<0^( of mnctfoi
BX 5141 .F7 1880 v. 1
Freeman, Philip, 1818-1875.
The principles of divine
service
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PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING
THE TEUE MANNER OP UNDERSTANDING AND USING
THE ORDER FOR
MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER,
AND FOR
THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE HOLY COMMUNION
IN THE
ENGLISH CHURCH.
BY THE LATE
PHILIP^REEMAN, M.A.
VICAR OF THORVERTON, CANON AND ARCHDEACON OF EXETER, AND EXAMINING
CHAPLAIN TO THE LATE LORD BISHOP OF EXETER.
VOL. I. — MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
Stare super antiquas vias.
SirdpTav tAaxts' ravraf itda/iti.
CHEAPER EE-ISSUE.
©xforti anli !LonHoit:
JAMES PARKER AND CO.
CAMBRIDGE : MACMILLANS.
1880.
NOTICE TO THE CHEAPER RE-ISSUE.
^HE present edition of this work will, it is hoped,
by the reduction made in the cost of the volumes,
place it within reach of a larger number of students
of our Church's Ritual.
The writer desires to acknowledge, with the most
humble gratitude to Almighty God, the degree of
favour and acceptance which his humble labours have
met with at the hands of the English Church. He
has also the happiness of knowing that in one diocese,
at least, of the Sister Church of America, unanimity
on some important points has been brought about by
an appeal to the transcript here attempted of the mind
and usages of the Primitive Church.
The Close, Exetek,
Nov. 14, 1870.
TO THE
CLERGY AND LAITY
OF THE
ENGLISH CHURCH,
AND OF
THE CHURCHES IN COMMUNION WITH IIEE,
THIS ATTEMPT
TO ELUCIDATE HER
OFFICES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP
IS WITH ALL HUMILITY
INSCRIBED,
BY THEIR AFFECTIONATE BROTHER IN CHRIST,
THE AUTHOR.
PREFACE.
The end for which all things exist, and especially
such as are rational and spiritual, is, by universal
confession, that they may serve to the glory of
Almighty God by duty and praise. In knowledge
of Him, moreover, and in union to Him, stands the
life of Christian men, and the means of their per-
fection. And in their seeking Him, once more, by
ways of His appointing, lies the condition of their
finding Him, and in Him all that they need. To
maintain these relations, and carry on these great
transactions, between Heaven and earth, is one pur-
pose for which the Church was founded. Nor can
any study be much more interesting than that of the
mode in which she has been used to do this in time
past, or in other parts of the world ; any more im-
portant to us than that of the forms of such service
existing at the present hour in the Church to which
we belong.
It has not pleased God to reveal to us in all par-
ticulars, but only in large and general outlines, how
He will be served. It has therefore from time to
time been found necessary to expound, and iu par-
\ 111
PREFACE.
ticular instances to vindicate, the ways in which, in
the Churches of God, this duty of Divine Service
has with more or less of variety been discharged.
Nor has such at any time been deemed an unfitting
employment for those who have received a charge to
care for the discipline, as well as the doctrine, of
Christ's Church.
In putting forth a treatise on these momentous
subjects, designed to educe the general principles of
Divine Service, or Christian Ritual, with an especial
view to the interpretation of our own, I desire to
adopt with all humility the words of a thoughtful
divine on a similar occasion : — " The only ends at
which my desires did aim in this work, were first
and principally the Glory of God, which is the
supreme cause of all causes, the main end of all
aims, intended by good men or angels. The second,
subordinate to this, was to give satisfaction to my
longing desires of discharging my duty to the Church
my mother, by doing her such service as I was able,
in setting forth the true worship of God, and in
maintaining the faith professed by her. The third
was to give an account that I had not altogether
spent my best days in waking dreams, or wandering
projects, or private ends a."
I can hardly hope that in a work embracing, with
somewhat of detail, two subjects of such proverbial
difficulty and perplexity as the Israelitish sacrificial
system, and the ritual of the Christian Church, I
have altogether avoided errors, whether in matters of
* Dr. Thomas Jackson, Dedication of his work on the Creed, book he.,
to Charles II.
PREFACE.
ix
fact, or in deductions from them. But I trust that
in no case are they such as to invalidate the leading
conclusions at which I have arrived as the result of
these investigations: viz., 1, that, amid much of
practical depravation and short-coming, an essential
harmony and oneness of principle has pervaded the
Service of God's Church in all times and lands ; and,
2, that the Church of this country, through her Ser-
vices, is in full accord with this universal mind of the
Church; and more especially, as in her doctrine, so
also in her ritual, when rightly conceived and acted
up to, is not furthest removed from the mind and
method of Apostolic days.
Isle of Cumbrae,
Whitsuntide, 1855.
CONTENTS
OF VOL. L
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
The Services of the English Church imperfectly understood. Causes of this.
No rationale of them put forth at the revision of 1549. (p. 1—4.) The
want not fully supplied by Hooker, (4—7) ; or Sparrow, Comber, &c, from
their neglecting the old Offices, (7—11) ; or by Palmer, who does not fully
investigate their effect on our present forms, (11—18). Objections to
having recourse to the older Offices for explanation, answered, (18 — 27).
Plan of the work, and resume of points in the Morning and Evening Ser-
vices illustrated in this volume, (27 — 33).
PART I.
CHAPTER I.
ON THE EARLY AND PRIMITIVE FORM OP DAILY SERVICE.
Sect. I. — This inquiry mainly historical. Paramount claims of the historical
method. Cautions in applying it. (34—36.) Occasional change a universal
law of the Church's Ritual, (36 — 39). Two great epochs of change, three
great eras, of English Ritual, (39, 40). The Daily Offices brought hither
by St. Augustine, not the Roman, (41). Prevailing erroneous notions
as to the primitive times, viz. 1. that they had no other service than the
Eucharist ; 2. that they had the Eucharist daily. Causes of these miscon-
ceptions. (42—46.)
Sect. II. — The present Ordinary Offices of East and West derived from the
same primitive source, (46 — 48.) The Offices, in their earliest known
phase, chiefly nocturnal. Yet not derived from the Eucharistic, but co-
existent with it from the first. (48 — 51.) Direct notices of it in early
writers, why scanty. Reference to Ignatius, Philo, Justin Martyr, Tertul-
lian, Hippolytus, Origen, Cyprian, Arnobius, Basil, Chrysostom, Cassian.
(51-59.)
xiv
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER m.
ON THE STRUCTURE AND CONTENTS OF THE ANCIENT
ENGLISH OFFICES.
Sect. I. — Retrospect. The Eastern Offices, why so much dwelt on in
ch. I., (p. 216 — 221). The survey of them resumed. Prime : its late
origin ; contents. Western Prime founded on it. Origin of our third
Morning Collect. Third hour. Sixth. Ninth. Compline. The invention
of it wrongly ascribed to St. Benedict. Its contents. Western Compline
a mere abridgment of it. (222 — 228.) Origin of " Lighten our dark-
ness." These Offices originally private. Expediency of adopting them
entire, as public Offices, considered. Their doctrinal aspect. (228 — 233.)
Sect. II. — Obscurity of early Western ordinary Ritual. Probability that it
was mainly identical with Eastern. Opinion of Grancolas to that effect.
Sketch of its probable contents in this country and elsewhere. (234 — 241.)
Later Western schemes, — French, Spanish, Milanese, Roman, English.
By whom originated ? Not by Pope Darnasus; or St. Benedict. Probably
by Cassian, chiefly. (241—245.) The English and Roman Ordinary
Offices quite distinct, though closely akin. Proofs of this. (245 — 249.)
Cassian's qualifications for originating both rites. Hence Cassian and
St. Leo probably co-originators of the Roman rite ; — Cassian alone of
the English; — both on the old Western basis. Cassian's rite brought
to England by St. Augustine. (249 — 254). Resume. Western ordinary
Ritual universally indebted to Eastern. The great Western Revision
in fifth and sixth centuries a precedent for the English in the sixteenth
and seventeenth. (254 — 259.)
Sect. III. — Spirit of the old English Offices, (see tables below, pp. 288, 289).
Not appreciated by ritualists generally, (259 — 262). Character of Matins ;
of Lauds; of Prime. Review of spirit of these three Offices. (262—269.)
Spirit of Tierce, Sext, Nones; of Vespers; of Compline. Genius of East
and West compared. (270- 274.)
CHAPTER IV.
ON THE STRUCTURE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ORDER
FOR MORNING AND EVENING PRATER.
Sect. I. — The present English Offices, the only form in which the ancient
ritual really survives. (275 — 281.] i Threefold aspect of them : 1. Eucha-
ristic; 2. Structural. (281—287.) Tables, exhibiting the structural
connection of the present with the old Offices. (288, 289.) Plan of evo-
CONTENTS.
lution of our Morning Office. The old ideas and spirit, as well as the old
order, preserved. Illustration of this from the revision made of the
Primer. Suggestion in case of further revision. (290 — 299.) Evening
Office similarly evolved. (299—303.) 3. Representative aspect of the
Offices. Compensates for their brevity. Musical mode of service. (303 —
307.)
Sect. II. — General view of our present Offices. The old Confession and
Absolution first placed before Matins by Quignon. Our Absolution founded
on the latter. (307—313.) But cast in a different mould, after an existing
reformed Service. Was an adaptation of the old private form of Abso-
lution. (313 — 318.) Doctrine of Absolution. Eastern illustration. Our
Confessions based on old private forms in use in the English Church.
Large citation in it from Rom. vii. (318 — 322.) Sentences and Exhorta-
tion borrowed from the old English Lenten Capitula and Homilies. In
what light to be viewed and used. (322 — 327.)
Sect. III. — Rationale of the Lord's Prayer, as a summary of the Office.
The opening Versicles, &c. The Venite. Its twofold aspect. Substitution
of anthems on Easter-day. (328—331.) The Psalms, an instrument, 1. Of
praise ; but also, 2. Of knowledge. Spirit of the old Offices, how preserved
in them. Antiphons ; how far the principle of them practically survives
with us. Our Psalm-cycle more free and varied than the old. Eucha-
ristic aspect of the Psalms. (331—337.)
Sect. IV. — The Lessons, primarily, supply topics of praise. The reading of
Scripture at large vindicated on this ground. The old system compared
with ours. (337 — 341.) Long Scripture-lessons a primitive usage, (341 —
344). Ethical and spiritual effects of them, (344—347). The Sunday
and Festival Lesson-cycle. Loss of the ancient Benedictions. Eucha-
ristic aspect of the Lessons. (347 — 350.)
The Canticles; their design. The Te Deum, how based on Scripture.
Analysis of it. (350—355.) The other Canticles, (355—360).
Sect. V. — The Creed. Its position ; its design twofold, as summing up
of doctrine, and basis of prayer. " The Lord be with you," &c. Short
Litany. Lord's Prayer; its different design here and at the beginning of
the Office. (360—364.) The Petitions; their origin : how related to the
Collects following. The First Collect ; its deep Eucharistic connection.
The Second : its design explained from the old Offices. The Third, traced
to the East, and thence explained. (364 — 371.) The Intercessory Prayers;
their counterpart found in the old Offices. Structure of Western Prayers.
Pleading of Christ's merits peculiar, now, to the West. The invocations,
an act of praise. Reference to the Holy Trinity. (371 — 374.) Longer
prayers used in the East than West. Defence of this kind of prayer. Prayer
for the Queen's Majesty ; its grandeur : earthly titles in prayer ancient
and commendable. Eastern parallel. Eucharistic aspect of Collects and
Prayers. (374—378.) Design of the General Thanksgiving. Litany ; how
to be used. Prayer of St. Chrysostom ; origin and significance. The
Benediction, an old English Sunday feature; Apostolic; Eucharistic.
xvi
CONTENTS.
CONCLUSION.
Re-awakened energies of the English Church. After doctrinal principles,
ritual to be considered. Proportion to he ohserved between Eucharistic
and Ordinary Worship. Apostolic ideal, anciently realized. Later de-
parture from this. Grievous inequalities of privilege for different classes.
(381—384.) The English Church urged to strive for the recovery of
the Apostolic standard. Her facilities for it. Such an aim not unworthy ;
nor visionary. Methods for bringing back weekly Communion. Non-
communicating attendance contrary to primitive usage. (384 — 389.) In-
creased efficiency of our Ordinary Worship universally desired. Real
condition of this question. Revision, — if any, — what direction the pre-
vious inquiry would suggest that it should take. Reasons for conserva-
tism drawn from the same source. (389 — 392.) Projects of revision : —
viz. 1. Rectification. The small amount aimed at not be set against the
risk. The Proper Lessons. 2. Retrenchment. No necessity for this ;
but only for resolving, in practice, the present Offices. 3. Additional
Offices. Real existing facilities. (392 — 396.) The present no adequate
crisis for change. Due knowledge and use of the old Services the thing
really needed. Causes of present desuetude of them as a whole. Want
of due training of the clergy. Two reasons for restored continual
services peculiarly pressing on the English Church. (396 — 398.)
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
" Enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the
search of their fathers. . . Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and
utter words out of their heart ?"
The work which is now very humbly tendered for
the acceptance of the English Church, has been written
under the earnest conviction, that the real nature of
her existing Offices of Public Worship has been but
very imperfectly investigated hitherto ; and that they
are in consequence neither correctly understood at
the present day, nor used in their full and proper
meaning.
This assertion is not made lightly. And that there
is no such antecedent improbability in it as might at
first sight appear, the following considerations may
serve to shew.
It must be borne in mind, that when these Services
first received, in the sixteenth century, the shape in
which for the most part we still possess them, no ex-
planation was put forth of the design of the several
parts, or of the relation which they bear to each
other j nor any statement made of the great principles
upon which the use of such Services is based, and
their structure regulated. The Revisers of the Offices
doubtless took it for granted that these things were
understood, and needed not to be recapitulated by
15
2
TI1E PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
them ; more especially as the old Services would stand
that generation in the stead of exponents, to a great
degree, of the revised ritual. All that they did, there-
fore, was to prefix a very brief and general account
of the grounds there were for a Revision, and of the
objects chiefly aimed at in it \
It is indeed probable that they had themselves but
an imperfect perception of the entire nature of the
forms which, after thus revising them to the best of
their power, they handed down. While they neces-
sarily trusted in a measure to their own instinctive
perceptions of what was fitting in the matter of Divine
Worship, they also in a great degree yielded them-
selves up, in the exercise of a wise humility, to such
provisions and arrangements as they found existing
and long established, where no strong reason appeared
for departing from them. And it is doubtless owing
to their having thus joined to an eminently practical
^tone and temper, a high degree of deference to the
judgment of the Church in past ages, that the Ser-
vices, as revised by them, have retained their hold on
the English mind ever since 3 — a period of three hun-
dred years. For they have within them that which
answers, on the one hand, to the practical desire, no-
where more strongly felt than in this nation, for in-
telligible as well as devout and worthy forms of wor-
ship ; and, on the other, to its no less characteristic
hr#m reverence for that which is fixed, time-honoured, and
venerable.
But it is obvious that it would have conduced
much, even at the time, to the full appreciation of the
* Preface to the "Book of Common Prayer," &c., of 1549: now
placed after the Preface of 1GC2, and entitled " Concerning the Service
of the Church."
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
3
Services, had some competent interpreter taken in
band, first, to explain and place on record the nature
of the old Services, with a view to perpetuating just
conceptions of so much of them as was retained un-
altered; and, secondly, to unfold the principles on
which the revised forms had been abridged or deve-
loped out of the old. For want of such a contempo-
raneous and quasi-authoritative exposition of facts and
principles, the Church might very conceivably, in the
lapse of time, drift away from a correct apprehension
of the Services she had inherited.
But, it may be asked, though the Revisers them-
selves have not performed this part of interpreter
towards their own work, have not others, at various
times, supplied the deficiency ?
Now in the first place, as regards the old Services,
they were (as will be pointed out more fully here-
after1') in reality very imperfectly understood at the
time of the revision, even by professed Ritualists.
The Church of the West, including that of this
country, had possessed them for at least a thousand
years ; but the works in which they were expounded
missed of apprehending their true nature and inten-
tion, and that, too, in many most important respects.
Add to which, that on the ancient Offices of the Eng-
lish branch of the Church in particular, — which dif-
fered in some not immaterial points from those of the
Western Church generally, — no special commentary
or rationale seems to have existed.
Next, let it be remembered how long a time elapsed,
after the remodelling of these Services in the sixteenth
century — (a period long enough, indeed, as the event
proved, for the knowledge of them in their older form
b See below, cli. i. s. 7, and ch. iii. On the Ancient English Offices.
B 2
4 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
to have passed, for the most part, from men's minds)
— ere there arose any professed commentator upon
their structure and contents, or before any endeavour
was made to fix the ideas, and unfold the mind belong-
ing to them. Some noble materials towards such an
undertaking were for the first time thrown together
in an irregular way about fifty years after. Of this
kind was the vindication of our Services by Hooker0
from the objections of Cartwright and others. Such
again were the few and fortuitously preserved notes of
J /(^-^H'O Bishop Andrewes11. The former of these great men,
especially, has searched deep into the principles upon
which many of the great elements of Divine Service
and Worship, contained in our Offices, are based ;
and thus vindicated their general character, as well
as many details of arrangement and expression. And
these profound searchings and eloquent vindications
will never be equalled or superseded on their own
ground, and as far as they go. But the range of
Hooker's comments was greatly narrowed by his
controversial position. Where his opponents objected,
he defended ; but beyond this the nature of his work
did not call upon him to enter into the matter or
order of the Services. And again, the effectiveness of
his championship, even on such points as he has oc-
casion to treat of, is greatly impaired by one very
material defect in the appliances which he had at
command for dealing with the subject. With the older
Offices of the English Church there is little or no
appearance of his having been acquainted : whereas
these, as must be evident from what has been already
c Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, B. v. ch. IS— 49. The filth Book of
Hooker's great work was not published till 1597.
d Sec Nicliolls on the Prayer-book.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
5
said, were likely in many points to be the best if not
the only cine to the real character of the existing
Services. And it is not too much to say that even
Hooker's magnificent panegyric on the use of Psalms"
might have received new features of beauty and truth,
and his profound exposition of the matter and struc-
ture of our collects and prayers f have rested on still
more immoveable foundations, had he viewed both
these subjects through the medium of those grandly-
conceived Offices, and by the light of those great
ritual principles of structure and arrangement, which
were the inheritance of this branch of the Western
Church.
To take a single example : — the peculiar type, in
which the Church's prayers are for the most part con-
ceived, having been objected to by his adversaries,
especially their being " cast in short petitions," (mean-
ing apparently the collects,) Hooker ably defends
them, as well by ancient precedent, as by the reason
of the thing. The approval of such forms by St. Au-
gustine, and the helpfulness of them to quicken and
sustain devotion, furnished him with a very sufficient
ground of defence ; — though, indeed, it seems pro-
bable that St. Augustine was speaking not so much
of collects or prayers, as of versicles and responses.
But however this be, surely there was much, very
much more, that might have been said ; much, too,
that is really indispensable to an adequate conception
and appreciation of these ancient forms of address
to Almighty God. The immense antiquity of the /
very collects themselves, and not merely of the form
in which they are conceived, might for example have
been effectively pleaded. Most important and weighty, a.
0 L. E. P., B. v. ch. 37, 39. 1 lb., eh. 31, 35.
Ann/
0 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
again, is their connection with the Office for the Holy
S Communion ; as is also that condensation into them
of whole tracts of Scripture, to which they perhaps
owe their name, and which invests them with such
singular interest and value, as the Eucharistic thoughts
— derived from Scripture and digested into prayer —
of holy men in days of unfathomed antiquity. It is
evident that until these, and such-like high claims on
our veneration and devout use are adequately set forth
on behalf of our Offices, we have but a very partial
knowledge either of what they are, or of the value
that we should set upon them. So again, the min-
gling of Lessons with prayers might have been based
upon other grounds besides those of pleasing and
profitable variety. The peculiar character of the
Canticles, as responsive to the Lessons, and of the
Litany, viewed as anciently designed to precede the
Holy Communion ; — the different purpose to which
the Lord's Prayer is intended to be used in the
different positions in which it occurs; — these are
grounds of defence, and topics of just eulogy, which
an acquaintance with the older forms of the English
Church would naturally have suggested. Still, after
all, Hooker remains to this day our best, because
our profoundest commentator on the Services of
the Church. He it is who, beyond all others, has,
in various particular instances, based the Church's
practice on the unassailable foundations of sound
Christian psychology. The general "Principles of
Divine Service," in a word, have by none, either
before or after him, been so truly or so eloquently
expounded.
Another wide and dreary interval of sixty years
separates Hooker from the next generation of Ri-
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
7
tualists, — the school of Sparrow s and L'Estrange ;
who were thus removed by more than a century from ■
the period of the Kevision. These, with their suc-
cessors Comber, Nicholls, Wheatley, Bennet, Bisse,
and others, were professed expounders of the origin,
contents, and nature of our Ritual. Yet, strange as it
may seem, they are hardly less regardless than Hooker
himself of the one source from which, beyond all
others, the Services would be likely to receive pertinent
illustration. It is true, these learned writers were not
altogether unacquainted with the older Offices of the
Western Church ; and they occasionally, though com-
paratively seldom, refer to them. But their line of
comment, as all who are acquainted with them are
aware, runs almost exclusively in the direction of the
writings of the Bathers, the Councils, and the Holy
Scriptures ; or again, in that of the successive alter-
ations of detail which have taken place in the Services
since the original Revision in 1549. Now illustration
of this kind, though doubtless valuable and indispen-
sable, fails to touch the question of the plan, scheme,
or theory upon which the Services are framed. It
misses altogether, unless by chance now and then,
of expounding their true, because historically ascer-
tainable, rationale. For this the commentators ought
obviously to have had rcconrsc to the older forms ;
and, if necessary, to earlier forms still, in which they
in their turn had originated. This, however, they
never dream of doing, but offer instead conjectures of
their own, or of their predecessors, as to the nature
of this or that element of service or order of parts ;
g Bp. Sparrow's "Kationale," the first work of the kind, was pub-
lished in 1G55. L'Est range's "Alliance of Divine Offices" in 1059
(Freface to 4tU Edit. 1816).
8
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
or fetch remote illustrations from obscure corners of
antiquity. All this is really beside the mark, when
the true solution of such queries lies before us, — as
for the most part it does, — in the older Offices of the
English Church.
The truth is, that these writers entertained so strong
a distaste, and with it so entire a contempt, for what-
ever had been done or used in the middle ages of the
Church, that the last thing likely to enter their minds,
was to seek counsel or guidance of Services belonging
to that period, however much they might take warning
by them. They assumed, as a matter of course, and
without much inquiry, that the changes made in 1549
amounted to nothing less than the composition of an
entirely new set of Services out of the materials of the
old, selected and recombined at pleasure on altogether
a different plan and principle. The former structure
- was deemed by them to have been absolutely pulled
' down, before the new one was erected. Whereas no-
thing is more remarkable in the original Preface to
the revised Services, already referred to, than the utter
unconsciousness which it manifests on the part of the
Revisers, of having done anything more than revise.
Certain things taken away, — a certain fusing and con-
solidation of parts or elements heretofore disjointed
and broken up, — certain provisions for securing that
the Psalms and Lessons should be really and thoroughly
used, and not skipped for the most part, as in time
past, — and the turning of the whole into English ; —
this was their entire idea of what they had done.
They expected the people and Church of the day to
accept the Services as essentially, and for all practical
purposes, the same Services, revised ; and, what is
more, as such the Church and people manifestly did
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
9
accept them. So clear were the Revisers on this
point, that Cranmer, (as Jeremy Taylor has recorded,)
offered to prove that "the order of the Church of
England, set out by authority by Edward the Sixth,
was the_jsame that had been used in the Church for
fifteen hundred years past h.
And, on the closest scrutiny, it is found that this
estimate and representation of their work is thoroughly
borne out by facts. If by compiling or composing a
Service is meant making an ad libitum combination
of the ideas and elements previously contained in it,
or adding new ones, then it is strictly true that they
neither compiled or composed anything. Some ele-
ments or features, doubtless, they rejected ; others
they expanded. But the exact order of such elements
or parts of the old Services as they retained, they pre-
served inviolate, both in the Daily Services and in the
Communion Service ; and that without a single excep-
tion.— For the proof of these assertions the reader is
referred to the following pages.
Our commentators of the 17th and 18th centuries, -
however, persist, as has been said, in viewing the
men of the 16th as "composers" and "compilers" in A-
the largest sense'. Thus Wheatley — (to name an
h Jer. Taylor's Works, vol. vii. p. 292.
1 Even the Preface to the latest Revision in 1GG2, though put forth
by men who were not unaware either of the fact or of the importance
of our ritual connection with earlier ages, — such as Cosin, Sanderson,
Pearson, Thorndike, and othei'3, — has not kept clear of these incautious
and incorrect expressions. It commences with the words, "It hath
been the wisdom of the Church of England, ever since the first com-
piling" (meaning evidently the Revision in 1549,) "of her publick
Liturgy, to keep the mean," &c. The enemies of the English Church
have not been slow to avail themselves of these obiter dicta ; which,
however devoid of weight against the facts of the case, have greatly
contributed to foster the prevailing opinions as to the lime from which
our Services date.
10 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
author whose work embodies all the preceding ones,
and exercises, in many respects not undeservedly, a very
wide influence on the prevailing conceptions of our
Offices) — was indeed professedly not unaware of the
real state of the case. Yet, after once admitting it,
he ignores it throughout the rest of his book. Indeed
the account which he gives of the old Offices is so sin-
gular, as to lead to a suspicion that he had never even
looked into the Daily Services ; — with the Communion
Office he appears to have had a better acquaintance.
Who could recognise, in the following description,
Offices of which at least three-fourths consisted not of
prayers at all, but of Psalms and Holy Scripture ?
" Before the Reformation the Liturgy was only in
Latin, being a collection of prayers made up partly of
some ancient forms used in the primitive Church, and
partly of some others of a later original; accommo-
dated to the superstitions which had by various means
crept by degrees into the Church of Rome, and from
thence derived to other Churches in communion with
it, like what we may see in the present Roman Bre-
viary and Missal." He proceeds, however, to charac-
terize the Revision itself as correctly as can be desired ;
as follows : "When the nation in King Henry VHIth's
time was disposed to a reformation, it was thought
necessary to correct and amend these Offices ; for it
was not the design of our Reformers, (nor indeed ought
it to have been,") to introduce a new form of worship
into the Church, but to correct and amend the old onek."
Yet after this he constantly speaks of " compiling" and
" composing" ; nor does he anywhere, that I am aware
of, refer to the old Offices of the English Church as
furnishing a clue to the structure of her present ones :
1 Wheatley, Introi, p. 22.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
1 1
his sole standards of appeal are the 1st Book of Ed-
ward Vlth, the Apostolic Constitutions, and the an-
cient Liturgies of the Eastern Church. Such stray
allusions as he makes to the Western Offices at all
are in a condemnatory tone throughout.
Within the last few years, Ritualists of another
stamp, and possessed with a juster idea of the exigen-
cies of the case, have risen up to remedy, in a mea-
sure, the leading defect of all previous works bearing
upon the Services of the English Church. Attention
has at length been forcibly and not unsuccessfully
drawn towards the one quarter which had so long
and so unaccountably been left unexplored, and from
which alone a true idea of them can be obtained.
The publication of the " Origines Liturgicae1" of Mr.
Palmer is likely on this account to prove an epoch in
the ritual literature of the English Church, only second
in importance to that which was marked by the ap-
pearance of the Fifth Book of the Laws of Ecclesi-
astical Polity. Nor is it possible to speak of that
work without rendering a deserved testimony to the
perfect mastery which it exhibits over the vast range
of ritual learning embraced by it, and to the clear-
ness with which the results of the author's observa-
tion are set forth. There, as is well known, every
part of our present Offices for Public Worship is, in
common with the rest of the Book of Common Prayer,
referred to its proper place in the older Offices, Other
writers have followed in the same track. Mr. Maskell
has published the old Communion Offices of the Eng-
1 "Origines Liturgicae, or Antiquities of the English Ritual," by the.
Rev. W. Palmer, M.A. For a compendium of Mr. Palmer's view of
the ancient Liturgies, sec Tracts for the Times, No. G3.
12 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
lish Church (according to the Uses of Salisbury, York,
&c.) in the original Latin m, arranging them in parallel
columns, with a preface and notes; besides that his
" Monuinenta Ritualia11" contains a fund of interesting
matter, tending to illustrate our existing ritual from
that of the middle period of the Church in this
country. The old Daily Offices, according to the
Salisbury Use, have also been in part reprinted in the
original, with brief but elaborate notes0. Some ac-
count of the existing Roman daily offices, with trans-
lated specimens, had some years since been given
to the worldp, and may serve to give the English
reader an idea of the old arrangements. And now,
at length, has appeared a careful translation of the
"Sarum Psalter*1," (including a considerable part of
the Offices, but not the Lections or Lessons,) largely
illustrated from contemporary sources, and from the
Uses of the other Dioceses.
Thus have the proper materials for the elucidation
of our Offices of Public Worship been at length in a
great degree rendered accessible ; and also, to a cer-
tain extent, applied to purposes of illustration.
It might not unreasonably be supposed that these
works, Mr. Palmer's more especially, must have ex-
hausted the subject, and left little, if anything, to be
done by others. But though Mr. Palmer, while leaving
hardly any field of antiquarian investigation untrodden,
* " The Ancient Liturgy of the Church of England," &c, by Rev.
William Maskcll. 2nd Edition, enlarged.
