devotions, they would be too apt to excufe their abfenting_Sect. I. from the public worship, from the inconveniency of the time and therefore the hath only taken care to enjoin that public prayers be read every morning and evening daily throughout the year; that fo all her members may have opportunity of joining in public worship twice at least every day. But to make the duty as practicable and eafy both to the minifter and people as poffible, fhe hath left the determination of the particular hours to the ministers that officiate; who, confidering every one his own and his people's circunftances, may appoint fuch hours for morning and evening prayer, as they fhall judge to be most proper and convenient. either in their fa §. 2. But if it be in places where congregations can be All Priefts had, and the Curate of the parish be at home, and not other and Deacons to fay, wife reasonably hindered, the expects or enjoins that he fay the morn the fame in the Parish-Church or Chapel where he miniftereth, ing and and caufe a bell to be tolled thereunto, a convenient time be- evening ferfore he begin, that the people may come to hear God's word, vice, daily; and to pray with him. But if, for want of a congregation, openly at or on fome other account, he cannot conveniently read church, them in the church; he is then bound to fay them in the or privately family where he lives: for by the fame rubric, all Priefts milies. and Deacons are to fay daily the morning and evening prayer, either privately or openly, not being let by fickness, or fome other urgent caufe Of which caufe, if it be frequently pretended, the Scotch Common-Prayer requires that they make the Bishop of the Diocefe, or the Bishop of the Province, the Judge and Allower. The occafion of our rubric was probably a rule in the Roman church, by which, even before the Reformation and the Council of Trent, the Clergy were obliged to recite what they call the Canonical Hours (i. e. the offices in the Breviary for the feveral hours of day and night) either publicly in a church or chapel, or privately by themfelves. But our Reformers not approving the Priests performing by themselves what ought to be the united devotions of many; and yet not being willing wholly to difcharge the clergy from a conftant repetition of their prayers, thought fit to difcontinue thefe folitary devotions; but at the fame time ordered, that if a congregation at church could not be had, the public fervice, both for morning and evening, fhould be recited in the family where the minifter refided. Though, according to the firft book of King Edward, this is not meant that any man 30 The Rubric at the end of the Preface concerning the Service of the Church. Shall G Chap. II. Shall be bound to the faying of it, but fuch as from time to time, in Cathedral and Collegiate Churches, Parish-Churches, and Chapels to the fame annexed, fhall ferve the Congregation. Though these words in that book immediately follow the first part of the rubric which relates to the Language in which the service is to be faid; the two other paragraphs difcourfed of in this fection, being the first inferted in the book that was published in 1552. ing appro SECT. II. Of Churches; or Places fet apart for the performance of Divine Worship. The necef- THE public worship of God, being to be performed by fity of hav- the joint concurrence of several people, does not only priate pla- require a place conveniently capacious of all that assemble ces for the together to perform that worship; but there must be also public wor-fome determinate and fixed place appointed, that fo all who ship of God. belong to the fame congregation may know whither they The uni- may repair and meet one another. This reafon put even verfal prac- the Heathens, who were guided by the light of nature, Heathens. upon erecting public places for the honour of their gods, tice of the Jews. 36 and for their own conveniency, in meeting together to pay their religious fervices and devotions. And the Patriarchs, by the fame light of nature, and the guidance of God's holy Spirit, had Altars, Mountains 32, and Groves 33, for that purpose. In the wildernefs, where the Ifraelites themselves had no settled habitation, they had, by God's command, a moving Tabernacle 34. And as foon as they fhould be fixed in the land of promife, God appointed a Temple to be built at Jerusalem 35, which David intended3 and Solomon performed 37. And after that was demolished, another was built in the room of it, which Christ himfelf owned for his houfe of prayer3, and which both he and Apoftles. his Apoftles frequented as well as the fynagogues. And that the Apostles after him had churches fixed, and appropriate places for the joint performance of divine worship, will be beyond all difpute, if we take but a fhort furvey of the first ages of Chriftianity. In the facred writings we find more than probable footsteps of fome determinate places for their folemn conventions, and peculiar only to that ufe. Of this nature was that nepov, or upper room, 31 Gen. xii. 7, 8. 35 Deut. xii. 10, 11. 361 Chron. xvii. 1, 2. chap. xxii. 7. chap. xxviii. 2. 37 1 Kings vi. 39 Matt. xxi. 13. into which the Apoftles and Difciples (after their return Sect. II. from our Saviour's afcenfion) went up, as into a place commonly known, and separate to divine ufe. Such a one, if not the fame, was that one place wherein they were all affembled with one accord upon the day of Pentecoft, when the Holy Ghoft vifibly came down upon them. And this the rather, because the multitude (and they too ftrangers of every nation under heaven) came fo readily to the place upon the first rumour of fo ftrange an accident; which could hardly have been, had it not been commonly known to be the place where the Christians used to meet together. And this very learned men take to be the meaning of the forty-fixth verfe of the fecond chapter of the Acts: They continued daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread, xar' olxov (not, as we render it, from houfe to houfe, but) at home, as it is in the margin, or in the houfe, they eat their meat with gladness of heart; i. e. when they had performed their daily devotions at the temple, at the accustomed hours of prayer, they used to return home to this upper room, there to celebrate the