Chap. H. enjoining, that the chancels should remain as they had done in times past. There was afterwards indeed a greater occasion for the continuance of this rubric; when a tumultuous rabble, encouraged by the complaints that they had found had been made by this same Bucer, and his director Calvin 49, proceeded to demolish both chancels and altars, pulling down the rails and frames that divided them from the rest of the church, and divesting them of all the ornaments that but seemed to intimate them to be more than ordinary sacred. But this will fall more directly under my consideration hereafter, when I come to treat of the situation of the altar, to which the rubric in the beginning of the Communion-office will lead me. there was tive church. CHAP. III. Of the ORDER for MORNING and EVENING The INTRODUCTION. Whether THAT the primitive Christians, besides their solemu any daily service on Sundays, had public prayers every Mornservice in ing and Evening, daily, has already been hinted upon a the primi- former occasion 50: but a learned gentleman is of the opinion, that this must be restrained to times of peace; and that during the time of public persecution they were forced to confine their religious meetings to the Lord's day only 5. And it is certain that Pliny 52 and Justin Martyr 53, who both describe the manner of the Christian worship, do neither of them make mention of any assembly for public worship on any other day: so that their 49 Mr. Calvin (who was before thought by some to have offered his assistance too officiously for carrying on the Reformation in England, and who with relation to our church had used some very hard expressions, not so well becoming the mouth of a divine) warns Martin Bucer, in a letter he sent to him just before his coming into England, against being the Author or Approver of middle Counsels : by which words he plainly strikes at the moderation observed in the English Reformation.-Dr. Nichols's Introduction to his defence of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England. 50 Chap. 2. sect. 1. p. 80, 81. 51 Mr. Bingham's Antiquities, book 13. ch. 9. sect. 1. vol. v. p. 281. &c. 52 L. 10. Ep. 97. 53 Apol. 1. c. 87. p. 131. and c. 89. p. 132. silence is a negative argument that in their time there was Introduct. no such assembly, unless perhaps some distinction may be made between the general assembly of both city and country on the Lord's day, and the particular assemblies of the city Christians (who had better opportunities to meet) on other days: which distinction we often meet with in the following ages, when Christianity was come to its maturity and perfection. However, it was not long after Justin Martyr's time, before we are sure that the church observed the custom of meeting solemnly on Wednesdays and Fridays, to celebrate the communion, and to perform the same service as on the Lord's day itself, unless perhaps the sermon was wanting 54. The same also might be shewed from as early authorities in relation to the festivals of their Martyrs and the whole fifty days between Easter and Whitsuntidess. Nor need we look down many years lower, before we meet with express testimony of their meeting every day for the public worship of God. For St. Cyprian tells us, that in his time it was customary to receive the holy Eucharist every day: a plain demonstration that they had every day public assemblies, since we know the Eucharist was never consecrated but in such open and public assemblies of the church 56. and Even §. 2. That these daily devotions consisted of an Even- The order ing as well as a Morning Service, even from St. Cyprian's of their time, the learned author I just now referred to 57 endea- Morning vours to prove. However, in a century or two after- ing Service. wards, the case is plain; for the author of the Constitutions not only speaks of it, but gives us the order of both the services 58. The Morning Service, as there described, began with the sixty-third, which was therefore called the Morning Psalm. Immediately after which followed the prayers for the Catechumens, for those that were Possessed, for the Candidates for Baptism, and the Penitents, which made the general service on the Lord's day, and which were partly performed by the Deacon's Пporpois, or bidding of prayer, something like our present Litany, but only directed to the people, and instructing them for what and for whom they were to offer their petitions; and partly by the Bishop's invocation over them, pronounced as they bowed down to receive his blessing before their dismission. After these were dismissed, followed prayers for the peace of the whole world, and for 54 Tertul. de Orat. c. 14. 55 Tertul. de Idololat. c. 14. de Coron. Mil. c. 3. 