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Now, from the Nature of the Thing itself, 'tis clear, that Prayer must be One, either in respect of the Phrafe and Words 'tis utter'd or deliver'd in; or in refpect of the Senfe and Substance, the Heads or Subject Matter of which it is compos'd: That is, it must be one, either in respect of the Matter, or in respect of the Form of it; for to fay it must be one here, upon the Account of admitting but one Place or one Perfon in a Diocese to offer it up, is to beg the Question, which it is brought to prove; and therefore Unity in either of the other Senfes, if it agrees with the holy Martyr's Senfe too, is the fair Account of it.

Now, that it is not meant to be One, in the former Senfe, relating to the Words or Phrafe of it, I fuppofe will readily be granted; for that would make the holy Father plainly to prescribe a ftinted Form, or meer Common Liturgy in the Church; which our gifted Congregational Bishops, I conceive, would fcarce allow. And therefore, 2dly, it must be understood to be One, in respect of the Sense and Substance of it; or in plainer Terms, it must be Prayer made with ftrict Analogy to the one common Faith, and found Doctrine of the one Catholick Church throughout the Chri- . ftian World, as every true Christian Prayer neceffarily ought to be: And in no other Senfe than this, is it conceivable, I think, how even a fingle Bishop in a Congregational Church, cou'd be faid to offer up this pía Sinois, or one Prayer with his People, (which is here enjoin'd) who affects, as often as they meet together, to alter

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alter the Phrase and Language of his Devotion for them.

And that this was S. Ignatius's Meaning in it, we may reasonably infer, 1ft, from the Words he immediately joins with it, One Prayer, One Supplication, (fays he) One Mind, and One Hope; the two latter Words imply a plain Unity in them, and yet have so diffusive a Senfe, as to extend to all the Congregations of the Catholick Church; and therefore why not the two former too? And, 2dly, we may infer it alfo from the Ufe he was then making of it; which (as I hinted before) was directly to fecure them from Schifmatical Conventicles, and Heretical Notions; and fince the Bishop himfelf was to approve (as we have feen S. Ignatius himself allow'd him to do) of any Minister whatsoever that fhould Officiate for them, and thereby referve to himself the Infpection, Visitation, and Cenfure of them, (which is a Natural Confequence of it) whatsoever Prayer the People of his Diocese fhou'd join in, with fuch a Commission'd and Approv'd Presbyter as this, cou'd never bring them into that Danger of Schifm the holy Martyr here warn'd them against; but being Orthodox, and as Conformable to Chriftian Faith and Doctrine, as the Bishop's own cou'd be, wou'd, in the true Senfe of the Primitive Father, and to the great End for which he int ended it, be that uía dénois, that one Prayer, which the Bishop and all his Diocese were to offer up to God.

And that this was a true Notion of the Unity of Prayer in the Primitive Churches, Tertullian wou'd fatisfy us, if we wou'd allow him

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to speak only what he cou'd juftify and make good, in his Apology for all the Chriftians in the Roman Empire: For, tho' we have no Reafon to believe, that he frequented many more Congregations than that fingle one to which he belong'd, as other Chriftians did; yet he takes the Freedom to declare to the Roman Magiftrates, what kind of Prayer the Chriftian Churches us'd in general, how Innocent their Petitions were, and frankly mentions feveral Particulars of them, by way of upbraiding them all for perfecuting Subjects that Liv'd and Pray'd fo loyally and harmlessly as they did. If he cou'd do this without fome Common Liturgies (then at least) in Ufe amongst them, or fome known Canon of the Minifterial Offices; furely, it cou'd be upon no other grounds than this, that he was fure the Chriftian Churches Prayers were one, and the fame, in all Places, in the Sense we are now fpeaking; that is, they were bound to bear a ftrict Analogy to that one Creed, that one and the fame Syftem of Chriftian Doctrine, and that one Divine Model of all Prayer, which our bleffed Lord deliver'd to them, and every one of them were known to be guided by. Other Fathers, as ancient or ancienter than Tertullian, fpeak in the fame Manner with him. But on this Head, I think, there needs no more.

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+ Oramus pro Imperatoribus, pro miniftris eorum, ac poteftatibus, pro ftatu feculi, pro rerum quiete, pro morà finis. Tert. Apol. c. 39.

To proceed then: The Bishop * (fays our learned Author) had but one Altar, or Communion-Table, in his whole Diocefe, at which his whole Flock receiv'd the Sacrament from him, and that at one time. For Proof of this, he offers those Words of S. Ignatius to the Philadelphians;

There is but one Altar, as but one Bishop. To explain which Phrafe, I fhall use our | Enquirer's own Method, by joining to it a parallel Expreffion of the admirable S. Cyprian; which is fo near a-kin to it, that it feems almost a meer Translation of it; at least, 'tis a most direct and immediate IHuftration of it. S. Cyprian's Words are here in the Margin: Our Enquirer renders them thus; § No Man can regularly conftitute a new Bishop, or erect a new Altar, befides the one Bishop and the one Altar. And here I am forry I must remark a fatal Overfight; (for I am loth to give even this unjuft Tranflation another Name) but 'tis evident, what S. Cyprian here calls a new Priefthood, and one Priesthood, our learned Author renders by a new Bishop and one Bishop; which proves, indeed, that he believ'd it a directly parallel Place to that of S. Ignatius, (as it really is) because he tranflates both in the very fame Words. But, in the mean time, he fo difguifes this holy Father's Text, that he hides from

Enquiry, p. 18, 19.

"Ev Juolasnelor, as As świonow, &c. Ep, ad Philadelp. p. 41.

Ing. p. 21.

Aliud altare conftitui, aut Sacerdotium novum fieri, præter unum altare, & unum Sacerdotium, non poteft. Cypr. Ep. 40. 4. Edit. Pamel. Ep. 43. Edit. Oxon.

from the English Reader's Sight the main Key which would open the genuine Senfe and Meaning of this, and all fuch Expreffions as these are; not only in these two venerable Fathers alone, but in all the Writings of Primitive Antiquity befides: For the Unity of the Altar, the Unity of the Bishop, the Unity of the Eucharift, the Unity of Christian Prayer, and the very Unity of the whole Church itfelf, are all founded upon the common Bottom that the Unity of the Christian Priesthood is; and no Man ever fo unlock'd the Evangelical Secret of this Catholick and Chriftian Unity, as the unimitable S. Cyprian has done. So that if his fhort and plain (but admirable Account of it) were but duly weigh'd and credited, as it ought to be, we fhould hear but few Enquiries after the Constitution of the Primitive Church, few Amufements about the Fundamental Unity of it, drawn only from a fcatter'd Sentence, here and there, in the most uniform Records of the best and ancienteft Writers in it.

S. Cyprian's brief Account of it lies in that noted Paflage, fo familiar to all who ever read his Works, or almost ever heard his Name: * Epifcopacy (fays he, in his fmall Tract of the

Unity

* Epifcopatus eft unus, cujus à fingulis in folidum pars tenetur. Ecclefia quoq; una eft, quæ in multitudinem latius incremento fœcunditatis extenditur; quo modo folis multi radii, fed lumen unum, &c. Numerofitas licet diffufa videatur exundantis copiæ largitate, unitas tamen fervatur in origine. Cypr. de Unit. Eccl. p. 108. Edit. Oxon.

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