■ Monumcnta Ritualia Ecclesiffi Anglicans, 3 vols.
9 Portiforii Sarisburiensis Eascie. I. (Psaltcriuin ct Tropr. Advent.)
Leslie, Lond. 1S42-3. The work is out of print.
v Tracts for the Times, No. 75.
i " The Tsaltcr, or Seven Ordinary Hours of Trayer, according to the
Use of Sarum," &C, Masters, 1852.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
13
has also paid especial attention to this one in particu-
lar, it must be confessed that the principal thing that
needed to be done with reference to it is exactly that
which he has left untouched. He has, indeed, care-
fully specified throughout, as has been said, the place
which the successive features of our Services occupied
in the older forms ; and where any change or substi-
tution has been made, has justified the arrangement
— on the whole, felicitously — by precedents drawn
from the ritual of other Churches. The entire col-
lection, so to say, of ritual specimens embodied in our
Offices has thus been labelled and registered; and the
place of each in our own or other ancient collections
can be ascertained. And this is a great gain ; and
one for which the student of our Services cannot be
too grateful.
Wherein then, it will be asked, is this work de-
ficient as an exposition of those Services ? I answer,
first, in that it nowhere sets forth as a whole, in a
lucid and connected view, in what degree, and with
what modifications or developments, the old order
and contents have been preserved in the remodelled
Offices. From its failing to exhibit such a general
conspectus as this, the work is not nearly so satis-
factory or convincing as it might have been made.
We do not rise from it with the impression that
the parentage of our present Services, taken as a
whole, can be successfully and legitimately traced to
those which preceded them. When some particular
feature or portion is noted as having been retained
from the old forms, the circumstance has rather the
air of a satisfactory incident, than of guaranteeing
any real identity between the old and the new. The
impression which the fact makes upon us is further
14
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
weakened by its generally coming hand in hand with
a variety of accidental correspondences, — for, such for
the most part, they necessarily arer, — fetched from
remote sources, such as the Apostolical Constitutions,
or the ancient Liturgies of Syria or of Armenia. Mr.
Palmer has not perhaps intended to attach the same
weight to these more remote coincidences, as to those
which lie nearer home : but the prominence given to
them has certainly had the effect of leading many to
the conclusion that our present Offices are a mere
mosaic or conglomerate ; consisting of excellent mate-
rials indeed, but those totally unconnected, and more
or less incongruous, — -undique collatis membris. That
they can claim anything like so close and peculiar an
affinity with the early English Offices as in reality
they may, is what few perhaps gather from the mixed
company in which they are here exhibited.
Indeed, as regards our Communion Office, Mr.
Palmer has in one place distinctly pronounced that
" it resembles, in form and substance, rather the
ancient Gallican, Spanish, Egyptian, and Oriental
Liturgies," than the type which prevailed through-
out Western Christendom at the time of the Eevi-
sion : the expressions only of our Eitual being trace-
able in part to that type, in part to the Liturgies just
mentioned. This statement, I do not hesitate to say,
conveys an altogether erroneous impression. The
r It is probably a correct observation on tbe whole, that " there is no
reason to suppose" the Revisers of our Offices "to have been intimately
acquainted with the formularies of the Eastern Church. (Neale, Gen.
Introd., p. 3S8). The Liturgy of St. Chrysostom had, however, been
already translated into Latin, by Ambrosius Pelargus, and afterwards by
Erasmus : hence, probably, the " Prayer of St. Chrysostom" (see below,
in loc.) found its way into our Services. Other Eastern Liturgies were
printed in 15 GO. Vide Renaudot, Lit. Or. Prtef., p. 4.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
15
order, form, and substance of our Communion Office, ,
as at first revised, are those of the English variety of
the old Western Office, and of no other in the world ;
with only the omission of some features, and the
development of others. And though subsequent re-
visions produced some alterations of form and order,
these tended to assimilate the Office, not to those in-
dicated by Mr. Palmer, but to another and more
primitive type which can be shewn to have preceded
them s.
But this is not the only or the chief thing which
Mr. Palmer's work has left still to be done. It was
no part of his design to elicit the spirit and meaning
either of the old Offices or of the new. More espe-
cially he has made no attempt to penetrate and to
state the true nature and character of the old Offices,
but has contented himself with a very brief and
general account of their contents \ It does not seem
to have occurred to him that this, after all, was the
great thing to be done in the matter. It is satis-
factory, of course, to know that we vise to a great
extent the same substance and order of services as
our fathers did ; but it would be a further and a
more important boon, if we could ascertain what was
the mind of those services ; — what are the conceptions
that pervade them, when rightly understood ; — whe-
ther their form and substance were dictated by any
profound and true ritual ideas, which we perchance
have at the present day lost sight of ; — and how far
such conceptions and ideas may be deemed to have
passed on to us with the Services themselves. Such
a life-like catching of the inner mind of our elder
• See below, Part II., chapter on the Primitive Form of Liturgy.
• Orig. Lit., Part I. ch. i. Introd. ; and oh. iii. init.
16
THE PRINCIPLES 01? DIVINE SERVICE.
Ritual were worth a thousand mere satisfactory cor-
respondences of detail.
This then it is, that is perhaps above all other
things needed in order to a full and correct appre-
hension of the present Services of the English Church,
— viz. a careful statement and exposition of the nature,
purpose, and spirit of her older Offices. Such a state-
ment will accordingly be attempted, as a substantive
and indispensable part of this Inquiry. And this,
again, will be applied as a key to unlock the general
nature and character of our Offices as at present
constituted.
Though indeed, not the general spirit only, but
the details too of the old Services, have yet to be
thoroughly examined and estimated, as a means of
appreciating the corresponding features in our pre-
sent forms. Even in this department, Mr. Palmer
has done no more — it hardly fell within the scope
of his work to do more — than indicate the quarter
whence light may be obtained. Antiquity — English
antiquity more especially — has, hitherto, after all,
been rather appealed to in justification of details, than
resorted to for explanation of their meaning. Here,
too, the specimens have been labelled, but not ana-
lysed. We know whence our good things come ; but
we are not much better informed as to what they
•are worth. What is the resultant, to the spiritual eye,
of such and such a history and antecedents proved
to belong to this or that part of our Offices ; with
what character and meaning they come invested to
us in consequence; and with what mind we are ac-
cordingly to use them ; — these are practical questions
which have yet to be asked and answered.
To make such assay then, — to investigate and ex-
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
17
press the value and significance of the several parts
of our Services, aided mainly, though not exclusively,
by the facts of their previous history, their old placing,
and obvious intention, — will be another object of
these pages.
Some admirable efforts of this kind, bearing upon
both the general character and the details of the
Services, will be found in Comber's well-known
" Companion to the Temple u." His general concep-
tion of the structure of the Daily Offices in particular,
though unaided by reference to the older forms, is in
the main singularly correct. But then, for want of
such reference, his rationale, in common with that of
Sparrow and his other fellow-ritualists, is in a great
measure mere random and guess-work, and in that
proportion, of course, both unconvincing and unsuc-
cessful. What still needs to be done is to combine
the sounder and better directed antiquarianism of
the later, with the religious and reflective tone of the
elder school of our Ritualists. It is not enough, on
the one hand, to ascertain the history and antece-
dents of each part of our Services ; nor, on the other,
to make reflections, and offer suggestions, as to the
manner of understanding and using them, which may
or may not be in harmony with their real intention.
Such comments, to be thoroughly to the purpose,
must be based on correct historical and antiquarian
knowledge.
On the whole, it cannot be denied that, even with-
out travelling out of the field of illustration we have
been hitherto speaking of, there is a wide range of
questions, both general and particular, either imper-
fectly handled, or not handled at all, by previous
u See more especially his analysis of the " Venite."
C
18 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
writers on our ritual. The condition of what may
be called the literature of our Offices is not unlike
that of philosophical literature in the days of Bacon.
When we " enter into a view and examination, what
parts of that learning have been prosecuted, and
what omitted5," we find that though "the great
quantity of books makes a show rather of superfluity
than lack," whole departments of illustration, nay,
the summa rei itself, the principal and prerogative
source of information, has been lying all but un-
touched the while.
The writer is aware that at the point which he has
now reached in unfolding the nature of his work, he
is liable to be met by an objection, seriously and
earnestly entertained by many, to the whole line of
illustration referred to. The old Offices of the English
Church, in common with those of Western Christen-
dom generally, were, it is commonly and most justly
conceived, in many ways corrupt. The Preface to
the first revised Services confesses as much ; and so
does every Minister of the English Church at the
present day by declaring, at his ordination, his un-
feigned assent and consent to the entire Book which
contains both this Preface, and other statements of
like tenor y. But it is further assumed, not unnatu-
rally perhaps, that the services were corrupt to such
a degree as to render them altogether useless, or worse
than useless, as exponents of the mind of our present
Offices. It is partly as sharing in this view, that our
ritualists, from first to last (as has been pointed out)
x Advancement of Learning, Bk. II.
? e. g. the declaration subjoined to the Communion Office in 16G2,
and Articles XXV. and XXVIII.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
19
have either ignored the old services altogether, or have
contented themselves at most with a dry register of
the points in which we are indebted to them. They
seem to have assumed it as an axiom, that we could
not possibly learn anything from the old conceptions
or the old order ; that both the whole and the several
parts — however valuable and fit for our use when duly
resolved and re-combined — must, considered as occur-
ring in the old formularies, be radically and incurably
vicious ; and that therefore it was needless, if not ac-
tually undesirable, to make any inquiry into them.
Now it is surely a question worth asking, whether
the old Services, though confessedly corrupt, were so
in such a sense, and to such a degree, that they must
needs be summarily rejected as witnesses or inform-
ants in this weighty inquiry as to the true sense of
our present Services ?
The writer is anxious not to be misunderstood.
With the corruptions in question he has not the
smallest sympathy. It is on the contrary matter of
astonishment to him that any person, jealous for the
honour of Almighty God and for the purity of the
Christian faith and worship, should think it necessary
to speak tenderly, or to be silent altogether, upon the
debasing superstitions which have for so many hun-
dred years disgraced both the theory and practice of
the greater part of Western Christendom. A syste-
matized Saint-worship, saddening enough to contem-
plate at the "time when our Offices were first revised,
has since then received fresh developments of a very
awful character, until it treads, to say the least, upon
the very verge of polytheism. And again, a direct
idolatry, paid to various objects of sense, received at
that time, and continues to receive still, the sanction,
c 2
20 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
more or less formal and distinct, of the Roman branch
of the Church. And the real difficulty, in truth,
which must sometimes press itself on a religious
mind, is how a communion which sanctions and
adopts such fearful derelictions of the first principles
even of natural religion, can be held to retain the
being of a Church at all. It is one thing, however,
fearlessly to pronounce, in accordance with truth,
justice, and judgment, upon the moral and spiritual
quality of an action, and quite another to undertake
to decide upon the doer's standing in the sight of
God. We have no commission to give judgment of
award upon a Church or Churches, certain of whose
actions and principles we may nevertheless be bound
unequivocally to condemn. We may trust that it
takes much to destroy the being of a Church, as it
does, by God's mercy, hopelessly to destroy a soul.
And I conceive that we may on the whole be well
content to endorse the judgment and views, at once
firm and charitable, adopted in this matter by those
who, in revising our Ritual, defined not amiss for us
our position in this respect also. We need not fear
to say, on the one hand, with the men of the 16th
century, that there were in the old Offices and ways
— how much more in their later development, —
"many things, whereof some are untrue, some are
uncertain, some vain and superstitious z ;" — with those
of the 17th, that "the sacramental Bread and Wine,"
e. g., " may not be adored, for that were idolatry to be
abhorred of all faithful Christians";" knowing the
while that a great portion of the Christian world does
so adore them. And on the other hand, we may
1 Preface to the Book of 1549.
a Rubric at the end of (lie Communion Office of 1GG2.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
:2L
consent no less, with the men of both periods, to give
to the " Churches of Jerusalem, of Alexandria, of
Antioch, and of Rome," the name and the place of
Churches, albeit " they have erred even in matters
of faith \"
Faithfully, though charitably, to take up this position
appears, indeed, to be the duty with which the Church
of the English succession is peculiarly charged. What-
ever part may, in God's providence over His Church,
be allotted to other branches of it ; whatever the
truths or aspects of the truth, if there be any such,
which are more especially confided to their keeping ;
she must not fear to be true to the part so distinctly
assigned to her, as the only communion now on the face
of the earth, which, together with the ancient prin-
ciples of sacramental truth and apostolic regimen, up-
holds the absolute and exclusive unity of the object of
Christian worship.
But while we do well to be faithful in our own
generation to this responsibility, we shall on the other
hand act most unwisely, if, in pursuing an investi-
gation like the present, we throw aside without in-
quiry, on the ground of their temporary association
with corrupt features of worship, the older Services of
our Church. Conceivably, no doubt, they might have
been so penetrated with those elements of unsound-
ness, and vitiated by them, as to be valueless for our
purpose. But the question whether they are so is
simply a question of fact, to be settled, like others of
the same kind, by inquiry. And so it is, that on ex-
amination, these elements are discerned to have occu-
pied a very small portion either of the Daily or Com-
b See Note A.
22 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
inunion Services strictly conceived ; apart, that is, from
additions sanctioned by custom only, and not by the
written " use" of the Church : so that they are really
and discernibly separable from the whole ; forming
no part of its proper idea, and capable of removal
without any prejudice to it.
Thus, as regards the ancient Daily Offices, the re-
mark which has been made upon them as used in the
Roman Church at the present day, is even more ap-
plicable to them as they existed in our Church at the
time of our English Revision. " These Invocations do
not enter into the structure" of the Offices ; they are
so placed that they " might easily have been added, as
e.g. was the case with our own Thanksgiving1"." " This
is what occurs to us to observe," the writer proceeds,
" on the first sight of these Invocations, &c. : but we
are not left to a conjectural judgment about them ;
their history is actually known, and their recent in-
troduction into the Church Services distinctly con-
fessed0."
Again, as to our ancient Communion Office, a po-
sition which has been frequently maintained before is
further confirmed in the following work, chiefly by
a comparison of all ancient Communion Offices with
each other ; viz. that the parts of it which are com-
monly appealed to as furnishing evidence for corrupt
doctrines or practices, are either palpably modern, and
perfectly separable from the genuine Offices, or have
been utterly misunderstood and perverted from their
b Tracts for the Times, No. 75.
c The only features of this sort which can claim any sort of antiquity,
are an Invocation in the Prime Olficc, which Gavanti says is of great
antiquity; and those contained in the Litany, which seem to be cor-
rectly ascribed to S. Gregory, at the beginning of the seventh century,
Vide L'Estrauge on the Litany, ch. iv. p. 146.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
23
true acceptation, and therefore needed not to be re-
jected, but only brought back to their proper used.
But others, again, may think it undesirable to draw-
attention to the older Offices of our Church, not on
account of their association with corruptions in wor-
ship, but rather because of the imposing grandeur,
and in many respects the aesthetic beauty, of their
structure and contents. It may be said, that the
contemplation of these will only cause, in the minds of
members of the English Church, dissatisfaction with our
present simpler and more unpretending ritual ; nay,
more, that such dissatisfaction has already, as a matter
of fact, been one cause of secessions from among us.
The answer to this objection — which, it must be
admitted, is a plausible one — is, that by universal ad-
mission, the best mode of meeting a difficulty is, as
a general rule, to look it fairly in the face ; and that
though there are some exceptions to this rule, in the
present instance, at any rate, there is no alternative.
The spirit of inquiry in matters religious and eccle-
siastical, which, whether for good or evil, is a charac-
teristic of this age, has already led to the republication
in a great measure of these Services, either as ob-
jects of ritual study, or as contributions to devotional
literature. The inquiry and the publicity which is
deprecated, already exists. The time is gone by for
any concealment of the history and antecedents of
our present Ritual : and it is by fair and candid
exhibition of its earlier phases, joined to adequate
d A striking exemplification of both kinds of corruption is pointed
out in Part EL, chapter on the Primitive Form of Liturgy. The elevation
of the Elements in the Eucharist, as now practised, in order to their
adoration, is (vide Bona in loc.) modern; while the ancient and un-
doubted elevation, later in the Service, was demonstrably designed
for a totally different purpose.
21
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
representation of the entire circumstances which justi-
fied, and even required, a revision, and that too of no
partial or hesitating character ; — by demonstrating the
unpractical character, proved by the experience of ages,
of the older Offices, considered as public Services ; —
it is only by such means as these that any anxiety that
may be felt for a return to the older forms can be un-
answerably met. And accordingly it will be pointed
out in these pages, that many other considerations,
besides those of the abstract beauty or merit of the
Offices, had to be taken into account at the time of
the Revision, and must be so still in answer to any
reactionary demands or tendencies.
Though this, indeed, is not all. The same pro-
cess of inquiry which lays open to us the imposing
structure of the mediseval Offices, also reveals to us
a yet earlier stage of their history, and phase of their
existence, towards which (though in some sort acci-
dentally) they re-approximated, as the result of the
Revision in the 16th century. So that the revised
Offices were in reality a return, in point of general
form, of duration, and of practicability, to the dic-
tates of an early and an Oriental simplicity ; while at
the same time they are pregnant, under that simpler
exterior, with all the finer and profounder elements
of the later Western devotion. On this account the
English Office-book is in reality peculiarly rich in the
ritual spoils of time, and in the devotional experience
of every clime and every age of the Church. While
parting with much that was nobly elaborated, the
work of the 16th century abounded in solid compen-
sations for whatever of outward magnificence it laid
aside, and would have been less truly great, had it
been less fearlessly executed.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
25
Thus much seemed necessary to be said in reply to
some not unnatural but really ill-founded objections,
which might be conceived to lie against one of the
principal lines of illustration adopted in this work.
Whoever then shall be found willing, in a spirit of
calm inquiry, neither too mistrustful of the past, nor
too regretful for it, to ask after the mind of our
Church's ancient Services, as one means of ascer-
taining that of her existing Ritual, will, it may be
safely promised, be rewarded for the search. He
will find in them "Principles of Divine Service" of
no ordinary depth and beauty ; principles, too, which
have been faithfully conserved and handed down, as
to all primary and essential points, in our present
Services.
And one great principle in particular it will be the
aim of the writer, chiefly by the help of the older /
Offices, to bring out prominently as a key to our exist-
ing Services, — viz. the Eucharistic principle; or, in ' ...
other words, the idea, rightly apprehended, of the
Holy Communion.
In the light of that idea he will have occasion to
consider, first of all, our Daily or Ordinary Services.
It will be seen that their structure and contents are,
in virtue of their substantial identity with the Offices
of earlier periods of the Church, closely connected
with ancient and primeval Eucharistic conceptions,
and can only be correctly apprehended or adequately
used by viewing them in that connection.
So, again, our Office for the Holy Communion itself
will find, after all, the best interpreter and exponent,
both of its structure and of its particular features, in
the older Communion Office of the English Church.
Only, that Office must be taken and understood, not
26
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
in the inadequate and often most corrupt sense which
the commentaries and glosses of the middle period of
the Church have fastened upon it, but in that true
one which is thoroughly substantiated by its early
history, and by comparison of it with the ancient
Offices of all other Churches.
There is another deeply interesting department of
research into which we shall find ourselves led, in
turning to our older Offices as a source of illustration.
We shall light upon certain most ancient, and to all
appearance primitive, ways of converting Holy Scrip-
ture to purposes of Divine Service. These admi-
rable methods, by which the Scriptures were in very
early times, in the West more particularly, made the
basis, the materials, and the vehicles of the Church's
devotion, — and that too by no shallow or surface
application, but in accordance with the profoundest
conceptions both of them and of the Christian life,
— are so little apprehended at the present day, or
thought of in connection with our forms of service,
that they cannot fail, when properly exhibited and
applied, to cast altogether a new light upon them.
And yet more when we combine the light derivable
from these two sources of illustration, — viz. the an-
cient and proper conception of the Holy Communion,
and the ancient methods of devotion on the basis of
Scripture, — do we find them exercising a perfectly
transforming effect on the meaning of those Services,
with the letter of which we are so familiar. What
the saying of Psalms was to them of old time ; or
what of Collects, or even of the Lord's Prayer ; or what
the reading and hearing of Scripture ; — we can only
then understand, when we have thoroughly learned to
enter into the Eucharistic and other devotional ideas
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
27
which prompted and fashioned the forms of worship
which we have inherited. But when we have duly
mastered these, we shall, if we are wise, be prepared
to adopt and act upon them, in lieu of those less pro-
found, as well as less just conceptions of our Offices,
which we have hitherto been content to rest in.
It will be seen, from what has now been said, with
what degree of fitness, and in what sense, one of the
mottoes placed upon the title-page of this work has
been adopted. " To stand in the old paths," — to be
faithful to ancient, early-adopted, and often primitive
conceptions and ways, in the matter of Divine Ser-
vice,— is the course which these pages are designed
respectfully yet earnestly to recommend to the mem-
bers of the English Church, as the main thing to be
done, if we would arrive at a correct apprehension and
appreciation, as well as attain to a full and sufficient
use, of our Offices of Public Worship. This watch-
word has indeed, as far as words go, been taken up,
almost without exception, by others who have written
on the subject. But, as has been shewn above, they
have not been faithful to it. They have not ventured
to claim kindred with the one stock of ancient ritual
to which ours more immediately belongs. Through
lack of knowledge, or of courage, or of due appre-
ciation of what was wanted, it has been the prac-
tice to slur over the intermediate links which alone
unite our Services, by a real continuity of essence and
spirit, and even of form, with the ritual and mind
of early days.
It is high time that this mode of dealing with
them, which is happily as unnecessary as it is un-
worthy, should come to an end. Let us, by all
28 THE PRINCIPLES OP DIVINE SERVICE.
means, take our stand upon the antiquity of our
Ritual. Only it must be no less earnestly urged
and maintained, that there is but one way of doing
this. It cannot be done by ignoring the facts of the
process by which our Services reached us. It is not
by throwing down the ladder that connects us, ritu-
ally, with antiquity, that we can best prove our de-
scent from it, or our coincidence with it. There is
but one way of being true to our Service-book ; and
that is, to take it for what it is, and for what they,
who first handed it over to us in its revised form,
believed it with all their hearts to be. It is an old
Book. Its elements, its method of service, its con-
ception, and its order, are all old, — older than any
other institution in this country; — some of them as
old as the days of the Apostles themselves. Let us
not be afraid to look it in the face, in its earlier
lineaments. Let us try to understand it as it was,
that so we may the better understand and use it
as it is.
It is not meant to be affirmed that this is all that
is needed. There are portions of our existing Offices
which cannot be completely interpreted by reference
to the old forms and ideas. The first Revisers of
them, though they never in a single instance, that
I am aware of, departed from the established order
and sequence of such portions as they retained, did
in various instances modify, or even give fresh de-
velopment to, the old elements. This is a circum-
stance of which we derive no conception from Mr.
Palmer's too general statement, that our Offices for
Morning and Evening Prayer are " an abridgment
of the ancient Services," (Pt. I. ch. i.). An abridg-
ment, on the whole, it doubtless was ; but it was
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
20
in some respects a signal development,1 — e. g. in the
department of lections or lessons from Holy Scripture,
and in that of the Canticles responding to them. The
methods according to which they were thus modified
or developed, must of course be considered in them-
selves, without that direct assistance towards forming
a just conception of them, which in other cases we
derive from the older forms. Even here, however,
we can generally discern ancient and received forms
or methods of service, to which they had recourse.
Thus the Exhortation, Confession, and Absolution,
prefixed to the Daily Offices by the original Revisers,
when they put them forth for the second time in
1552, have been commonly deemed to lie open, be-
yond other parts of the Service, to the charge of novelty.
But the truth is, that they are all, though in different
degrees, distinctly traceable to methods and formulas
then received, and familiar to the English Church of
that clay d. So, again, the particular versicles and re-
sponses which they substituted for the older series
after the short Litany and Lord's Prayer, are those
which had been long in use in the English Church
every Sunday and Festival, as a part of the Bidding
Prayer e.
Subsequent Revisions, as is well known, went still
further in the direction of remoulding the old fea-
tures, and sometimes, though instances of this are not
numerous, adding new. Some, which have the ap-
pearance of being altogether new, are in reality legiti-
mate and intelligible expansions of the corresponding
older elements. Of this kind are, e. g., the addition
of intercessory prayers to the Morning and Evening
d See below, cb. i. s. 2, and ch. iv.
' Ch. iv.
3 (J
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
Office, and a substitution, in the Communion Office,
of a Confession based on the Commandments, for
another form which formerly occupied the same
position, and which the first Revisers had left out
altogether.
In the structure of these parts of the Services there
is, of course, more room for the exercise of individual
judgment, than where the intention is for the most
part defined for us by the older forms. Nor does the
writer by any means undertake to say that he has
always been able to form correct conclusions as to
the view to be taken of these, any more than of
the ancient Services. He has in all cases stated the
facts and reasonings on which his conclusions are
grounded, that others may judge for themselves. But
having done this, he has not scrupled to offer practical
suggestions, based on the views he has arrived at :
not as desiring to exclude other interpretations, but
as deeming those which he has adopted to be at least
probable ; and as conceiving that it is far better that
the members of the Church should be provided with
some definite notions, upon which they can act, of the
Services prescribed for their use, — even at the risk
of some degree of incorrectness of theory, — than that
they should entertain mere vague and poiutless con-
ceptions about them. Let others, by all means, bring
forward views which they deem more correct ; none
will more gladly than the writer welcome any that
are better grounded than his own : and let the col-
lective wisdom of the Church supply in due time,
if it be thought needful, a more authoritative inter-
pretation.
The writer's views on the subject of any further
Revision of the Church's Offices will be found em-
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
31
bodied in the chapters bearing upon the Revision
of the 16 th century, and on the capabilities of the
present Services.
It only remains to state briefly the plan of this
work. The First Part, contained in the First Volume,
treats of the Daily Offices : the Second Part, occupy-
ing the Second Volume, of the Office for the Holy
Communion. A chapter will be found, early in the
First Volume, on the general theory of the Church's
Ordinary Worship ; more especially as to the relation
in which it stands to her Eucharistic Worship : — an
important subject, which the writer had nowhere seen
treated with the attention which it seems to deserve.
The Second Volume opens with a chapter carrying
on the same subject by an investigation of the theory
of Eucharistic Worship. These two chapters are of
the nature, therefore, of a distinct Treatise, more
or less complete, on the entire Theory of Christian
Worship and Service.
The following are some of the chief points in
which the prevailing conceptions about our Ordinary
Offices have appeared to the writer to be erroneous,
and to be capable of correction, either by referring
to the ancient forms and ideas, or from other con-
siderations.
I. The general structure and design of our Morn-
ing and Evening Services, and of the Litany; con-
cerning which great vagueness of view prevails : while
various opinions, more or less conjectural, have been
propounded by different writers. More particularly,
the relation in which they stand to the Office for the
Holy Communion.
II. Among the details of the Services, the follow-
ing points : —
i. The origin, structure, and design of the intra-
32
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
ductory part, which has been in various ways mis-
understood and undervalued.
ii. The sense in which the Lord's Prayer is to be
understood and used at the commencement of the
Service.
iii. The full conception according to which the
Psalms, forming the first great division of the Ser-
vice, are to be used; and especially the relation of
this act of worship to the corresponding action in
the Holy Communion.
iv. The full idea under which reading and hearing
of Holy Scripture, forming the second great division
of the Service, is to be conceived of ; and the analogy
between this part of the Office, and certain features of
the Holy Communion.
v. The design of the Canticles, considered as re-
sponsive to the Lessons.
vi. The true conception of the third and last divi-
sion of the Service, commencing with the Creed ; and
its correspondence with one of the aspects of the Holy
Communion.
vii. The light in which the Creed, occupying the
position that it does, is to be viewed and used.
viii. The idea under which the Lord's Prayer oc-
curs for the second time in the Service, and in what
sense it is to be used in consequence.
ix. The exact origin and probable design of the
Versicles which accompany the Creed and the Lord's
Prayer.
x. The true nature of Collects, as distinguished
from other Prayers ; and the purpose and effect of
introducing the current Eucharistic Collect into the
Morning and Evening Office.
xi. The origin and peculiar character of the Second
and Third Collects.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
33
xii. The idea with which the intercessory Prayers,
the general Thanksgiving, &c, were added to the
Offices at the later Revisions; the general struc-
ture of these Prayers ; and other particulars respect-
ing them.
A similar resume of the points touched upon in
the Communion Office, may most conveniently be re-
served to the commencement of the Second Volume.
8-
THE
PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
PART L
CHAPTER I
ON THE EARLY AND PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE.
SECTION L
"And he shewed me a pure river of the water of life, . . . proceeding
out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. . . And on either side of the
river was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits . . .
and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."
The Church of England, in common with all other
branches of the Church Universal, recognises two
kinds of Divine Service a, or Public Worship, and
possesses certain accredited Offices for the perform-
ance of them. The Celebration of the Holy Com-
munion, or Eucharist, is by universal consent the
supreme act of Christian worship and service. Dis-
tinct from this, though nearly allied to it, is the more
Ordinary kind, known to us by the name of Com-
* This, though commonly supposed to be a modern term, is the
ancient phrase {Servitium Divimcm), peculiar to the English Church,
for the act of public worship. Vid. Puibr. Sar. ante Mat. fol. 3, 4. — The
latter rubric shews that Serviliitm was applied to the Eucharist. Sec
Preface to the Prayer-book, " Concerning the Service of the Church."
Cf. S. Aug. Civ. Dei, x. 1. " Aarpda Grace, Latine interpret atur Ser.
vitus ca qua colimus Dcum."