56 Cypr. de Orat. Domin. p. 147. Chap. III. all orders of men in the church, with which the Communion-service was begun on the Lord's day, and at which none but those who had a right to communicate were allowed to be present. After this followed another short bidding prayer for Peace and Prosperity the ensuing day; which was immediately succeeded by the Bishop's commendatory prayer, or morning thanksgiving 59: which being ended, the Deacon bid them bow their heads, and receive the Bishop's solemn benediction; which after they had done, he dismissed the congregation with the usual form, Depart in peace: the word for dismissing every church assembly. This is the order of the Morning Service, as described by the Constitutions; to which the Evening Service, as there also set down, is in most things conformable. The prayers for the Catechumens, the Possessed, the Candidates for Baptism, and the Penitents, were all the same; so also were those for the peace of the world, and the whole state of the catholic church. So that all the difference between them was this, viz. that they used the hundred and forty-first psalm at evening instead of the sixty-third, which they used in the morning; and instead of the bidding prayer for Peace and Prosperity, and the Bishop's commendatory prayer in the morning service, two others were used in the afternoon more proper to the evening, and which for that reason were called the Evening Bidding Prayer, and the Evening Thanksgiving. The Bishop's benediction too, at the conclusion of the whole, was different from that which was used in the forenoon: but excepting in these two or three particulars, both services were one and the same; and in the evening, as well as the morning, the congregation was dismissed with the constant form pronounced by the Deacon, Depart in peace. The reader, that is curious to see more of these forms, may consult the learned Mr. Bingham, who transcribes most of them at large, and compares the several parts of them with the memorials and accounts that are left us by other ancient writers of the church in which place he also takes occasion to shew, that though in the form in the Constitutions there is but one psalm appointed either at morning or evening; yet from other rituals it is plain, that it was customary in most places to recite several of the psalms, and to mix lessons along with them, both out of the Old Testament and the New, for the edification of : 59 Eixugioría 'Oggià, Const. 1. 6. c. 38. the people. But this is what I have not room to do Introd. here; and indeed there is the less occasion, as it will come in my way to speak of these points more largely hereafter, as the order of the service I am now entering upon will lead me. SECT. I. Of the Sentences. the service. PRAYER requires so much attention and serenity of Whyplaced mind, that it can never be well performed without at the besome preceding preparation: for which reason, when the ginning of Jews enter into their synagogues to pray, they remain silent for some time, and meditate before whom they stand1: and the Christian Priest, in the primitive ages, prepared the people's hearts to prayer by a devout preface 62. The first book of King Edward indeed begins with the Lord's prayer: but when they came to review it afterwards, and to make alterations, they thought that too abrupt a beginning, and therefore prefixed these Sentences, with the following Exhortation, Confession, and Absolution, as a proper introduction, to bring the souls of the congregation to a spiritual frame, and to prepare them for the great duty they are just entering upon. The Sentences are gathered out of Scripture, that so we may not dare to disobey them; since they come from the mouth of that God whom ve address ourselves to in our prayers, and who may justly reject our petitions, if we hearken not to his word. §. 2. As to the choice of them, the reverend compilers The choice of our Liturgy have selected such as are the most plain and of them. the most likely to bring all sorts of sinners to repentance. There are variety of dispositions, and the same man is not always in the same temper. For which reason they have collected several, and left it to the discretion of him that ministereth, to use such one or more of them every day, as he shall judge agreeable to his own, or his people's cir cumstances. SECT. II. Of the Exhortation. THE design of the Exhortation is to apply and set The design home the preceding sentences, and to direct us how of the Exto perform the following Confession. It collects the ne 60 See Mr. Bingham's Antiquities, vol. v. book 13. chap. 11, 12. 61 Buxtorf. Synag. Judaic, cap. 10. p. 194. Basil. 1661. 62 Cypr. de Orat. Dom. p. 152. hortation. Chap. III. cessity of it from the word of God; and when it hath convinced us of that, it instructeth us in the right manner, and then invites us to that necessary duty, for which it hath so well prepared us. And for our greater encouragement, the Minister (who is God's ambassador) offers to accompany us to the throne of grace, knowing his Master will be glad to see him with so many penitents in his retinue. And he promises that he will put words in our mouths, and speak with us and for us; only we must express the humility of our minds by the lowliness of our bodies, and declare our assent to every sentence by repeating it reverently after him. fession, SECT. III. Of the Confession. The Con- THE holy Scriptures assure us, that sin unrepented of why placed hinders the success of our prayers63; and therefore such at the be- as would pray effectually have always begun with conginning of fession 64; to the end that, their guilt being removed by the prayers. penitential acknowledgments, there might no bar be An objec tion answered. left to God's grace and mercy. For which reason the 63 Isa. i. 15. John ix. 31. 65 Basil. ad Clerum Neocæsariens. 64 Ezra ix. 5, 6. Dan. ix. 4, 5. Ep. 63. tom. ii. p. 843. D. |