feasts, the giving of milk and honey, and of the eucharist to infants, trine immersion at baptism, the kiss of peace in the eucharist, prayer towards the east, &c. have all been suspended, altered, or annulled; yet all these are as ancient as prayers for the departed. In the tenth section of the following chapter I consider more particularly the reasons which justified the church of England in omitting these prayers. TENTH. There is no worship nor commemoration of the saintsf. I reply, that Romanists admit the worship of saints not to be essential, and if we are to understand by that term, invocation and prayer to them, it has been found to have most injurious consequences. On this subject I refer the reader to chapter ii. page 289, &c. where I consider the reasons which justified the church in removing invocations of saints. That there is no commemoration of saints in the English liturgy is an error; for besides the festivals of the Apostles and martyrs, we celebrate the memory of "All Saints," and commemorate them in the eucharist and other offices. ELEVENTH. None of the canon of the liturgy is said in secret. The liturgy is therefore illegiti mates. This objection of Assemani is refuted by his own admission, that the decree of the emperor Justinian, directing the liturgy to be repeated aloud, was only a confirmation of the ancient discipline of the eastern churchh. f Assemani, Codex Liturgicus, tom. vi. p. xcvi. Bp. Scott; Collier, vol. ii. p. 427. g Assemani, Codex Liturgi VOL. II. cus, tom. vi. p. xcvi. h Codex Liturgicus, tom. v. p. liv. C TWELFTH. The Lord's Prayer is omitted after the canon of the liturgy. I shew elsewhere that there are precedents in the primitive church for doing so. THIRTEENTH. The priest reads the epistle, which ought to be read by the sub-deaconk. I reply, that cardinal Bona has shewn that the Roman custom of appointing the sub-deacon to read the epistle was an innovation, the reader having formerly fulfilled that office. But if the priest reads the epistle in the English liturgy, it is only when there is no assistant minister present; a rule which is equally observed in the Roman and eastern liturgies. FOURTEENTH. It is objected that confiteor, misereatur, Kyrie eleison, Sanctus, Agnus Dei, Benedictions, sign of the cross, exsufflations, exorcisms, anointing, praying towards the east, &c. have been omitted'. I reply, that most of these have not been omitted, and the remainder are unnecessary to the valid administration of the sacraments and offices. These are all the objections I have been able to find against our liturgy and offices, except a few trifling cavils against the morning and evening prayer, which I have not thought it necessary to collect in this place, but have noticed them in the first chapter of this work. i Schultingius, Bibliotheca Ecclesiastica. j See section xix. of this chapter, near the end. * Schultingius, Biblioth. Ec clesiastica. 1 Bp. Scott, cited by Collier, Ecclesiastical History, vol. ii. P. 427. SECTION I. THE LORD'S PRAYER, AND COLLECT FOR PURITY. We learn from the writings of Justin Martyr, and from other ecclesiastical monuments of the earliest antiquity, that the public service of the Christians began with lessons from holy scripture. "On the day which is called Sunday," says Justin, "all who live in the city or the country meet together, and the memoirs of the apostles, or the writings of the prophets, are read as long as circumstances permita." The author of the Apostolical Constitutions, who is admitted by the most learned critics to have lived about the end of the third, or beginning of the fourth century, concurs with Justin in representing the reading of scripture as the commencement of the liturgy or communion-service of the primitive church. It would be in vain, therefore, to attempt to trace any part of our communionservice, which precedes the lessons, to the earliest ages of the Christian church. It was probably in the fourth century that some of the eastern churches began to prefix psalms or anthems to the lessons. The author who bears the name of Dionysius the Areopagite probably lived in the latter part of this century, and he plainly speaks of psalmody at the beginning of the