CH. I. s. I.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 33
mon Prayer b. The existence of both these kinds of
Service from the earliest ages of the Church c, their
general theory, and the relation in which they stand
to each other d, are points which will be discussed
as part of the Inquiry, which it is the purpose of this
work to institute, concerning the right manner of
understanding and using the Offices now appointed
for the performance of public worship in the English
Church.
That inquiry is, indeed, far from being a new one.
Of the labours, accordingly, of preceding writers on
the subject, I have spoken at some length in the
Introductory Chapter. I endeavoured at the same
time to state clearly to what extent, and in what de-
partment of inquiry more especially, there still ap-
peared to be room for an attempt like the present.
I shall venture to assume some acquaintance on the
part of the reader with the more important informa-
tion contained in the works referred to, and now
generally accessible, either in the originals or in more
popular manuals e.
The particular field of research, it may be remem-
bered, to which we seemed to be more especially in-
vited by the fact of its having been hitherto but im-
perfectly investigated, was that of the actual history
b Original title of the " Prayer-book," 1549 :— " The Book of the Com-
mon Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments, &c, of the Church,
according to the Use of the Church of England."
c See below, sect. 2—6.
d Vide Part I. chap, ii., and Part II. chap. L, on the Theory of the
Church's Ordinary and Eucharistic Worship.
e See Berens, Watson, and others, on the Prayer-book. A valuable
compendium of this kind has lately appeared, entitled " A History of the
Prayer book, with a Rationale of its Offices," by the Rev. E. Procter
(Macmillan, Cambridge). It is an epitome of almost all hitherto existing
information of the kind requisite for following out the line of inquiry
here attempted.
D 2
36 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. L
of our Offices, viewed as conducting us to their original
and real intention. And surely this is, in all reason,
the first thing to be done in a matter of the kind.
The first question to be asked about the Services of
the Church is not so much, What are we enabled, by
the exercise of our own ingenuity, to make of them ?
as, What is the meaning which properly attaches to
them ? What sense and acceptation belongs to them
in virtue of the facts of their origination? Portions
or features there will in all probability be, after all,
upon which this method of inquiry throws but an
imperfect light ; and upon these we must form the
best judgment that we can. But the historical in-
quiry, it cannot be too strongly urged, ought to pre-
cede all others.
Two cautions only, it is conceived, will be neces-
sary in applying this historical method, so to call it,
to the elucidation of these Services. The one, that
we be careful to interpret the older provisions for
Divine Service in no narrow or confined sense ; look-
ing rather to the principles involved in them, than to
the particular forms in which these were embodied.
The other, that, while we give to the original and
proper intention of the Services, so far as it is ascer-
tainable, the first place, we exclude not such other
secondary and subordinate, or it may be even co-
ordinate senses and applications, as they are capa-
ble of.
When then we set ourselves in earnest to ask,
What are these Services which the English Church
possesses? whence did they come? by whom were
they composed? and in what sense were they in-
tended to be taken and used? we find that these
are questions which arc far from admitting of a very
sect. i.J PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE.
37
plain and simple reply. In the case of every Church
on earth, and emphatically in that of the Church of
England, much consideration, and not a little of
historical research, are required, ere we can give
a full and adequate answer to such inquiries. In
no instance, that we are acquainted with, does the
Church's Ritual resemble a clear and undisturbed
pool, exhibiting unaltered the features of primitive
and Apostolic service. Rather is it, in all cases, to
be likened to a river, having its source indeed
the heart of the Primitive Church, but which has
experienced, from time to time, various accessions
or diminutions, and presents accordingly, at dif-
ferent points in its course, a very different aspect.
Thus did the Liturgies or Communion Offices of the
Eastern Churches undergo, as is well known, several
material revisions f and alterations, even within what
may be called the historical period of their existence ;
while there is reason to believe g that even the earliest
phase, under which they are known to us, resulted
from a serious modification of their primary forms.
The Eastern Offices for ordinary worship also re-
ceived considerable expansion at about the same
period h. Thus too were the ordinary Offices of the
Churches of the West — the Roman, the Spanish, the
French1 — completely reorganized or replaced in the
course of the fifth and following centuries; while
their Communion Offices were all modified at an early
period, and most of them in later days abandoned
for a different form of service.
' Vide Palmer, Orig. Lit., Diss, on Primitive Liturgies.
« See Part II., ch. on Primitive Liturgy.
h See Part I. ch. iii.
1 Vide Palmer, Orig., 4th. ed. p. 218, &c. ;. and infra, Part I. ch. iii.
3S THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. I.
This is not the place for entering into any ex-
tended discussion of the phenomenon thus presented
by the rituals of all known Churches, of having un-
dergone more or less of alteration, and so possess-
ing a history. Suffice it to say, that it has all the
appearance of a Divine provision for securing to the
Offices of the Church in different lands the enrich-
ment or adaptation which from time to time they
needed.
These changes have in some cases, — as in the fourth
and fifth centuries in the Eastern Church, under Basil
and Chrysostom ; and in the fifth and sixth under
Gelasius and Gregory, in the "West, — issued spon-
taneously from the bosom of the Churches them-
selves. They may then be viewed as occasions on
which the Holy Spirit, working through the mind of
the ecclesiastical rulers of the day, moulded the ritual
of such Churches to His own high purposes.
At other times the change or substitution has pro-
ceeded from without, and has been more or less
violent in its character ; taking place, mostly, under
a certain degree of protest on the part of the parti-
cular Church whose previous ritual was so altered or
superseded. So was it, probably, in those various
instances in which the ritual of Constantinople was
substituted for those of other Eastern Churches, e. g.
for that of Antioch, or Alexandria ; and, more cer-
tainly, when that of Rome was made to replace the
older offices of Spain and of France. But even in
these cases it may be well to bear in mind that —
distasteful to natural feeling, and in our human
judgment to be deprecated, as such externally im-
posed changes of ritual are — it was a substitution,
after all, of one Apostolically originated line or family
sect. I.] PRIMITIVE FORM OJf DAILY SERVICE.
39
of Offices for another ; and that the change doubtless
conferred some benefits, as well as entailed some loss,
on the Churches which were the subjects of it. To
which may be added, that in some instances, and
probably in all, the old national customs and modes
of service exercised a sufficient sway to modify in
some degree the newly received forms, and thus
maintain a continuity between them and the ritual
which they superseded; — the result being a com-
mingling, in however unequal proportions, of two
previously distinct streams of ancient ritual. Though,
in fact, there was often sufficient affinity between
the older and the newly introduced forms, to render
the change less serious than at first sight it might
appear.
The history of the English Church exhibits a marked
instance of each of the two kinds of ritual change
which have just been spoken of. In one instance,
we see her ancient and probably primeval ritual
superseded from without by Offices belonging to a
different stock or family ; in another, we have a re-
vision from within, and by her own deliberate act,
of her then existing Services. I speak, of course, of
the introduction of certain Offices into this country
at the end of the 6th century ; and of the Revision
of them, again, in the middle of the 16th.
Thus then there are — beginning with the first
planting of Christianity in Britain — three great car-
dinal events and epochal dates in our Church's ritual
history ; forming the commencement of as many ritual
eras or periods, discriminated from each other, as we
shall find, by certain broad features and character-
istics. Other minor changes, no doubt, took place in
the course of the periods marked off by these events ;
but nothing that can for a moment be compared to
40
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. |_CHAP. *■
Ihern in point of importance, at least for our present
purpose.
The first of these periods extends, probably, from
Apostolic times to the arrival of St. Augustine in
England in the year 597.
The second extends from the arrival of St. Augustine
to the authorization of the "Book of the Common
Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and
other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, after the
Use of the Church of England," in 1549.
The third extends from the year 1549 to the pre-
sent day.
There is indeed nothing novel in the distribution
into periods here made. But it has perhaps not been
sufficiently realized that the tvhole science of English
ritualism is reducible, for all practical purposes, to the
correct apprehension of the three events by which these
periods are ushered in. To have mastered them in
their entire character, is to have obtained the true
key, the leading clue to the right understanding of
our present Offices.
It must be here observed, however, that the history
of the two kinds of Divine Service — the Eucharistic and
the Ordinary — is, as will appear in the sequel, widely
different throughout ; so much so, that they must be
treated of separately, if we would form a distinct and
a just conception of them. Deferring then, in accord-
ance with this necessity, no less than with the plan
of the present work, all consideration of the Eucharistic
Offices, let us proceed to inquire into the history aud
condition of the Offices of Ordinary Public Worship,
during the first of these periods which have been indi-
cated. This is necessary on two accounts ; — as well
that we may understand the probable condition of
the Church in this country, as to its forms of Ordi-
sect. I.] riUMITlVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 41
nary Worship, during that period, as in order to our
knowing the earlier history of those Offices which first
reached us at the end of the sixth century.
As regards the latter point indeed, the well-known
circumstances of St. Augustine's mission to this country
may seem at first sight to render this inquiry in part
a superfluous, and for the rest a hopeless one. St.
Augustine, it may be thought, would be certain to
bring with him the Daily Offices of the Church of
Rome at that time, with at most some slight modifi-
cation : — and much beyond this we cannot, it is gene-
rally conceived, hope to know ; the early history of
the Roman, as of all other Western ritual, being con-
fessedly very obscurek.
But in the first place it is capable, as I conceive, of
demonstration, that what St. Augustine introduced was - t /«/►*•-
not, strictly speaking, the Roman Daily Offices at all,
but only a kindred, though very closely allied member
of the family or stock of offices to which the Roman
belonged1. And in the next place, the history of that
entire family, including both the Roman variety and
our own, is perfectly ascertainable, and may be traced
up with clearness and certainty to very early, and
probably to Apostolic daysm. The truth is, that these
offices, which have ever since prevailed in the Western
Church, had at that time been but very recently re-
ceived into it. And their history may be plainly read
in the ritual annals of the countries from whence they
came. It is the ritual history of the Western Churches
themselves, — that of Rome not least, — previous to their
receiving their comparatively newer formularies, that
k So Grancolas, Hist. Brev. i. 27. Mr. Palmer (ubi sup. p. 214—217.)
traces (he Roman offices to the sixth century, but uo further.
1 Vide infra, eh. iii. init.
m Vide infra, sect. 3—6, and ch. iii.
42 THE PRINCIPLES OP DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
is so obscure ; though even this, including the early
history of Daily Offices in our own Church, may by
a careful attention to ascertained facts be in a mea-
sure cleared up.
Strange questions have been raised as to the exist-
ence of any other kind of worship in the early Church,
than that which takes place in the celebration of the
Holy Communion. The opinion indeed that there was
none such, may be said to be the popular belief, in
this country at least, at the present day. Whereas it
must, on a little consideration, appear incredible, and
all but impossible, that such should have been the case.
This opinion rests mainly, in truth, upon another mis-
ff** taken supposition, viz. that the Holy Communion, or
Eucharist, was celebrated in the earliest ages every day.
The entire fallacy of this view is proved in a subse-
quent chapter" of this volume, to which the reader is
referred. It may suffice to say here, that while many
excellent writers, speaking in a rhetorical way, (as, for
example, Sparrow and Jeremy Taylor,) have asserted
or assumed the fact of ancient daily celebration, the
view has been abandoned as altogether untenable by
those who, like Fleury, Cotelerius, and Bingham, have
examined for themselves. And with it, the idea that
the Church had at the first no other Service than the
Eucharist falls to the ground also : unless we are pre-
pared to say that she utterly neglected, as a Church,
the duty of perseverance in prayer, and that the Chris-
tians of the first century systematically adopted the
custom of meeting together for the worship of God
but once a-week.
But it is alleged that men well versed in antiquity,
■ Ch. ii. oil the Theory of Ordinary "Worship.
sect, i.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE.
43
such as Bingham, have acquiesced in this conclusion.
This however is only an instance of the way in which
the dicta of learned men are first carelessly quoted,
and then pass from mouth to mouth without inquiry.
Bingham was by far too well informed to make such
a wholesale and improbable statement. His brief
section0 on this subject is couched in very cautious
language, and leaves the matter, to say the least,
entirely open.
Another cause of the general adoption of this opi-
nion has been, that a too conventional and compara-
tively modern conception of what constitutes Church
worship has been applied to the early Church. It is
by no means essential to Church worship, of the
strictest kind, that the people of a whole neighbour-
hood should be gathered into one assembly. Where-
ever there was a presbyter and but " two or three"
to join in worship with him, there, doubtless, it was
held, were the sufficient elements of Church worship.
And this will abundantly account for the absence of
any mention of the more ordinary kind of Church
worship in the record preserved by Pliny in the
first, and by Justin Martyr in the second century.
The Service which naturally was dwelt on in both
these instances, to the exclusion of all minor ritual,
° Christian Antiquities, XIII. ix. 1. vol. iv. p. 353. He entitles this
section, " No certain rule for meeting in public, except upon the Lord's
Day, in times of persecution, for the first two ages." The utmost that
this can be taken to mean, is that the services winch otherwise took
place were in times of persecution intermitted or uncertain, except on
Sundays. All that he adduces for proof even of this, is that Justin
Martyr mentions no public assembly but the Sunday Eucharist ; " whence
learned men have concluded," (he quotes, however, no one but Cote-
lerius,) " that in his time the Church observed no other days of solemn
assemblies." The true explanation of Justin Martyr's silence is given
presently.
44
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. I.
was the celebration of the Eucharist. This was the
great Christian event, occurring, (as both writers evi-
dently imply,) as a general rule, but once a-week ;
attendance upon which was the very badge of a Chris-
tian. And there seems to have been a peculiarity in
the customs of the Church of the first two or three
centuries (arising from the fewness of numbers in a
diocese), which had the effect of giving a singular
and overwhelming prominence to the Eucharistic ser-
vice. It was this, — that the Bishop was commonly
the celebrant at the Holy Communion ; the priests,
deacons, and laity — in a word, the whole body of the
faithful within the diocese — being present. This is
evidently the idea of Eucharistic celebration which St.
Ignatius, writing in the beginning of the second cen-
tury, has before his eyes in various passages of his
Epistles. Thus too Clemens Romanus, in the first cen-
tury, assumes the celebration to be a general gathering
of this kindp: — "To the high priest," he says, (that
is, the Bishop,) " his proper part in the service is as-
signed ; and to the priests and Levites (i. e. deacons)
theirs : the lay person is bound by rules applying to
laymen. Let each one of you join in the Eucharist
in his own order," &c. Now all this, while it exactly
agrees with Justin Martyr's account in other re-
spects, goes far to explain why he says nothing, in
his Apology, of that secondary kind of service, which,
being conducted probably for the most part by
single presbyters, ministering to small bodies of the
faithful, exhibited in altogether an inferior degree
the great features of the Christian polity and wor-
ship. This view differs but little from that which
Bingham, after all, acquiesces in, viz. that Justin
' Clem. Rom _Ep. I. ad Cor. c. 40, 4L
SECT. I.] PRIMITIVE E0RM OF DAILY SERVICE.
45
Martyr's silence as to Church assemblies on week-
days " is a negative argument against them, unless
perhaps some distinction may be made between the
general assembly of both city and country on the
Lord's day, and the particular assemblies of the city
Christians (who had better opportunities to meet)
on other days : which distinction we often meet with
in following ages." The exception would of course
include such "country Christians" as had a pres-
byter among them.
On the whole, we may conclude that no presumption
against the existence, in early times, of other Church
Services than the Eucharistic can be grounded upon
the silence either of Pliny's informant, or of Justin
Martyr in his Apology. Nor, considering, first, the
exceeding scantiness of ecclesiastical writings in the
first two or three centuries, and next, the subordinate
character of these services, would it be at all sur-
prising if no mention of them were found within
that period. This however is far from being the
case. It has been contended with much ability and
learning q, that footsteps of such services are to be
found in various early writers. The cause has in-
deed suffered by the attempt which has been made
to prove the primitive existence of the minor Church
Services during the day ; which certainly were of later
introduction as public offices. Spurious authorities
have also been alleged, such as the writings of Dio-
nysius the Areopagite ; while genuine passages bear-
ing upon the subject have been overlooked. There
is, in reality, no lack of adequate testimony, both
of a general and of a particular kind. Justin Martyr
himself, in another of his works, bears no doubtful
i Bona Div. Psahnod. i. .2 —
4G THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
testimony to the kind of service which his silence
in the Apology has been thought to disprove. "We
shall find, in short, in the case of Ordinary Church
worship no less than of Eucharistic, a primitive foun-
tain-head, having its seat in the very bosom of the
Apostolic Church, and thence parted into several
streams for the spiritual nurture of all the nations
of the earth.
SECTION II.
"Why doth one day excel another, when as all the light of every
day in the year is of the sun? By the knowledge of the Lord they
were distinguished : and He altered seasons and feasts. Some of them
hath He made high days, and hallowed them, and some of them hath
He made ordinary days."
Nothing can at first sight be much more dissimilar
than the earliest and the latest phases which the ordi-
nary services of the Church at large have assumed ; —
beginning with the simple, and, though doubtless
orderly, yet apparently free and unconfined, devo-
tions of the Upper Chamber at Jerusalem, of which
we obtain glimpses through the Apostolic writings;
and ending with the complex and minutely regu-
lated Offices which have now prevailed for many
hundred years alike in the East and in the "West.
And these Eastern and Western Offices, again, differ
so materially from each other, that it has been con-
cluded, and that by no mean judges, that there is
absolutely no connection between them ; that " the
Oriental rites" of ordinary service are, as to their
derivation, " perfectly distinct from those of the Latin
Churches'." The truth is, however, first, that the
' Palmer, vol. i. p. 218.
sect, n.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE.
47
ordinary and non-eucharistic worship of the Church
was, as it should seem, far more organized, even in
Apostolic days, than we are apt to suppose ; and
secondly, that the Offices of the East and West are
both alike developments, though on different princi-
ples, and with characteristic variations as to structure
and contents, of the earlier and simpler form of the
Eastern rite.
The changes wrought upon what seem to have
been the primeval Offices, — more especially in their
progress towards the West, — are indeed often very
great; but the links by which the successive forms
assumed by them cohere are certain and decisive.
It would, indeed, be surprising if it were other-
wise. For it was by no means the temper or dis-
position of the Church of the first few centuries
to originate altogether new Services, but, at the ut-
most, to develope out of the old ; — to retain at least
some large and prominent features, serving to iden-
tify the altered service with that which preceded it.
And the real difference between the courses adopted
by the Eastern and Western Churches in the matter
of their ordinary Offices of Divine Worship would
seem to be this. The Orientals have adhered to the
particular stock or family of Offices originally pos-
sessed by them, and have developed them in strict
accordance with their proper laws and principles, not
admitting any foreign influence to bear upon them.
The consequence is that, as has been well observed,
" the accounts which we have of the Eastern Offices
in writings of the third, fourth, and fifth centuries all
appear to agree most singularly," as far as they go,
"with the existing Greek Offices8." The Western
1 Palmer, ubi sup. p. 225.
48
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
Church, on the contrary, did, in the course of the sixth
century in some Churches, (as, e. g. in the Soman),
— at a later date in others, — admit certain Offices
new to them, to the rejection, or serious modification,
of their older ones ; those Offices being derived from
Eastern sources.
When then we turn our eyes towards Christian
antiquity, to ascertain what the particular aspect or
form of its acts of ordinary worship is likely to have
been, the first point that strikes us is, that as the
Eucharistic Service at the first was certainly noc-
turnal, the Ordinary Service, or the chief occasion of
it however, would not improbably be so too. The
same reasons would to a great degree hold good in
both cases. Partly the fear of persecution, and partly
the habit of nocturnal meeting for the Eucharist*,
would be likely to recommend the hours of the night
for the more ordinary act of Christian worship.
It is in perfect accordance with this conjecture,
that the earliest hints we have of the nature of the
Church's ordinary service points to the existence of
nocturnal or ante-lucan assemblies for that purpose.
The learned Bingham has unfortunately involved
this matter in no small degree of confusion ; and that
in various ways : chiefly by representing certain ser-
vices, used from an early period in . particular Churches
on the Wednesday and Friday in each week, to have
been the first steps or rudiments of a secondary kind
of worship, which thus by degrees came to be used
daily. Whereas those services were in truth no other
than the Eucharist itself, which in the Church of
Africa by about a.d. 200, and by the third or fourth
' See Part H., chap, on Primitive Liturgy.
SECT. II.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 49
century in some other parts", had come to be cele-
brated on those days, with the addition, as it seems,
of private devotions of considerable length. In the
Egyptian Church they had no celebration on these
occasions, but used only the earlier part of the Eucha-
ristic Service ; exactly as was ordered for those same
days in the First Book of Edward Vlth, and is still
permitted on Sundays and festivals in the English
Church. But all this was of the nature of Eucha-
ristic, or quasi-eucharistic service, with private de-
votion superadded to it. It was a perfectly distinct
thing from the ordinary non-eucharistic worship of
the Church.
Dismissing, then, these erroneous conceptions, let
us inquire what the nature of the early Church's
Ordinary Service really was. Now that there were
in the fourth century certain nightly services in con-
stant use throughout the Churches of the East, there
is no doubt whatever. It also clearly appears from
writers of that date, that those services were by no
means peculiar to the clergy, but were genuine and
public Church Services. Thus St. Basil (circ. 370.) ) ■
says, in a passage of the utmost importance for our
present purpose,— •" The customs which now prevail
among us are consonant with those of all the Churches
of God ; for with us the people come early, while it
is yet night, to the house of prayer," &c. St. Chry-
sostom speaks of the poor continuing in the church
"from midnight till morning light." And Cassian,
a writer of the early part of the fifth century, assures
us that "this kind of devotion was most carefully
observed by many secular persons, who, rising early,
■ Tertullian de Jejun. xiv. ; Bingham, xxi. 3 ; xiii. 9. 2.
E
50 TUE PRINCIPLES OP DIVINE SERVICE. [cnAP. I.
before day, consecrated the first-fruits of all their
actions and labours to Godv."
Thus fully did the nocturnal services of that period,
(i. e. in the fourth and fifth centuries) when the Eu-
charist was no longer celebrated by night, but in
open day, answer to the idea of ordinary or daily
Church Services. The only question is, how and
where did they originate? or how far back may we
carry them ?
Now, were the opinion tenable that the earliest
ages had celebration of the Eucharist every day, it
would be very natural to conclude that they had been
substituted for that Service when it was transferred
to the daylight hours; or rather were a sort of re-
siduum which remained when the main stream of the
Church's devotion had been drawn off into another
channel. According to this supposition, then, the
non-eucharistic services of this and the following cen-
turies owed their being to the transference of the
Eucharistic ones at some time in the first three ages,
and had not co-existed with them from the begin-
ning. Such is the view with which Mr. Palmer (as-
suming apparently the continual celebration) has sug-
gested ; viz. that " when persecution ceased, although
the Christians were able to celebrate all their rites,
and did administer the Sacrament, in the daytime,
yet a custom which had commenced from necessity
was retained from devotion and choice ; and noc-
turnal assemblies for the worship of God in Psalms
and reading still continued." And again : " As the
nocturnal assemblies were first held for the purpose
of administering the Eucharist, so when that Sacra-
ment was celebrated at another time, the nocturnal
* Vide Bingham, vol. iv. p. 40S.
SECT. II.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 51
service still retained the psalmody and reading of
Scripture, which was always (?) the commencement of
the Liturgy or Eucharist \" But as daily celebration
was certainly not the primitive practice, the ordinary
nocturnal services must be accounted for in some other
way. Bingham, accordingly, while admitting that
the nocturnal Eucharistic assemblies were but weekly,
suggests that "the Church in after ages thought fit
to continue them, transferring them (i. e. the assem-
blies, not the Eucharist,) from the Lord's Bay to
all other days, partly to keep up the spirit of devo-
tion in the ascetics, and partly to give leisure and
opportunity to men of a secular life to observe a
seasonable time of devotion, which they might do
early in the morning without any distraction y." This
supposition is surely most improbable. No reason
can possibly be assigned why the Church, on being
allowed to hold her Sunday Eucharist in the day-
time, should at that particular juncture institute for
the first time, for every night in the week, a new
service. That the eve or night before the Sunday
or festival should continue to be observed with some
kind of solemnities, as the remains of the old prac-
tice, would be perfectly intelligible ; and in point of
fact we find that it was so ; — the days of celebration,
we are told, "were commonly ushered in by per-
noctations or vigils," which differed from the ordi-
nary nightly service in being longer and fuller2.
1 Orig. Lit., p. 201, 206. It is an objection in limine to this theory,
that the ordinary nocturnal Offices of the early Church did not involve
any reading of the Scriptures ; as will be shewn hereafter.
y Bingham, XIII. x. 12.
" Bingham, XIII. ix. 4, vol. iv. p. 300. The entire section is full of
interesting illustrations of the nightly service on the eves of Sundays
and festivals.
E 2 .
52
THE PRINCIPLES. OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap, t
But whence, it must still be asked, came this week-
day nocturnal service at all ? And this one thing at
least is clear, that it was perfectly independent of the
transference of the Eucharistic Service to the daylight
hours. It cannot have arisen out of that alteration ;
and it may perfectly well have co-existed from the
first, as the week-night office, side by side with
the ancient nocturnal celebration of the Sunday.
Occupying, as became it, a far humbler position than
that great rite, and aspiring, at the utmost, to run
parallel with it on a far lower level; conducted too
under many circumstances of inferiority, — by one
or two presbyters, perhaps, instead of by the whole
diocesan body of clergy; in small detachments, and
with the attendance of but few (as compared with
the Eucharist), even in cities, — it would be likely to
obtain comparatively little mention in the slightly
sketched accounts of early Christianity which have
come down to us.
But though less prominent, and on that account
less frequently alluded to, its existence is neverthe-
less, as was remarked at the end of the preceding
section, abundantly vouched for. It must be borne
in mind, that when once it comes to be distinctly
understood and admitted that the Eucharist was not
administered daily, many passages which have hither-
to been supposed to refer to that ordinance, become
evidence on behalf of service of a more ordinary kind.
As when Ignatius, at the beginning of the second cen-
tury, (a.d. 107,) exhorts the Church of the Ephesians
" to pray without ceasing," and " to give all diligence
to come together frequently," (or " in great numbers,")
to give thanks and praise to God 3 ; or bids the Mag-
* Ign. Ep. ad Epll. C. 13. <rirovSd£eTe olv trvKpSrepov <rvvepx«r6ai els
sect. II.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE.
53
nesians, " when they met together, to have one prayer
and one supplication15;" or the Trallians0, "to abide
in concord, and in their prayers with each other
or urges Polycarpd to see that the Church's assemblies
at Smyrna " were held more frequently," (or " more
fully attended"). These passages are hardly capable
of being referred to the celebration of the Eucharist,
which was both pretty well fixed, as to frequency,
to the Lord's Day, and was doubtless attended as
a matter of course by every Christian. What room
then was there for such exhortations as these, whether
to greater frequency of services, or increase of attend-
ance upon them ? Whereas the frequency of the ordi-
nary services may well have varied, more especially in
the very earliest times. And in fact we shall see rea-
son hereafter for believing, that though the nocturnal
week-day service was probably all but universal from
the first, there is far less evidence for the early pre-
valence of any other service. And that the attend-
ance on these services, when they came to be fully
established, was not universal, but rather (very much
as with the daily services at the present day, and in-
deed in all ages of the Church) the habit of the more
devout or leisurely, — we have the clear evidence of
St. Chrysostom and Cassian in passages already re-
ferred toe.
It is to be remarked, again, that inasmuch as the
Eucharistic service, as far back as we can trace it, did
{bxapiariav ©eou Kol S6^af. Id. ad PolyC. 4. nvKvirepov crvvaywyal
yiviaBwaav. Pearson understands both places of " fuller assem-
blies." But see Jacobson in loe. In Eph. 13, the Eucharist need
not be meant, probably is not; the context is general: and so
Vet. Interp.
' b Ad Magn. 7. c Ad Trail. 12.
d Ubi sup. • Sup., p. 49.
54 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. f CHAP. I.
not embrace f, or only in the very smallest proportion,
the singing of Psalms, while the ordinary services, so
soon as we obtain a distinct view of them, consisted
emphatically of Psalms and hymns, it follows that
allusions in early writers to Church psalmody must
as a general rule refer to ordinary services. Thus,
c. g., Ignatius has the credit, whether justly or not,
of having introduced the antiphonal mode of singing
into the Church. This, then, so far as the tradition
may be relied on, may be taken as an early evidence
for ordinary worship.
Philo the Jew, a writer of the first century, in a
well-known and curious passage5, describes the de-
votions of certain persons at Alexandria, whom he
calls Therapeutae, " devotees," in terms very similar
to those which St. Basil, as already quoted, employs
about the ordinary nocturnal services of the Chris-
tians in the fourth century. It was thought by many
ancient writers — Eusebius, Jerome, Epiphaniush, &c.
and has been maintained by learned moderns, as
Goar' and Beveridgek, — that these Alexandrians were
no other than the first Christians, converted by St.
Mark. On the fullest consideration, however, it seems
necessary to conclude, with Valesius and Burton, that
they were not Christians ; — though it is singular that
1 The Apostolic Constitutions indeed prescribe "the llymns of David
to be sung" among the lessons from Scripture before celebration ; and
Mr. Palmer speaks of this as a fact. But it has no countenance from
antiquity. There are fragments of Psalms sung at the opening of
St. Basil's Liturgy; and a single Psalm preceded the epistle in the
Syrian Lit. of St. James and the Arm. (See also St. Augustine, below,
p. 60.) A Psalm after Communion was also used in Lit. Rom. Arm., &c.
