Miters and corner'd Caps Bishops and such as exercise jurisdiction under them together with our Booke of Common Prayer and Canons Ecclesiasticall Therefore the Church
hath little cause to honour them as her children with her defence before they will be brought to honour her and her orders nay to honour the Lord and his day in breaking of bread and preaching in such sort as shee hath learned of St. Paul and delivered in the Booke of Common Prayer And now I have done with them The last point with which I will conclude is the place where Saint Paul preached In an upper chamber Let no man thinke from hence that he hath got a warrant to doe so in these dayes This is the third time Paul came to Troas At the first time being 41. yeares of age as some account he was called away by a vision into Macedonia and made no stay at all Acts 16. About three yeares after he came thither again to looke for Titus 2 Cor. 〈◊〉 but not finding him he onely faluted the brethren and went away in great heavinesse Now in the 47th yeare of his age he comes hither againe and stayes but seven dayes so that he had no time to take order for building of a Church to preach and to celebrate the Euchrist in Follow him therefore to Corinth where he stayd a yeare and sixe moneths where we shall not take him preaching in an upper chamber Acts 18.11 For so soone as the Jewes had driven him out of the Synagogue and beaten Sosthenes the Ruler of the Synagogue for suffering him to preach on the Sabbath day and also blasphemed his doctrine in all probability touching the observation of the Lords day saying as it was maliciously reported amongst the Jewes that the Lord was not risen but that his Disciples stole him away therefore the day of his resurrection ought not to be kept nor preached on their Sabbath tending so much to the overthrow thereof Upon this or the like blasphemy St. Paul tooke just occasion to renounce them and their Synagogue saying From henceforth I goe unto the Gentiles And so immediately he tooke order for a publike place to meet in so large that men and women learned and unlearned beleevers and unbeleevers might all meet together And this place was a CHURCH If the whole Church be come together into one Place they may speake languages provided that they doe interpret 1 Cor. 14.33 Yea but how doth it appeare that this one place is a Church Why because himselfe calls it so saying In the church I had rather speake five words c. ver 19. So their comming together to eat the Lords body was into one place 1 Cor. 11.20 and this one place was a Church ver 18. When yee come together in the Church I heare c. this is not to eat the Lords body This Church or publike place of meeting is many wayes distinguished from private houses The Church was free for all to come into Jewes or Gentiles beleevers or unbeleevers 1 Cor. 14.24 so were not private houses In private houses women might speake not so in the Church In private houses men might be covered and women uncovered S. Chrys in Act. ho. 21. de Sacer dot l. 6. hom de eucha in encaeniis not so in the Church In the Church reverence was to be given to the Angels which attend the Lord our Saviour at his table in tremendis mysteriis as St. Chrysostome speakes where he is truely and really present not so in private houses In private houses they might eate and drinke not so in the Church These Churches had Bishops set over them which had power of excommunication penance and absolution which was not used in private houses but onely in the Church 1 Cor. 5.5 2 Cor. 2.7 To these Churches belonged stockes of money whereby Widowes and others were maintained at the discretion of the Bishop 1 Tim. 4.9 which authority they had not in private houses but were at the curtesie of the owners to be received or not Mat. 10.10 In these Churches stood the Lords boord which was not placed in any private house 1 Cor. 10.21 This table of the Lord is called also an Altar 1 Cor. 8.13 They that waite of the Altar are partakers of the Altar which is not to be understood of Israel after the flesh For habemus Altare we under the Gospel have an Altar Heb. 15.10 And so is the word Altar and Lords table indifferently and alike anciently used in the writings of the Fathers who best knew how to expound Scripture These were some Tables or Altars of stone quia Christus est lapis angularis some were of wood the better to expresse his death on the tree S. Just in Tryph. Tom. 2. Tert. l. 4. adv Marcion posuerunt lignum in panem ejus Jer. 11. These woodden Altars or Tables the furious Circumcellions brake downe in St. Augustines time So that from the 47th yeare of Saint Pauls age which was the 57th of our Sauiour we may count out of Scripture that the devotion of Gods people began in building of Churches for breaking of bread and preaching and with them began the solemne exercise of the jurisdiction of Bishops in excommunication penance confession and absolution which without Churches could not well be exercised But in Ecclesiasticall writers we find the beginning more early and so the use continued without interruption in the midst of all their persecutions for 287. yeares together untill Dioclesians time I might be infinite in this kinde but I will give you but a touch thereof Euseb l. 5. c. 17. The Apostles and disciples staid in Jerusalem after Christs resurrection twelve yeares together and preached to the Jewes in their Synagogues but because they kept the Sabbath no better than their Lord did but began to keepe the Lords day which the Jewes detested and to neglect the Sabbath S. Justin de verit l. 2. in Try which they onely doted on as necessary to salvation they are driven out of Jerusalem and dispersed into sundry Nations And in the first yeare of their dispersion which was about the 47th of our Saviour they began to build Churches to preach and administer the Sacraments in on the Lords day About this time or before a goodly room in Theophilus his house in Antioch An Christi 38. Hieron in ep 2. ad Gal. Euseb in Chr. S. Clemen recogd l. 10. where ten thousand met at one time was consecrated for a Church by St. Peter and there was placed St. Peters chaire which for a long time after there continued S. Mark also about the same time caused divers Churches to be built about Alexandria Euseb l. 2. c. 16. wherin it was unlawfull to eat and drinke but they were used onely for reading preaching and meditating on Gods word praying singing of Psalmes and the like In the yeare 57. S. Paul caused a Church to be built in Corinth and in divers other places Anno 63. Joseph of Arimathea caused a Church to be built in Glastonbury Hist Eccles Angl. Erat haec Ecclesia ab
