A discourse concerning liturgies

And could more changes be made in settled Liturgies (with whose Forms and Prayers the people are presumed to have been as well acquainted, and longer accustomed to them, then to that Hymn) without any noise, without any notice?

And could more changes be made in setled Liturgies (with whose Forms and Prayers the people are presumed to have been as well acquainted, and longer accustomed to them, then to that Hymn) without any noise, without any notice?

Certainly, if they had been abolished, or such alterations made in them, we should have heard of ⟨p. 28⟩it, some where or other. And if there were no changes made therein, upon so great changes of the Christian Religion, it was because there was none to be changed, no such Liturgies extant.

In general, that they had no such public Liturgies for the administration of the Sacraments, appears by this; that they thought themselves obliged, with all care to conceal the Symbols, the Rites, the Prayers used in these administrations, from the sight and knowledge of all that were not initiated. The Christians, in the fourth and fifth Ages especially, counted it a heinous crime, to have any of the Heathen or Catechumens acquainted therewith; some of them make it no less ^*then Sacrilege, ^†one of the greatest crimes, and ^‖worthy of the highest censure, prolixiori anathemate.