* De Vitu Contcmplativa, ed. Mangey, vol. ii. p. 484.
h Vide Bingham, I. i. 1. Vales, in Eus. ii. 17. 1 Euchol., note, p. 22.
k Cod. Can. hi. 5. (See Cotcler., Patres Ap.) Mr. Neale is content
(Hist, of the East. Church, vol. i. 1.) to follow Eusebius, &c.
SECT. II.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 55
Burton should question their being even Jews l. The
chief, and indeed insuperable, difficulty is, that they
combined, with their singing of Psalms and hymns,
a bacchanal kind of dancing, which it is incredible that
any body of Christians can have adopted. This, as
they alleged, was in imitation of the songs and dances
of the Israelitish men and women after the passage of
the Red Sea. It seems most probable, on the whole,
that they were a kind of Jewish monks. And there
is strong reason for believing that they furnished in
many respects the type of the subsequent Egyptian
monasticism. For the Egyptian monastic devotions,
as described by Cassian in the fifth century m, while
differing from the customs of the Church generally,
accord in some marked respects with those of Philo's
Therapeutse. Thus they still observed, like Philo's
ascetics, but two daily services, nocturns and ves-
pers,— and these, too, differing widely from the com-
mon Eastern type, — when the rest of the Church had
long had from three to seven offices. Philo, again,
dwells much on the ascetics' reading and meditating
on certain ancient books in their places of worship,
as a part of their devotions n. And in Cassian's time,
accordingly, the Egyptian monks, alone out of all the
East, had from very ancient times had a lesson of the
Old and another of the New Testament in their daily
Offices; and spent all their time in meditating on
the Scriptures.
Philo, then, cannot be cited as a witness to Chris-
1 Eccl. Hist., vol. i. p. 22. m See below, chap. iii.
n He says they took nothing into their places of worship («"kijh
aejxvuov, or iiova<mipiov — the very term afterwards applied to the
Christian ascetics' abodes) tt ^ vd/xovs ko! \6yia Oto-TricrfleVxa «al Sp-
VOVS, K.T.A..
56 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CIIAP. I.
tian nocturnal worship in the first century. Nor in-
deed do the services described by him bear more than
a general resemblance to the Christian services, such
as we find them in St. Basil, &c. The week-day ser-
vices were not strictly nocturnal at all, but took place
after the rising of the sun. And the seventh-day
night-service, as described by him, is hardly com-
patible with the Eucharist, since it seems to have
been a mere series of musical exercises, more espe-
cially of Psalms ; — which is exactly what the Eucha-
ristic service was not.
Nevertheless, as a testimony to early and late daily
services among the more devout sort of Jews, at about
the Christian era, Philo's account is much to our pur-
pose. Still more so is that which Josephus0 gives of
the Essenes, — a sect in many respects similar ; viz.,
" that they used to rise before the sun was up, and
offer to God certain prayers received from their fore-
fathers." Nothing could be more natural than that
the Jewish Christians (who have indeed by some been
identified with the Essenes p) should take up, as a
part of their new manner of life, what was thus fa-
miliar to the more devout among their own country-
men.
Our first direct witness therefore to the nightly
services is no other than Justin Martyr, (circ. 150).
He says that the philosophers contended, "that the
Christians' praying as they did through the ivhole night,
as well as by day, was inconsistent with their pro-
fessed belief in the Providence of Godq."
About twenty years later, Lucian, the heathen
satirist, speaks of his coming into a religious as-
• Bell. Jud. ii. 12. p Brikker, Hist. Philos., and Burton, p. 300.
i Dial. Tiyph, init.
SECT. II.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 57
sembly, and of the officiating person's beginning his
prayer with "the Father," and ending it with the
" hymn of many names ;" alluding doubtless to the
Lord's Prayer, which was ended with a repetition, in
the manneraof a hymn, of the doxology addressed to
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost r. Now certainly, ac-
cording to the received notion that the Lord's Prayer
did not occur (as probably it did not by the end of
the second century) in that earlier part of the Eu-
charistic office to which strangers were admitted, this
service could not have been the Eucharist. Reasons
for believing that Prayer to have occurred in the
primitive daily service will be given below.
Thirty years later, again, (circ. 200,) we find Ter-
tullian using expressions which seem positively to
identify the course of nocturnal and early morning
service in his day with that which prevailed in St.
Basil's time. He says there was a small clique of
persons in the African Church, who would not kneel
on the Saturday. "But we," he proceeds, "as we
have received, on the day of the Lord's Resurrection
(i.e. Sunday), and on that alone, abstain from that
posture. But as to other times, who can hesitate to
prostrate himself before God on all days alike {omni
die) at that first prayer with which we enter upon the
light of day8?" meaning doubtless the 51st Psalm,
with which (as we know from St. Basil), the nocturns
being ended, the morning office commenced at break
of day. Further on, commenting on the practice of
some Churches or persons, of following up the prayers
with the Hallelujah and Psalms of praise, he calls
prayer " the true sacrifice, which Christians as priests
offer;" adding, "this victim, devoted with the whole
* Lucian, Philopatr. See the form below, sect. v. fin. • De Orat., c. 23.
58
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. L
heart, fed by faith, crowned with love, we ought to
lead up to the altar of God amidst Psalms and hymns V
The whole passage is no doubt rhetorically conceived ;
but it has all the appearance of pointing to Church
worship ; — yet not to Eucharistic worship exclusively,
as that was not a service of Psalms and hymns at all.
On the whole, the best account that we can give of
this passage is, that Tertullian had before his eyes in
writing it the entire order of Sunday or festival ser-
vice which prevailed when the Eucharist had been
transferred to the daytime ; a change which had cer-
tainly begun to be made in his time u. We seem to
have the nocturnal service followed at break of day
by matins, and the whole concluded and crowned with
celebration of the Eucharist T. He also speaks of the
obligatory morning and evening prayers, said appa-
rently either in the church or at home.
It will not be necessary to pursue these testimonies
much further. It may suffice to say that Hippolytus,
bishop of Portus Romanus soon after Tertullian's
time, (circ. 220,) speaks more than once of psalmody
and singing of hymns, as a customary part of the
Church's services x ; — that Origen y, in the same cen-
tury, in answer to a charge made against the Chris-
tians of using magical books in their services, declares
that, on the contrary, what they used was the ordered
or prescribed prayers, as became them, day and night
constantly; thus testifying not to the services only,
but to the books used in them ; — and that St. Cyprian,
• lb., c. 25. The Oxford translation (in the index) understands it
of private prayer. But the case seems plain the other way.
u e. g. It was celebrated on Wednesdays and Fridays, as a part of
the " stationary service." T lb.
1 Hippol. de Consumm. Mundi, &c. Vide Bingham, vol. iv. p. 211.
* lb., p. 215. See ib., p. 220, &e., for Cyprian and Amobius.
SECT. II.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 59
and Arnobius, in a passage to be referred to hereafter,
vouch for the practice of the third and early part of
the fourth century in Africa.
Thus have we, from the apostolic Ignatius down-
wards, until we reach the explicit account of St. Basil,
towards the close of the fourth century, a continuous
stream of testimony to the prevalence of ordinary
service. Thus did it please God to set from the
beginning two great lights in the firmament of the
Church, the greater and the less, to divide the light
of her Eucharistic Festival from the comparative dark-
ness of her ordinary days.
SECTION III.
" Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the
pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father and unto
Sarah that bare you."
In proceeding to speculate, next, on the character
which the ordinary and non-eucharistic devotions of
the first Christians would be likely to assume, we
discern two models then existing, after one or other
of which they might conceivably be fashioned : two
sources from which their contents might not impro-
bably be drawn. The one is the Eucharistic Rite
itself; the other the Jewish Ritual.
I have already spoken of an hypothesis which would
connect these services with the Eucharistic by repre-
senting them to have been a residuum of it ; and
though that view of them cannot be sustained, we
might nevertheless not unnaturally look to find them
CO
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. I.
framed after that greater service as a model, or borrow-
ing their contents from it. And in such expectation
we should be further encouraged by our knowing that
the Church, in subsequent ages, largely enriched her
ordinary ritual from time to time with features or
portions of her Eucharistic Service. Nevertheless it
must be confessed that, on examination of so much
of the ancient ordinary services as we have reason for
thinking to have been of primitive date, we find little
that answers to this notion ; at least in the ordinary
services strictly so called. The additions made to the
nightly services on Sundays, (or festivals,) when the
celebration of the Eucharist was transferred to the day-
time, had indeed, as might be expected, a eucharistic
bearing, in the way of preparation for the rite. But
in the services of other nights, — with a single ex-
ception, of which hereafter, — it is difficult to discern
anything positively and essentially eucharistic, either
in structure or contents. Of course, since the Eucha-
rist, according to the ancient universal conception of
it, embraces and exhausts all the possible elements
of worship, there must necessarily be an affinity, and
essentially and at bottom a connection, between it
and any other Service the Church can offer. But the
actual scheme of the primitive nocturnal services was
conceived, to all appearance, after another idea.
As the Eucharistic Ritual of the early Church strikes
its roots deeply into the old Israelitish sacrificial ordi-
nances, and is framed in many respects upon them z ;
so, there is great reason for saying, did the primitive
Christian worship of a more ordinary kind take its rise
in those services of the Temple and the Synagogue,
which had been superadded in the course of time, by
* See below, Part II., chapter on tie Theory of Eucharistic Worship.
SECT. III.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE.
01
David, or Hezekiah, or Ezra, to the original letter
of the Mosaic institution. So that while the staple
elements of that institution passed on into the great
realities of Christ's Offering of Himself, and into the
supreme act of Christian service instituted by Him in
especial connection with it, the more ordinary kinds
of Jewish worship merged, in a parallel manner, into
corresponding Christian action. Independently of the
beauty, and the conformity to all analogy, of such a
provision as this, — by which, as by so many other ar-
rangements, the continuity between the elder and the
later covenant would be secured, — a little reflection
will shew that such was, even humanly speaking, the
natural course of events \ The simple and yet all-in-
cluding record, which holy Scripture has preserved to
us, of the ritual of the Apostolic Church on and after
the Day of Pentecost, while it distinctly recognises two
kinds of service, the one Eucharistic, the other not,
makes attendance on the ancient Israelitish ritual a
not unimportant feature of the latter. "They con-
tinued stedfastly," it is first said, " in the Apostles'
doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and
in prayers \" But this was not all. As a part of their
non-eucharistic devotion, they also " continued daily
with one accord in the Temple," in contradistinction
to their " breaking bread in the house, or at home,"
(so it should manifestly be rendered j see below, ch. ii.)
And we have scarcely less evidence of the converts
from among the Jews (at least) continuing to attend
diligently upon the services of the Synagogue. For
besides the frequent mention of the Apostles' resorting
• Eusebius (Eccl. Hist. II. 17.) recognises this probability ; speaking
of the early Christians of Alexandria as <=£ 'Eflpalwv, as eonce, ycyovdras,
TavTT) t€ 'lovSaiKurepof t» toiv -naKaiuv tn Ta irA.er<rra StarqpovvTas t8r\.
b Acts ii. 42, 46.
G2
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
thither, this seems to be clearly implied by Acts xv. 21 ;
where the weekly reading of Moses in the Synagogues
in every city is spoken of as a means of conveying to
Jewish certainly, perhaps even to Gentile converts, the
knowledge of certain fundamental precepts or dictates
of religion. It would surely be natural, then, that
when distance from the Temple, and other causes,
gradually threw the Christian body entirely upon their
own resources for their ordinary ritual, that ritual
should bear some impress of the influences by which
it had at the first been cradled and fostered.
And if we may safely — as, for reasons which will
appear presently, I conceive we may — look upon cer-
tain features as having appertained to the nocturnal
services from the first, then we certainly find unmis-
takeable proofs of paternity and derivation subsisting
between the Temple and Synagogue b services and
those of the primitive Church.
The earliest writer who gives us any detailed account
of the latter, is, as we have already seen, St. Basil, in
the fourth century. They consisted in his day of psal-
mody with prayers intermingled ; the whole ushered
in with a profoundly penitential confession. And of
these Psalms, as we learn from him and other writers,
the greater part were sung (to all appearance) con-
tinuously, and without selection ; while others were
fixed, and used constantly, as the 51st, with which
the night -service concluded, and the 63rd, which
followed shortly after in the morning office. The
mode of singing was in part alternate, in part with
b Jalm, (Archseologia Biblica, §. 398,) a very matter-of-fact writer,
entirely adopts this view. " It was by ministering in Synagogues that
the Apostles gathered the first Churches. They retained also essen-
tially the same mode of worship as that of the Synagogues ; excepting
that the Lord's Supper was made an additional institution," &c.
SECT. III.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. G3
a leader j a response being made by the people at the
close of each Psalm c. Now in all this there is a mani-
fest resemblance, of a general kind, to the Jewish
Temple service, such as we have reason to believe it
existed in our Lord's time a. For it too consisted en-
tirely of Psalms and prayers, the former making up
the bulk of the service ; and commenced with a peni-
tential prayer. Moreover, some one Psalm was fixed,
only varying with the day of the week ; and the singing
was alternate, or by way of response or burden.
And as St. Basil and others thus witness to a
general resemblance between the service of his day
and the ancient Jewish services, so through another
source of information we seem to be certified both of
the primitive date of this resemblance, and of the ex-
istence of yet other and closer correspondences. The
existing daily Offices of the Greek Church, as has
been well observed6, answer with extraordinary fidelity
in several particulars to the accounts given by writers
of the third and following centuries of the Eastern
Offices of that day. This fact, while it by no means
assures us of — what, indeed, may easily be disproved
— the equal antiquity of every particular of their pre-
sent complicated structure^ yet invests them with
considerable value as witnesses on points about which
there is concurrent evidence in favour of an early date.
If these Offices have thus preserved certain of their
features for 1500 or 1600 years, those features may
■ St. Basil, Ep. lxiii. ad Neocses. Bingham, XIII. x. 13 ; XIV. i. 11.
d See Prideaux, Connection, i. 6 ; Lightfoot, Temple Service, ix. 4 ;
Bingham, XIII. v. 4.
e Vide Palmer, Orig. Lit., vol. i. p. 229.
' For the fullest, indeed the only full account of the daily Offices of
the Eastern Church, see Mr. Neale's elaborate work, General Introduc-
tion to the History of the Eastern Church, vol. ii. pp. 830 — 941.
64
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. i.
be, and probably are, older still. They may, for
aught we know, be primitive. And if those features,
why not others? such more especially as fall in with
any otherwise probable theory.
Now the existing daily Offices of the Greek Church
entirely answer, first of all, to the account given by
St. Basil, and others, of the ordinary nocturnal ser-
vices in their day. They are by name, and in their
manifest design, nocturnal and early matutinal Offices.
Such at least is by far the greater and the principal
portion of them. They still, as in St. Basil's time,
present the aspect of a great service of Psalms, with
hymns and prayers intermingled. They still com-
mence with a deeply penitential prayer. The Psalms
are still sung for the most part continuously, with the
addition of certain fixed ones. And among these
fixed Psalms are the very same, used in the same part
of the service, as in St. Basil's time. The manner of
singing is still alternate, or with a response, resem-
bling the Western antiphong. Thus far then the
Greek Offices of the present day thoroughly agree
with those of the fourth century, and also, like them,
exhibit features which tend to connect them with the
Jewish Services.
But these Offices, on further examination, betray
their origin still more clearly. The most solemn part
of the service of the Jewish Synagogue at the present
day (called "the eighteen prayers") is believed, on
good grounds, to have been in use long before the
Christian erah. Now the introductory part of the
present Greek Offices, consisting of invocation, prayer
* Neale, p. 910, note h. Below, sect. vi.
h See Prideaux, Connection, Part I. vi. 2, for a translation of these
prayers. And compare ibid., viii. fin.
SECT. III.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. C5
for pardon, invitation to praise, is plainly an epitome,
only Christianized, of the first eight of the " eighteen
prayers ;" as may be seen upon comparison of them.
The authenticity of some of the eighteen prayers
(from the 10th to the 14th, and the 17th) has been
doubted of, as they seem to contain allusions to the
destruction of Jerusalem. But these, it will be ob-
served, are precisely the prayers with which the intro-
duction of the Greek Offices has nothing in common ;
— a confirmation, in a manner, of the reality of the
connection. The ritualist will be interested at dis-
cerning here the almost unquestionable origin of the
famous " Trisagion" hymn. The common account
ascribes it to Proclus, (a.d. 434,) but it is doubtless
far older. A good judge is of opinion " that it is of
exceedingly primitive use in the Church, and probably
Apostolic l."
Part or the " eighteen
Prayers" of the Syna-
gogue k.
1. Blessed be Thou, O Lord
our God.
Arts. Blessed art Thou, 0
Lord, 0 King, our Helper, our
Saviour, Creator and possessor
of the universe, bountifully dis-
pensing benefits.
2. Thou sustainest ... all
that live.
Commencement of the
Eastern Offices.
Blessed be our God, now
and for ever.
Ans. Amen. Glory be to
Thee our God, heavenly King,
the Comforter, the Spirit of
Truth, who art everywhere,
and fillest all things, Treasury
of blessings, and Giver of life ;
descend and remain on us, O
Blessed One, cleanse us from all
impurity, and save our souls.
1 Neale, p. 367. Vide ibid., p. 471.
k The translations here given are taken, with slight variations, from
Prideaux, and Neale, p. 895. The numbers are those of the prayers.
GO
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
3. Thou art Holy,
Thy Name is Holy, for a great
King and a Holy art Thou, 0
God.
[Comp. 2, " Thou, 0 Lord,
art mighty for ever . . . Thou
Lord of might."]
5, 6. Have mercy upon us,
O our Father.
For we have transgressed;
pardon us, for we have sinned.
7. Look, we beseech Thee,
on our afflictions.
8. Heal, 0 Lord . . our in-
firmities,
For Thou art a God who
healest.
[0 Lord, have mercy on us,
6, 16, &c]
" Our Father," " Merciful
Father."
18. We will give thanks
unto Thee with praise.
Lord, Thou art the Lord our
God.
Be Thy Name, 0 King, ex-
alted and lifted up on high.
Holy God,
Holy and Mighty,
Holy and Immortal,
Have mercy upon us.
Glory be to the Father, &c.
O most Holy Trinity, have
mercy on us ; purify us from
our iniquities, and pardon our
sins.
Look down upon us, 0 Holy
One.
Heal our infirmities.
For Thy Name's sake.
Lord have mercy {thrice).
" Our Father," &c. " Lord
have mercy ;" (twelve times).
0 come let us worship God
our King.
O come, &c, and fall down
before Christ our King and
God.
0 come, ke. . . before Christ
Himself, our King and God.
These coincidences are, it is conceived, too close to
be accidental. It will be seen that the order of topics
is the same in the two cases, viz. 1. Acknowledg-
ment of God, in various characters and attributes,
and then (thrice) as " Holy." 2. Prayer for pardon,
addressed to God as " Our Father." 3. Invitation to
the act of praise. Only, in several ways, as might be
expected, a Christian character is given to the whole
SECT. III.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 07
by the acknowledgment of Christian doctrine ; as in
the expansion of the title of " Helper" into that of
"Comforter," (i.e. Aid, Paraclete, Advocate,) Spirit
of Truth, &c, who is invited to descend on the wor-
shippers. The Jewish invitation to the praise of
God, again, is beautifully translated into Christian
language, reminding us of St. Paul's words, " Whom
therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto
you." And though it may seem strange to us that
a prayer of great length should be thus epitomized into
a very short one, the fact is that such summaries were
customary among the Jews1, who seem to have pos-
sessed an epitome of these very " eighteen prayers,"
called "the Summary," or "the Short Prayer™," to
be used by those who had not leisure to attend the
synagogue. Nor is it improbable that the short form
in the Christian Service was so used in early times, as
to give opportunity to the people for a more extended
acknowledgment of God and confession of sins ; in
accordance with what St. Basil says of their " making
confession to God with labour and affliction and long-
continued shedding of tears, and then at length,
standing up from their prayers, betaking themselves
to the singing of the Psalms."
One more link of connection between the Christian
and the Jewish Services deserves to be mentioned. ! '.:
On the Sabbath-day, if we may rely on the accounts ? fr* tf>*>
of the Talmudists, the two songs of Moses (Deut.
xxxii., Exod. xv.) were sung at the offering of the
1 See Liglitfoot, Temple Service.
m Literally, " the Fountain." The form itself is not, it seems, in
existence. See below, on the Lord's Prayer, which is shewn to be, pro-
bably, no other than a superior and divinely sanctioned summary of
these same prayers.
F 2
C8 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
morning and evening sacrifice respectively". And in
the Greek Services these two songs or canticles are
still sung at the early morning Office; the latter on
Sunday, and the former on Monday; the scheme
being completed by the singing of the second song of
Moses, and other canticles, (those of Hannah, Habak-
kuk, &c.) at the same service throughout the week0.
This can hardly be a mere accident. It was of course
natural that the song of triumph celebrating the pas-
sage of the Red Sea should be transferred to the
morning of the Festival of the Resurrection, of which
that event was so eminent a type. And it may pos-
sibly be an indication that this song had already, in
Apostolic days, been adopted as a part of Christian
worship, that St. John in the Revelation describes the
triumphant saints as "standing upon the sea of glass,
and singing the song of Moses and of the Lamb." It
is perhaps more remarkable still that the other song
of Moses (Deut. xxxii.) was doubtless in some parts of
the East — probably in Egypt — sung at morning ser-
vice on the Saturday or Sabbath, as among the Jews
of old : whence it passed over to the West, as a part
of the early morning Office of that dayp. Nor can it
be well accounted for, on any other hypothesis than
that of an early and a Jewish origin, that these Of-
fices, and, to a certain extent, the similar Offices de-
rived from them throughout the world, proceed upon
the Jewish mode of reckoning the day. That the
Vespers or Evening Service was considered the first
n Lightfoot, Temple Service, vii. ; Bingham, vol. iv. p. 194.
0 Neale, p. 834, note. Compare the lection at the Greek Lauds on
Easter-Day : " This is the day on which God caused the children of
Israel to pass over the Red Sea," &c. Ib., p. 883.
* Sabbat, ad Laudes, Regul. S. Beucdicti ; Brev. Sarisb., Rom., &c. :
see below, p. 83.
SECT, m.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 69
Office in the twenty-four hours in the Greek system,
appears from hence, that the 104th Psalm received
the name of the pro-cemiac or prefatory Psalm from
its being used at the beginning of the Evening Office,
and so prefacing the entire services of the vv^Orj^pov.
The Book of Psalms, too, was begun, not as in the
West, (mostly) on Sunday morning, but on Saturday
at Vespers, as the commencement of the week.
Now it must, I think, be admitted, that the exist-
ence of these palpable correspondences, both of gene-
ral character and of detail, between the Jewish ritual
and the existing Greek Offices for ordinary worship,
is a powerful argument in behalf of the antiquity and
primitiveness of so much of the latter as the corre-
spondence involves. For it is difficult, if not im-
possible, to assign any time, subsequent to the first
days of Christianity, at which the services are likely
to have received their elements or their shaping from
such a quarter. Whereas at the beginning of things
it was, as has been already observed, perfectly natural.
And it may be added, that our discerning in them
features, derived not from the Service of the Temple
alone, nor from that of the Synagogue alone, but
from both, viz., their general structure from the Tem-
ple, and their introductory part from the Synagogue,
seems exactly to meet the case with which the Apo-
stles would have to deal, in fixing the outlines of
ordinary Christian Worship. The converts who had
been brought up within reach of the Temple, and
those who could only resort to the Synagogue, would
both of them find, in such a Service, that which they
had been accustomed to. There was, moreover, a re-
cognised connection between the Temple and Syna-
gogue services, they being offered at the same hours q.
q Pridcaux, ib.
70 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [cHAr. I.
And there is one very remarkable circumstance —
(such at least it appears in the present day to Western
Christians,) belonging to the Ordinary Offices of the
Eastern Church, alike in early days, and at the pre-
sent hour. I mean the absence of lessons — of the
reading, that is, of Holy Scripture, for purposes of
instruction and meditation, as distinguished from the
singing of Psalms. Bingham r expresses great sur-
prise at this phenomenon, as exhibited in the scheme
of service given in the Apostolic Constitutions, and
endeavours to reconcile what he supposed to be a dis-
crepancy between them and other early authorities.
So Mabillon8 too quotes — but, like Bingham, thinks
it incumbent upon him to call in question — Abbot
Theodamar's similar assertion about the Roman daily
Offices previously to the time of St. Gregory, viz.
that they contained no lessons from the Scriptures.
But the truth is, that there is no reason for doubt-
ing that the Apostolical Constitutions correctly repre-
sent, in this particular, the usage of early times.
Basil, as we have seen, speaks of no other service than
Psalms and prayers. It is true a host of passages
may be alleged, from Justin Martyr downward', in
proof that the Scriptures were variously read, accord-
ing to the differing customs of the Churches : but on
examination it proves that in all these cases it is,
or at any rate may be, the Eucharistic Service that
is spoken of. The only exception is that of Cassian,
who is speaking of the monastic use of Egypt : and
a canon of the council of Laodicea (circ. 360), which
will be explained hereafter.
■ XIII. x. 10; xi. G.
s Liturg. Gallic, de Cursu Gall., p. 385. "Neque eniin verlslmilc est
nullas tunc in Jivinis officiis lectiones fuisse," &c.
' Bingham, XIV. iii. 2. Sec below, sect. vi. fin.
sect, m.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE.
71
The Ordinary Greek Offices, to this day, are in like
manner entirely devoid of lessons. A summary allu-
sion u, of a general kind, to the Epistles, is the nearest
approach they make to the reading of holy Scripture,
beyond the Psalms : and even this has obviously been
borrowed, though probably at a very early period,
from the Eucharistic Office. I speak of the regular
daily Offices : in the morning Office on Sundays and
Festivals, the Gospel is read x ; and there were also
lessons at Vigils.
Now this absence of lessons, except on Sundays, •<//^>
is exactly what would result from the Christian Ordi- ,?U>w
nary Services having originated with those of the
Temple and Synagogue conjoined. For in the former
there was no reading at all7, if we except the re-
hearsal of the Decalogue; while in the latter, the
reading was indeed an important part of the service,
but seems to have taken place, in the Apostles' time,
on the Sabbath only z.
™ Called the prokeimenon, or preface ; taken from the Psalms, and
reflecting (on Sundays, &c.) the spirit of the Epistle (Goar, p. 25) ; but
on the week-days fixed prefaces were used (Neale, p. 406, 901, where
the week-day forms will be found). It was said at Vespers and at
Sunday Lauds.
x It was, as would appear, by following out the idea of the "prokeime-
non," that the capittcla, or short lessons from the Scriptures, found their
way into the daily Offices of the West. See below, sect. vii.
* The saying over of the Phylacteries, bearing the appointed texts,
was to all appearance done by each one for himself.
z Acts xv. 21. " Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach
him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath-day." " Chez les Juifs,
il n'y avait que le jour du sabbat qu'on lisoit," (Grancolas). Maimonides
(ap. Prideaux, ubi sup.) speaks of two other synagogue-days, Monday
and Thursday, in which the law was read, as well as on the Sabbath.
But it would appear from St. James's words just quoted, that this was
a later practice. That it was so is also indicated by there not being
any portions of fheir own assigned to those days ; the portion for the
coming Sabbath was read instead, in two sections. This is curiously
analogous to the rule for the Epistle and Gospel in the West.
72 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. I-
Another peculiarity in the ways of both the pre-
sent and the early Greek Church, which must be
accounted for in the same way, is the high honour
paid to the Saturday or Sabbath. Among both
Greeks and Armenians, " Saturday is viewed (as it
was in early days a) in the light of a second Sunday.
The Liturgy (i. e. Communion) is then celebrated,
even when on other days of the week it is not ; and
in the daily Office the hymns, &c. are varied, as for
a day of peculiar solemnity V So Bingham0 con-
siders that " the Greek Church received the day as
they found it delivered to them by the Jews, among
whom it was always a festival."
We may here pause for a moment to notice how
the introductory portion of the ancient Greek Offices
— if we may assume its antiquity on the grounds here
alleged — illustrates or confirms the corresponding
part of the Western Church's ritual, and of our own
more especially.
Few parts of the existing Daily Services of the
English Church have been more severely criticised,
on the score of supposed novelty, and departure from
the customs of the Church elsewhere, than the peni-
tential introductory portion of them. And yet not
only have we, as has been long ago pointed out, an
unquestionable warrant for this, of a general kind,
in the testimony of St. Basil already cited ; but, on
further investigating the introduction before us, —
doubtless the very one to which he alludes, and pro-
bably Apostolic, — we are furnished with as full and
exact a precedent as could be desired. Objection
1 See below, cliap. ii., on Ordinary WorsMp. b Neale, Gen. In-
trod., p. 731 ; and see p. 919. « XX. iii. 5.
SECT, m.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE.
73
has been made, and perhaps still oftener felt, first,
to our having a set Confession at all in this position
daily, and twice a-day ; and next, to its being of so
decided a character. To the latter objection we may
safely leave the Church of St. Basil's day to reply.
And in answer to the former, we have but to point
to the Eastern Offices. Every day, and twice a-day
at least, — before each of those Ordinary Services
which correspond precisely in their nature and inten-
tion to our own, — has the Church of the East, pro-
bably from the very beginning, poured forth a pro-
foundly penitential prayer, containing (as may be
seen by recurring to it, p. 66.) a full confession of
"sins, iniquities, and infirmities," and full acknow-
ledgment of need of pardon and healing, together
with many a " Lord have mercy upon us." In short,
whoever will compare our form with the ancient
Greek, or the still older Jewish prayer, will find the
topics as nearly as possible the same, while the ex-
pression is greatly intensified.
