capable of. In those golden fragments of antiquity which we have preserved by Eusebius, I mean the epistles of the church of Smyrna about the martyrdom of Polycarpus, and of the churches of Vienna and Lyons concerning their persecution, we have not the least intimation of any such forms of service. In the epistle of Clemens, or the church of Rome to the church of Corinth, in those of Ignatius, in the writings of Justin Martyr, Clemens, Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, and their contemporaries, there is the same silence concerning them. The pseudographical writings that bear the names of the men of those days, with any pretence of considerable antiquity, as the canons of the apostles, Quæstiones ad Orthodoxos, Dionysius Hierarch. Divin. Nom. will not help in the cause. For though in some of them there are prayers mentioned, and that for and about such things as were not in rerum natura,' in the days wherein those persons lived, unto whose names they are falsely ascribed; yet they speak nothing to the point of liturgies as stated in our inquiry. Something, I confess, may be found in some of the writings of some one or two of those of the third century, intimating the use of some particular prayers in some churches. So Origen, Homil. 11. in Hierimea. Ubi frequenter in oratione dicimus, da omnipotens, da nobis partem cum prophetis, da cum apostolis Christi tui, tribue ut inveniamur ad vestigia unigeniti tui.' But whether he speaks of a form, or of the matter only of prayer, I know not. But such passages belong not unto our purpose. Those who deal expressly about the order, state, and condition of the churches, and the worship of God in them, their prayers and supplications knew nothing of prescribed liturgies; yea, they affirm plainly that which is inconsistent with the use of them. The account given of the worship of the Christians in those days by Justin Martyr, and Tertullian, is known as having been often pleaded. I shall only mention it in our passage, and begin with the latter. Illuc,' saith he (that is, towards heaven), 'suspicientes Christiani' (not like the idolaters, who looked on their idols and images) 'manibus expansis' (not embracing altars or images as did the heathen) 'quia innocuis capito nudo, quia non erubescimus denique sine monitore, quia de pectore oramus,' not as they who repeat their

prayers after their priests or sacrificers, but pouring out our prayers conceived in our breasts; Apol. cap. 30. And again, cap. 39. Corpus sumus de conscientia, religionis et disciplinæ unitate, et spei fœdere coimus in cætum et congregationem, ut ad Deum quasi vi facta precationibus ambiamus orantes. Hæc vis Deo grata est. Oramus etiam,' &c. Whether this description of the public worship of the Christians in those days be consistent with the prescribed forms contended about, impartial men may easily discern.

The former treateth of the same matter in his Apology in several places of it. Αθεος μὲν οὖν ὡς οὐκ ἔσμεν, τὸν δεμιουργὸν τῶν δε τοῦ παντὸς σεβόμενοι, ἀνενδεῆ αἷματων καὶ σπονδῶν καὶ θυμιαματῶν, ὡς ἐδεδάχθημεν λέγοντες, λόγῳ εὐχής καὶ εὐχαριστίας εφ ̓ οἷς προσφερόμεθα πᾶσιν ὅση δύναμις αίνουντες. 'Atheists,' saith he, we are not, seeing we worship the Maker of the world, affirming indeed, as we are taught, that he stands in no need of blood, drink-offerings, or incense; in all our oblations we praise him according to our abilities, with' (or in the way of) prayer and thanksgivings.' This was, it seems, the liturgy of the church in the da s of Justin Martyr; they called upon God with prayer and thanksgivings according to the abilities they had received. The like account he gives of the prayers of persons converted to prepare themselves for baptism, as also of the prayers of the administrators of that ordinance. Afterward also, treating of the joining the baptized person unto the church, and the administration of the Lord's supper in the assembly, he adds, Μετὰ τὸ οὕτως λοῦσαι τὸν πεπεισμένον, καὶ συγκατατεθει μένον ἐπὶ τοὺς λεγομένους ἀδελφοὺς ἄγομεν ἔνθα συνηγμένοι εἰσὶ, κοινὰς εὐχὰς ποιησομενοι ὑπὲρ τὲ ἑαυτων, καὶ τοῦ φωτισθέντος, &c. After the believer who is joined unto us is thus washed, we bring him to those who are called brethren' (that is, the body of the church), thither where they are gathered together for to make their prayers and supplications for themselves and him who is' (newly) 'illuminated,' &c. These prayers he declares afterward, were made by him who did preside among the brethren in the assembly, that is, the bishop or pastor, who when he had finished his prayer, the whole people cried, Amen; which leaves small room for the practice of any liturgy that is this day extant, or that hath left any memory of itself in the world. These prayers

and supplications, he addeth, that the president of the assembly ὅση δύναμις αὐτῷ ἀναπέμπει, poureth out according to his ability; and ἐπὶ πολὺ ποιεῖται : he doth this work at large, or continues long in his work of (praises unto God in the name of Jesus Christ). I know some have excepted against the usual interpretation of those words on dúvaμis; although they have not been able to assign any other tolerable sense unto them, besides that which they would willingly oppose. But as the rendering of them according to his ability,' or as he is able' may not only be justified, but evinced to be the only sense the words are capable of; so the argument in hand doth not as to its efficacy depend on the precise signification of those two words, but on the whole contexture of the holy Martyr's discourse; so relating to the worship of the churches in those days, as to manifest that the use of prescribed forms of liturgies to be read in them was then utterly unknown.

