X. Churches, and not after it, to give opinion that Christ, pre- CHAP. sent by consecration, was sacrificed then for the quick and dead, as the Church of Rome imagineth. m § 105. Of the rest of the service of the Eucharist I shall need to say nothing, having shewed that in the ancient Church, as with us, the time of communicating was transacted with psalms after that thanksgiving, the dismission upon that. The people is dismissed with the blessing in our service, as in the most ancient form related in the Constitutions of the Apostles; and so in the reformed Churches of France, though they use that of Moses, still frequented by the synagogue. In the service prescribed for Lord's days and festivals, when the Eucharist is not celebrated, it is not strange if something be added above the ordinary course to make it more solemn, though it had been rather to be wished. that the world were disposed for the true solemnity of it". § 106. Is the voice of the law, calling us to mind our offences, and moving to crave pardon and grace for the future, nothing to the service of God? The lessons of the Epistles and Gospels belong indeed to the first part of the service, as hath been shewed°; but shall we take them to 414 come from the Mass, where they are last found, or from St. Hierome, from whom they seem first to have come? And was it not convenient in them to remember what the Church celebrateth at several seasons and solemnities of the year? and to promote the edification of the Church, and instruction of the people in the mysteries of the faith, by giving preachers a subject of their sermons suitable to those solemnities. Last of all, though the world is not disposed to the continual celebration of the Eucharist, yet was it requisite, in reverence to the Apostle's order, and the universal practice of the Church, that the prayer for all states of the same should be used at almost all solemn assemblies, which because it always went CHAP. along with the Eucharist, as it is used, serves to put us in mind what is wanting. X. § 107. In fine, though all forms of service devised by men must needs remain disputable, and happy it is when so they are but upon slight matters, so my hope is that from hence will appear that the form which we use deserves this commendation, that it is possible to alter it for the better, but easy to alter it for the worse. Thus far upon the principles propounded in the beginning, of things remembered in the Scripture concerning the public service of God, and the most ancient and general practice of the Church to expound them. I have discoursed the substance and form of God's public 415 service at solemn assemblies for that purpose, the circumstances of it, and the particular form which we use. Of the rest of ecclesiastical offices, and the course we use in them, it was not my purpose to say any thing at the present: in which, nevertheless, the reasons hitherto disputed will easily take place, to shew both that it is for the edification of the Church that the performance of them be solemn and by prescript form, and that the form which we use is exceeding commendable. How the form of public service is ordered. CHAPTER XI. HOW THE FORM OF PUBLIC SERVICE IS ORDERED. DEPENDENCE OF AND now, without further dispute, it is to be scen what is Præscriptas verborum formulas in liturgia Ecclesias Apostolorum sæculo habuisse ex sacra Scriptura colligi non potest, præter verba determinata a XI. the Scriptures, but left to human ordinance: that which is to CHAP. be preached is acknowledged on all hands to be referred for the most part to the private endeavours of particular persons': not in respect to any immediate inspiration of the Holy Ghost, otherwise to be quenched, but because it is the ordinary means to instruct and admonish whole congregations in that which most concerneth them of the knowledge and doctrine of the Scriptures. Public prayers, some think, are to be ministered according to the disposition and discretion of particular guides of particular congregations, by virtue of the Apostle's ordinance, forbidding to quench the Spirits. Here' it is proved that, because it is confessed that the grace of praying by immediate inspiration is not now extant, therefore the purpose of this ordinance ceaseth, and that the ordinary rule of the edification of the Church to be attained by the order and comeliness of these things which are done at public assemblies, is followed to far more purpose in the use of a form prescript and uniform. ence of § 2. It is further here to be observed, that whatsoever may Depend417 concern the honour of God, the unity of the Church, the Churches truth of religion, and the recommendation of it, is most effec- is from the Apostles, tually to be procured-as procured it was from the beginning for that of our faith-by the dependence of Churches, visibly derived purposes. Christo in Baptismo et sacra Cœna . . . An nullas, inquies, probabo liturgias? Absit. Nam liturgiæ publicæ partes et exercitia sunt precari, psallere, scripturas legere, et interpretari ac tractare, sacramenta administrare, quæ qui sublata vellet, Dei cultum sublatum cupit. Præterea probamus præscriptum ordinem harum partium, tum per se, tum inter se, ut omnia fiant ordine et decenter in ecclesia. . . . Probamus etiam illa orationum et admonitionum exemplaria, quæ habentur in liturgiis nostris, dummodo tradantur ut exemplaria non ut præscripta quibus præcepto astringendus minister.