service. Early in the following 2 Καὶ τῇ τοῦ ἡλίου λεγομένῃ ἡμέρᾳ πάντων κατὰ πόλεις ἢ ἄγρους μενόντων ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ συνέλευσις γίνεται, καὶ τὰ ἀπομνημονεύματα τῶν ἀποστόλων, ἢ τὰ συγγράμματα τῶν προφητῶν ἀναγινώσκεται μέσ χρις ἐγχωρεῖ. Apolog. i. edit. Thirlby, p. 97. b Apost. Const. lib. ii. c. 57. p. 261. • Ο μὲν ἱεράρχης εὐχὴν ἱερὰν ἐπὶ τοῦ θείου θυσιαστηρίου τελέσας, ἐξ αὐτοῦ τοῦ θυμιᾷν ἀρξάμεvos, ἐπὶ πᾶσαν ἔρχεται τὴν τοῦ ἱεροῦ χωροῦ περιοχήν· ἀναλύσας δὲ dè πάλιν ἐπὶ τὸ θεῖον θυσιαστήριον, century we find that it had also extended into Africa, where Augustine wrote a book in its defence against Hilary, a layman of rank, who, he says, inveighed against the custom of singing hymns taken from the book of Psalms, either before the oblation, or during the distribution of the elements; which, Augustine says, was then beginning at Carthaged. If we rely on the author of the Liber Pontificalis, Cœlestine, bishop of Rome, who was a contemporary of Augustine, appointed that the Psalms of David should be sung before the sacrifice, or liturgy, "which," he adds, "was not done before, but only the epistles of Paul and the holy gospel were reade." In after-ages, Gregory the Great selected anthems from the psalms, which he appointed to be sung before the lessons f; and the same practice was adopted in the church of Milan, and in most of the west. This anthem before the lessons was called Introitus in the Roman liturgy, Ingressas in the ἀπάρχεται τῆς ἱερᾶς τῶν ψαλμῶν d" Hilarius quidem vir tribunitius laicus catholicus, nescio unde adversus Dei ministros, ut fieri adsolet irritatus, morem qui tunc esse apud Carthaginem cœperat, ut hymni ad altare dicerentur de Psalmorum libro, sive ante oblationem, sive cum distribueretur populo quod fuisset oblatum, maledica reprehensione ubicumque poterat lacerabat," &c. Augustin. lib. ii. Retractat. c. 11. p. 45. tom. i. edit. Be nedict. e " Hic constituit ut CL Psalmi David ante sacrificium psallerentur antiphonatim, quod ante non fiebat, nisi tantum recitabantur Epistolæ Pauli et Sanctum Evangelium et sic missæ fiebant." Auctor Libri Pontificalis in vita Cœlestini. f "Cœlestinus papa psalmos ad introitum missæ cantari instituit: de quibus Gregorius papa postea antiphonas ad introitum missæ modulando composuit." Honorius in Gemma Animæ, lib. i. c. 37. p. 1205. of Melchior Hittorp's Collection of writers de Divinis Cath. Eccl. Officiis. Paris. 1624. g Miss. Ambros. fol. 1, &c. Ambrosian, or that of Milan, and in the English church was formerly used under the name of Officiumh, or Introit. It appears probable that some prayers likewise were used before and between the lessons from a period of great antiquity. It will appear in the third section, that we may trace back the original of collects to the fourth century at least, in the western churches, and that it is not improbable that in the patriarchate of Alexandria they may be of still greater antiquity. To present an idea of the variety which, from the fifth or sixth century, prevailed in different churches, with regard to that part of the liturgy which preceded the lessons, I shall briefly state the substance of this part of the ancient liturgies. In the patriarchate of Alexandria, the service began with a prayer of thanksgiving, followed by collects and petitions for the emperor of the east, the patriarch or pope of Alexandriak, and other objects. At Milan, in Germany, and probably Ireland, we find an anthem sung at the beginning'. This was followed by the form of Kyrie eleison, derived from the eastern church, and a long litany, in which the deacon directed the people to pray for many different objects, and the people responded TM. This form was manifestly taken from the ancient practice of the eastern church also". After the li h Miss. Sar. fol. 13. et passim. i Liturgia Basilii Coptica, apud Renaudot. Liturg. Oriental. tom. i. p. 2. Liturg. Marci, ibid. p. 131. j Liturgia Marci, p. 132. 133. 1 Miss. Ambrosii. Gerbert, Vet. Liturg. Aleman. tom. i. p. 293. O'Conor, Appendix to vol. i. of Catalogue of MSS. in Stowe Library, p. 41. m Miss. Ambrosii, fol. 63. 70. Antiq. Liturg. tom. iii. p. 307. O'Conor, Appendix, p. 41. n Goar, not. 62. in Liturg. |