4th. That Holy Scripture is committed to the Church, and that it is its perpetual keeper, affording by its tradition

"

the Eucharist thus, "This altar before which we stand is but a common stone in its nature, differing nothing from other stones wherewith our walls are built: but after it is consecrated to the service of God, and has received a benediction, it is a holy table, an immaculate Altar, not to be touched by any but by the priests, and that with the greatest reverence. The Bread also is at first but common bread, but when once it is sanctified by the holy mystery, it is made and called the Body of Christ. So the mystical oil, and so the wine, though they be things of little value before the benediction, yet after the sanctification by the Spirit they both of them work wonders. The same power of the Word makes a priest become honorable and venerable, when he is separated from the community of the common people by the benediction. For he who before was only one of the common people, is now immediately made a ruler and president, a teacher of piety, and a minister of the holy mysteries, and all these things he does without any change in his body and shape, for to all outward appearance he is the same that he was; but the change is in his invisible soul by an invisible power and grace.' (De Bap. Christ. tom. iii., p. 369.)—St. Cyril of Jerusalem tells the Catechumens, "That before the invocation of the Holy Trinity the bread and wine of the Eucharist is common bread and wine, but after the invocation it is no longer bare bread, but the Body of Christ." (Catech. Myst. iii. n. iii.)-St. Augustin says, "We call that the Body of Christ, which is taken from the fruits of the earth, and consecrated by mystical prayer in a solemn manner, and so received by us unto salvation, in memory of our Lord's suffering for us." (De Trinit. lib. iii. cap. 4.)-These various explanations of the Holy Eucharist are concentrated in the extract from Hooker, (given p. 39), "Touching my doctrine of the Sacrament," says Cranmer at his degradation, "and other my doctrine, of what kind soever it be, I protest that it was never my mind to write, speak, or understand anything contrary to the most Holy Word of God, or else against the Holy Catholic Church of Christ: but simply and purely to imitate and teach those things only which I had learned of the sacred Scripture, and of the holy Catholic Church from the beginning, and also according to the exposition of the most holy and learned Fathers and Martyrs of the Church; and if anything peradventure hath chanced otherwise than I thought, I may err, but heretic I cannot be, forasmuch as I am ready in all things to follow the judgment of the most sacred Word of God and of the holy Catholic Church; desiring none other thing than meekly and gently to be taught, if any where (which God forbid) I have swerved from the truth. And I protest and openly confess, that in all my doctrine and preaching, not only I mean and judge those things as the Catholic Church and the most holy Fathers of old with one accord have meant and judged, but also I would gladly use the same words that they used, and not use any other words, but to set my hand to all and singular their speeches, phrases, ways, and forms of speech, which they do use in their treatises upon the Sacrament, and to keep still their interpretation." (Remains, Jenkins, vol. iv. p. 126.)-How far from this reverence for Apostolic tradition have many now fallen who

or testimony, the evidence on which the Canon of Scripture is to be received, and so is the rule of Faith for the reception of the written Word.

5th. That the Apostle's Creed is the Canon or rule of Faith containing the articles of belief delivered to the Church by the Apostles,-that it is the summary of belief repeated before baptism, and that some of its articles were afterwards more explicitly stated in the Creeds of the Council of Nice and of St. Athanasius, which are not new Creeds, but statements of the manner in which the Apostles' Creed was understood in the Church*, which statements were rendered necessary to condemn the heresy of the Arians and others.

6th. That the teaching of the Apostles and the institutions which they established constitute the Tradition of the Church recorded in the writings and monuments of the Apostolic ages, which Tradition is a sacred rule and guide in faith and worship, as well as in interpretation of Holy Scripture, sanctioned by the Apostles, and necessary for the unity and instruction of the Church.

7th. That the Lord's Day is set apart for the celebration+

would claim Cranmer as their leader! No. 78 of the Tracts for the Times gives extracts from a chain of forty great Divines of the Anglican Church expressing the authority of tradition, and the same reverence for the Fathers of the Church, as Cranmer felt.

* Three hundred and eighteen Bishops from all parts of Asia, Africa, and Europe, assembled in the Council of Nice, in the year 325, with one voice condemned the error of Arius in saying that there was a time when Christ did not exist, and that his Divinity was not of the same substance or nature as that of the Father. They all rejected his heresy as contrary to the true meaning of the article of the Apostles' Creed respecting Christ, as it had been held in their respective Churches, and handed down in their Confessions and Rituals, and by the teaching of the Doctors and Martyrs of the Churches. It is therefore evident that the Council did not suppose that it was declaring any new doctrine, but only affixing the true and primitive sense of the words "In Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord," as it had been always understood in the Church. St. Athanasius on all occasions refused to add anything to the Nicene Creed, or accept any other confession of faith, although some heretics signed it by equivocation. That holy Father had been one of those principally engaged in refuting Arianism in the Council; and the creed which bears his name, as extracted from his works, is but a still more precise declaration of the same faith rendered necessary by the deceitfulness of the Arians, who signed the Nicene Creed by equivocation.

