as one that makes an imperfect Representa"tion of the Myftery, and innovates upon "what was delivered.

St. Cyril, (a) Bifhop of Jerufalem, Ann. 350. who had been at the First General Council of Nice, gives us an Abstract of the Liturgy then in ufe, which was that of St. James before cited. "Therefore do we recite this Seraphick The

ology delivered to us, that in that cæleftial "Hymnody we may communicate with the Heavenly Host, and thus by fuch kind of Hymns fanctifying our felves, we pray the "moft benign God, that he will send out his Holy Spirit upon the propofited Elements, "that it may make the Bread the Body of Chrift, " and the Wine the Blood of Chrift. For certainly, whatever the Holy Spirit doth touch, it is fanctified and changed. Then after that fpiritual Sacrifice, that unbloody Worship is "done (that is, after Confecration and Oblation, "in Commemoration of the Paffion of Chrift) over "that very Hoft of Propitiation do we obfecrate "God for the common Peace of the Churches; "for the Tranquillity of the World, for Kings, "for their Armies and Confederates, for the

Sick and Afflicted, and in fine for all who "need help. We commemorate alfo thofe who "have fallen afleep before us. First the Patri"archs, Prophets, Apoftles, Martyrs, that "God at their Prayers and Deprecations would ac

cept ours. Then we pray for the Holy Fa"thers and Bifhops deceased; and laftly for all "who are deceafed amongst us, believing it to

(a) Cateches. Mystagog. 5.

be

"be a very great Help to the Souls, for whom "the Obfecration of that tremendous Sacrifice, "which is placed on the Altar, is offered.

I have been the longer in this Quotation, because it fo fully represents the Liturgy of the Antients at that time; agreeable to which the Liturgies of this prefent time ought to be examined and reformed.

St. Jerom fpeaking of the Amen of the antient Chriftians, fays that it was fo unanimous and loud that it reprefented Thunder (ad fimilitudinem Caleftis tonitrui AMEN reboat.) Aufonius fays, they did the fame in King David's Pfalms.

Confona quem celebrant modulati carmina David,
Et refponfuris fecit Aera vocibus Amen.

The celebrated Hiftorian Socrates (a) gives us a very remarkable Account of the Inftitution of finging Pfalms or Hymns alternately in the Church. "That Ignatius the third Bishop of Antioch "after St. Peter (by whofe Hands he was made

a Bifhop) faw a Vifion of Angels alternately

finging Pfalms and Hymns of Praise to the "Glory of the facred Trinity, and therefore "did prefcribe to his Church of Antioch this "Form and Manner of praifing God, which " he had thus feen in the Vifion; from whence "the fame Cuftom came to be received in all o "ther Churches. This Holy and Apoftolical "Bifhop fuffered Martyrdom at Rome in the third Perfecution under Trajan, A. 107. be

ઠંડ

ing torn by wild Beafts in the Amphitheater.

"He was filed Theophorus, and calls himself so in his Epiftles, as is fuppofed, because he was "that little Child mentioned in the Gofpel, "which Chrift took up in his Arms, when he would teach his Difciples Humility, by the

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low Character of Childhood. He was familiarly converfant with the Apostles, and nourish"ed up together with them; and. by (a) Origen, (b) Iraneus, (c) St Chryfoftom, (d) Theo"doret, and all the Fathers efteemed as a most "Divine and Apoftolical Perfon, of extraordinary Zeal, vaft Charity, and most clear Apprehenfion of divine Things, Devout and Religious even to a Miracle.

I thought it proper to give my Reader this Account of holy Ignatius, that as his Authority has been ever of great Weight in the Chriftian Church, next to the Canonical Scriptures, fo it may have a proportionable Influence and Regard in this Controverfy, and that of Epifcopacy, where I fhall have occafion to use it.

St. Hippolitus, Bishop and Martyr, who fuffered A. 230. in his Book concerning Antichrift, makes the Abolition of Liturgies a Mark of Antichrift, and confequent of his Coming; for he fays, "Then Churches fhall be made like Sta"bles; the precious Body and Blood of Chrift "fhall not be had; Liturgies fhall be extinguished; the finging of Pfalms fhall ceafe; the reading of the Scripture fhall not be heard, "&c.

(a) Hom. 6. in Luc.

C. 18.

P. 499.

(b) Lib. 5. adv. Hæref. (c) In Ignat. encom. Tom. 5. Edit. Savil. (d) Dialog. 1.

St.

St. Cyprian, the famous Bishop of Carthage, who fuffered Martyrdom, A. D. 260. De Orat. Dom. Ser. 8. fays, We have a common and publick Prayer for all the People

Cardinal Bona, and Caffander, give us a large Account of Liturgies, of the Ambrofian used at Milan, the Mozarabick used in Spain, and that Part of France called Gallia Narbonenfis. I am told the Mozarabick is ufed in fome particular Churches in the City of Toledo at this Day. Dr. Lloyd, late Bishop of Worcester, in his Historical Account of the Church Government of Britain, mentions their having the Liturgy called Curfus Gallorum of St. Martin Bishop of Tours in France, who died 401. That Ninian faw St. Martin in his Journey to Rome, and lived fometime with him; he afterwards introduced his Difcipline into Scotland and England, where Venerable Bede tells us there was an old Church at Canterbury dedicated to St. Martin, whilst the Romans lived in Britain. Adamn. in vita Columb. fays, he brought his Monaftick Inftitution into the Ile of Hy, where in the Sunday Offices there was wont to be a Prayer in Commemoration of St. Martin. That this Gallorum Curfus was used every where in Britain. Vid. Ufer. de Primord. Eccl. Brit. p. 343.

I might adduce a great many Teftimonies to prove the use of Liturgies in latter Ages, but this being acknowledged by our Adverfaries, we fhall now Sum up the Evidence, that it may appear whether I have fufficiently proved what I undertook, viz. That the Church of God in all Ages had Liturgies or Set Forms of Prayer, &c. which they made use of in their publick Worship. That the Jewish Church had fuch I have proved

I 2

ved from the Old Teftament, and from the New that the Church in our Saviour's time had fuch; and for the Ages immediately following, esteemed moft pure, I have brought the Teftimonies of most holy Bishops and Martyrs who lived in them: So that according to the famous Golden Rule of (a) Vincentius Lyrinenfis, being always, every where, and conftantly used, they have all those Qualifications that are neceffary to establish a Truth, and fuch as nothing but a Schifmatical Oppofition to Orthodoxy and good Order can contradict. Have we any better Authority ab extra for the Scriptures, to diftinguish those that are Canonical from fuch as are not, but the Teftimony of the Church? Was it not by the Evidence of the Fathers that our first Reformers placed fuch Books in the Class of Apocryphal, as had not the Qualification of others? St. Hierom fays, Hac funt que Patres intra Canonem conclufe runt, thefe are the Writings which the Fathers have concluded within the Canon : And Ruffinus, Hac nobis a patribus tradita, these are delivered to us by the Fathers. If the Teftimony of the Fathers was of fuch Prevalence in fo great a Matter as to fettle (primarily at leaft) the Canon of Scripture, upon which the Christian Religion fo much dependeth, I think it ought to have the fame Weight in the present Controverfy and all others, where this Rule of Univerfality, Antiquity, and Confent can take place.

To the fame purpofe is the Rule given by (b) St. Augustin. We are not to doubt, or

(a) Cont. Hæref. 1. 1. cap. 1. (b) Lib. 7. contra Donat.

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