Chap. VIII. 7 e HISTORY of the Poneerrs. '667 " the gofpel. Our bleffed Saviour and his gracious forerunner, taught a X Charles I. " dire ± formof prayer. When Peter and yohn went up to the temple " at the ninth hour of prayer, we know the prayer wherein they join- " ed was not of an extempore and fudden conception, but of a rep- " lar prefcription ; and the evangelical church ever fince, thought " ° it could never better improve her peace and happinefs, than in corn- " poling thofe religious models of invocation and thankfgiving, which " they have traduced unto us, as the liturgies of St. James, Bafil, and " Chryfoftom, and which though in force places corrupted, ferve to prove " the thing itfeif." SMECTYMNUUS replies, that if there had been any liturgies in theSmet'tymnu. times of the firft and moil venerable antiquity, the great inquirers after usfir liberty them would have produced them to the world before this time ; but that °fprayer. there were none in the chriftian church is evident from Tertullian in his lipol. cap. go. where he fays, the chriflians of thofe times in their pub- lic affemblies, prayedfine monitore quia de pee/ore ; without any prompter except their own hearts. And in his treatife of prayer he adds, there are force things to be afked according to the occafions of every man, St. Au- fün fays the fame thing, Ep. 120. "It is free to afk the fame things that " are defired in the Lord's prayer, aliis atque aliis verbis, fometimes in " one manner of expreffionand fometimes in another." And before this, ,uftin Martyr in his apology fays, ó aepcasws, the prefident, or he that in- ftruded the people, prayedaccording to hisability, or as well as he could. Nor was this liberty of prayer taken away till the times when the arias andpelagian herefies invaded the church ; it was then firft ordained, that none fhould pray pro arbitrio, fedfemper eafdempreces; that they fhould not ufe the liberty which they had hithertopracáifed, but fhould always keep to oneform ofprayer, Cond. Laod. Can. 18th. Still this was a form of their own compofing, as appears by a canon of the council of Carthage, anno 397 which gives this reafon for it, tit nemo in precibus vel patrem pro filio, vel filium pro patre nominet, & cum altari adfiftitur limper ad patrem dirigatur oratio'; & quicunquefibi preces aliunde defcri- bit, non itsutatur n prius eas cumfratrìbus iuftrublioribus contulerit, i. e. " That none in their prayers might miftake the Father for the Son, or " the Son for the Father ; and that when they afift at the altar, prayer might be always directed to the Father. And whofoever compofes any " different forms, let him not make ufe of them till he has firft confulted with his more learned brethren." It appears from hence, that there was no uniform prefcribed liturgy at this time in the church, but that the more ignorant priefts might make ufe of forms of their own compofing, pro- vided they confulted their more learned brethren ; till at length it was or- 4 Q..2 dained
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