"Upon the first day of the week when the disciples came

of Divine Service, and the administration of the Eucharist. On that day a public assembly is held in the Church, Holy Scripture is read, prayers according to a ritual or written form are offered up, absolution is pronounced, an exhortation or sermon is preached, and a collection of alms is made as a religious offering. Also, DAILY PUBLIC WORSHIP* is offered

together to break bread, Paul preached unto them." (Acts xx. 7.) "As I have given order in the Churches, upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store." (1 Cor. xvi. 2.) It was known by the name of the Lord's Day in the Church of the Apostles, "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day." (Rev. i. 10.) Pliny says the Christians assembled on an appointed day to worship Christ. (Ep. 96.) St. Ignatius bids the Magnesians not to sab batize, but to live according to the Lord's Day." (Ep. ad Mag. n. ix.) Justin Martyr says, "We all meet together on Sunday....On which day Jesus Christ our Saviour arose from the dead." (Apol. ii. p. 99.) Tertullian calls it sometimes Sunday, at other times the Lord's Day, and says it was the day of Divine Service. (Apol. c. xvi. and ad Nation, lib. 1. c. xiii.) This is evidence of Apostolic Tradition. Subsequent usage of the Church is not denied.

The law prescribed daily morning and evening sacrifice at the third hour or nine o'clock, and at the ninth hour or six o'clock, (Exod. xxix. 38; Levit. vi. 9; Numb. xxviii. 1-8), when the Priest read appointed portions of the Scripture, the Phylacteries, the Decalogue, and prescribed prayers, "for which they had three or four formularies." (Lightfoot, Minist. Temp. c. 9.) St. Luke mentions this custom (ch. i. 10), "The whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of offering incense." The five books of Moses were divided into as many lessons as there were Sundays in the year, one of which, with other portions of Scripture, was read in the Synagogues on each Sunday. Our Lord complied with the forms of religious worship used in the Synagogue. (Luke iv. 16; Mark i. 39.) It was His custom to attend and take a part in the service. "The Disciples of our Lord said unto Him, Teach us to pray, as John also taught his Disciples." Our Saviour, therefore, repeated for them the Lord's prayer, which he bid them repeat, "when ye pray, say." (Luke xi. 1.) This prayer as used in the Jewish service is, "Our Father, which art in Heaven; be gracious unto us, O Lord our God; hallowed be thy name, and let the remembrance of thee be glorified in heaven above, and upon earth here below. Let thy Kingdom reign over us, now and for ever. The holy men of old said, Remit and forgive unto all men whatsoever they have done against me, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil thing. For thine is the Kingdom; and thou shalt reign in glory for ever and for evermore." The Apostles used the Jewish service, and attended morning and evening worship in the Temple. After the resurrection "they were continually in the Temple, praising and blessing God." (Luke xxiv. 53.) "Peter and John went up together into the Temple at the hour of prayer." (Acts iii. 1.) "And they (the whole Church) continued daily with one accord in the Temple." (Acts ii. 46.) St. Paul attended the ser

up in the Churches, with occasional administration of the Eucharist.

