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declaration of men's unbelief, that they do not, nor will depend upon him for the accomplishment of the same. Thus the first pretended ground of the necessary use of such liturgies as we speak of endeth in a reflection upon the honour of our Lord Jesus, or a publication of their own unbelief and apostacy.

The second is like the former. It will not, I suppose, be denied but that the apostles took care for the unity of the churches, and for that uniformity in the worship of God which is acceptable unto him. Evidence lies so full unto it in their writings that it cannot be denied. Great weight every where they lay upon this duty of the churches, and propose unto them the ways whereby it may be done, with multiplied commands and exhortations to attend unto them. Whence is it then that they never once intimate any thing of that which is now pressed, as the only medium for the attaining of that end? It cannot but seem strange to some, that this should be the only expedient for that uniformity which is acceptable unto God, and yet not once come into the thoughts of any of the apostles of Christ, so as to be commended unto the churches for that purpose. Considering the many treacheries that are in the hearts of men, and the powerful workings of unbelief under the most solemn outward professions, I fear it will appear at the last day, that the true rise of most of the impositions on the consciences of men, which on various pretences are practised in the world, is from the secret thoughts that either Christ doth not take that care of his churches, nor make that supply unto them of spiritual abilities for the work of the ministry, which he did in the days of old; or that men are now grown wiser than the apostles, and those who succeeded them in the administration of the things of God, and so are able to make better provision for attaining the end they professedly aimed at, than they knew how to do.

The heathen, I confess, thought forms of prayer to be a means of preserving a uniformity in their religious worship. Hence they had a solemn form for every public action; yea, for those orations which the magistrates had unto the people. So Livius informs us, that when Sp. Posthumius the consul was to speak unto the people about the wickednesses that were perpetrated by many under the pretence of some Baccha

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nalian superstition, he gave them an account of the usefulness of the solenne precationis carmen,' which he had recited to keep out, and prevent such differences about their religion as were then fallen out, lib. 39. 'Concione advocata cum solenne precationis carmen, quod præfari priusquam populum alloquantur, magistratus solent, peregisset consul, ita cæpit. Nulli unquam concioni, Quirites, tam non solum apta, sed etiam necessaria hæc solennis Deorum comprecatio fuit, quæ nos admoneret, hos esse Deos quos colere venerari, precarique majores vestri instituissent, non illos,' &c. But I hope we shall not prefer their example and wisdom before that of our Lord Christ and his apostles.

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Were prejudices removed, and self-interests laid out of the way, a man would think there were not much more necessity for the determination of this difference; Christ and his apostles, with the apostolical churches, knew no such liturgies. At least it seems, as was said, not an unreasonable request, to ask humbly and peaceably at the hands of any of the sons of men, that they would be pleased to allow unto ministers of the gospel that are sound in the faith, and known so to be, who will willingly submit the trial of their ministerial abilities to the judgment of any who are taught of God, and enabled to discern of them aright, that liberty in the worship of God which was confessedly left unto them by Christ and his apostles. But the state of things is altered in the world. At a convention of the apostles and others, wherein the Holy Ghost did peculiarly preside, when the question about impositions was agitated, it was concluded that nothing should be imposed on the disciples but what was necessary for them to observe antecedently to any impositions, Acts xv. 28. necessary though not in their own nature, yet in the posture of things in the churches, necessary to the avoidance of scandal, whereby the observation of that injunction was to be regulated. Nor was there

among the things called necessary the imposition of any one thing positively to be practised by any of the disciples in the worship of God, but only an abridgement of their liberty in some few external things, to which it did really extend. But that spirit of wisdom, moderation, and tenderness whereby they were guided being rejected by men, they began to think that they might multiply impositions as to the

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positive practice of the disciples of Christ in the worship of God at their pleasure, so that they could pretend that they were indifferent in themselves before the imposition of them, which gives, as they say, a necessity to their observation; which proceeding must be left to the judgment-seat of Jesus Christ; Matt. xxv. 45.

