CHAP. assembled for the exercise of Christian charity and the praises VIII. of God, as we see in Tertullian, Apol. cap. xxxix., where if we find nothing of celebrating the Eucharist, it is to be attributed to Cassander's reason, because it was not his pur- 294 pose to make known the fashion of the Eucharist to unbelievers, which might bring it into contempt among them. [Eucharist § 43. Pliny's words alleged seem to import that the Chriscelebrated tians of his time assembled twice on Lord's days, before day, morning.] and at night. Before day, to praise Christ as God, and to

in the

tie themselves upon a Sacrament, or oath, to make good what
they professed. I have not yet found that they were wont
to make any such formal oath to themselves, and must think
it strange that they should renew it at all solemn assemblies;
and therefore do believe that his meaning concerneth the
Sacrament of the Eucharist, which of its own nature, we
know, is an obligation to such purpose. At night, when they
met to eat together, it hath been shewed that the Eucharist
was celebrated. And so Pliny's words import the same that
Justin's [do], in which he describeth to us the celebration of the
Eucharist at solemn morning service, and elsewhere at meals,
among which the feasts of love had the first place; and both of
them the same that the Apostle [doth] in this place. His mean-
ing in the eleventh chapter is not to abrogate those feasts of
love, but to take a course that they might be held in common
for the exercise of Christian charity, and the public service
of God. Therefore if any man pretended the necessities of
nature, he giveth him leave to eat at home, xi. 34, because
it hath appeared that these assemblies were held towards 295
night, and that-when the custom of the world was to enter-
tain themselves—then they assembled to this sober and Chris-
tian refreshment. But in this fourteenth chapter he hath
touched all the parts of public service at solemn assemblies,
prayers, the praises of God, the reading and expounding of
the Scriptures: and therefore when he saith, ver. 16, "Else
when thou shalt bless with the Spirit, how shall he that
occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving

d Quoted in chap. vi. sect. 7.

e Additur vero hic [ad uxor. lib. ii. cap. vi.] de cibo et poculo Christi, quod ibi fortassis, quod ad paganos

et nondum initiatos sermo haberetur, omissum fuit.-Cassand. Liturgic., cap. iv. p. 14. Paris. 1616.

VIII.

of thanks?" my purpose is to shew that he referreth to the CHAP. celebration of the Eucharist in particular, and that thanksgiving which from the beginning it was consecrated with: to which purpose I have premised these probabilities, that the Eucharist was then celebrated at their morning assemblies.

of this

with the

of chief

§ 44. In the mean time, it is plain by the rubric of our ser- The order vice, which saith, "Upon the holy-days, if there be no com- Church munion, shall be said," with that which followeth; and agreeable more plain by the rubric of the first edition of Edward VI., judgment after the exhortation, which saith, "In cathedral churches, Reformers. or other places, where there is daily communion,”—————and again, "And if upon the Sunday or holy-day the people be negligent to come to the communion," that our reformers affected the frequentation of this service, according 296 to the primitive practice, so far as they thought it attainable. And according to them, Calvin, iv. Instit. xvii. 43. 46, roundly professeth that it behoveth that the Eucharist be celebrated at least once a-week. Where let me have leave to say, that it had been much more for the edification of the Church to have laboured in reducing this pious intention of our reformers into practice, than to contend about saying that part of the service-which nevertheless, as shall appear, never properly belonged to the celebration of that Sacrament -at the place appointed for the ministering of it.

f Changed at the Restoration into "Upon the Sundays and other holydays."

Porro tanta ceremoniarum congerie facessere jussa, sic administrari decentissime poterat, si sæpissime et sin

gulis ad minimum hebdomadibus propo-
neretur Ecclesiæ.-§ 43.

singulis ad minimum hebdoma-
dibus proponenda erat Christianorum
cœtui mensa Domini.-§ 46.

CHAPTER IX.

СНАР.
IX.

The rea

it is for the

edification

of the Church to

use cere

monies in

public service.

THE REASONS WHY IT IS FOR THE EDIFICATION OF THE CHURCH TO USE
CEREMONIES IN PUBLIC SERVICE. IT IS AVOWED BY THE CHIEF RE-

FORMERS. OF THE RESPECT OF TIMES AND PLACES. OF THE DIFFER-
ENCE OF VESTURES AND GESTURES. CAUTION IN MATTER OF CERE-
MONIES. THE OBLIGATION OF RULES WHEREBY THEY ARE DETER-
MINED.

Or the rites, and circumstances, and ceremonies of God's service in public, it concerneth to say something here, where sons why we are about the general order of it: and yet so much hath been said of it, and to so good purpose, that he that would come down to the particulars of it, shall be enforced to say 297 over what hath been said again. My purpose is to discourse in few words the reason and ground upon which in general it is expedient that the form of public service should be solemn and ceremonious, according to the method hitherto used. And that is this which I touched aforeh: because the rule of the Apostle commandeth these things to be done both in order and with comeliness; and nothing can become the service of God but that which serveth to stir up, and to exercise the inward reverence of the heart in ourselves, and to procure it in others. What that is, common reason must be judge, according to the Apostle'.