Nor is this merely an interesting analogy and point
of correspondence, fetched from a remote quarter, with
which our Offices have no real connection. These. 5u,pi\ off^
Greek Offices are, on the contrary, as will appear /tP"*
hereafter, the lineal progenitors of our own : there
is no fault or break in the series; however con-
siderable the changes from time to time made, the
continuity and the essential identity are perfect. So
that the prefixing of a solemn and somewhat fully
wrought out penitential introduction to our Offices
at the revision of them in the 16 th century, was
simply the restoration of a primitive feature of them
to its "ancient usual place." Not that the Revisers,
probably, had the slightest knowledge what the in-
74 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
traduction to the Greek daily Offices was, unless it
might be that general idea of it which St. Basil has
preserved. They acted instinctively on a principle
which is indeed recognised throughout the West as
in the East, only that the penitential element is not
made so prominent. Tor in all Western Offices, the
versicles preceding the nocturnal or matins Office
are " 0 Lord, open Thou my lips, and my mouth
shall shew forth Thy praise :" to which is added, " 0
God make speed to save me : 0 Lord make haste
to help me." Now these versicles are manifestly por-
tions, the one of the 51st, the other of the 70th Psalm,
both profoundly penitential Psalms, and occupying,
entire, a corresponding position in the Greek Offices.
Besides which, in one widely prevailing variety of the
Western rite, special provision was made for a peni-
tential act in connection with the Venite. For it
was ordered by the rubric that at the words "0
come let us worship, and fall down and weep" (sic,
after the Vulg. and LXX.) "before the Lord our
Maker," all were "to fall down" accordingly4.
But this preparatory portion of the Greek Offices
seems also to bear witness to the immense and pro-
bably Apostolic antiquity of another feature common
to the ordinary worship of the East and West alike ;
the use, namely, of the 95th Psalm, or of a portion of
it, as an invitatory to the act of praise and worship.
It will be observed that the Jewish and the early
Christian Service alike follow up their more peni-
tential part with the declaration of a desire and an
d S. Bened. ad Vigil. The injunction was doubtless borrowed from
the Greek rite which enjoins three reverences {neravoiaz, v. Goar in voc.)
to be made at the words of the invitatory, " 0 come let us worship,
and fall down before," &c. Horolog. in loc.
SECT, ill.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 75
intention of giving worship and praise to God. The
Christian form expresses this in the very language,
only with a Christian adaptation of the 95th Psalm ;
the Jewish, in terms evidently in part derived from
it. (Thus : " For thou art the Lord our God"=" For
He is the Lord our God :" and " Be Thy Name, 0
King, exalted and lifted up on high"=" A great King
above all Gods.") It is possible, indeed6, that this
Psalm prefaced the entire Temple service, was thence
abbreviated into the representative form in which it
appears in that of the Synagogue, and so reached the
Christian services of the Eastern Church.
However this be, we notice two points of difference
between the Eastern and Western daily Offices as re-
gards the Venite. In the East, the Psalm itself is
not used, but only a threefold " invitation to praise,"
or " invitatory," based upon the first, third, and sixth
verses of it. In the West, on the contrary, the Psalm
itself seems to have been invariably used at full length :
the invitatory, based, as in the Greek Office, upon the
Psalm, being said at intervals f. And again, the form
of the invitatory itself, unvarying in the East, was in
the West almost infinitely diversified e, according to
the usages of different Churches, and the associations
of different seasons and festivals.
Here then is a specimen — the first that meets us —
e See note B at the end of the volume.
' The manner of inserting the invitatory in the older Offices of the
English Church is shewn in p. 122 of Leslie's Portiforium. The invi-
tatory was not always used in the West. St. Benedict's llule (cap. 9.)
gives a permission to omit it ; which some of the French orders availed
themselves of on all week-days. The Cluniac order seems never to have
used it. Vide Haeften, Disq. Monast., p. 713.
e An interesting collection of these variations will be found in p. 293
of the "Christian Remembrancer," No. 70, Oct. 1850. For the English
forms see Trausl. Sar. Psalt., p. 16.
76 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
of the way in which the West developed, both truth-
fully and beautifully, the simpler conceptions of the
early Eastern Church. It should be added, how-
ever, that no variation of later times ever exceeded,
and very few equalled, the Hebraic grandeur and sim-
plicity (an indication of its primitiveness) of the Eastern
invitatory, (vide p. 66). Neither did the Western in-
vitatories always sound the note of Christian praise :
e.g. the Roman form for the greater part of the year
is, " Let us adore the Lord who made us." Those of
the English Church — which were quite different —
were more true to this idea.
Our existing Offices have certainly experienced a
loss in point of ritual beauty and expressiveness,
in having parted not only with the varied Western
invitatories, — (the practicability of which, as of other
like features, in a public and congregational service,
has never yet been proved, and may well be doubted,)
— but also in not having reverted even to the primary
formula of the Greek Church, which doubtless served
to impress the character of Christian praise on the
whole psalmody of the Office and of the day. In
other respects, the exhortation, " Praise ye the Lord,"
(the old " Alleluia,") answers the purpose of the regu-
lar invitatory h, and was probably intended to do so,
when, in the first Book of Edward VI., the Venite
was ordered to be sung " without any invitatory," —
i.e. without any of the exact type which had been
customary. The response, " The Lord's Name be
praised," Avas added in 1662, and, though unlikely
to have been so intended, completes the resemblance
h The Hallelujah is frequently recognised as an invitatory in ancient
writers, e.g. St. Aug., "Nunc ergo exhortamur vos, ut laudetis Deum:
et hoc est quod omnes dicimus, Halleluia, Laudate Deum." Serin, cli.
de Temp.; Horn. xi. : and Vide Bingham, vol. iv. p. 458.
SECT. III.] PRIMITIVE FORM OP DAILY SERVICE.
77
to the regular Western invitatory, which was always
responded to in terms of itself. It is also a return
to the old Jewish and Greek commencement ; viz.
the Jewish ; " Blessed be Thou, 0 Lord our God."
Ans. " Blessed art Thou, 0 Lord :" — and the Greek ;
"Blessed be our God, now and for ever and ever."
Ans. " Amen. Glory be to Thee our God, glory to
Thee." (Vide sup., p. 65.) And, on the whole, the
present English Office happens to reflect, with more
accuracy than any other, the features of the Eastern in-
troduction, as having, (see end of Section v.,) 1. Con-
fession of sin ; 2. The Lord's Prayer ; 3. Portions of Ps.
li., viz. vv. 3, 9, 15, 17, in the sentences and versicles,
(the Greek Office has the whole Psalm next after the
invitatory) ; 4. Glory be, &c. ; 5. The Venite, with a
quasi-invitatory, followed immediately by Psalms, no
hymn intervening before them, as in the elder Western
Offices, nor any antiphon accompanying them, but
only the " Glory," &c. ; which in the Greek Church,
however, was only said at the end of all the Psalms l,
or of the three portions into which the psalmody
(or, as in the Office before us, Psalm cxix.,) was
divided.
Such are the links by which the introductory part
of the Western Offices stands connected with the cor-
responding portion of the primitive Eastern ones;
and, through that, with the ancient Jewish service of
the Synagogue. Further proofs of the same connec-
tion will be amply given in the next division of this
chapter. Enough has perhaps been said already to
make good the position, that the humbler no less
than the grander Offices of the Christian ritual were,
' So Cassian, ii. 18 ; Bingham, vol. iv. p. 406. The Roman Church
seems also to have had this usage in early times. Ibid., p. 430.
78 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [ciIAP. I.
as to their rudiments, derived from the Church of the
Elder Covenant.
SECTION IV.
" And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from
Jerusalem; half of them toward the Eastern sea, and half of them
toward the Western sea."
The commencement, then, of the ordinary or week-
day services of the Church, in the earliest times,
having been in all probability such as has been here
exhibited, — let us next inquire what other features
may, on tolerable grounds of evidence, be presumed
to have belonged to them.
And here I must speak in very different terms of
two sources of information, which appear to me to
have been estimated hitherto in the inverse ratio of
their deserts : the one, the Apostolical Constitutions
(so called) ; the other, the existing Offices of the
Eastern Church. The former of these has been far
too much deferred to, and the latter far too little, in
such endeavours as have been made to ascertain the
outline or contents of the ancient ordinary Services of
the Church. After the fullest consideration, I do not
hesitate to avow it as my opinion, that the account of
them given in the Constitutions is, taken as a whole,
entirely factitious and untrustworthy. Elements of
truth — in accordance with the practice of the compiler
of that singular document k — it doubtless contains ;
k For the latest and fullest estimate of the merits and demerits of
the Apostolical Constitutions, see " Christian Remembrancer," 1854.
SECT. IV.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE.
7!)
but it egregiously and palpably misrepresents the
entire actual status of ordinary worship in the first
two or three centuries. This would in itself be of
little importance ; but, unfortunately, Bingham (who
is copied, word for word, by Wheatley1 and others,)
has given weight and currency to these representa-
tions by the degree of deference which he pays to the
Constitutions in this matter. It becomes necessary,
on this account, to point out that they can only be
acquiesced in by utterly ignoring the concurrent tes-
timony of all antiquity besides. For instance, who can
credit, — after what we have seen of the general tone
of the Church's services, as represented by St. Basil,
in the fourth century, or with the knowledge that we
have of the delight which she has in other ages taken,
beginning with the very days of St. Paul, in mul-
titudinous and protracted psalmody"1; — who, with
this before their eyes, can credit that at any period
in the second, third, or fourth century, (to give the
widest possible range to the Constitutions,) two very
short Psalms (the 63rd and 141st) were all that was
sung in the morning and evening services ? Bingham
is naturally somewhat astonished at this, but labours
to shew that it may possibly be reconciled with what
we know from other sources n. But the truth is, that
this is not the only inconsistency or absurdity (for we
can call it no less) that appears in this scheme of
service. It is further represented that this one Psalm
was followed, morning and evening, by prayers for
catechumens, penitents, &c, concluding with a bene-
diction by the Bishop. Now in all this it is manifest
that the concoctor of this imaginary "daily service"
1 Wheatley, V. iii. 1, 2. - Ephes. v. 19. » XIII. x. 10; xi. 6.
80 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. i.
has applied to the week-days what can only have had
place in the Sunday services, and then only in the
morning Office. The solemn expulsion daily of the
various orders of persons who were not capable of
being admitted to the Eucharist, when no celebration
was about to follow, — and this repeated at the even-
ing service, — is so absurd as to be absolutely incredi-
ble. And the uniform concluding benediction by the
bishop is scarcely less manifestly borrowed from the
same source, viz. the Sunday idea of service. The
bishop's presence at the Eucharistic Service was in-
deed, as has been remarked already, almost a matter
of course in early times ; but this cannot, with any
probability, be supposed to have extended in all
cases to the daily Offices.
I conceive, then, that we may safely dismiss all
further consideration of the Constitutions as evidence
of the actual state of ordinary Church Service, as a
whole, in early times. At the same time they will be
found to confirm in various points, as if in spite of
themselves, the views which we obtain from more
trustworthy quarters.
In turning now to the other source of information
alluded to, — the existing daily Services of the Eastern
Church,' — I must first explain on what grounds I ven-
ture to claim for them a far higher authority, as wit-
nesses to ancient practice, than has been usually ac-
corded to them.
In the first place, then, tenacity of ancient ways
and customs characterizes, by universal admission,
the Eastern mind °. And we have already seen that
0 "Plebs rudis, antiqui ritus apprime tenax." — Goar, p. 26. Mr.
Palmer (ubi sup.) says he has not observed any discrepancy between
SECT. IV.] ritlMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 81
from the third or fourth century down to the present
day, certain features of the Eastern Church's ritual
have been handed on without alteration. The ques-
tion is, How far back may we, on good grounds, carry
this changelessness in the matter of Church Service?
And again, How much of the existing Eastern Ser-
vices does it include ?
Now it will be remembered, that the ground upon
which the early and primitive antiquity of these
Offices, as far as regards their general character and
their introductory portion, seemed capable of being
firmly based, was their correspondence, and all but
identity, as respects these, with the ancient Jewish
services. An entirely different, and, indeed, converse
kind of evidence must be appealed to for the antiquity
of other features and characteristics of them. It is
because we can discern, not obscurely or doubtfully,
that these Offices were to all subsequent ones of a
kindred kind, — even to those whose antiquity we can
trace the farthest back, — as a model after which they
were framed, and an authority to which they deferred :
it is therefore that we seem to be justified in as-
signing to them, or to certain features of them, how-
ever, an immense and indefinable antiquity. There
are certain curious, and at first sight unaccountable
phenomena in the various schemes of service drawn
out in later times (i. e. in the fifth and sixth centuries)
for the use of the Western Church, which are at once
explained by turning to the Offices of the East. This
is a kind of evidence which, from its nature, can be
but partially and imperfectly unfolded at this stage of
our inquiry. Nor, perhaps, can it be entirely appre-
the old Eastern Offices, as far as they arc disclosed by the writers of
the third and fourth centuries, and the existing ones.
G
82 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
ciated, except by such readers as already possess a
somewhat full and accurate acquaintance with the
Western ritual arrangements. Yet it may be well
briefly to exemplify in this place, what will hereafter
be made to appear more plainly, viz. that the Western
forms of ordinary service, while differing one from the
other more or less widely, are one and all manifestly
subject to a law as to their structure, and draw upon
a common source for their contents ; and that in the
Eastern Offices that law and that source are clearly
discernible.
Let me first, however, explain somewhat more dis-
tinctly, though it can be but very summarily, what
are the Western schemes of service to which I have
just referred.
It is pretty certain, then, that in the course of the
fifth and sixth centuries, — within a period extending
from about a.d. 420 to GOO, or later, — a scheme of
ordinary or daily service (distinct from the Eucha-
ristic) came to be very widely adopted in the Churches
of Europe, — chiefly in those of Rome, Milan, and parts
of France and Spain. How far it was purely an im-
portation, or was grafted upon an indigenous stock
of service already existing in each country, is diffi-
cult to determine. Upon this point we shall obtain
some light by and bye. In either case, its adoption
amounted to a vast reorganization of the previous
daily ritual of those Churches. But besides the
Churches, the monasteries also of Europe adopted
a scheme of service in its main features the same.
Who were the authors of these schemes we are only
in part informed. It seems certain that John Cas-
sian, a Thracian, brought up at St. Jerome's monas-
tery at Bethlehem, and ordained a Deacon by St. Chry-
sect. IV.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE.
83
sostom, was the first to introduce the leading princi-
ples of the new ritual into the Churches in the neigh-
bourhood of Marseilles, where he was abbot of a mo-
nastery. He had visited the East, and Egypt, and
has left an account of the devotions used in the
monasteries of the latter. It is generally agreed that
from that country the particular number of twelve
Psalms, for the nocturnal services, was imported into
Europe p. It may have found its way into Italy,
however, at an earlier period, as Athanasius had
founded a monastery at Aquileia, and the communi-
cations between Egypt and Italy were otherwise fre-
quent. But it is not until the time of St. Benedict,
circ. 530, that we can assign a definite date to any
entire Western ritual. About the time that he drew
up his scheme of service for the monastery of Cassino,
the Roman, the Milanese, French and Spanish Churches
(see Mabillon, Curs. Gall.) were completing theirs,
differing in many particulars, but all of them, in
common with St. Benedict's, adopting the following
as their outline : —
1. Noeturns, al. Matins; properly a niglit-service, used before
daylight, mostly with twelve Psalms read in course ; and lessons
more or fewer.
2. Lauds ; an early morning service, generally joined on to
the former at daybreak, with fixed Psalms, and Canticles.
3. Prime; a later morning service, with fixed Psalms.
4. Tierce ; at 9 a.m., ditto.
5. Sexts ; at 12 noon, ditto.
6. Nones ; at 3 p.m., ditto.
7. Vespers, or evening service ; with four or five Psalms read
in course, and Canticle.
8. Compline ; a service at bed-time, with fixed Psalms.
* Vide Palmer, Introd. p. 215. Cassian, Camob. Instit. Por various
opinions as to the birthplace of Cassian, see Milman, Hist. Latin
Christianity, vol. i. p. 129.
g2 '
84 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. X.
And now to proceed with our proofs of the common
derivation of all these schemes from the Oriental.
Do we observe then, in all of them, a remarkable
anxiety to connect the 21st Psalm ("The King shall
rejoice,") with the Sunday nocturnal service ; which
is accomplished in one case by ending^, in the other by
beginning*, the psalmody with that particular Psalm ?
The reason of such anxiety is seen at once, when we
find that this, with the 20th, was a fixed daily Psalm
at the early morning office of the Oriental Church5 ;
obviously on account of its being so well adapted
to carry on, in a striking manner, the idea of the
Invitatory repeated at the beginning of that service,
by exalting Christ as the Great King. It was
familiar therefore, doubtless, to the whole East, and
perhaps to the West also, as a Sunday Psalm more
especially, (the attendance at the Sunday services
being greater than on other days) ; so that the
framers of the newer Western Offices did not venture
to displace it, though it taxed their utmost ingenuity
to include it in their new schemes. One of these
schemes, it will be seen, has managed to retain the
20th as well as the 21st Psalm. In like manner,
in one plan (St. Benedict's) the third Psalm is pre-
fixed to the nocturnal office all the year round, while
in the other it is included in the eighteen Psalms.
i Brev. Rom. Sarisb., &c. Dora, ad Mat. The eighteen Psalms for
the Sunday nocturnal (i.e matins) office, in the Roman and old Eng-
lish uses, were from the first to the ttcenti/frst inclusive; omitting
Pss. iv. and v., and reckoning our Pss. ix. and x. as one.
* R«g. St. Benedicti Vigil. Dom. (and Bona, Div. Psalm, xviii. 3.)
The twelve Psalms for the Sunday vigil (or nocturnal) office in
St. Benedict's scheme, were from the twenty-first to the thirty-second,
inclusive.
■ Infra, sect. vi.
SECT. IV.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 85
This arrangement, again, satisfied an old condition
of morning psalmody : Psalm iii. having always had
a place at the Eastern early morning office, as the
first of a group of six Psalms. It will be observed
that in these and other instances the Western framers
drew freely upon the Eastern early morning office for
their own " nocturns this having in fact become
a morning office, only used before daylight.
So again, was it a universal rule throughout the
West, (as Bona has observed, though he had no idea
why it was so that the Psalms, so far as they were
sung in regular order, should be spread over the
night (i. e. matins) services of the week, in such
a way as to be used as far as the 109^ inclusive, and
no further ? No reason can possibly be assigned for
so arbitrary a rule, but this, — that in the Greek
office this was the last Psalm u at the early morning
office of every day. It was manifestly placed there
for the sake of its commencement, (" Deus laudem
nieam," "Hold not Thy tongue, 0 God of my
praise") praise or lauds being the key-note of that
office. It had acquired, too, unusual prominence,
by having certain hymns (stic/iera) varying with the
day, sung between the verses of it. It had thus
become inseparably associated with the close of the
nocturno-matutinal office, and accordingly was pre-
served in the West as the conclusion of the zoeek's
nocturnal or matin psalmody, whatever might be
the plan on which the preceding Psalms were dis-
' Bona, Div. Psalmod. xviii. 1. p. 861. "All nations of the Western
Church agree in this, that they terminate the (week's) night services
(i. e. the matins) with Ps. cix., and begin the day-hours with the
110th."
u Bona, p. 905.
80 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
tributed. Thus, in one scheme", the Saturday noc-
turns Psalms are from the 97th to the 109th; in an-
other5", the 101st to the 109th. So, once more, when
Psalms were wanted to furnish forth or complete new
offices for the 1st, 3rd, 0th, and 9th hours, which had
not been originally hours for Church worship, the
Western compilers borrowed the entire 119th Psalm
for the purpose from the Greek nocturnal Office. In
one of these schemes", it was arranged so as to be
read through daily ; in another a, it was made to last
two days j other Psalms being found for the rest
of the week. As to the Greeks themselves, when
they adopted these more novel day offices, they re-
tained the 119th Psalm in its old place, and provided
for them another selection of Psalms.
These instances, with others which will be adduced
hereafter, abundantly prove that the Eastern daily
offices were to the later Western ritual nothing less
than the quarry whence the materials for its stately
structure were hewn, — the fountain whence it drew
its inspirations, — the law which, amid its widest di-
versities, and in its boldest developments, it instinc-
tively recognised and obeyed.
I am content to have proved this for the present,
of the later Western ritual; reserving for a future
chapter the grounds there are for believing that the
earlier forms in use in the West, took their rise, too,
in the same primitive fount which has been here in-
dicated.
x Brev. Rom. Sar. Sabb. ad Mat.
r Reg. S. Bened. ad Vig. Sabbat.
1 Brev. Rom. Sarisb. &c., and Primam, quoted.
• Reg. S. Benedict. Domin. et Per. 2*. ad Tcrt. Sext. Non.
sect, v.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE.
87
SECTION V.
" In the night His song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the
God of my life At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto
Thee."
It may seem strange that so obvious a key to the
intricacies of the Western Offices, as that which the
previous section suggests, should never have been
applied hitherto to their elucidation. This, however,
is easily accounted for, when we consider that the few
who, like Bona, had sufficient knowledge of Eastern
ritual for the purpose, held it far too cheaply to
imagine the possibility of the Western Offices being
in any way beholden to it. Others, as Bingham, had
a very slender acquaintance with the existing Eastern
daily services. Goar has only commented on a small
portion of them ; nor, until the publication of a re-
cent work b, was anything like an accurate or intelli-
gible account of them accessible to the English reader.
Much less have they been laid under contribution, as
the Eastern Communion Offices have, (by Renaudot,
Palmer, and others,) in illustration of Western ritual.
We proceed to inquire how much of the present
Eastern offices may be considered to possess a claim
to antiquity. On this head, indeed, we cannot ex-
pect to arrive at any great exactitude ; nor is it very
important for our purpose that we should do so.
Yet it may answer a good purpose to set forth,
at this point in our inquiry, what we may reasonably
b The Rev. J. M. Ncalc's General Introduction to the History of tho
Holy Eastern Church. 2 vols.
S8 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
presume to have been, from some very early time, the
genera] outline of these offices. Those, more espe-
cially, to whom the study of ancient ritual is un-
trodden ground, and to whom the vastness and com-
plexity of the later Western Offices presents a for-
midable appearance, may be not unwilling to con-
template them in this their earlier and simpler stage.
We may also notice as we pass some of the points
on which our own Offices, in time past or present,
receive illustration from this source; thus relieving,
it may be hoped, the dryness of merely antiquarian
discussion.
Judging then by the existing Greek Services, com-
bined with the evidence of antiquity, there were
daily in the Christian Church, from immemorial ages,
— that is to say, we know not how early, — three
offices of ordinary worship, resolving themselves in
practice into two. Of these, the first, probably, in
point of antiquity, and, when viewed in conjunction
with the office next succeeding it, in importance also,
was the Midnight (to MecrovvKTiKov) or Nocturnal
Office0 proper; commencing at or after midnight,
and extending to the dawn of day.
The second, following upon the first without
any interval d, was the Early Morning Office6,
(to ' OpOpov.)
c Bona, Psalmod. xviii. 13. Neale, Gen. Introd., p. 912. Goar,
(Euchol., pp. 26, 46,) makes remarks on the office, but does not give it.
11 Quotidiana laudum divinarum officia a vigiliis nocturnis auspi-
cantur Greeci. K^tovuktik^ aliud officiuin op8pos> sub adventu lucis
persolvendum, jungitur." The two corresponding offices in the Latin
Church were avowedly continuous, probably from the earliest times.
Vide Bona, Div. Psalm, iv. 5. 1.
e Goar calls it the Lauds Office ; and so Neale, p. 913. But the
name signifies a morning (or dawn) office, and nothing else. Bona
calls it Matins, (and so Xing,) reckoning the latter part of it as Lauds ;
which is surely more correct, — only it leads to a confusion with the
.jliCT. v.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE.
89
The third in importance, though reckoned first
in order by the Orientals, was the Evening Office,
(to 'EaTrepivov,) taking place not earlier than 6 p.m.
of the preceding evening.
The leading characteristic of all these services, or
rather of both of them, (for they may with propriety be
spoken of as two',) was, notwithstanding a large infu-
sion of the penitential element, and of prayers and
litanies, that they were great offices of psalmody and
hymns, — orbs of Divine Song, the greater and the
less, ruling over the day and over the night. It was
thus that, on ordinary days, the Christians of early
times fulfilled, in the order in which they are given
by St. Paul to the Ephesian Church, those two great
precepts of Divine Service : — "Be filled with the
Spirit, speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in
your hearts unto the Lord; giving thanks8 always
for all things to God and the Father in the Name
of our Lord Jesus Christ and again, " Praying
always with all prayer and supplication, and watching
{aypvTrvovvTts) thereunto with all perseverance."
Both these Offices, the Nocturno-Matdtinal and
the Evening, contained certain fixed Psalms ; while
Western Matins. The term adopted in the text, while correctly
translating ipBpov, avoids this confusion.
' Goar fully recognises these two (the midnight + the morning, and
the evening offices) as the great occasions of daily worship, even if there
were others, from the earliest times. "Quotidianus Ecclesiae usus,
Patrumque antiquorum auctoritas, apostolicis institutis, sciiptura, et
ratioue fundata, Matutinum (vide sup. note d.) et Vespcrtinum Con-
vent um solemniori apparatu ubiquc pcragi ostendit." Euchol., p. 9.
e The term (uxapKrrovvTts (Eph. v. 20.) doubtless includes, or even
primarily intends, the Eucharist. Yet it cannot but include also these
more ordinary devotions, by which the mind of Eucharistic praise and
prayer was carried on through the week.
90
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
[ctiap. t
others, it is most probable, were sung in the order in
which they occur in the Psalter, according as the
time allowed. There is no reason to think that the
arrangement b by which, in the Greek Church at the
present day, the Psalms are generally sung through in
the week, in addition to the fixed Psalms, is of greater
antiquity than about the third or fourth century, since
we find different rules about this prevailing in different
Churches ' at that period.
The earlier or midnight portion of the Nocturno-
Matutinal Office commenced with the Introduction
already described (p. 65), and proceeded thus: —
(First Watch*, or Nocturn.)
Psalm li.
Psalm cxix. in three portions,
(each portion ending with " Glory" and Alleluia, thrice).
The Nicene Creed.
Trisagion (p. 66.) and " Most Holy Trinity," ib.
The Lord's Prayer.
Two midnight hymns, (p. 92).
Hymn of the Incarnation.
Kyrie eleison (forty times).
Prayer for grace and protection.
Ejaculatory petitions.
(Second Watch, or Nocturn.)
Invitatory, viz.
" 0 come let us worship," &c. (as p. 66).
Psalm exxi. (" I will lift up mine eyes.")
Psalm exxxiv. (" Behold now, praise.")
" Glory."
Trisagion, and " Most Holy Trinity."
The Lord's Prayer.
Hymns.
Kyrie eleison, (twelve times).
Remembrance of the departed.
h Neale, p. 856.
1 e. g. in the Armenian. Yide Bona, Psalmod. xviii. 15.
J S. Benedict calls thcui Vigilise : Beg. c. 9.
SECI. v.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE.
91
Short thanksgiving hymn to the Trinity.
Dismissal benediction.
The Triest requests forgiveness from the people.
Litany.
Iii this simple and undoubtedly very ancient Ser-
vice, there are several points worthy of observation.
It is, first of all, in name, and doubtless was origi-
nally in practice also, not a nocturnal merely, but
a midnight Service. This, however little accordant
with the general practice in subsequent ages, (even
in St. Basil's time it had apparently ceased to be a
fxeaouvKTiKou, and was only antelucan,) is thoroughly
in the spirit of the very first age of the Church's
being, when the expectation of her Lord's Second
Coming was so vivid, and so closely connected with
the midnight hour more especially. And of the
existence, accordingly, of a habit of midnight worship
in Apostolic times, we have an indication in the Acts
of the Apostles ; Paul and Silas, in the prison at Phi-
lippi, breaking out " at midnight" (/caret to /xeao-
vvktiov) into " a hymn of praise and prayer to God,"
(Trpoaevypixtvoi vjivovv tov Qeov, Acts xvi. 25 ; see
also xx. 7). The title then of the Office furnishes
a strong presumption for its primitiveness ; for at
what subsequent time, it may be asked, previous
to the rise of monasticism in the third and fourth
centuries, was an office for such an hour so likely to
originate ? The contents of it, again, clearly bespeak
it a midnight office ; as regards, that is to say, the
first of the two " nocturns" into which it is divided ;
which is exactly the part which might be expected
to bear this character. For the 119th Psalrn was
no doubt chosen for this among other reasons, that
92 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. I.
it alone, in the whole Psalter, speaks of the actual
midnight hour as proper for devotion : " At mid-
night I will rise to give thanks to Thee," (v. 52) ;
while it also refers to the " night" and the " night-
watches" generally, (vv. 55, 148). But the very solemn
hymns in the first nocturn are also of profoundly
midnight character : —
" Behold the Bridegroom cometh in the middle of the night ;
and blessed is that servant, whom He shall find watching ; but
unworthy he, whom He shall find careless. Beware therefore,
my soul, lest thou sink down in sleepk, lest thou shouldst be
given over to death, and be shut out from the kingdom ; but be
sober, and cry, ' Holy, Holy, Holy art Thou, 0 God . . . have
mercy upon us.'