vice of the Synagogue, (Acts xiii. 15; xvi. 13; xvii. 2; xviii. 4), as did the Christians generally until the Jews, as Justin Martyr (Justin cum Tryphon, p. 335) and Epiphanius (Epiph. Hæres. 29) relate, added to the Shemoneh Eshreh or eighteen prayers, said to have been appointed by Ezra and used in their Synagogues, a nineteenth, cursing Christ and the Nazarenes. Bingham (lib. xiii. c. 5) collects numerous quotations from the forms of prayer used in the primitive Churches, which are found in the works of ancient Christian writers, and allusions to the practice of repeating the Creed, singing hymns, and reading Scripture in appointed lessons. The form of prayer was called "Common Prayers," (Just. Mart.), "Appointed Prayer," (Origen cont. Cels. 1. vi. p. 312), "Solemn Prayers" (Cypr. de Laps. p. 132), "Authorised Prayers," (Euseb. Vit. Const. I. iv. c. 18). Pliny, who wrote about twenty years after the death of St. John, says, "The Christians met together to offer to Christ, as to God, a solemn form of prayer and praise."* St. Cyprian states that it was the custom in his time to receive the communion daily, (Cypr. de Orat. 147); and the Apostolical Constitutions give the forms for morning and evening service. (Apost. Const. 1. viii. c. 37.) Tertullian tells us that Wednesdays and Fridays were called the Jejunia, or fasts of the fourth and sixth days of the week, and station days (stationum dies), because the public service was continued till three o'clock on those days; and also that they were named semi-jejunia, or half fasts, in distinction to the Lent fast, which lasted till evening, whereas the fasts on Wednesdays and Fridays ended at three o'clock: they also celebrated the communion on those days. (Tert. de Orat.) St. Basil also says, "We receive the communion on the fourth and sixth days of the week." (Basil Ep. 289 p. 279.) The ancient Liturgies of several Churches are extant, that of the Apostolical Constitutions written at the end of the third century. The Liturgy of St. James used in the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, in the fourth century. The Liturgy ascribed to St. Mark, which was used in the fourth century, in the Patriarchate of Alexandria. The Liturgy of St. Chrysostom was used in that of Constantinople; and so many extracts from it have been found in the works of that Father, that the text of the Liturgy can be by them ascertained. St. Basil compiled a Liturgy for the Exarchate of Cæsarea, collected from the Liturgies of the Churches, as he himself states, "The customs of Divine service which he had appointed were consonant and agreeable to all the Churches of God." (Ep. 203.) His Liturgy, which may be traced back to the year 370, prevailed throughout the Churches of Cæsarea and Constantinople, was received by the Patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria, and prevails at present from North Russia to Abyssinia. St. Cyril of Jerusalem, in the year 340, wrote a comment on the Liturgy of St. James, the formulary of his Church,

*Plin. lib. x. Ep. 97, "Carmenque Christo, quasi Deo dicere secum invicem." That this signifies a form of prayer and praise is rendered probable from the Roman use of the phrase; as, "In omni precatione vota effundit sacerdos, deos præscriptis verbis et composito carmine advocare solet." (Alex. ab Alex. lib. ii. c. 14.)

8. That solemn feasts are held, with appropriate religious services, on the anniversaries of the Nativity, Resurrection,

which was declared by Proclus and the sixth general Council to have been received from St. James. Various other ancient Liturgies are also extant, as well as frequent quotations from them in the writers of the fourth and fifth centuries. It is therefore certain that Liturgies were used in all the Churches of the East and West in the fourth century,-that these Liturgies were regarded by the learned writers of that century as having been handed down from the Apostolic age; and that they could not have been mistaken in this belief, of which they must have had so many evidences and testimonies. The general use of Liturgies in that early age, and the uniformity which prevails among them, as well as the testimony of the Church to their having been handed down from the Apostolic age, is satisfactory evidence that the use of formularies for public service is a tradition of the Apostolic Church, confirmed by the worship of the Temple and Synagogue, and the example of our Lord and His Apostles.

St. Chrysostom says that Christmas, or the festival of the Nativity, was of long standing and ancient, being held famous and renowned in the Church from the extremity of Spain to Thrace. (Hom. xxxi.) Gregory Nazianzen, and St. Basil, have sermons on its celebration. Also, St. Austin, St. Ambrose, St. Chrysostom, and many others, show us that it was kept with the same veneration and religious solemnity as the Lord's Day; neither did they let this day ever pass without a solemn communion. (Bingham, book xx., chap. 4.) The festival of Easter has been observed from the time of the Apostles. The eastern Churches kept it on the anniversary of the resurrection or passover, the western Churches on the Sunday following. Irenæus reports that Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, a cotemporary of St. John, went to Rome to confer with St. Anicetus about the day of celebrating Easter; but both resolved to keep it on the day in which it had been observed by the Apostles in their respective Churches. That it was held with great solemnity throughout the whole Church is attested by all succeeding_writers. The conference between the most eminent Bishops of the East and West on the subject, each alleging the practice of the Apostles, of whom they were the immediate successors, is positive proof that the feast of Easter was generally observed in the Church as an Apostolic practice in the age after the Apostles. If, therefore, it was not an Apostolic tradition, Irenæus, and the whole current of cotemporary and succeeding writers, must have stated that which they knew to be false, and which was never contradicted, but was confirmed by the conduct of Victor, Bishop of Rome, in the succeeding age, threatening to break communion with the Asiatic Churches, unless they conformed to the western practice, and reproved for so doing, by Irenæus. and other western Bishops, on the ground of the agreement of Polycarp and Anicetus, that their Churches should observe their respective usages. It is impossible that within half a century of the Apostles, various Churches could have the custom of observing Easter as delivered to them by the Apostles, unless they had so