It is not worth our stay to consider what is pretended concerning the antiquity of liturgies, from some yet extant that bear the names of some of the apostles or evangelists. There is one that is called by the name of James, printed in Greek and Latin; another ascribed unto Peter, published by Lindanus; one also to Matthew, called the Ethiopic; another to Mark, which are in the Bible P. P. And pains have been taken by Santesius, Pamelius, and others, to prove them genuine; but so much in vain as certainly nothing could be more. Nor doth Baronius in their lives dare ascribe any such thing unto them. We need not any longer stay to remove this rubbish out of our way. They must be strangers to the spirit, doctrine, and writings of the apostles, who can impose such trash upon them, as these liturgies are stuffed withal. The common use of words in them not known in the ages of the apostles, nor of some of them ensuing; the parts in them whose contrivers and framers are known to have lived many ages after; the mentioning of such things in them, as were not once dreamed of in the days whereunto they pretend; the remembrance of them in them as long before them deceased, who are suggested to be their authors; the preferring of other liturgies before them when once liturgies came in use, with a neglect of them; which [with] the utter silence of the first Christian writers, stories, counsels concerning them, do abundantly manifest that they are plainly suppositions, of a very late fraud and invention. Yea, we have testimonies clear enough against this pretence. In Gregor. lib. 7. Epist. 63. Alcuinus, Amatorius, Rabanus, lib. P. P. tom. 10. with whom consent Walafridus, Strabo, Rupertus Titiensis, Berno, Radulphus Tangrensis, and generally all that have written any thing about liturgies in former days, many of whom shew how, when, and by whom the several parts of that public form which at length signally prevailed were invented and brought into use.

CHAP. V.

The practice of the churches in the first three centuries as to forms of public worship. No set forms of liturgies used by them. The silence of the first writers concerning them. Some testimonies against them.

Ir is not about stinted forms of prayer in the worship and service of God, by those who of their own accord do make use of that kind of assistance, judging that course to be better than any thing they can do themselves in the discharge of the work of the ministry, but of the imposition of forms on others who desire to stand fast in the liberty with which Christ hath made them free,' that we inquire. This freedom we have manifested to have been purchased for them by the Lord Jesus, and the use of it continued by the apostles in their own practice, and to the churches planted by themselves. And this will one day appear to have been a sufficient plea for the maintenance of that liberty to the end of the world. Now though what is purely matter of fact among the succeeding churches, be not so far argumentative as to be insisted on as a rule exactly binding us to the imitation of it; yet it is deservedly worthy of great consideration, and not hastily to be rejected, unless it be discovered to have been diverse from the word whereunto we are bound in all things to attend. We shall therefore make some inquiry into the practice of those churches, as to this matter of prescribing of forms of prayer in public church administrations, so far as any thing thereof is by good antiquity transmitted unto us.

Our first inquiry shall be into the three first centuries, wherein confessedly the streams of gospel institutions did run more clear and pure from human mixtures, than in those following, although few of the teachers that were of note do escape from animadversions from those that have come after them. It cannot be denied but that for the most part the churches and their guides within the space of the time limited, walked in the paths marked out for them by the apostles, and made conspicuous by the footsteps of the first churches planted by them. It doth not then appear, for

aught as I can yet discover, that there was any attempt to invent, frame, and compose any liturgies or prescribed forms of administering the ordinances of the gospel, exclusive to the discharge of that duty by virtue of spiritual gifts received from Jesus Christ, much less for an imposition of any such forms on the consciences and practice of all the ministers of the churches within the time mentioned: if any be contrary minded, it is incumbent on them to evince their assertion by some instances of unquestionable truth. As yet, that I know of, this is not performed by any. Baronius, ad An. Christi 58. num. 102-104, &c. treating expressly of the public prayers of the ancient Christians, is wholly silent as to the use of any forms amongst them; though he contends for their worshipping towards the east, which custom when it was introduced, is most uncertain; but most certain that by many it was immoderately abused, who expressly worshipped the rising sun; of which abominable idolatry among Christians, Leo complains, Serm. 7. De Nativitate. Indeed the cardinal, ad An. 63. 12. 17. faintly contends, that some things in the liturgy of James were composed by him, because some passages and expressions of it are used by Cyril of Jerusalem in his Mistagog. 5. But whereas Cyril lived not within the time limited unto our inquiry, and those treatises are justly suspected to be suppositions, nor is the testimony of that liturgy once cited or mentioned by him, the weakness of this insinuation is evident. Yea, it is most probable, that whosoever was the composer of that forged liturgy, he took those passages out of those reputed writings of Cyril, which were known in the church long before the name of the other was heard of. I know no ground of expectation of the performance of that, which as yet men have come short in, namely, in producing testimonies for the use of such liturgies as we are inquiring after, considering the diligence, ability, and interest of those who have been already engaged in that inquiry. Now the silence of those, who in all probability would have given an account of them, had any such been in use in their days, with the description they gave us of such a performance of the worship of God in the assemblies of Christians, as is incon. sistent with, and exclusive of, such prescribed forms as we treat of, is as full an evidence in this kind as our negative is

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