" That day, the day of fear, consider, my soul, and watch,
lighting thy lamp, and making it bright with oil ; for thou
knowest not when the voice will come to thee that saith, Be-
hold the Bridegroom. Beware therefore, my soul, lest thou
slumber, and so remain without, knocking, like the five virgins.
But persevere in watching, that thou mayest meet Christ with
rich oil, and He may give thee the divine wedding-garment of
His glory."
One thing more may be observed in connexion with
this midnight office; viz. that, divided as it is into
two parts, it seems, when taken in conjunction with
the evening and the early morning offices, to carry
out with great exactness the precept of our Lord :
" Watch ye therefore, for ye know not when the
master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight,
or at the cock-crowing, or in the morning!' For so
was the night at that time divided into four periods ;
— I- 'Oxfrel, the evening, from twilight to 9 p.m.
k MJ) ti£ uTTVtf> KdTtvexOrjs, Iva [17] t<£ Savarif TrapaSoSfjs : an evident allu-
sion to Eutyckus' sinking down in sleep at the midnight service at Troas,
and being taken up dead: Acts xs. Coinp. v. 7, p-tXP'- h&ovvktIov.
and V. 9, KarevexOds toO virvov . . ijp9ii ViKpis.
SECT, v.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE.
03
II. MeaovvKTiov, midnight, or the first watch, from
9 to 12. III. 'AXeKTopcxpcovla, (cock-crowing, or the
second watch,) from 12 to 3 a.m. IV. Tipcat, morn-
ing till daybreak1.
This service corresponds, again, very exactly in
many particulars with St. Basil's account of the noc-
turnal service in the fourth century. We have, 1st,
the penitential introduction ; 2nd, psalmody following,
(the hymns are mentioned by other writers) ; 3rd,
prayers intermingled. Further, the psalmody is of
two kinds, apparently corresponding to St. Basil's de-
scription. For he says that at one time, "dividing
themselves into two choirs, they sing alternately,
securing hereby at once due meditation on the Di-
vine Oracles," viz. by listening in turns silently,
" and also providing against distraction of their own
thoughts," by having a part to perform themselves.
All this agrees remarkably with the character of Ps.
cxix., which is so emphatically throughout neXerrj
Xoylcov, " a meditation on the Oracles" (the term itself,
Xoyia, occurs eighteen times, and an equivalent for it
in every verse ; /xeXer-q frequently, vv. 24, 47, &c.) :
while it also especially calls for the alternate method,
to keep up the attention. Here too we see a probable
reason, or at any rate a compensation, for the absence
of Scripture Lessons in the Eastern daily Offices ;
this Psalm and others being used as a meditation no
less than as praise.
St. Basil, again, says that at another part of the
psalmody, they allowed one to begin, or rather lead,
the singing, {Kardpyeiv,) the others joining in at the
close either of each verse, or more probably of each
1 Jalm, Archscol. 101.
94 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. I.
Psalm. Now of the two Psalms appointed for the
second nocturn, one at least, the 134th, is especially
adapted by its construction for this purpose ; the last
verse (" The Lord that made Heaven and Earth give
thee blessing out of Sion,") being confessedly a re-
sponse to the first three. It is further to be remarked,
that these two Psalms are the first but one, and the
last, of the well-known and kindred fifteen (cxx. —
cxxxiv.) called " Songs of degrees," following next
after the 119th, (which was sung in the first nocturn);
and it is very conceivable that the rest of the Psalms
of the group may have been used, more or fewer, as
time permitted, to fill out the office. This suppo-
sition would bring the night service into yet fuller
harmony with St. Basil's account ; for he says, " Thus,
with variety of psalmody, they carry on the night."
The modern practice, in this office alone, does not
add any course of Psalms to the fixed ones. But the
"fifteen Psalms" are used at Vespers during apart of
the year, (from Sept. 20 to Christmas,) only substitut-
ing Ps. cxxxvi. to make up the number ; Ps. cxxxiv.
being omitted, as occurring in the night officem. This
is the more striking, because it is an infraction of the
ordinary distribution of the Psalms, and points per-
haps to some such anciently prevailing habit as I have
supposed, of using these Psalms as a group. And as
the origin of their title of " Songs of degrees," accord-
ing to the Jews themselves, is that they were "sung
on certain steps" in the sanctuary, between the court
of the men and women D, we seem to have here an-
other link between the Temple Services and those of
the early Church. Another account derives the name
■ Vide Ncale, Iutrod. pp. S55, G. ■ Ilcngstcnbcrg, Ts. cxx.
sect, v.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 95
from their being sung in chorus by the Levites or
priests, "not by the crowd of people, but by some
distinguished persons, who sung before the rest ; —
they were sung, or at least begun, from a high place."
(Luther, ibid.). This, again, which is perfectly recon-
cileable with the other account, singularly agrees with
the view we have elicited, of the probable manner of
saying these particular Psalms in the early Church.
Hengstenberg, however, acquiesces in another view,
viz. that these were songs sung by the pilgrims
as they went up yearly to Jerusalem at the great
festivals. They may have been so, and have been
sung in the Temple besides. He remarks further, in
terms singularly apposite to our present subject, that
" Ps. cxxi. ('I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills,')
was designed to be sung in sight of the mountains of
Jerusalem, and is manifestly an evening song for the
band of pilgrims, to be sung in the last night-watch ; —
Ps. exxii. ('I was glad when they said unto me,')
when they reached the gates of Jerusalem, and halted
for the purpose of forming in order, for the solemn
procession into the sanctuary ; in which they used
Ps. exxxiv." We have here a very plausible account,
at least, of the selection of these two Psalms, cxxi.
and exxxiv. (to the omission of Ps. cxx.) as the fixed
Psalms for the second Christian nocturn.
On this view of Hengstenberg's, too, the singular
and unique provision made about these fifteen Psalms
in the present usage of the Greek Church, is seen
to be most beautiful and appropriate. The only
period of the year in which any long portion of
the Psalms is repeated evening after evening is the
fifteen weeks before Christmas Day. And the Psalms
96 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. I.
so distinguished are, as we have seen, no other than
these "Pilgrim songs." The idea evidently is that
the Church is then approaching week by week — a
week for each song of degrees, — to the true Tabernacle
and Temple which our blessed Lord by His Nativity
"pitched among men." These Psalms are also said
on week-days in Lent. The Western Church has
inherited a precisely analogous usage. The fifteen
Psalms were anciently said every day during Lent,
and are still appointed for every Wednesday in that
season. Their being thus used at evening in the
Greek Church, while it is in exact accordance with
Hengstenberg's hypothesis, may more immediately
have arisen from their having been occasionally sung
in the primitive night office, as suggested. The
fitness of them, or of any of them, for that office,
independent of any Jewish association, is manifest.
"No one of them," observes Hengstenberg, "bears
an individual character ; all refer to the whole Church
of God ; finally, all bear the character of pensive
melancholy. The fundamental thought in all is, the
Providence of God watching over His Church."
These somewhat lengthened remarks on the possible
origin of the certainly very ancient, and probably Apo-
stolic psalmodical arrangements before us, will not,
I trust, be thought misplaced. Nothing, surely, can
be much more interesting or instructive, than to trace
as far back as we can the details of a service which
was unquestionably the incunabula and earliest stage
of those which we possess at the present day.
For, to proceed with our comments on the Eastern
Nocturnal Office, we cannot fail to observe in it the
manifest germ of many subsequent arrangements in
SECT. V.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 97
the Western Ritual. The division of the nocturnal
service into two " nocturns," as they were sometimes
called, both commencing, in a measure, in the same
way, was doubtless connected with the ancient Jewish
distribution of the night into " watches." It would
also answer the purpose of allowing the worshippers
to relieve one another. The nocturn idea was adopted
in the most marked manner in the West. In the
Benedictine scheme the "nocturns" are two, as in the
Greek, with the addition of a third on Sundays. In
the Roman and English use, on Sundays and Festi-
vals, the nocturns are also three ; though on ordinary
days there is but one. And we may observe an indi-
cation of the two (or three) nocturns having ceased to
be in reality distinct services, in there being no repe-
tition, in the Western forms, of any portion of the
commencement of the office.
The Psalms of the first nocturn in the Greek Office
are immediately followed by the Creed and the Lord's
Prayer. The generally received opinion s, as to the
date at which these formularies first began to be used
in public worship, would go far to deprive this fea-
ture, at any rate, of the offices before us, of all claims
to antiquity. In another part of this work4, however,
some reasons are given for believing that the conceal-
ment of the Lord's Prayer from the unbaptized, by
excluding it from the earlier part of the Communion
Office, was not of Apostolic, but of somewhat later
date ; and the occurrence in this office both of it and
of the Creed, far from militating necessarily against
its antiquity, may equally well, at least, be an evi-
* Vide Bingham, vol. iv. p. 465 ; v. 139. Palmer, Orig., vol. i. pp. 215
•—217. The considerations in the text seem to be a sufficient reply to
Mr. Palmer's view. Bingham only proves the late admission of the
Creed into the Communion Office.
' Part II., chapter on Primitive Form of Liturgy.
H
98 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
dence of its dating earlier than the introduction of
that system of concealment. It would by no means
be imperative, when that discipline came in, to eject
these features from the scheme of the service, but
only to veil them by using them silently; just as
in the Eastern Communion Offices (in the Alexan-
drian more especially) the Lord's Prayer seems to
have been concealed by a paraphrase. This, accord-
ingly, I conceive to be the true account to be given
of our finding the Creed and Lord's Prayer in the
existing Eastern Offices. The Creed in the earliest
times would of course be comparatively brief 5 but the
rudiments at least of such a formula were certainly
delivered by St. Paul to the Churches, (vide 1 Cor.
xv. 1, &c.) and doubtless by the other Apostles. And
it is almost inconceivable that the Churches of the
East can have secured a correct, uniform, and uni-
versal acquaintance with the articles of the Christian
faith, on the part of their members, in any other way
than by using the Creed, from the time its very ru-
diments existed, in their public Offices. Now, in the
way here supposed, they might perfectly well thus
have used it, even during the prevalence of the cate-
chumenical system. And this supposition will ac-
count, as perhaps nothing else can, for our finding
the Creed and Lord's Prayer said silently, or under
the breath, (except the beginning and the conclusion,)
in the Western Daily Offices. Various fanciful reasons
have been assigned for this practice" j but it is mani-
" Thus Durandus (ad Prim.), ingeniously enough : " The Creed is
said in a low voice, but the conclusion aloud ; to signify that with the
heart man believcth to righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation." But the "Myrroure" (a 15th century Com-
mentary on the Hours ; vide Maskeil,) tells us it is because the
Apostles' Creed "was made privily, before the faith was openly
preached to the world." Transl. Sarum Psalt, p. 11 S. Equally good
SECT, v.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 99
festly a relic of the ancient system of concealment, and
was most probably derived directly from this part of
the Greek Offices. The ancient English Nocturnal
Office has both the Creed and Lord's Prayer in ex-
actly the position31 which they here occupy, namely,
immediately after the Psalms ; only said by the choir,
however, and privately, not as an actual part of the
Office. The Roman use has not the Creed in the
same position, but only the Lord's Prayer.
But the Creed and Lord's Prayer also occurred
daily7 of old in the body of the English Offices, as
it still does ; preceded by the Kyrie eleison, Chrisle
eleison, &c, in Greek, (said in the English Office nine
times,) and followed shortly after by the " Trisagion,"
as in the Greek Office, — " Sanctus Deus, Sanctus
fortis, Sanctus (et, Angl.) immortalis." And to this
again succeeded (which is surely most remarkable),
on certain occasions2, and in the English Office only,
the very Psalm (121st) which we find presently in
the second Greek Nocturn.
One thing more we may observe about the Creed
in the Greek Office, viz. that it followed immediately
upon the great meditative Psalm (119th) which, as has
been observed, stood the ancient Church, in some
sort, in the stead of Lessons in their ordinary night
service; while it precedes the Lord's Prayer, the
prayer for protection, and other petitions. The latter
arrangement is found, accordingly, in the Western
Prime Office, (which was the chief office of prayer,
reasons for the silent use of the Lord's Prayer may be seen in Durau-
dus, 1. c.
1 Brev. Sarisb. Rubr. ad noct. i. Mat. Dom. i. de Advent.
7 viz. among the Preces, used at Prime all the year round (except on
three days) in our Church ; much more rarely in the Roman.
1 viz. when there was a Mcmoria, or commemoration of a festival.
H 2
100 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [ CHAP. I.
see below, chap, iii.) and survives in our own ser-
vices. The former was, accidentally as it should seem,
restored in the English Offices at the revision of them
in 1549, by the Creed's taking its place immediately
after the Lessons and Canticles.
The Lord's Prayer is followed, in both the Nocturns
of the Greek Office, by hymns. The immense anti-
quity of the practice of singing hymns, and not Psalms
merely, in the Offices of the Church, is well known.
The term, though doubtless originally applicable to
Psalms, and used with this latitude in St. Matt. xxvi.
and 30, Acts xvi. 25, is evidently not identical with
yJ/a.A/j.0?, since St. Paul enumerates both\ A hymn
has been well defined as a " Song addressed to God\"
Hence it came to be applied very early to Christian
songs of praise, inspired or otherwise, as distinguished
from the ancient Psalms ; more especially to such
as were addressed to Christ : though the term Psalm
was also not unfrequently applied to these also. Philo,
in the curious passage already referred to, says that
the persons in the first century whose habits he de-
scribes, " did not only meditate, but also compose
songs and hymns to the praise of God ;" and that
" in their night service, one of them would stand up
and sing a hymn to God's praise, either newly com-
posed by himself, or long ago by one of the old
Prophets0." And as Eusebius (circ. 320) thought the
Christians were meant, it is evident that in his time
such hymns existed in the Church's nocturnal services,
for it is of such services that Philo is speaking. In the
next succeeding ages, as we have seen, they are men-
tioned together with Psalms, as a characteristic of the
' Epb. v. 19 ; Col. iii. 16.
b 'H us @(bv o>8r). Yide Bona, Psalmod. xvi. 9. c Philo, ubi sup.
sect, v.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 101
ordinary service of Christians. Hymns were duly
retained in the newer forms adopted in the West in
the fifth and sixth, centuries ; with this peculiarity,
that the hymn, at nocturns, immediately followed the
invitatory. It is probable that in this position it was
originally no more than a metrical expansion of the
invitatory. Such at least is obviously the character
of the simple hymn, attributed to St. Gregory, which
was universally used in the Western Sunday office
during the greater part of the yeard. In the case of
ordinary hymns, the more natural and preferable ar-
rangement appears to be that of the Greek Office,
as placing the uninspired after the inspired. We can
hardly regret therefore, that in the English Revision,
the hymn (or anthem) was omitted in this position,
and placed (in 1662) later in the Office; as nearly
as possible in the position which it occupies in the
Greek Office, and in the Western Lauds and Vespers.
Though indeed there is another light in which the
hymns in the Greek Service may be considered. Tak-
ing the Psalms, more especially the 119th in the first
noctum, to be in one point of view (as St. Basil repre-
sents them) Scripture Lessons, read and meditated
upon, we have in the hymns a sort of response to
them ; exactly such as the Tc Deum, Benedictus, and
Magnificat are to the actual reading of Scripture in
the Western Offices. Nor is it at all improbable that
the use of these particular hymns, of the Te Deum
especially, as responsories to the Lessons, may have
originated in the offices before us. It is certainly most
u Brev. Sarisb. ad Mat. from 1st Sund. after Trin. to Advent — (to
1st Sund. in October, Rom.) ;
" Nocte surgentes, vigilemus omnes,
Semper in Psalmis meditemur, atque
Viribia totis Domiuo canamus ....
Ut pio Eegi pariter caneutes," &c.
102
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
remarkable that the two hymns following the 119th
Psalm and the Creed in the Greek first nocturn, have
much in common with the Te Deum6; as containing
(p. 92) the invocation, " Holy, Holy, Holy," and as
expressing, though in different ways, faith in the Incar-
nation, and the expectation of Christ's "coming to be
our Judge." The two forms, the Greek and the Latin,
are probably amplifications of the primitive elements
which are common to them. The Saturday nocturns
hymn of the Greek Church makes a yet nearer ap-
proach to the Te Deum ; as it speaks of our " imitat-
ing on earth the Powers in Heaven, by crying aloud,
' Holy, Holy, Holy, art Thou, 0 God,' (comp. ' All
the earth doth worship Thee .... To Thee all Angels
cry aloud, the Heavens and all the Powers therein.
To Thee,' &c, ' Holy, Holy, Holy/ &c.)"
Both portions of the Greek Office terminate with
prayers ; the latter has also a dismissal blessing,
which seems to be properly the conclusion of the
entire Service. Yet there follows, as if a sort of after-
thought, a Litany, preceded by a request on the
priest's part for the people's forgiveness ; to which
they respond by a reverence, and he sums up with
a prayer of pardon for all. Now all this strikingly
corresponds with another well-known feature of the
Western Ritual. Towards the close of the Prime
and Compline, and after a sort of dismissal benedic-
tion has been given, — "The almighty and merciful
God bless and keep us all. Amen," — the old English
use prescribed, all the year round, (not, as the Ro-
man, on certain days only,) f an interchange of ac-
e On the following up of Scripture lessons with the Te Deum, see
further, below, sect. vi. fin., and note D at the end of the volume.
' Bubr. Brev. Sarisb. ad Prim, et Compl. (The only exceptions
were the three days before Easter, and All Souls' day.) Brev. Bom., ib.
Ibis does not seem to have been in the Boman Ollices at all when
SECT. T.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE.
103
knowledgment of sin, and request for intercession,
between the priest and choir ; after which the priest
said an absolution, and then followed petitions and
collects. This is doubtless derived, though with some
variations, from — or from a common source with — the
Greek ceremony ; — which is a request of the priest only
to the people for their blessing and forgiveness, in case
(as it would seem to mean) he has, to their common
loss, committed any error in the preceding service5; and
the prayer for pardon or absolution is forthwith said
by him on behalf of all. The "Western form is a more
distinct and comprehensive confession of having sinned,
and is said first by the priest to the people, and then
vice versa', as is also the formula of praying for
mercy : the priest summing up with a desire of par-
don for all. So that the ceremony, as adopted and
modified in the West, was evidently intended to be
mainly official ; — an interchange of acknowledgments
between the persons officially performing the Service
(for to them it is confined) of any imperfections in
the discharge of their duties in the whole preceding
services of the day. For it occurred towards the close
of the last of those three offices, (Nocturns, Lauds,
and Prime,) which were commonly taken together at
the beginning of the day ; and again in the last office
at night, the Compline : and so was appropriately
placed to answer this purpose. And it may have
been as taking this view of it, as well as on ac-
Amalarius (9th cent.) and Durandus (13th) commented upon them.
But of its having existed from the first in the English Office, toge-
ther with other features of the Greek Nocturns (as e. g. Ps. cxxi.),
which the Roman has not, there seems no reason to doubt.
* This view will account for what Mr. Neale remarks upon, (in loc.,)
viz. the postponement of this rite to the end of the Greek Office. Com-
pare the confession, &c, at end of Compline, below, ch. iii. sect. i.
104 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. I.
count of its objectionable form, that our Revisers of
1549 omitted this feature altogether, considering it
ill-adapted, as such, to be retained in a service which
they pre-eminently designed to restore to congre-
gational use. The intended range of the Western
"confession and absolution" may well, however, have
been wider than this, though this its ancient appli-
cation was chiefly kept in view. It is commonly
understood11 as a confession of the sins of the night
or day preceding : and in this character it was first
removed by Quignon (1535) in his revision of the
Roman Offices, to the beginning of the Matins ; and
also, (doubtless by following in his track,) on second
thoughts, and after much modification, assigned the
same position by our Revisers in 1552.
The Eastern night-office on Sundays is totally dif-
ferent from that of the week-days, which has been
now described. This is entirely in accordance with
the view adopted above, (section ii.) of the week-day
night services having had a separate origination from
those of the Sunday.
I have thus dwelt at some length on the nocturnal
Eastern service, because of the extraordinary degree
in which — considering its comparative brevity and
simplicity — it illustrates, and indeed supplies the
true rationale of various parts of the Western Offices ;
— of those of our own Church, both unrevised and
revised, more especially. There is also, I conceive,
considerable appearance of this part of the Eastern
Offices having been far less altered or expanded than
any other. Some features, indeed, as the hymns, are
h Bona, Psalmod. xvi. 20. "Ad Primam et Completorium...y«?«i;ra//s
confessio recitatur, ut quicquid in node vel die quocunaue modo deli-
quimus, pcenitentise lavacro mundemus."
SECT, v.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 105
doubtless, in their present form, of later date. But,
as compared with the Offices used at early morning,
or at evening, the nocturnal Office is simplicity and
primitiveness itself. Those obviously more recent
arrangements l, by which the manner of singing the
Psalms in course (besides the fixed Psalms) is regu-
lated, and the festivals of saints are commemorated
with a vast variety and complexity of hymnsk, find no
place in this, as in those other Offices. Whatever
of expansion and enlargement, in short, the Eastern
Offices, in the East itself, received in the course of
ages, it fell (as was natural when the zeal for actual
night services had somewhat declined) on those of the
early morning and the evening, leaving the night
Office comparatively untouched. This Office also
contains, perhaps, a greater number of elements of
Divine Service than either of the other two ancient
Eastern Offices ; viz. Psalms (both as an act of praise
and as a lesson for meditation) and hymns; peni-
tential confession, and a species of absolution; the
Creed, and the Lord's Prayer ; short petitions and set
prayers ; and a litany. Here, therefore, we discern,
even in this short compass, those three great features
of the Church's ordinary service, which the subse-
quent Western expansions brought out with ever-y_^
increasing distinctness ; — praise, perception of divine
mysteries and knowledge, and prayer : — correspond-
ing to, and in a manner carrying on continually,
through the whole contexture of the Christian life, g
the great acts of the Eucharist, — oblation, participa- ***
tion, and pleading.
* For these vide Neale, pp. 855, 897, 918. Compare the rubric at
end of Midnight Office : — " Observe that the Office is to be sung thus
all the week."
k Ibid., pp. 903, &c, 921, &c. Below, sect. vi. fin.
106 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. I.
We may not unfitly conclude this section by ex-
hibiting in one view the points of resemblance be-
tween the Greek nocturnal Office and our own
Morning Service, or Matins. I am far, indeed, from
attaching first-raie importance to this resemblance,
striking as it is. There doubtless remain, after all,
not a few points of dissimilarity ; and some of the
coincidences, as e. g. between the responsory hymns,
may not be made out with any absolute certainty. I
am aware, too, that if we take in the continuous psal-
mody which followed the Greek Nocturns uninter-
ruptedly, the resemblance will then be, especially as to
form, rather between the Greek services and the unre-
vised English Offices of Nocturns, (or Matins,) and
Lauds. However, it must be confessed to be very re-
markable, and to indicate no small degree of correct
instinct in our Revisers, that they should have brought
back our Offices to so near an essential and even cir-
cumstantial correspondence with their original and
probably Apostolic phase.
In the following scheme, such features of our
Office as have been removed from their proper place
for comparison's sake, are indicated by brackets.
Eastern Nocturnal Office. English Matins.
First Nocturn.
Benediction.
Penitential prayers for abso- Penitential sentences, con-
lution and cleansing. fession, absolution.
Glory be, &c.
Our Father, &c. (aloud). Our Father, &c. (aloud).
For Thine is, &c. Amen. For Thine is, &c. Amen.
Kyrie eleison, (12 times). Penitential versicles, viz. :
[Greek Morn. Off., "0 "0 Lord, open Thou our,"
Lord, open Thou my," &c. &c.
"And my mouth," &c.j "And our mouth," &c.
Glory be, &c. Glory be, &c.
sect, v.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 107
Eastern Nocturnal Office.
Invitatory,
from
Ps. xcv., viz. : " O come let us
worship God our King," &c.
Ps. li.
Ps. cxix., in three parts.
Glory be, kc, at end of
each.
[On Sat., Pss. lxv.— lxvii.
lxviii. — lxx.]
Alleluia, i. e. " Praise ye the
Lord."
[No Lessons, Ps. cxix. being
used as a meditation.]
The Creed (aloud).
" Trisagion," and " Holy
Trinity," &tc.
Our Father, See.
Eesponsory (?) hymns, one
resembling the Te Deum, one
of the Incarnation.
Kyrie eleison, (forty times).
Prayer for grace to live
well, and for aid against all
perils.
Second Nocturn.
" 0 come," kc, and Pss.
exxi., exxxiv.
Hymns, &c, as p. 90.
Praise to the Holy Trinity'
for redemption. /
Dismissal benediction. v
Request for pardon ; absolu-(
tion.
Litany.
English Matins.
Invitatory, " Praise ye the
Lord."
Ps. xcv., " 0 come, let us
sing," kc.
[Verses of Ps. li., in the
sentences.]
Psalms, in course.
Glory be, &c, at end of
each.
[At Evensong, Ps. lxvii., as
a canticle.]
[Ps. lxx. ver. 1, as a versicle
and response.]
[" Praise ye the Lord," be-
fore the Psalms. ]
The Lessons.
The Creed (aloud).
Short Litany to the Holy
Trinity.
Our Father, &c.
[Two responsory hymns, or
canticles ; viz., Te Deum and
Song of Zacharias, (of B. V.M.
and Simeon, Evens.)]
Versicles and responses.
First collect.
Second, for grace to live
well ; and,
Third, for aid against all
perils.
Anthem.
Intercessions, or Litany.
I Thanksgiving, chiefly for
redemption.
Dismissal benediction.
10S THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
I have only to remark on this comparative table,
that even the minuter coincidences, or such as may
have the appearance of being forced, are for the most
part historically traceable, with great probability, to
the influence of the Greek Office. Thus the " O
Lord open," &c. was borrowed by the framers of the
Western Nocturns (otherwise called Matins) from the
Greek Morning Office. How Ps. lxvii. found its way
into our Evensong from the Greek Night-office will
be shewn hereafter. The first verse of Ps. lxx. came
to us, as a versicle from the same service, via the
schemes of Benedict, Cassian, &c. The Creed and
Lord's Prayer I have ventured to mark as said aloud
in the primitive times ; since if the account rendered
above of their occurrence in the Greek Office be cor-
rect, they doubtless were so said originally ; as they
are in the East at the present day.
The " Eor Thine," &c. (which is repeated at the end
of the Lord's Prayer as an exclamation) was worth
noting, because the rest of the Western Church has
it not, as neither had ours until the Revision. Our
latest Revisers (1662) restored it both here, and in
the Post-Communion, as an act of praise ; but not
where the Lord's Prayer occurs after the Creed, nor
yet at the beginning of the Communion Office ; both
positions being more or less penitential. In what
sense this doxology is to be accounted a part of
the Lord's Prayer, seems uncertain. It is rejected
by the best critics from the text of St. Matt. vi.
Of its Apostolic antiquity, however, as an adjunct
to the Lord's Prayer, the Office before us, and the
Eastern Communion Offices, doubtless afford strong
evidence. It must be added that the Orientals in
this Office, and generally, vary from us, in inserting
SECT. VI.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE.
109
in the doxology the mention of the Holy Trinity.
" For Thine is, &c. . . Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
now and always, and for ever and ever." Yet the
very ancient Liturgy of St. Mark has it in the form
which we use ; and so has that of Armenia, which is
some evidence of the practice of the East about the
year 300, when Armenia was evangelized from Cse-
sarea. We are thus led to the conclusion that ours
is, at least, an equally ancient form of the doxology.
The "praise to the Holy Trinity for redemption,"
marked as corresponding to our Thanksgiving, runs
thus : " My hope is the Father, my refuge is the Son,
my defence is the Holy Ghost ; Holy Trinity, Glory
be to Thee." The Litany with which the Greek
scheme concludes, possesses extraordinary interest
for the English Church. For her ancient Litany,
forming the foundation of her present one, exhibits,
in a greater degree than that of the Roman or any
other branch of the Church, the features and the
ipsissima verba of the Litany before us ; as will be
shewn in the proper place. I proceed to speak of
the remainder of the ancient Eastern Offices.
SECTION VI.
" Thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to sing."
It has already been explained, that the Offices with
which the ancient Eastern Church in part anticipated
and in part commenced the day, formed in practice
one continuous Service. The testimony of Tertullian
in the second century is scarcely less explicit than that
110
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [ciiap. I.
of St. Basil in the fourth, to the effect that the nocturns
were carried on until the dawn of the day ; and that
then, at the breaking forth of the light (which takes
place far less gradually in the East than with us) the
Morning Office commenced with a particular prayer
or Psalm, accompanied with peculiarly solemn and
devout prostration. The only difference is that Ter-
tullian speaks of " the prayer with which we enter
on the light of day ;" St. Basil, of " offering up at
dawn the Psalm 1 of confession, each one taking home
to himself the penitential words." The two state-
ments are perfectly reconciled, if we understand the
Psalm (51st) to have been said as a solemn prayer;
exactly as it is once a-year in the English Church at
the present day.
The existing Eastern Offices m, on careful examina-
tion of them, are found to correspond entirely with
these representations. In the midnight-office proper,
indeed, there neither is, nor perhaps ever was, any
singing, in addition to the fixed Psalms, of others
taken continuously and in considerable number. The
remainder of the gradual Psalms (cxx. — cxxxiv.) may
indeed have been used at the second nocturn ; as
I have above ventured to conjecture. But this does
not answer, after all, to the ideal of prolonged and
diversified psalmody which St. Basil presents to us,
and which has been characteristic of the East in all
ages.
