I reply, that these prayers are not essential to oblation, consecration, or communion; they are therefore not necessary for the valid administration of the sacrament. And even supposing them to be of apostolical antiquity, there would be no just ground of objection to the English liturgy on account of their absence. For those apostolical customs which are not necessary to salvation, may be suspended or abrogated by the successors of the apostles, if there be good reasons for doing so. Thus the prohibition against eating blood and things strangled, the love-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 saints ".

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 318, &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

lier, p. 427, vol. ii. Assemani, Codex Liturgicus, tom. vi. p. xcvi. Schultingius, Bibliotheca Ecclesiast.

VOL. II.

g Assemani, Codex Liturgicus, tom. vi. p. xcvi. Bp. Scott; Collier, vol. ii. p. 427.

C

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 illegitimate". 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 churchi.

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 *.

k

THIRTEENTH. The priest reads the Epistle, which ought to be read by the sub-deacon'.

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.

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 "permit"." 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 communion

* Καὶ τῇ τοῦ ἡλίου λεγομένῃ ἡμέρᾳ πάντων κατὰ πόλεις ἢ ἀγροὺς μενόντων ἐπὶ τὸ αὐτὸ συνέλευσις γίνεται, καὶ τὰ ἀπομνημονεύματα τῶν ἀποστόλων, ἢ τὰ συγγράμματα τῶν προφη

τῶν ἀναγινώσκεται μέχρις ἐγχωρεῖ. Apolog. i. edit. Thirlby, p. 97.

b

Apost. Const. lib. ii. c. 57,

p. 261.

service, 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 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 read In after-ages, Gregory the Great

66

e "

c'O μèv iɛpáρxns εvxǹv iɛpàv ἐπὶ τοῦ θείου θυσιαστηρίου τελέσας, ἐξ αὐτοῦ τοῦ θυμιᾷν ἀρξάμενος, ἐπὶ πᾶσαν ἔρχεται τὴν τοῦ ἱεροῦ χώρου περιοχήν ἀναλύσας δὲ πάλιν ἐπὶ τὸ θεῖον θυσιαστήριον, ἀπάρχεται τῆς ἱερᾶς τῶν ψαλμῶν μελῳδίας, συναδούσης αὐτῷ τὴν ψαλμικὴν ἱερολογίαν åπúons tñs Ékkλnoiaotikñs diaKоoμσεwÇ. Dionys. Areop. de Eccl. Hierarch. c. 3, tom. i. p. 283, ed. Corderii.

d"Hilarius quidem vir tribunitius laicus catholicus, nescio unde adversus Dei minis

tros, ut fieri adsolet, irritatus, morem qui tunc esse apud Carthaginem coeperat, 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. Benedict.

e. Hic constituit ut CL. Psalmi David ante sacrificium psallerentur antiphonatim, quod ante non fiebat, nisi tantum recitabantur Epistolæ Pauli et

selected anthems from the psalms, which he appointed to be sung before the lessons'; 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, Ingressa in the Ambrosian, or that of Milan, and in the English church was formerly used under the name of Officium", 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 thanksgiving1, followed by collects and petitions for the emperor of the east, the patriarch or pope of Alexandria, and other objects. At Milan, in Germany, and probably