-Didoclav. Altar. Damascen., p. 615. CC Solomon gave good heed, and sought "A true minister of Christ ought sect. 2. See chap. vii. sectt. 3-12. and other XI. CHAP. from the appointment and ordinance of the Apostles. It hath been declared", that according to that which was done by Barnabas and Paul ordaining presbyters through the Churches, Acts xiv. 23, according to that which Titus is instructed to ordain presbyters through the cities, Titus i. 5, that is, colleges of presbyters to order the Churches founded in populous cities, so throughout the whole Christian world were all Churches of cities thought meet for their greatness— whether instituted by the Apostles, or propagated thence[to be] governed by presbyters or colleges of presbyters, the heads whereof were Bishops, in succession to the Apostles. We know the Gospel attained to the countries and territories lying under these cities, upon the preaching of the Apostles: the Scripture saith, Acts xiii. 49, upon the first preaching of Paul and Barnabas, "The word of the Lord was dispersed all over the country:" and Clemens, disciple of the Apostles, Epist. ad Corinth.*, Κατὰ χώρας οὖν καὶ πόλεις κηρύσσοντες, καθίστανον τὰς ἀπαρχὰς αὐτῶν, δοκιμάσαντες τῷ Πνεύματι, εἰς Ἐπισκόπους καὶ διακόνους τῶν μελλόντων πιστεύειν. " Preaching therefore through cities and countries, they made the first- 418 fruits of them, trying them by the Spirit, Bishops and deacons of such as should believe," speaking of the Apostles and their time and we are ready to believe that congregations might be planted in these countries and territories during their time, though we read nothing of it here, and the division of titles and Churches, that is, city and rural congregations, in the Church of Rome, is assigned in the Popes' Lives to a far later time than this ". "Prim. Govern., chap. iii. sect. 2. Cap. xlii. p. 170. ed. Coteler. Quoted before in Prim. Govern., chap. vii. sect. 3. y In the Life of Evaristus, who was Pope in the year 100, we read, Hic titulos in urbe Roma divisit presbyteris. -Labbei, tom. i. col. 533. And of Dionysius, who was made Pope A.D. 259, Hic presbyteris Ecclesias divisit et cœmeteria parochiasque et dioceses constituit.-Ib., col. 847. ed. Venet. The Puritans, however, had a different doctrine about the original of parishes, probably derived from a passage in Calvin's Institutions strictly interpreted, lib. iv. cap. iv. 2. "I have shewed," saith Cartwright in his reply to Whitgift, "and the matter is plain, that the Lord divided national Churches into parishes and congregations, so that if St. Paul have not the word of parish, yet he hath the thing."-A Reply to an Answer of Dr. Whitgift, p. 50. Upon which Whitgift asks, "Where hath the Lord divided national Churches into parishes and congregations?"Defence, p. 250. Cartwright, in reply, saith, "It is manifest these divisions were before the Monks' time, yea, before the Apostles' time:" but at the same time seems to withdraw from his first assertion, for thus he quotes his own words repeated by Whitgift-" He XI. § 3. But do we not know that according to the general CHAP. and primitive custom of the Church these rural congregations [Country mother received their ministers from the mother-Churches in which Churches followed their ordinations were made? Doth it not appear to common the examsense, that the form of God's public service, as it hath been ple of the described-uniform in the main ingredients from the begin- Church.] ning, unconformable in particulars of less moment-was practised by particular congregations according to their motherChurches? Doth not the distinction of dioceses, or, as they were first called, Tapoixías, habitations adjoining to chief cities, received in all parts of the Church, proclaim that the institution and appointment of it cannot have been accessory and particular, but universal and primitive? And what cause have we to doubt that the Holy Ghost, directing the Apo419 stles, should move them to that course which, according to the condition of the world, must needs be most reasonable? Or who can doubt that, according to the condition of the world, it is most reasonable to presume that frequent and populous residences must needs be furnished of men of best abilities, and means to know the right course of ordering public matters of the Church, for most advantage to the truth of religion, the peace of the Church, and the service of God, rather than that vulgar and rude congregations, inflamed with the ignorance and malice and overweening of unable guides, should choose for themselves, not only in things necessary for their own souls' health, wherein all have their due interest, but in things concerning the general state of the Church, which they are neither bound nor able to understand. presby § 4. I must confess to have written heretofore', that in the [All preachers time of the Apostles the work of preaching seemeth to have were not gone rather by men's abilities than their offices: and now I originally hope, in good time, having declared here several regards in ters.] which this is verified. It hath been shewed that of the same ecclesiastical order, the same bench of the Church, some presbyters exercised the abilities of preaching, some not. It hath been shewed that the rank of prophets furnished by 426 the immediate inspiration of God, for the more plentiful per asketh where it appeareth that the a Prim. Govern., chap. ix. sect. 4. b Chap. iv. sect. 45. and chap. v. |