[Influence of ceremonies.]

§ 2. Here therefore lieth an appeal to the common reason of all the world, not to the particular reasons of persons interested in prejudice, whether that inward reverence and devotion of the heart, wherein the service of God consisteth, the exercise and maintenance of it do not require that it be in the circumstances and rites of it solemn and ceremonious? ask the world to what purpose the chief actions of it are transacted with so much observance in circumstances, but to procure and maintain that respect which the public good requireth they should possess in men's minds. In the state of princes, in the courts of judgment, in military matters, in 298 the passage of all public matters of any consequence, common sense is able to tell us what respect and observance is used, See chap. vi. sect. 22. See chap. vi. sect. 25.

IX.

and all reason alloweth the necessity of it: for by this means CHAP. is conveyed into the minds of the greatest part of people that reverence, in which the public good requireth all men to hold those powers, by which these great matters are managed; which it is not possible should make impressions upon gross minds, by conviction of reason, were they not managed by their senses.

Service.]

§ 3. God hath made Christians, though governed by the [In Divine Spirit of His grace, as gross in their bodily senses and faculties of their minds, as other men of like education are: and it is a debt which the guides of the Church owe to the wise and unwise of God's people, to conduct them in the way of godliness by means proportionable to their faculties. The outward form of public service availeth much, even with them whose minds are best in tune, to corroborate their reverence and devotion at the service of God, by the exercise of it: but speaking of them whose minds are less withdrawn from their senses, how great impression shall the example of the world, practising the service of God in an orderly and reverent form, make in the minds of men that cannot receive it 299 from their reason, but from their senses? this effect in things of slight consequence in particular, which nevertheless altogether amount to a considerable sum, is better seen by the gross in practice, than convinced by retail in dispute: yet since the importunities of men have caused false reasons to prevail with weak people, it is requisite the true reasons be pleaded, lest it be thought there are none such, because not so fit to be pleaded.

§ 4. The circumstances and ceremonies of public service is [Necessity of them.] indeed a kind of discipline and pædagogy, whereby men subject to sense are guided in the exercise of godliness: it is, as it were, the apparel of religion at the heart; which some think, like the sun, most beautiful when it is most naked; and so it were indeed, did men consist of minds alone without bodies, but as long as our bodily senses are manageable to our soul's advantage, the heat within will starve without this apparel without. And therefore, under better judgment, I hold it requisite that the observance of rites and ceremonies in the public service of God, should increase and become more solemn after the world was come into the Church, than

IX.

CHAP. under the persecuting times of it. Persecution was like antiperistasis in nature, in preserving order and reverence in the public offices of the Church, with the respect of those guides that ruled it.

[Increaseth with time.]

[Instances in the New

Testament.]

§ 5. But since the net of the gospel hath been cast in the 300 ocean, and caught good and bad, it is more requisite that all should pass, as under rule and observance, so in the most reverent form, that the coldness and indifference of the worser part appear not to debauch the good disposition of others. Though from the beginning, as early as the records of the Church are able to inform us, we are sure it was never without such outward observances as, according to the state of the time, tended to maintain, to witness the disposition of the heart answerable.

§ 6. The Apostle's ordinance of praying and singing psalms, men with heads bare, women with heads covered, the salutation of peace so long practised in the primitive Church, from the time of the Apostles, imposition of hands in divers acts of public service, signifying the over-shadowing of the Holy Ghost, and God's hand stretched out to give the blessing for which prayer was made, and without question derived from the times of the Apostles, are of this nature. And it is thought that when the Apostles speak of putting off the old man, and putting on the new, Col. iii. 9, 10, ii. 11,—of burying in Baptism, Col. ii. 12, Rom. vi. 4,-of the unction of grace, 1 John ii. 20, 27, 1 Cor. ii. 12, allusion is made to some rites of ecclesiastical offices, used even at that time'.

It is a§ 7. As for ecclesiastical writers, it will be hard to name 301 vowed by the chief any of them so ancient, in whom are not to be found divers Reformers. particulars of this nature. But the general reason hitherto declared, hath been better sifted by the chief reformers. Philip, loco de Carem. in Eccl., p. 651m: Paulus gravissimè dixit, 1 Cor. xiv., πάντα εὐσχημόνως καὶ κατὰ τάξιν γινέσθω. Non ordinem tantùm, sed etiam singularem curam ornandi ordinis requirit: quare addidit evoxnμóvws, ut videamus, quid personas, loca, tempora deceat. "Paul saith with much gravity, Let all things be done with decency, and in order. garments. 2. Immersion in Baptism. 3. Anointing in Confirmation.

3.

* See Prim. Govern., chap. xi. sect.

1. The white robes worn by the newly baptized, instead of their former

He

Melancth. Opp., tom. i. fol. 296. Wittebergæ, 1562.