There was doubtless, therefore, in St. Basil's time
a provision for the singing of Psalms ad libitum, as
regards quantity, in the interval, longer or shorter,
between the nocturns office proper and the break of
1 This certainly means Ps. li. : vide Bingham, vol. iv. p. 406.
» Vide Neale, p. 915 ; Horolog., p. 90 ; Goar, p. 39, 40.
SECT. VI.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. Ill
day. And a perfectly analogous provision exists at
the present day; a considerable number of Psalms
being sung at the commencement of the Morning
Office, and previously to that part of it which is
proper to the daybreak or dawn. One third fewer
are sung in summer than in autumn ; a double num-
ber in Lent. The number of Psalms sung on each
day is settled by a rule, varying with the season.
This prolonged psalmody concluded, the Fifty-first
Psalm follows, as in St. Basil's time, with only a brief
hymn intervening; and then succeeds that burst of
Canticles and "Lauds Psalms," properly so called
(viz. the 148th — 150th,) which marks the opening of
the day, and sends up from all created being the
incense both of the Old and of the New Creation.
It will be seen, by the way, from this statement,
how it came to pass that the framers of the Western
Ritual put the continuous psalmody in their nocturns
Office. For in truth it was difficult to say whether
this grand constellation of psalmody belonged most to
the night or the early morning11. It was perhaps
traditionally inseparable from the Western idea of
Nocturns. Other features of the Eastern Morning
Office they adopted in their own.
The following table exhibits, in merely a general
outline, the structure of the Greek Morning Office on
week-days : —
Invitatory (as in p. 66).
Pss. xx., xxi.
Hymns (for victory, &c.)
Trisagion, kc. " Our Father," &c.
Penitential Litany, beginning with Ps. li. ver. 1.
■ " Last in the train of night,
If better thou belong not to the dawn."
112
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. I.
Benediction. (" Bless, Father," &c.) " Glory to," &c.
"0 Lord, Thou shalt open, &c. ; and my," &c, (Ps. li. ver. 15).
Six Psalms, iii., xxxviii., Ixiii., lxxxviii., ciii., cxliii.,
(with Antiphon at end of each).
Twelve Prayers, (meanwhile).
Litany.
Hymn.
Psalms sung in course,
(varying in number from one (119th) to twenty-eiglit).
Short hymns.
Psalm li.
Canticle. Odes. (Magnificat before ninth ode).
Lauds Psalms (cxlviii. — cl.)
Litany, &c.
Benediction.
It will be seen that there is first a prefatory por-
tion, analogous to that of the nocturnal Office, and
differing from it chiefly in this, that it carries out at
once the exhortation of the invitatory by means of
Pss. xx. and xxi. ; just as the West does at Matins by
means of Ps. xcv. : and that in lieu of Ps. li. itself,
which in the Nocturns immediately follows the invi-
tatory, there is a penitential litany, beginning with
Ps. li. ver. 1. The fitness of both Pss. xx. and xxi. to
carry out the idea of the Greek invitatory, (" 0 come
let us worship our God and King," &c.,) is manifest ;
— the one Psalm ending with, " Save, Lord, and hear
us, 0 King of heaven, when we call upon Thee " the
other beginning with, " The King shall rejoice in Thy
strength, 0 Lord." There are also three hymns,
still pursuing the idea of these Psalms, by desiring
blessing and victory for kings and people ; then fol-
lows the litany aforesaid.
My reason for considering this as properly no more
than a sort of vestibule to the Office, though in many
respects it has more the appearance of being a sub-
SECT. VI.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 113
stantive portion of it, is, that there are indications,
shortly after, of the Office itself not having yet,
strictly speaking, begun. But of the great antiquity
of this portion of the Eastern Morning Office, we seem
to have irrefragable proof in the remarkable defer-
ence paid to it, as has been already pointed out, by
the framers of the "Western Ritual ; their psalmodical
schemes being so contrived in all cases as to include
one or both of these Psalms (xx. and xxi.) in the
Sunday Matins Office.
The invitatory and two Psalms, then, together with
the litany, answering the purpose of a half-joyful,
half-penitential preparation for the Morning Office,
the Service proper commences with the people's de-
siring the priest to give a blessing : " In the name of
the Lord, give the blessing, father." This, we can
hardly doubt, is the source from whence the form so
universally used in the Western Ritual, before the
Lessons, took its rise : " Jube, domine, benedicere."
The exact meaning of this has been much disputed.
The question is, whether it is addressed by the reader
to God or to the priest. In the Roman use it is said
in the former sense in private recitation of the service ;
in the latter in public. The English use apparently
knew of no such distinction 0 ; — it was taken, as this
passage in the Greek Office seems to prove it ought,
for a request to the priest that he would desire a bles-
sing. The "jube" is only a recognition, in a some-
what strong form, of the priestly power or commis-
sion to invoke a blessing. The formula is best ren-
dered, " Sir, desire God to bless us." But it is
° Vide Leslie's Portif. Sarisb., p. 5, and note, p. lii. Maskell, Anc.
Lit., p. 111. The Transl. Sar. Psalt., p. 11, gives two renderings; both, pro-
bably, incorrect : " O Lord, bid a blessing " 0 Lord, bid him bless."
I
114 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. I.
singular, that in the East the priest acceded to the
request by blessing God ; in the West, by blessing
himself and the congregation. This is somewhat
characteristic. For it is much more usual in the
Eastern forms than in the Western, for man to lose
himself in the thought of God, and in the pure joy
of jubilant praise. The prototype of both kinds is
to be found, however, in the blessing of Abraham
by Melchisedec, the most ancient priestly benediction
on record, (Gen. xiv. 19, 20): "Blessed be Abram
of the Most High God; and blessed be the Most
High God, which hath delivered thine enemies into
thine hands." The Greek form of benediction in this
place is (as in the case of the iuvitatory) unvarying,
as follows : — " Glory to the Holy, and Consubstantial,
and Quickening, and Undivided Trinity ; always, now,
and ever, and to ages of ages. Amen." To which
some person appointed responds, " Glory to God in
the highest, and in earth peace, good will toward
men," (thrice).
The manner in which the Three Persons of the
Holy Trinity are signalized in the blessing will be
remarked : " Holy" referring to the Father ; " Con-
substantial," to the Son ; " Quickening," to the Holy
Ghost. The Western benedictions before the Les-
sons, (varying however with the season,) follow this
type; being almost always conceived in reference to
the Holy Trinity. Thus the first Salisbury bene-
diction for Sundays was : —
"The Father eternal bless us with His continual blessing: God,
the Son of God, vouchsafe to bless and help us : may the grace of the
Holy Spirit illuminate our hearts and bodies."
There is of course, after all, this striking difference
between the use made in the East and in the West
SECT. VI.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 115
of this kind of benediction ; that in the one case it
precedes a series of Psalms, in the other of Lessons.
But here comes in what has been before remarked,
viz. that to the Orientals the saying of Psalms was a
meditation upon Scripture as well as an act of praise.
Mr. Palmer p has pointed out this mode of using
the Psalms, as occurring in some Communion Offices
both of the East and West. Thus the Apostolical
Constitutions seem to enumerate Psalms among the
Lessons; though they are there ordered to be sung.
So too we find St. Augustine q considering the Psalm
as a Lesson : " We have heard the Apostle, the Psalm,
and the Gospel ; all the Divine Lessons agree ;" and
again, " We have heard the first Lesson from the
Apostle, then sung a Psalm ; after this came the
Lesson from the Gospel ; these three Lessons we will
discourse upon." These passages exhibit the Psalms
as used at once as a song and as a meditation ;
exactly as I have supposed the six Psalms to have
been in this Office, and the 119th in the Nocturns.
And that these particular Psalms in the Greek Lauds
were viewed in some degree in this light, we seem
to have an indication in the rubric prefixed : — " Then
we begin the six Psalms, listening with all silence and
penitence." It is on the whole highly probable that
we have here the origin, both of the ante-lectional
benedictions of the West, and, in a measure, of
the position assigned to the Lections or Lessons
themselves ; viz. in close conjunction and interweav-
ing with the Psalms.
The fixed Psalms for the Greek Morning Office are,
f Vol. ii. p. 57. "It appears therefore that the gradual" (i.e. Psalm
after the Epistle) " was anciently looked upon as a Lesson from Scrip-
ture even when it was sung."
*» Serm. 165, 176, de Verb. Apost.
i2
116 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. I.
iii., xxxviii., lxiii., lxxxviii., ciii., cxliii. But before
they were begun, was said that verse of Psalm li.,
which became universal in the West as a versicle and
response preceding the entire psalmody and service
of the day : " O Lord, Thou shalt open my lips, and
my month shall shew forth Thy praise," (twice;
St. Benedict has it thrice.) That it was derived to
the West from the East we have this reason for
believing, that its use in the Eastern Office is ac-
counted for, not merely by its suitableness, but by its
being closely connected with the penitential introduc-
tion, founded upon Psalm li., which has just preceded.
It is the link between the confession of unworthiness
to praise, and the praise itself ; and in this light ac-
cordingly it is to be viewed and used, where it occurs
in our Western forms. It presupposes a penitential
preface, public or private, to have preceded the whole
Office. And thus the introduction of such a preface
into our Offices, at the Revision of them, is once
more seen to be in thorough harmony with the arche-
typal form, from which the whole West alike has
derived its daily services.
The commentators on the Western versicle and
response have devised, as usual, a variety of inge-
nious reasons for their being thus prefixed to the
Office. Thus, e. g. Durandus conceives that it is
" because at Compline, the night before, we shut our
mouths, commending ourselves to God, whom there-
fore we now desire to open thernV "The Myrroure3
admonishes its readers, more to the purpose, that this
verse is only said at Matins, that is, the beginning of
God's service, in token that the first opening of your
lips should be to the praise of God, &c."
r Dur. Rat., V. iii. 9. « Transl. Sar. Psalt., in loc.
sect. VI.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 117
Similar ingenuity has been exercised to account for
the singular number being used in the versicle, " O
Lord, Thou shalt open my lips4;" and, which is still
more remarkable, in the response, though made by
the whole choir or people, " And my mouth shall," &c.
It sets forth, we are told, "that the whole body of
the faithful have but one body and one soulu;" or it
is " in token that ye begin your praising and prayer
in the name of holy Church, which is one and not
many. For though there be many members, they
make but one body*." These are no doubt excellent
ex post facto reflections. But the same reasons would
have required that the singular number should be
maintained throughout the Office. The true account
of the matter is simply that the singular number was
used in this place in the East; and that for two
reasons, — partly because it is so in the 51st Psalm,
which so pervades this part of the Office ; partly
because it was to be said by some one person ap-
pointed thereto, as appears by the rubric 7 : " Then
we begin the six Psalms, listening with all silence
and penitence ; and the appointed brother or hegu-
men saith, ' Glory to God,' &c. ' 0 Lord, open Thou
my lips, and my mouth shall shew forth Thy praise.' "
It should be added that the plural adaptation, intro-
duced at our Revision, has a warrant in the Saturday
nocturn hymn of the Greek Church : " 0 uncreated
nature, Maker of all, open Thou our lips, that we may
shew forth Thy praise," &c.
As to the Hexapsalmus, or set of six Psalms, which
' "Domine, labia mea aperies. It. Et os meum annunciabit lau-
dem tuam."
u Durand., ibid. 1 Myrroure, ibid.
i So Neale, p. 916. The Horologium (ed. 1738) does not specify
by whom the versicle is said.
118 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. L
follows this exordium, it is in various ways remark-
able for the influence it has exercised on the structure
and contents of the Western Offices. The number of
the Psalms first calls for our attention. It was most
religiously adopted by Benedict in the scheme of
psalmody which he drew up for the monastic devo-
tions of the West. Borrowing, as has been already
remarked, the " two Nocturns" of the Eastern noc-
turnal Office, he placed six Psalms in each ; thus
making up at the same time the famous number
of twelve Psalms, which was a ruling provision in
all Western nocturnal (or matutinal) psalmody. The
English and Roman uses, while resolving the two
Nocturns into one (on ordinary days), retained the
same number of twice six, or twelve Psalms. This,
however, may rather have been in deference to the
twelve Psalms of the Egyptian monastic use; of
which hereafter. It is remarkable, that during the
singing of the three last of the six Psalms in the
Greek Office, twelve prayers are at the present day
appointed to be said by the priest; while in the
Egyptian monastic scheme, as described by Cassian*,
each of the twelve Psalms was followed by a prayer
said by him who led the Psalms ; — indications these
of a widely spread regard for the number twelve in
the East, and not in Egypt only, in connection with
the nocturnal psalmody.
The number of six Psalms" was also retained uni-
' Instit., ii. 8.
a The Sunday Lauds Psalms in the "West were 93, 100, 63, 67, Bene-
dicite, (Song of the Three Cliildren), and 148—150, as one. The week-
day (e.g. Monday's), 51; then 5, 63, Song of Isaiah, 148, 149, 150.
The Benedictine, on Sundays, 67, 51, 118, 63, Benedicite, 14S— 150.
On week-days, 67, (not antiphoncd); then 51, three varying a canticle,
148—150.
SECT. VI.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 119
versally in the Western Morning Office or Lauds;
though the ritualists will have it that the number is
jive. On Sundays, the Pss. cxlviii. — cl. are to be
reckoned, as they are always called, one; no doubt
because they formed one group, under the name of
aivoi, or Lauds, at the close of the Eastern Office.
If these, on week-days, be accounted as three, the
number of Psalms is still six ; the 51st being viewed,
as in the Greek Office, as preparatory. The canticle,
it is agreed, in all cases counts as one.
The grounds for the selection of the particular
Psalms in the Greek Office are not difficult to dis-
cern. Two of them, iii. and lxiii., are, by their con-
tents, morning Psalms ; and that as such they were
appointed, appears from the choice made of a verse
to be repeated at the end of each : " I laid me down
and rose up again," &c, and, " with my spirit within
me will I seek Thee early," &c. These accordingly
passed also into the Western Offices as early Psalms.
The 3rd, as we have seen, prefaces, in the scheme
of Benedict, the nocturnal psalmody of each day ;
while in the English and Roman uses it is included
in the twelve Psalms of the first Nocturn on Sunday.
The 63rd again, one of those mentioned by St. Basil,
is universally made a Lauds Psalm in the West ; viz.
on Sunday in the Benedictine, and every day in the
other uses. Of the other four Eastern Psalms, one,
the 103rd, is of thanksgiving character, and so allies
itself with the two first mentioned ; while three are
profoundly penitential, — xxxviii., lxxxviii., and cxliii.
Thus in these six Psalms there is a union, in equal
parts, of thanksgiving and penitence ; which in fact
is the characteristic of this Morning Office as a whole.
The early Morning Office, or " Lauds" of the Western
120 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. I.
Church, has always preserved this same character;
beginning on week-days (and on Sundays also in the
Benedictine scheme) with the great penitential Psalm,
the 51st ; the rest of the psalmody being, except on
Sundays, in about equal proportions, jubilant and
penitential b, just as it is in the Greek Office.
I must not omit to observe, that we seem to have
the earliest and simplest form of the antiphon, in the
repetition at the end of each of these six Psalms of
some verse or other of the Psalm itself. Grancolas,
indeed0, considers the Western antiphon to have
originated with the short prayers said by the Egyp-
tian monks after each Psalm. And it is not impro-
bable that this usage may have influenced the form
of the more freely constructed antiphons, taken from
other parts of Scripture than the Psalms, or composed
on purpose, and often taking the form of a short
hymn d. But in its proper nature the antiphon would
seem to be some part of the Psalm itself, so selected
as to express, as far as may be, the leading character,
or some salient feature of it. This is exactly the
nature of the Greek antiphons before us, as may
be seen in the specimen given above, in the case of
Pss. iii. and lxiii. The antiphon of these two Psalms
is repeated twice, probably on account of their pecu-
b In Bened. we have 67 and 51, one of each kind, fixed; and in the
successive days of the week, 5, 57, 65, 90, 92, i song of Moses, (to v. 22,)
of one kind; and 36, 43, 64, 88, 76, 143, of the other. This is most
probably the rationale of dividing the song ; the other half forms the
Saturday canticle. In the Roman and English we have 67 (fixed), and
on successive days, 5, 65, 90, 92, jubilant; and 51 and 63 (both fixed),
43, 143, penitential; the proportions being less equal than in Bened.
c Histoire du Breviaire, torn. i. p. 201. And see Neale.
a The English (Salisbury) Use had a somewhat peculiar, and not very
commendable, metrical antiphon, for the Sundays in the Trinity half of
the year.
SECT. VI.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE.
121
liarly matutinal character. Of Pss. xxxviii. and ciii.,
the last verse is adopted ; of Pss. lxxxviii. and cxliii.,
the first verse e. Thus have we, in the brief compass
of these six Psalms, specimens of the leading varieties
of antiphons in after-times in the West ; the most
usual, and apparently the most legitimate being, 1,
the last verse ; 2, the first verse ; 3, a verse from the
body of the Psalm. Very often in the West the last
verse is adopted, (apparently,) merely because it is
such, and not from its fitness to express the mind of
the Psalm. And when, as was the case in the prin-
cipal services of psalmody, (the Nocturns or Matins
and the lesser hours,) several Psalms which happened
to come in succession were followed by a single anti-
phon, it is plain that the alleged and legitimate pur-
pose of the antiphon was frustrated.
It follows from hence that the rejection of the anti-
phons by the English Church in the 16th century,
(in which she was partly followed by the French in
the 18th, 1726 — 1791,) was, as regards the ordinary
psalmody, by no means the loss that it is often repre-
sented to have been, if any at all. The antiphons
had for the most part, on Sundays especially, when
there was but one antiphon to every four Psalms,
ceased altogether to discharge the office for which
they were originally introduced. And to have pro-
vided each Psalm with a strictly appropriate anti-
phon (setting aside the complexity of the system)
would, however plausible it may sound, be in a great
many instances absolutely impossible ; the contents of
' St. Benedict's antiphons for Pss. 63, 88, 103, 143, are nearly the
same, and quite in the same spirit, as the Greek ones. Ps. 88 also re-
tains its place as a morning Psalm in Brev. Paris. (Sat. Prime). On
the removal of antiphons in the reformed Parisian and other French
Breviaries, see Ecclesiastic, Jan. IS 17 and 1854.
122 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [cnAr. I.
many Psalms being so varied. Nor, even if possible,
would it be desirable. The freedom, fulness, and in-
finite variety of play, of which the Psalms are capable,
and which they inevitably assume in the mind of the
fairly informed member of the Church, — all this is
surely most undesirably straitened and cramped by
the imposition, in the shape of an antiphon, of one
fixed and invariable sense.
The Western Church has, however, in another re-
spect, developed with great beauty and power the
simple antiphon idea of the East. Of the Psalms be-
fore us, two more especially are so antiphoned as to
bring out their application to the morning hour ; the
rest, though expressive of the penitential aspect of the
returning daylight, have more of the nature of a choral
repetition or burden, consisting of the first or last
verse. Following this hint, then, the Western Church
has devised a vast variety of antiphons, according to
the season or day ; by means of which the key-note of
the season, &c, was sounded, or intended to be so, at
intervals during the psalmody. This was unquestion-
ably a powerful instrument for imparting distinctness
of expression to the Psalms. It reminded the wor-
shipper, from time to time, what colour his devotions
might fitly derive from the associations of particular
seasons ; it taught him what kind of instruction to be
then more especially on the watch for in the Psalms.
It is at such times that the absence of antiphons is
felt to be a loss. Whether they could, consistently
with congregational use of the Psalms, have been re-
tained in our Offices at some special seasons, I do not
undertake to determine. But were any of the methods
of service, which were laid aside at our Revision, to be
selected for restoration, I conceive that the antiphons,
with this restricted application to special seasons and
SECT. VI.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE.
123
to Festivals, would possess a weighty claim upon the
Church's consideration. A single antiphon, fixed for
the season, and said before and after the entire psal-
mody of each day, would involve comparatively little
complexity, and would greatly help to sustain the
character of such seasons as Christmas, Lent, and
Easter : during the last of which indeed, such a single
antiphon was used.
It would carry us too far from our proper subject,
were I to attempt to give the reader a detailed con-
ception of the remainder of the existing Greek Office,
which, after the recitation of the six Psalms, becomes
exceedingly complicated. I shall only observe, there-
fore, upon the singing of the Psalms in course, which
follows soon after, that the number of Psalms used is
even greater than in the West ; about fourteen on an
average, at ordinary times, and sometimes as many as
twenty-six at special seasons : the Psalter being gene-
rally sung through once, and sometimes twice, in the
week f. The morning psalmody for each day falls
under two great divisions, called Cathismata, (a third
is added at special seasons) ; after each one of which
three short hymns (or stanzas, rather) are sung, toge-
ther with a " Glory," and a single line or verse from
the preceding set of Psalms e. Each of these large
divisions, again, is subdivided into three, (called sta-
seis,) with the "Glory" alone at the end of each.
Now here we seem to have the exact prototype of the
' The West preserved an almost solitary specimen of this multitudi-
nous psalmody, in the eighteen Sunday Psalms of the Roman and Eng-
lish Matins ; the Church of Milan had on occasion as many as sixteen ;
viz. on alternate Mondays : vide Bona, p. 899. The Church of Tours
anciently had from fourteen to thirty Psalms at Matins in the winter
season.
B Neale, p. 918. Paraclctice in loc.
124 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
Western mode of treating the continuous psalmody,
on Sundays and Festivals more especially ; just as
the hexapsahnus furnished the type of the manner of
antiphoning single Psalms. For both the Roman and
English uses h divide the Sunday or Festival psalmody
into three large portions (called Nocturns) ; at the end
of each of which is, 1, a "Glory';" 2, an antiphon,
generally a single verse from the preceding set of
Psalms; 3, a short hymn, consisting of a verse and
response. Moreover, the first Nocturn on Sundays is
subdivided into three sections, having in the English
use the " Glory" at the end of each ; not, as in the
Roman, at the end of each Psalm. Both uses add an
antiphon at the end of the subdivisions. On week-
days, when there is but one Nocturn, or large portion
of Psalms, sung, its termination is of the same kind
as that of each Sunday Nocturn. The Eastern stanzas
are adapted by their contents to a different topic on
each day of the week ; e. g. on Sundays the Resurrec-
tion, on Wednesdays and Fridays the Cross, &c. ; a
refinement which the West has not followed ; but its
verses and responses vary with the season instead.
The canticles, which follow, (only preceded by
Ps. li.,) are nearly the same as were used in the
West : the songs, viz., of Moses, (Exod. xv., Deut.
xxxii.), of Hannah, Habakkuk, and Isaiah, (ch. xxvi.),
the prayer of Jonah, and half the Benedicite, on the
successive days of the week ; besides the fixed Mag-
nificat and Benedictus, reckoned as one. The West
has substituted the song of Hezekiah for Jonah's
h For specimens of the Western Psalm and lection system, see Tr.
Sar. Psalt. ; Leslie's Portifor. Sar. ; Tract. 75 ; Bennett's Principles of
the Prayer-book, Serm. 4; Procter's Rationale, p. 165.
1 In the Spanish Church the " Glory "followed the responsory, &c, as
it did hi the East. IV. Concil. Tolet., c. xvi. ; Bingh., vol. iv. p. 424.
SECT. VI.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 125
prayer, and changed the appropriation of the other
canticles to the several days. The appearance of
the Magnificat among the morning canticles will be
thought singular. But it is remarkable that the
earliest trace we have of it in the West is in the Lauds
Office of the Church of Aries, where it was ordered to
be used by a canon of Ca3sariusj, circ. 506, probably
after the model of the East, introduced by Cassian a
century before. In the Armenian Church, however,
it was used at Complinek, the last evening service, as
well as at Lauds; and it was thus, perhaps, that it
found its way into the Western Vespers.
The canticles are accompanied by a certain series
of hymns, called odes, generally nine in number, sepa-
rated into three groups by a short litany after the
third and sixth ; but only three in the period of the
year which precedes Easter. I mention this here,
because there is considerable appearance of the Lec-
tion or Lesson system of the West, as regards Festivals
more especially, having originated in a measure with
this part of the Greek Office. These odes were, it
appears, called lections by the Greek monks of the
order of St. Basil settled near Tusculum, a few miles
from Rome1 ; probably because the account, or legend,
of any saint or martyr commemorated was read after
the sixth ode; though indeed the odes themselves
were often recitative or narrative. Now it is at least
remarkable that the Western classification of Festivals
was into feasts of nine or of three lectiotis, the nine
being also divided, with the Psalms which they ac-
i Mabillon, Curs. Gal., p. 406.
k Bona, p. 909. It is not used in Lent at Milan.
1 Bona, p. 906. " Sequuntur deinde lectiones currentis diei, quas
vocant canones, et constant novem lectionibus ; quselibet autem lectio
vocatur ode."
126
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. I.
corapanied, into three groups, and the number of
three lections being more peculiarly the festival usage
of a particular season m, viz. Easter. Again, before
the ninth (or the third, if there were but three) of the
Eastern odes, or lections, the Magnificat was said,
and after it a hymn closely resembling, as far as it
goes, the Te Deum11: "For Thee all the powers of
the heavens praise ; and to Thee, &c. Holy is the
Lord our God ; Holy, &c. Our God reigneth over all."
"Now the Te Deum was, as a general rule, the re-
sponse0 to the ninth lection (or to the third, if there
were but three) on Sundays and Festivals in the West.
There are other points which complete the identifi-
cation of the festival lection system of the West with
the " odes" of the East. The lections or readings of
the former are really subordinate, just as in the East,
to the musical part of the scheme. For while the
responsories, with their versicles, sung at the end of
each lection, are fixed, the lection (on Sundays at
least) might varyp in length, and did vary in different
editions of the Offices. In the English use the series
of responses was called a historia; and by this historia,
— not by the lections, which were quite subordinate, —
was the character of the week or day determined11.
" The Eastern idea herein was to diminish the praise of a mournful
season ; the Western, to reduce the labour of a festal one.
" Compare Nocturns Office, supra, p. 66. And see note.
° The English use substituted it for the repetition of the ninth re-
sponse; the Roman for the response itself. The Bened. had twelve
lessons on Sundays and great festivals, with the Te Deum as the in-
variable response.
p Comp. Sar. rubric in some MSS., "Then let the clerk, (clericus,)
when enough at his discretion has been read," &c. Arl. MS. Transl. Sar.
Psalt., p. 48.
i e.g. Sar. Brev. Pica de Dom. i. Adv.: "Litera dom. A. Tertia
Decemb. tota cantetur historia aspiciens ;" i. e. " Let the whole of the
nine lection responses set down for 1 S. in Advent, (the first of which
SECT. VI.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 127
In short, when we examine the Western lection
system, we find that it too was in reality a series of
nine or three "odes" or singings, with a certain ac-
companiment of lections or reading. And these " lec-
tions," on saints' days, were not from Scripture at all.
Those connected with the first six responsories were
the life or record of the saint commemorated, (just as
the legends in the Greek Office are connected with
the sixth ode,) while the remaining three were parts
of a homily on the Gospel for the day. The charac-
teristic difference between the East and West in the
matter was this ; that in the West the Psalms were
interwoven with the lection or ode system, each group
in the scheme consisting of three Psalms and three
odes, with their lections; and that the lections on
ordinary days, and partly on Sundays, were from holy
Scripture. But these peculiarities, too, were probably
of Eastern importation. There is a well-known canon
of the Council of Laodicea (held circ. 360), which
enjoins that ;' the Psalms should not be sung uninter-
ruptedly; but that after each Psalm (or singing1,
rather) there should be reading." It is difficult, and
even impossible, to reconcile this with the ancient
practice of the East generally , there being, I believe,
no other trace in Eastern antiquity of this alterna-
tion of Psalms8 with Scripture lessons. It has indeed
began with the word aspiciens,) be sung through." These are the fa-
mous "rules called the Pie." Vid. Procter's Rationale, Leslie's Por-
tiforium, &c.
' 5m ixiaov xaff 'inaoTov tyaXfibv. That the reading was meant to come,
not between each Psalm, but each set of Psalms, is probable, because
the design of the canon was to relieve the tediousness of the prolonged
psalmody.
' St. Augustine (ap. Bingham, vol. iv. p. 423) is only speaking of the
one Psalm used at the Communion Service.
128 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
been explained1 of the division of the psalmody into
Cathismata, as above, by means of a hymn sung at
the end of each, which might perhaps be called " read-
ing." But certainly, of Scripture being read at those
pauses we have no Eastern example. Now though
this particular canon does not prescribe of what kind
the reading should be, the 59th of the same Councilu
forbids any other books than the Scriptures to be read
in the church. It seems necessary, therefore, to sup-
pose that this canon never came into force in the
East beyond the exarchate of Ephesus, in which Lao-
dicea was situated ; and Mr. Palmer* has shewn that
other provisions of this Laodicean Council bore refer-
ence to that district alone. The Church of Lyons,
however, which the same writer proves to have de-
rived its ritual from Ephesus, had by the year 499,
and probably much earlier, adopted a scheme of lec-
tions in full accordance with these two Laodicean
canons. Eor in an extant account7 of the night-
service preceding a Synod held in that year at Lyons,
against the Arians, we find that there was (no doubt
after the first set of Psalms z) a lesson from Moses,
then Psalms sung, then a lesson from the prophets,
then Psalms again, then a gospel; after which no
more Psalms, but an epistle at some later period, pro-
bably in the Communion Office. Here then seems to
be the earliest recorded instance of the alternation of
Psalms with Scripture. It seems, too, that three sets
of Psalms were sung, each followed by a lection,
1 Balsamon, ap. Neale, p. 855. ■ Mabillon, Curs. Gal., p. 400.
x Diss. Prim. Lit., sect. v. » Mabillon, Curs. Gal., p. 399.
