ciple to his teacher, but of the ministers also to each other, according to their rank; and this, because b" God is not the au"thor of confusion, but of peace;" we can no longer hesitate to acknowledge, that the authority claimed by the Church, to regulate and direct the public worship of her members by some settled form, is no more than the sure word of Scripture, and the practice of the Apostolic Church at Corinth, fully confirms.

If, by continuing the inquiry, we discover, that forms of prayer were in early and universal use among Christians; this will add greatly to the weight of testimony in favour of their lawfulness, as well as their expediency. The fact then may be c traced in the writings of Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Origen, and Cyprian; all of whom speak of particular forms used in their times in different churches. We have also very ancient liturgies yet preserved; which, although they have descended to us in a corrupted state, and

b See Note LXIX. Appendix. © See Note LXX. Appendix.

It

were certainly not composed by the holy Apostles, whose names they bear, may with great probability be considered as productions of the apostolic age, and as founded, in some degree, upon the prayers used by these holy men, or by those whom they appointed their successors. may readily be believed, that, while experience proved the necessity of an established form, the veneration in which the first inspired teachers of the Gospel were held would induce every Church to frame its liturgy, as nearly as possible, upon the model of the prayers which they had used during their personal ministry; and as the resemblance must have been notorious, it would stamp the form which bore it with a peculiar value. But, whether we attribute the names, by which these liturgies were afterwards distinguished, to such a traditionary resemblance, or not; still the fact with which we are chiefly concerned is unimpeachable; namely, that the use of public forms may be traced to

d

d See Note LXXI. Appendix.

the earliest age of the Church. Upon no other principle indeed can we account for their evident universality in after times. No ingenuity of reasoning can render it credible, that the whole Church, or any particular branch of it, should at once have departed from the primitive mode of public worship, and endeavoured to bind its members to the use of a common liturgy; and that such an innovation should have met with no resistance, but have been so quietly and universally submitted to, that it is now impossible to trace even the period of its introduction.

The history of the Church abundantly proves, that zealous and faithful men were always to be found in it, who would strenuously have opposed such an unauthorized deviation from its godly discipline, had it been attempted: nor can it be believed, that, while some documents remain of every other controversy, which disturbed the peace of Christianity; while the remembrance of every heresy is preserved, in the works of its author, or the answers of his opponents; while every schismatical

aberration from established discipline has been faithfully recorded; this great and momentous change should have been passed over in silence. Until then it can be shewn, that the primitive churches used no liturgies; that they were altogether the invention of a later age, and were then publicly protested against, as an unlawful innovation; we must be allowed to consider the universal practice of so many centuries as affording sufficient proof, not only that the authority which originally imposed them them was unquestionable, but that the wisdom and necessity of the appointment was manifest.

e

If then the power and authority of the Church to ordain rites and ceremonies cannot be disproved, it must be the duty of all her members to conform to her constitutions. Nothing short of clear and positive evidence, that this power has been illegally exercised; that the public service of a particular Church is profaned by superstitious or idolatrous practices; or that

• See Note LXXII. Appendix.

forms and ceremonies have been introduced into it, manifestly repugnant to the doctrines of Christianity, and incompatible with the duties which it enjoins, can justify a departure from them. And And every departure admitting not of such an apology, is a fbreach of Christian unity; which can only be maintained, when the members of the Church, in strict imitation of that primitive society spoken of in the text, "continue stedfastly," not only in her apostolic "doctrine," but also in her fellowship" and in her " prayers."

66

II. As each particular Church has the power of appointing its own ritual, which its members cannot disregard without a breach of unity; so are there certain ordinances of public worship, to which all Christians and every Church are equally bound to conform, because they are of divine institution and perpetual obligation.

The Church, being a society chosen out of the world, was to be distinguished from

f See Note LXXIII. Appendix.