Holy Eucharift, and then go to their ordinary meals. And Mr. Gregory proves that the upper rooms, fo often mentioned in Scripture, were places in that part of the house which was higheft from the ground, fet apart by the Jews as well as Chriftians for the performance of the public worship and devotions 42. However, this interpretation of the text feems to be clear and unforced, and the more probable, becaufe it follows the mention of their affembling together in that one place on the day of Pentecoft, which room is alfo called by the fame name of house, at the fecond verse of that chapter. And it is not at all unlikely, but that, when the first believers fold their houfes and lands, and laid the money at the Apostles' feet, to fupply the neceffities of the church; fome of them might give their houfes (at least some eminent room in them) for the church to meet in, and to perform their facred duties. Which also may be the reason why the Apoftle fo often falutes fuch and fuch perfon, and the church in his houfe43; which feems clearly 39 intimate, that in fuch or fuch a houfe (probably in the reg or upper room of it) was the conftant and folemn convention of the Chriftians of that place for their joint celebration of divine worship. For that this falutation is 40 A&ts i. 13. 41 Acts ii. 1. 42 Obfervations upon Scripture, chap. 23. 43 Rom. xvi. 3. 5. 1 Cor. xvi. 19. Col. iv. 15. Philem. ver. 1, 2. G 2 not Chap. II. not used merely because their families were chriftians, appears from other falutations of the fame Apoftle, where Ariftobulus and Narciffus, &c. are faluted with their household. And this will be farther cleared by that famous paffage of St. Paul's, where taxing the Corinthians for their irreverence and abufe of the Lord's Supper, one greedily eating before another, and fome of them even to excefs; What! fays he, have you not houfes to eat and drink in or defpife ye the church of God? Where that by church is not meant the affembly meeting, but the place in which they used to affemble, is evident partly from what went before, (for their coming together in the church, is explained by their coming together into one place, plainly arguing that the Apostle meant not the perfons, but the place,) partly from the oppofition which he makes between the church and their own private houses: if they must have such irregular banquets, they had houfes of their own, where it was much fitter to have their ordinary repafts, than in that place which was fet apart for the common exercises of religion, and therefore not to be difhonoured by fuch extravagant and intemperate feaftings, which was no lefs than defpifing it. For which reafon he enjoins them in the clofe of the chapter, that if any man hunger, he should eat at home. And in this fenfe was this text always underftood by the ancient fathers**. tive Chriftians. And primi. Thus ftood the cafe during the times of the Apoftles: as for the ages after them, we find that the primitive chriftians had their fixed and definite places of worship, efpecially in the second century; as, had we no other evidence, might be made good from the teftimony of the author of that dialogue in Lucian, (if not Lucian himself,) who exprefsly mentions that house or room wherein the chriftians were wont to affemble together. And Justin Martyr exprefsly affirms, that " upon Sunday all chrif"tians (whether in town or country) ufed to affemble to"gether in one place 50;" which could hardly have been done, had not that place been fixed and fettled. The fame we find afterwards in feveral places of Tertullian, who speaks "of their coming into the church and house of God 1;" 44 Rom. xvi. 10, 11, 14. 2 Tim. 48 Auguft. Quæft. 57. in Leviti- Chryfoft. in 1 Cor. xi. 22. Hom. 27. 50 Apol. 1. §. 87. p. 131. 66 which he elsewhere 52 calls the houfe of our Dove, i. e. of Sea. II. the holy Spirit; and there defcribes the very form and fafhion of it. And in another place 5, fpeaking of their going into the water to be baptized, he tells us, "They were wont firft to go into the church, to make their fo "lemn renunciation before the Bishop." About this time, in the reign of Alexander Severus the Emperor, (who began his reign about the year 222,) the heathen hiftorian tells us +, that when there was a contest between the christians and vintners about a certain public place, which the chriftians had challenged for theirs; the Emperor gave the caufe for the chriftians against the vintners, faying, "It was much better that God fhould be worshipped "there any ways, than that the vintners fhould poffefs it.' If it be faid, that "the heathens of those times generally "accused the chriftians for having no Temples, and "charged it upon them as a piece of atheism and impiety; "and that the chriftian apologifts did not deny it," the anfwer depends upon the notion they had of a Temple; by which the Gentiles understood the places devoted to their gods, and wherein the deities were inclofed and fhut up; places adorned with ftatues and images, with fine altars and ornaments 55. And for fuch Temples as thefe, they freely confeffed they neither had nor ought to have any, for the TRUE GOD did not (as the heathens fuppofed theirs did) dwell in temples made with hands; he neither needed, nor could poffibly be honoured by them: and therefore they purposely abftained from the word Temple, which is not used by any chriftian writer for the place of the chriftian affemblies, for the best part of the first three hundred years. But then thofe very writers, who deny that chriftians had any temples, do at the fame time acknowledge that they had their meeting places for divine worthip; their Conventicula, as Arnobius calls them 56, when he complains of their being furiously demolished by their enemies. §. 2. It cannot be thought that in the first ages, while Their the flames of perfecution raged, the chriftian churches churches fhould be very stately and magnificent: it were fufficient and magniif they were fuch as the condition of those times would ficent. 1 52 Adv. Valentin. c. 3. p. 251. B. 53 De Corona Milit. c. 3. p. 102. A. 54 Æl. Lamprid. in Vita Alex. Sever. c. 49. apud. Hift. Auguft. Scriptor. p. 575. Lugd. Batav. 1661. 55 Minutius Felix, c. 10, p. 61. Arnob, adv. Gentes, ad initium 1. 6, 1. 56 Arnobius adv. Gentes, ad finem fumptuous |
