A discourse concerning liturgies

May it not be hence reasonably concluded, that what, in these circumstances, is not now discovered, was not then extant? Such Liturgies used every where, for so many Hundred years, are a matter of that nature, which would have been obvious at a superficial view, and of easy proof to such as have no intimate acquaintance with antiquity. If then, we can have no intelligence thereof from those who may think themselves wronged, if they be not counted her Secretaries; if no discovery thereof ⟨p. 181⟩be made by that diligence which has ransacked all the corners, penetrated the inwards, and dived to the bottom of antiquity for it: What ground is there to expect any discovery thereof hereafter? What reason is there left us to believe any other, but that such search hath been for a thing that was not, and that the supposed Liturgies of those Ages had no being, but in the imagination of later times?

May it not be hence reasonably concluded, that what, in these circumstances, is not now discovered, was not then extant? Such Liturgies used every where, for so many Hundred years, are a matter of that nature, which would have been obvious at a superficial view, and of easie proof to such as have no intimate acquaintance with antiquity. If then, we can have no intelligence thereof from those who may think themselves wronged, if they be not counted her Secretaries; if no discovery thereof ⟨p. 181⟩be made by that diligence which has ransacked all the corners, penetrated the inwards, and dived to the bottom of antiquity for it: What ground is there to expect any discovery thereof hereafter? What reason is there left us to believe any other, but that such search hath been for a thing that was not, and that the supposed Liturgies of those Ages had no being, but in the imagination of later times?

And now, I may from the premises conclude, That for Five hundred Years after Christ (if not more) the ordinary way of worshipping God in public Assemblies, was not by prescribed Liturgies.