of God by their example for ever after Wherefore their obedience and humility would better beseeme us than the pride and opposition of Diotrephes against St. John and St Paul and the whole Church of God about the day of meeting or the Service thereon used onely for preheminence sake 3 Now I come in the next place to the holy duties wherin the Apostle and his Disciples spent the Lords day The first of these is breaking of bread How is that done St. Augustine tells us sicut frangitur in Sacramento corporis Christi S. Aug. ep 86. not as bread is broken in a Taverne but as it is broken in the Sacrament of the Lords body Therefore the Syriac plainely calleth this breaking of bread receiving the Eucharist So doth Justin Martyr And none is so fit as he to expound St. Austins sicut to tell us how bread was broken in the holy Eucharist in those primitive times This he doth in his information given thereof unto Antoninus plus Sunday saies he is the day of our meeting S. Justin orat ad Anton. for taking that nourishment which with us is called the Eucharist Then the brethren come together ad communes preces supplicationes to common prayers and supplications then are read the writings of the Prophets and Apostles deinde Lectore quiescente when the Reader hath finished all divine Service Praesidens orationem habet he that hath the chiefe place maketh an Oration or Sermon and instructs the people and exhorts them to imitate those excellent things which they have heard read Here is reading of prayers and lessons both out of the Old and New Testament and after them a Sermon and the Sermon doth not justle out any part of divine Service though the President or Bishop himselfe made it Thus the first Service endeth with a Sermon And now begins the second Service Sub haec consurgimus omnes c. prayers being finished and the Sermon done we all stand up at once and poure out our prayers Stand up and pray Marvaile not at this For in the Primitive Church prayers on the Lords day were performed standing in memory of Christs resurrection And it was not lawfull de geniculis adorare to pray kneeling as appeares out of Tertullian Tertul. de Coron mil. Concil Nic. Can. 30. S. Bafil de Sp. Sancto c. 27. S. Aug. ep 119. S. Epiph. l. 3. To. 2. and the Nicene Councell and the Fathers that succeeded Then precibus finitis prayers being ended ei qui fratribus praeest offertur panis c. Bread wine and water are offered to the Priest who taketh the same and with all his might courageously preces gratiarum actiones profundit poures out prayers and benedictions over them and then all the people give a cheerefull acclamation and cry Amen Then is distribution made cuique praesenti to every one present doubtlesse to lay men as well as to Priests and Deacons Then also the richer sort contribute what they thinke fit which is laid up for the use of the poore Here are reading of prayers and lessons expounding of Scripture supplications benedictions oblations to the Priest collections for the poore distribution of the Sacrament all required to breaking of bread ficut frangitur in Sacramento corporis Christi as it is broken in the Eucharist And so we see how the use of our first and second Service is founded on and agreeth with the practice of the Primitive Church by the testimonie of this holy Martyr Yet this may more clearely be delineated out of the Fathers that succeeded him Christian Churches in the Primitive times had these distinct places in them there was Sacrarium Presbyterium and Auditorium the Sacrarium or holy place was distinguished from the Presbyterie by certaine lists and railes the Presbyterie also was divided from the Auditorie Nave and body of the Church per cancellos by a certaine partition that gave it the name of a Chauncell In the holy place stood the Altar or Lords boord and not in the body of the Church In the Presbyterie was placed Cathedra Episcopi exedrae Presbyterorum the Bishops Chaire or Throne and stalls for Priests For anciently none else not so much as Deacons were permitted to sit in the Church In the Auditorie stood the Pulpit or Readers Tribunall as Saint Cyprian calls it Now the Service that was performed in Sacrario was much different from that which was done in Auditorio None were allowed to come and stand within the lists of the holy place where the Altar was fixed but the Priests Concil Arel Can. 15. S. Cyp. l. 1. ep 9. whose office it was non nisi altari deservire to stand and serve at the altar and none but they Concil Constantinop 6. Can. 69. And the Canon in the sixth generall Councell excludeth all lay men from thence unlesse it were to come in to offer And the passages in Theodoret between S. Ambrose and Theodosius make it manifest S. Theod. l. 5. c. 18. and they are much mistaken that produce the Councell of Constantinople to prove that communion Tables stood in the midst of the Church But the Service in the Auditory might and was much of it performed by such as had onely a toleration to read from the Bishop without imposition of hands by the Presbyterie as Celerinus had from Saint Cyprian S. Cypri 2. ep 7. And such had authority to goe into the Pulpit and read the Service appointed and when the Reader had finished the Ecclesiasticall office then the Expounder or Preacher went up into the Pulpit and did expound some place of Scripture formerly read Tert. depraeser c. 16. Eusch l. 6. c. 34. S. Cypr. l. 4. ep 2. l. 2. ep 1. l. 1. ep 7. 4. At this Service were present Catechumeni Competentes Neophyti and all sorts of Auditors beleevers or unbeleevers But at the second Service which began in Sacrario when this first Service ending with a Sermon was done in Auditorio none were admitted to be present but only the faithfull And these kneeled behind the Deacons in the midst of the Presbytery or Chauncell and with them such Priests as after penance done ad limina Ecclesiae were admitted only in communionem laicorum For Penitents were permitted to kneele together with the faithfull but that was post exomologesin as Tertullian thinkes fit to call it after confession and penance which was so district and severe in those primitive times performed in sackcloth and ashes and the Penitents casting themselves downe at the thresholds of the Church doores and after admission into the Church with much adoe granted then casting themselves downe upon their knees before the Altar or Lords boord to receive the Priests absolution that our silken eares will be in danger to be galled with the hearing of so rough a discipline Yet all of us confesse in the Commination That in the Primitive Church there was such a godly discipline whereby