I suppose it will be granted, that thetime we have been inquiring into, namely, the first three hundred years after Christ, was the time of the church's greatest purity, though out of her greatest prosperity; that the union of the several churches was preserved, beyond what afterward was ever in a gospel way attained, and the uniformity in worship which Christ requires observed amongst them; but all this while the use of these liturgies was utterly unknown; which makes the case most deplorable, that it should now be made the hinge whereon the whole exercise of the ministry must turn, it being a thing not only destitute of any warrant from Christ and his apostles, but utterly unknown to those churches whose antiquity gives them deservedly reverence withal; and so cannot claim its spring and original antecedent to such miscarryings and mistakes in the churches, as all acknowledge to deserve a narrow and serious weighing and consideration; we may then, I suppose, without giving occasion to the just imputution of any mistake, affirm, That the composing and imposition of liturgies to be necessarily used or read in the administration of the ordinances of the gospel, is destitute of any plea or pretence, from Scripture or antiquity.

CHAP. VI.

The pretended antiquity of liturgies disproved. The most ancient. Their variety. Canons of councils about forms of church administrations. The reasons pleaded in the justification of the first invention of liturgies answered. Their progress and end.

CONSIDERING with what confidence the antiquity of liturgies in the churches of Christ hath been pretended, it may seem strange to some that we should so much as attempt to divert them of that plea and pretence. But the love of the truth enforceth us to contend against many prejudices in this matter. May a denial of their antiquity, with the reasons of that denial tendered, provoke any to assert it by such testimonies as we have not as yet had the happiness to come to an acquaintance with, the advantage as well as the trouble will be theirs who shall so do. Only in their endeavour to that purpose, I shall desire of them that they would not labour to impose on those whom they undertake to inform, by the ambiguous use of some words among the ancient, nor conclude a prescribed form of administration when they find mention of the administration itself, nor reckon reading of the Scriptures, or singing of psalms, as parts of the liturgy contended about, nor from the use of some particular prayer by some persons, argue for the equity or necessity of composing such entire liturgies, or offices as they call them, for all evangelical administrators, and their necessary observation. So that these conditions be observed, I shall profess myself much engaged unto any one who shall discover a rise of them within the limits of the antiquity that hath been usually pretended and pleaded in their justification and practice. For my part I know not any thing that ever obtained a practice and observation among Christians, whose springs are more dark and obscure than these of liturgies. They owe not their original to any. councils, general or provincial; they were not the product of the advice or consent of any churches, nor was there any one of them at any time completed. No pleas can I as yet discover in them of old about uniformity in their use, or any

consent in them about them. Every church seemeth to have done what seemed good in the church's own eyes, after once the way unto the use of them was opened. To whom in particular we are indebted for that invention, I know not it may be those who are wiser do; and I wish they would value the thanks that they may have for the discovery when they shall be pleased to make it. They seem to me to have had but slender originals. One invented one form of prayer, or thanksgiving, or benediction; another added to what he had found out, which was the easier task. Future additions gave some completeness to their beginners. Those in the Greek church, which bear the names of Chrysostom and Basil, seem to be the first that ever extended themselves to the whole worship of the church; not that by them whose names they bear they were composed as now they appear, unless we shall think that they wrote them after their decease; but probably they collected some forms into order that had been by others invented; making such additions themselves as they judged needful, and so commended the use of them to the churches wherein they did preside. The use of them being arbitrarily introduced, was not by any injunction we find, made necessary. Much less did any one single form plead for a general necessity. In the Latin church, Ambrose used one form, Gregory another, and Isidore a third. Nor is it unlikely but the liturgies were as many as the episcopal churches of those days. Hence in the beginning of the fifth century, in an African council, Can. 70. which is the 103d. in the Codex Can. African; it is provided, that no prayers be read in the administration of the Eucharist, but such as have been approved in some council, or have been observed by some prudent men formerly; which canon, with some addition, is confirmed in the second Milenitan council, Can. 12. and the reason given in both is, lest there should any thing contrary to the faith, creep into their way of worship. But this, as I said, was in the beginning of the fifth century, after divers forms of administration of holy things in the church, had by divers been invented. The finding out of this invention was the act of some particular men, who have not been pleased to acquaint us with the reason of their undertaking. As yet it doth not appear unto us, that those