A discourse concerning liturgies

The next Authority I meet with, is the Fifteenth Canon of the Vinetick Synod, in which Six Bishops, towards the conclusion of the Fifth Age, made this Decree, Rectum quoque duximus, ut vel intra Provinciam nostram, sacrorum ordo & psallendi una sit consuetudo; We have also thought it right, that, as to the order of Sacred Administrations and Singing, there be ^wone custom through our Province. What is intended here by ordo sacrorum, may be best understood by the Council of Agatha, being a Synod of the same Country, held not long after this of Vans, that in the beginning of the Sixth Age, an. 506. this ⟨p. 174⟩in the latter end of the Fifth. There Can. 21. ^xOrdo ecclesiae ab omnibus aqualiter custodiendus, is the disposing of the Responsals, Prayers, Hymns, and Psalms, each in the place thought most fit (according to Augustin's definition of Ordo, est parium dispariumque rerum, suae cuique loca tribuens, dispositio, Civ. Dei. l. 19. c. 13.) and so, applied to Sacred Administrations, Ordo, established by a Synod, if it reached all particulars, will amount to no more, than a Rubric or Directory. One and the same might be observed by all the Churches in a Province, in all Offices, yea and in Prayers too; tho' the same expressions were not used, nor those that officiated, at all tied up to Words and Syllables: For example; If, in the common Office (at which all might be present) they began with Psalms, and then read some part of the Law, or Prophets, and next some part of an Epistle, or of the Gospels, and afterwards proceeded to the Sermon; the same order was observed, ^ytho' the same Psalms were not always sung, nor the same Lesson twice in a Year, and the same Sermon never twice Preached: So ⟨p. 175⟩for the Prayers, if according to the order specified, Con. Laodic. Can. 18. first Prayers were made for the Catechumens, then for the Penitents, after that for the Faithful. And, if in that office peculiar to the Faithful, the Prayers be ordered, as Augustin thought the Apostles method was, Epist. 59. so as first Prayer be made for all sorts; then the