1 Mabillon, without reason, supposes the lesson to have come first.
But Grancolas (Hist. Brev., i. p. 55.) says: "Dans le premier (Noc-
turne) on disoit des Pseaumes, et on lisoit de Mo'ise," &c. But he in-
correctly places a fourth set of P-salms before the epistle.
SECT. VI.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 129
(which may or may not have been in three parts, and
accompanied by responses). Now this is exactly what
would result from adopting, together with the general
Eastern custom of dividing the psalmody of the day
into three staseis or parts, the Laodicean peculiarity
of inserting Lessons of Scripture at the intervals.
The Roman and English use, again, would result
from combining the Lyonnese model with the Eastern
ode scheme. I do not mean that it was necessa-
rily through these channels (scil. the Ephesine and
Gallican rituals) that the Western Psalm and lection
system was perfected j but in some such way it pro-
bably did originate. And hence descended to the
English Church of the present day her still com-
pound, though no longer involved system of Psalms,
Lessons, and responsive canticles, woven together into
one complex act of praise and meditation ; an act
that meditates still as it praises, and as it meditates,
adores.
The Ainoi, or three last Psalms of the Psalter, cele-
brating (like the Benedicite, framed upon them) the
praises of God in the name of all creation, are in a
manner the crowning feature of the Eastern Morning
Office. These Psalms are an invariable feature in the
Western Lauds Office, which indeed derives its name
from them ; and they enjoy the peculiar distinction of
being reckoned as one Psalm a, the "Laudate Do-
niinum de ccelis." The rest of the Greek Office, on
ordinary days, consists of various short hymns, doxo-
logies, and supplications. Of the various enrichments
and amplifications which it receives on Sundays and
Festivals, I have, for the most part, forborne to speak.
* So in the East the characteristic Psalms, cxli., cxlii., sung at Ves-
pers, are reck or rd as one piece, the Kvpie tWpaia.
K
130 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
The most important, to us, of these additions, is per-
haps the " Morning Gospel," as it was called ; not the
same as afterwards followed at the Holy Communion.
It was hence, probably, that on Sundays and Fes-
tivals in the West the Gospel b for the day, or the
beginning of it, was read at Matins, with three lec-
tions out of a homily upon it.
Such then is the great Morning Office of the East ;
perhaps the most magnificent and most finely-con-
ceived Office of ordinary worship which the Church
has ever possessed. Owing to the embodiment in it
(instead of in the Nocturns, as in the West) of the
continuous psalmody, and, in a rudimentary form, of
the lection system also, — as well as of the fixed and
characteristic hexapsalmus, canticles, and lauds, — it
exhibits a fulness and variety of contents to which
the West at least can shew nothing comparable. It
was doubtless well, and apparently even more true to
the primitive ideal, than the present Eastern arrange-
ment, to incorporate the mass of the psalmody with
the Nocturns, as the Western framers did ; for such
seems to have been, even in St. Basil's time, the theory
of the Offices. But the majestic ideal of the Eastern
Daybreak Office was by that removal seriously marred
and impaired. As it now stands, and probably has
stood from an early period, it might well furnish the
theme of a great oratorio. We have seen how, (p. Ill)
commencing with a brief prelude of praise, it presently
subsides into the notes of profoundest penitential pre-
paration. In the hexapsalmus the two elements of
praise and penitence strive in finely-adjusted propor-
tions for the mastery; and the same conflict is dis-
b In Reg. S. Bened. the entire Gospel was read, and four lections
from a homily upon it.
SECT. VI.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 131
cernible still, by the constitution of the Psalter itself,
in the tide of continuous psalmody which follows. In
the 51st Psalm — the penitential burst of confession
prompted by the breaking forth of dawn — the sorrow-
ful element obtains for a brief space the ascendancy ;
but it is immediately succeeded by the " songs" and
" lauds," in which God's six days' work, once made
and marred, is acknowledged as created anew by the
Resurrection of Christ at the early morning hour : and
thus the voice of a world redeemed to God rises at last
in one chorus of unwavering and triumphant jubilation.
In endeavouring to form a judgment of the degree
of antiquity which this Office, after deducting from it
the confessedly later hymnal developments, can claim,
we may observe, first, that with one or two excep-
tions, it is wanting in those close affinities with the
Jewish Services which seem to stamp a primitive
character on the Nocturnal Office in its actually exist-
ing form. On this account, I conceive that Office to
be the oldest organized daily service in the world ; a
view which, if correct, greatly heightens the interest
of those resemblances which we have detected between
it and the existing English Daily Office ; — only we must
bear in mind that it was followed by a large addition
of psalmody, to which we have nothing parallel.
But the Greek Morning Office also bears positive
marks, besides this negative one, of a somewhat later
origination. The precise and studied arrangements
of the six Psalms ; of the twelve prayers accompanying
them ; of the two sets of threefold groups of Psalms
sung in course ; of the nine canticles, and the nine
odes framed with reference to them0; all have a
' " To a certain degree the character of the Canticles," respectively,
"is impressed on all the Odes." Neale, p. 834, note.
K 2
132
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
highly artificial appearance. The germ, indeed, of
some of these numerical dispositions may be discerned
in the Jewish services : it is the full elaboration of
them that discriminates this office from the nocturnal;
which itself had the characteristically Jewish numbers
of twelve and forty Kyrie eleisonsd. The selection
of the number six seems to have been suggested by
that of the days employed in the Creation ; to which
event the Office in various other ways refers. For not
only are the Benedicite and the three Lauds Psalms
evidently appointed as summing up the praise of all
created things, but the entire service varies with the
day of the week, whereas the Nocturn Office is fixed
except as to Saturday and Sunday. Besides which,
the Psalms said in course, the hymns sung between
the larger divisions of them, and the canticle, all
cl ange with the day, in a weekly cycle ; as the single
selected Psalm of the Jewish Temple Office, and per-
haps other features of it, did. The twelve prayers
might refer to the twelve hours of the day, as the
ritualists tell us the twelve Eastern Kyries and the
twelve Western Psalms doe. The nine canticles,
and again the nine odes, divided into three groups of
three, probably symbolised the Holy Trinity f, or the
nine orders of angels g. Now all this, though it may
very well have arisen in extremely early times, (St. Basil
perhaps alludes to the antiphons of the hexapsalmus,)
yet bespeaks the second rather than the first age, —
the secondary than the primary stage of formation, — of
the Church's ritual. We seem to detect in it the first
d Supr., p. 66.
e Neale, p. 895, b; Durand., v. 3, 27.
* So Zonaras, ap. Neale, p. 833.
* Vide Bp. Andrewes1 Devotions, 2nd Day, ad fin.; Neale, p. 469.
sect, vil.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 133
stirrings of a more ambitious and more systematizing
spirit of development than that of apostolic days, when
the constituents of the Temple or Synagogue Services
sufficed, with comparatively little adaptation to Chris-
tian ideas, for the purposes of ordinary worship. We
may perhaps discern the more organized Morning
Office in the process of formation in the days of Ter-
tullian (circ. 200) : for he speaks with commendation of
those persons or congregations who shewed more than
the ordinary diligence and zeal in their prayers, — evi-
dently, from the context, Church prayers, — in that
they wound them up with the " Hallelujah," or with
Psalms of that kind ; i.e. jubilant Psalms, such as the
Lauds, singing them responsively h.
SECTION VIL
"It shall come to pass, that at evening-time it shall be light."
The simpler Evening or Vespers Office of the East
may be dismissed with a less extended notice. Yet in
one respect it possesses surpassing interest, viz. as the
only one of the Eastern Daily Offices which, in its
ordinary form, stands in an avowed relation to the
Eucharist. Its contents are as follows : —
Eastern Vespees.
Introduction, as far as to ) ^ ^
The Invitatory, inclusive, j V' P' '
h De Oratione, c. 27, ed. Routh. Similar views as to the compara-
tive date of this Office will be found in Note E, extracted from "Palmer's
Dissertations on the Eastern Communion."
134
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. I,
Psalm civ. (The " Prefatory Psalm.")
Seven Prayers (meanwhile) " of the lighting of lamps."
" Glory," &c. Alleluia, (twice).
Litany.
Psalms (usually about seven) in course, in three parts.
" Glory," at end of each part.
Pss. cxli., cxlii., as one,
with Ps. cxxx. interwoven.
Ps. cxvii. ; Ps. cxxii. (set as a hymn).
Prayer of Entrance," (viz. of the Gospels).
The " Entrance." " Wisdom : Stand up."
Evening Hymn to Christ as " Light."
The Prokeimenon (i.e. summary of the Epistle).
Intercession.
Litany and Prayers, for protection, &c.
Prayer of bowing down the head.
" Glory be, &c."
Canticle, "Nunc Dimittis."
Trisagion, " Holy Trinity," &c.
Our Father.
Thanksgiving for redemption (vide Nocturns, supr. p. 66).
Dismissal.
It will be seen that this Service reflects in minia-
ture the features of the conjoint Nocturns and Morning
Office, (pp. 65 and 111) only with such characteristic
variations as serve to adapt it to the evening idea.
The full penitential introduction and Invitatory, fol-
lowed by a selected Psalm (civ.) of some length, and
a second group of fixed Psalms further on, one of
which (cxxiii., " To Thee lift I up mine eyes,") is
a " song of degrees," — all remind us of the Nocturns
scheme. As for the continuous psalmody, St. Basil
would probably have reckoned it a Nocturns fea-
ture ; the subsequent ages a matutinal one. But the
parallel, on the whole, lies rather between the Vespers
and the Morning Office ; the Invitatory being here at
once followed by a Psalm of praise, (as there by Pss.
SECT. VII.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE.
135
xx., xxi. ;) during which, as during the hexapsalmns,
is said a fixed number of prayers (seven), having
reference to the light, and to the succession of night
and day. Here too the number of fixed Psalms
in one group (four or five) comes nearer to that
of the Morning Office ; for in the nocturns there
were but two fixed Psalms in a group. But the
capital feature of the resemblance lies in this : that as
the Morning Office leads up through a finely-varied
series of plaintive and jubilant psalmody to the natural
dawn, considered as the memorial of the Creation and
of Christ's Resurrection ; so does the Evening Office,
through a similar progression, to the bringing in
of artificial light at the close of day ; — the type
and the remembrancer of the coming in of the True
Light, " not of this world '," in the world's eventide,
and of His giving Himself, also at the evening hour,
for its salvation. Hence, after the chequered rise and
fall of praise and penitence has subsided into the
deeply penitential Psalm cxxx., " Out of the deep," —
as it did into Psalm li. in the Morning Office, — it cul-
minates once more in the Psalm of praise of all na-
tions (cxvii.), and in a hymn consisting of the words
of Psalm cxxiii., " Unto Thee lift I up mine eyes,"
expressive of the profoundest expectation. Then with
a suitable prayer takes place the " entrance" (a feature
in the Eastern Communion Offices) as of the Gospels,
considered as enshrining Christ Himself. Then after
an exhortation to the acknowledgment and hearing of
Him as present, (" Wisdom : Stand up,") bursts forth
the triumphant " Hymn of the Evening Light," — the
Lauds of eventide, — at once giving thanks for the gift
1 St. Jolin viii. 23. Comp. i. 4, 5, 9.
13G THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. I.
of artificial light, and praising the True " Light that
shineth in darkness," " in Whom is life, and the life
is the Light of men."
"Joyful Light of the holy glory of the immortal Father, the
heavenly, the holy, the blessed, Jestt Christ ; we, having come
to the setting of the sun, and beholding the evening light, praise k
God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It is meet at all tiroes
that Thou shouldst be hymned with auspicious voices, Son of
God, Giver of life ; wherefore the world glorifieth Thee."
Then is read the prokeimenon, or summary of the
Epistle. A litany of intercession follows, and a prayer
"of bowing down the head," like those which in
the East follow eucharistic consecration. Finally, the
Nunc Dimittis, the Lord's Prayer, thanksgiving for
redemption by Christ, and dismissal benediction.
The points in which the Western Evening Office (or
Vespers) has taken the Eastern as its model, are for
the most part sufficiently obvious. There is the same
acknowledgment of this as being the second great
Office in point of importance in the twenty-four
hours answering to the conjoint Nocturns and Lauds.
Like Nocturns, it has a fixed number of Psalms, said
continuously, and in about the Eastern proportion to
those of Nocturns. Like Lauds, again, it has a can-
ticle, collect, and preces. The number of Psalms read
continuously was in general five ; in St. Benedict's
scheme, four. This difference probably resulted from
reckoning or not reckoning the fifth Psalm (exxiii.)
in the Eastern scheme ; it being, in fact, sung as a
hymn in two parts m : or from counting Pss. cxli., cxlii.,
k Horolog., v/ivovfiev : but St. Basil, aiVoDjucv.
1 Durandus, in loc.
m Durandus (in Adv. vi. 2, 15) suggests various mystic reasons for
the distinction between the monastic and the secular practice in this
matter.
SECT, vii.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 137
as two or as one. The memory of the selected Psalms
in the Greek Office also survived in different ways in
the Latin Church. Thus the verse for the sake of
which Ps. cxli. was evidently chosen, (" Let my
prayer be set forth as incense, &c. . . . an evening
sacrifice,") furnishes the West with a verse and re-
sponse at Vespers'1 nearly all the year round, at which
incense0 was used, as in the East. Again, the Roman
and the English uses have adopted each a Psalm from
this Office into their Lauds as an occasional feature,
(the English into Compline also,) viz. cxxx. and cxxiii.
But above all, the strongly characteristic prokeimenon
was preserved in the West, in the singular feature
called the " Capitulum." There can, I conceive, be
no doubt that such is the account to be given of the
" short chapter," (as it is sometimes rather incorrectly
called,) which peculiarly characterized the Western
Vespers, though it was also introduced in the Lauds
and other " hours." It is evidently not a mere text
selected at random. In its proper nature it is nothing
else than the heading, or commencement, by way of
a summary p, of the Epistle for the day. Accordingly,
on the eve and in the evening of all the more notable
Sundays and Festivals, it consisted of the first few
lines of the Epistle. For ordinary Sundays and week-
days a fixed Capitulum was used. Now this is closely
parallel to the Eastern usage. On Sundays and Fes-
tivals the prokeimenon (said at Lauds, however,) was
n Brev. Rom. Sar. ad Vesp. Dom. et Fer.
0 Durand. in Vesp., sect. 3 ; Goar, p. 3.
p Bona: "The short reading from Scripture called by some colleclio,
lecliuiicula, or versiculus, by St. Benedict ledio, is universally known
as the CajMuhtm, The reason of the name is that the capitula are
generally brief summaries of the Epistles in the Communion Office.
The diminutive form refers to its brevity." Psahnod. xvi. 16.
138 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [ CHAP. I.
the same " summary" as was prefixed to the Epistle
at the Communion. On week-days the Vespers pro-
heimenon (there was none at Lauds) was a fixed, or
rather arbitrary one, varying only with the days of the
week. The West, therefore, carried out in the Vespers
Office itself, just as the East did at Lauds, the idea of
which the proheimenon contained the germ ; viz. that
of projecting, so to speak, the mind of the current eu-
charistic Epistle upon the preceding ordinary Offices.
It may be objected that the two things are different :
that the Eastern feature is a verse from the Psalms,
with another responding to it ; the Western, a portion
of apostolic Scripture. But we have already seen that
the lection system of the Western Nocturns is appa-
rently to be identified with, and derived from, the
Eastern Odes. And just so it is here. The parallel
is complete. The Capitulum was, after all, but a
single feature in connection with a complex piece of
singing. In England it was followed (when it was a
genuine Capitulum from the Epistle) by a responsory,
exactly as the Nocturn lections were ; and, in all uses,
by a hymn, a verse and response, (generally one based
upon Psalm cxli., " Let my evening prayer ascend,"
&c.) It results, therefore, that the Western Capitu-
lum was properly, like the Eastern proheimenon, an
expedient for forecasting the Epistle for the Sunday
or the Festival, by introducing a summary of it into
the previous ordinary Service : which was in one case
a suitable musical composition, generally from the
Psalms ; in the other, the first few lines of the Epistle,
followed by such a composition.
It may be said, however q, that if any part of the
" So Palmer, Orig. Lit., II. iv. 4; Neale. p. 406.
SJECT. VII.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 139
Western ritual corresponds with or represents the pro-
keitnenon, it is the gradual ; for this is a verse from the
Psalms adapted to the Epistle, only following instead
of preceding it : and Mr. Palmer thinks it may have
been removed thither from its original position, before
the Epistle. Nor is it at all improbable that the
gradual may have been suggested by the prokeimenon,
with which it has so much in common. But it lacks,
after all, the peculiar characteristic of the latter;
which is its serving as a link between the eucharistic
and the preceding ordinary Office. The gradual was
never so used ; the Capitulum was : with its verse
and response, it discharged the precise function of
the prokeimenon.
It does not seem difficult to discern how it was
that the Epistle more particularly came to be thus
projected upon the ordinary weekly Offices of the
Church, probably even in primitive times. The
Epistles were from the first, and by the express
tenor of some of them, designed to be recited in the
churches1. And they would in the first instance be
read, not exactly as Scripture, but as the living voice
of apostolic authority and teaching. It is probable
that as such they obtained a place in the Communion
Office at an earlier period than the Gospels did ;
which may be the reason of the Epistle's universally
taking the precedence. In the very earliest times,
then, when as yet there were no Gospels to read, or
the custom of reading them had not come in, the
Epistle would be the only kind of " Scripture of the
New Testament" which the Eucharistic Office had to
lend to the ordinai'y Services. And the fact of our
finding the Epistle, and nothing else, constantly com-
' Col. iv. 16 ; 1 Thess. v. 27. *
140 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
memorated, and that too in the evening hour, which
was primitively associated with the Eucharist, seems
to furnish a strong presumption in behalf of the pri-
mitive date of the existing Eastern Vespers8.
The English Church at the Revision nominally and
in form rejected the Capitulum altogether ; — a serious
loss, indeed, had not the principle of it been essen-
tially retained, and in one respect largely developed.
First, as to the ordinary Capitulum. The principle of
it clearly was, that at evening the apostolic teaching
by means of the Epistles should be in some way
brought before the mind ; and so a touching memory
preserved, not of that only, but of the original even-
ing Institution, and time of celebration, of the Eu-
charist. And surely never was a traditional habit,
justly dear to the Church, more faithfully developed,
than when the single and almost unvarying verse
from a single Epistle was expanded into the reading
at large in the Evening Office, thrice in the year, of
the whole body of the apostolic Epistles.
It is perhaps to be regretted that the Capitulum,
in its Sunday and Festival aspect, was not retained in
the Revision of our Offices. Its value, as impressing
on the eve, by anticipation, the mind of the next day's
Epistle, is considerable; nor does it appear but that
• It is an interesting circumstance, that the fixed weekly Capitulum
at Vespers in the English Church was verse 5 of 2 Thess. iii. (" The
Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient
waiting for Christ ;") for, as is generally admitted, the Epistles to the
Thessalonians were the earliest written of any, aud they were specially
ordered to be read in the Church, (1 Thess. v. 27 : couip. 2 Thess. iii.
17). And it is at least conceivable that the habit, as at first formed,
of thus commemoratively fulfilling the apostolic injunction at the ordi-
nary Offices, passed over from St. Paul's favourite Church of Ephesus
to Gaul, and so reached our shores. The verse of 2 Thess. iii. occurs
in the Roman Prime as " a short lection."
SECT. VII.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 141
it might, no less than the Collect, have survived with-
Biit involving much of that complexity, their dread of
which our Revisers sometimes carried to excess. Hap-
pily, in the Collect itself, such anticipative reference is
in almost all cases, though less distinctly, involved.
And in one respect our Revision has, accidentally,
perhaps, but most effectively, restored a feature of this
part of the ancient Greek Vespers to its original posi-
tion and function. The Nunc Diniittis had a peculiar
fitness in that Office, coming as it did after the cele-
bration of the True Light, and the reading of the
summary of the Epistle, and so giving thanks for the
"Light to lighten the Gentiles." It was with some
disadvantage, therefore, that it was allotted to Com-
pline in the Western schemes ; and with propor-
tionate fitness that it was made to succeed, with us,
the eventide reading of the Epistles.
The origin of the Western Collect*, to which
allusion has just been made, may be traced with
almost equal certainty to the Eastern formularies. In
the sense in which I now speak of it, it may be de-
fined as a prayer for some grace or blessing in con-
nection with the Epistle or Gospel for the day, or
with both of them. But it is a further peculiarity of
the Collect, that it is transferable, or communicable
rather, to the ordinary Office of the day, including
the eve. Now the principle of this kind of prayer,
and of this particular application of it, may not only
be clearly discerned in the Eastern ritual, but is
there carried out with much greater fulness than in
' Mr. Palmer says, "If I were to hazard a conjecture on the origin
of Collects, I should say that they were introduced from Alexandria,"
i. e. from its liturgy, (I. iii.) This may account for the Collect for the
king, &c. ; but of the Collect proper no Eastern Communion Office
contains any trace.
142 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [ciiap. I.
the West. It is true that in their Communion Office
the Orientals use no such prayer. The current and
variable Epistle and Gospel are not allowed to colour
the Eucharistic rite by being made the basis of a
prayer introduced into it, but only by means of the
prokeimenon hymn epitomizing the Epistle. The
Gospel, the principal lection of the Office, is thus de-
prived of a function which we of the West expect to
see it exercising almost as a matter of course, and as
a part of our idea of it. But in compensation for
this, it imparts its character, in a very great degree,
at least on the more notable Sundays and on Festivals,
to the preceding Vespers and Morning Office ; to the
latter more especially. The variable hymns at Ves-
pers,— the " odes," the lection after the sixth of them,
and the other hymns, at Lauds, — all give expansion
in various ways to the theme of the Gospelu. Here,
then, is the principle of the Collect, exhibited on a
large scale. Further, not a few of these hymns are
scarcely, if at all, distinguishable in character from
our Collects. Take the following short hymns, intro-
duced at Lauds on Easter-day : —
" Thou, O Lord, that didst endure the cross, and didst abolish
death, and didst rise again from the dead, give peace in our life,
as only Almighty."
" Thou, 0 Christ, Who didst raise man by Thy resurrection,
vouchsafe that we may with pure hearts hymn and glorify
Thee."
Here we have the invocation and petition, grounded
upon the topic of the Gospel, which are the charac-
teristics of the Western Collect. As a general rule,
however, these hymns, &c, are not prayers, but acts
° For specimens translated at length, see Neale, p. 857 — S67, and
877—887; see also note D.
SECT. VII.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 143
of praise and meditation ; nor would it be very na-
tural, or easy to be accounted for, that the Western
ritualists should have given such prominence, by
means of the Collect, to a somewhat occasional fea-
ture of the Eastern system. But there is one par-
ticular kind of hymn in the Greek Office, which,
could we be assured of its possessing the requisite
antiquity, would have a strong claim to be considered
as the actual prototype of our Collects. It is called
the Exaposteilarion ; a name which has been vari-
ously explained, but seems to refer to e^aTroareiXov,
"Send down from above," a characteristic word of
frequent occurrence in these hymns : " the aim of
which seems originally to have been a kind of invo-
cation of the grace of God* " with the same refer-
ence, as in the other hymns, to the Gospel of the day.
These more uniformly prayer-like hymns occur, too,
very nearly at the close of the series at Lauds; so
that to any one taking up the Service-books in which
they are found y, they would appear but little removed
from the Epistle and Gospel, and might very well
suggest the position which was assigned to the Collect
in the Western Communion Offices. Add to this,
that when there was a saint's-day exaposteilarion to
be used, as well as a Sunday one, there was a fixed
rule for the precedence of the latter in ordinary cases ;
while on some great Festivals, as e.g. in the coin-
cidence of the Annunciation with Palm Sunday, the
order was reversed, exactly as in the case of the
Western Collects2. The Collect, too, was assigned
x Neale, p. 844. Comp. ibid., pp. 866, 885, 924.
T Viz. the Triodion, and the Pentecostaricm, containing the proper
ones. The ordinary ones are in the Octoechus.
■ Neale, p. 924, note.
144 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
to the selfsame place in the Western Lauds and
Vespers, as the exaposteilarion and other hymns occu-
pied in the Eastern Lauds ; viz. after the Capitulum
(•= the prokeimenon) and canticle*. These corre-
spondences must be allowed to be very striking. The
difficulty, however, as regards the exaposteilaria, is
that the invention of them is commonly ascribed to
a ritualist b of the tenth century. But it may be
fairly conjectured that they existed in some shape
already, and that he only brought them to greater
perfection, or to their present form.
It is remarkable, in connection with what has now-
been said, that, as is generally agreed, we have no
trace of Collects (in the sense here meant c) previous
to the time when Cassian and others imparted to the
Latin Church some acquaintance with the Eastern
rites, circ. 420 : Leo the Great, an early friend of
Cassian's (440), and Gelasius (490), being reputed
the first composers of them d. And whether they had
the particular forms called exaposteilaria before them
or not, it is, I conceive, by far the most probable ac-
count that can be given of the peculiar and somewhat
complex phenomena belonging to the Western Collect,
(phenomena which place it almost beyond the reach
of any one's invention,) that the idea of it was in all
respects derived from the consideration of the Eastern
* It was said also at the Prime and other hours in the English use.
The Benedictine had it at the end of Noctuins.
b Constant ine, son of Leo the Philosopher. Neale, ibid. , vide Mo-
sheim, cent. x.
c " Haic distinctio adhibenda videtur : si praecise de collectis loqua-
mur, quibus nunc utimur, verissunum esse reor earum primos auctores
fuisse Gelasiuni et Gregorium: id enim ornnes renun Ecclesiasticarum
Scriptores asserunt, et antiqua monument a evincunt. Quod si breves
oration.es intelligimus," &c. Bona, Rer. Lit., ii. 5. 4.
d Bona, Psalmod., xvi. 17. 1 ; Grancolas, i. p. 22, &c.
SECT. VII.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 145
system. We seem to see, compressed into the terse
Collects of Leo, Gelasius, or Gregory, the more diffuse
spirit of the numerous Eastern hymns. And thus
they would be the very quintessence, so to speak, of
the Gospels, on which the latter were founded. It
is observable, too, that the earliest Sacramentary, or
Collect-book, that of St. Leo, contains several Collects
for each feast, sometimes four or five e ; which is ex-
actly what we might expect to find, on the supposition
that he was compiling from the Eastern ritual. The
only innovation made by the Western composers, and
that a very natural one, was to incorporate the Collect,
not with the ordinary Service only, but with the Com-
munion Office itself. And they completed the scheme
by means of the " gradual," " super oblata," " post-
communion," and other hymns and prayers.
The derivation of the word Collect has, as is well
known, been much disputed. It seems most probable
that it is to be traced to two different conceptions f,
when it is applied to an ordinary prayer, and when it
signifies the peculiar kind we are speaking of. In
the former case, it is either from colligere orationem e,
the " summing up the prayers of the people or from
an old name for the Church's assemblies, Collecta^.
But the Communion Collect neither sums up any
previous petitions, nor is it obvious on what parti-
cular account, though several might be imagined, it
would be named from the " assembly." A ground
e Palmer, I. iii.
' Vide Bona, as above, note c.
« Cassian, ii. 7; Bingham, XV. i. 4. The minister's prayer at the
close of some part of divine service, collecting and including the people's
preceding devotions.
1 Levit. xxiii. 36, Ccetus et collecta. Deut. xvi. 8, In die septimo
quia collecta est Domini Dei tui. Comp. Tertull. de Fuga, c. ult.
146 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
upon which this latter derivation for it might reason-
ably be based, is the following. The Sacramentary
of St. Gregory provides two Collects for the Feast of
the Purification ; of which one was to be said " ad
Collectam ad S. Adrianum," i.e. at the ordinary ser-
vice at St. Adrian's Church, where they met first ; the
other, "ad Missam ad S. Mariam," to which they
proceeded for the Holy Communion It appears
hence, that in St. Gregory's time the ordinary Office,
as distinguished from the Communion, was called
Collecta. And it is very conceivable that a prayer
which, though said also at Communion, had this as
its characteristic, that it was designed to impart to
the ordinary Service the spirit of the Eucharistic Gos-
pel, would on that account be called the Collecta.
This nomenclature would represent very accurately
the Eastern principle. With this view accords, too,
another name by which the current Collect seems to
have been sometimes k called, viz. the Benedictio ; it
being the form in which the peculiar grace or bless-
ing spoken of in the Gospel was invoked upon the
attendants on the ordinary Service. (Compare, too,
the Greek name, exaposteilarion.) But it may still
be questioned whether the true reason of the name be
not its gathering out of the Eucharistic Scriptures of
the day the topics of a prayer or blessing ; a deriva-
tion which has always been a favourite one with ri-
1 Bona, as above.
k Viz. as occurring at the end of the Benedictine Nocturns. S. Be-
ned. Reg., cap. 11. "Et data Benedictione, incipiunt Matutinos," is
the last direction he gives for the Nocturns Office. Now certainly the
monastic use has always had the Collect for the day in that place. This,
therefore, must be meant. Mr. Palmer questions it, (Orig. Lit., I. i. 16,)
but it is so taken by all the best commentators. Vide Hajften, Disq.
Mon., p. 749.
sect, vii.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 147
tualists1, and has at least the recommendation that
it renders very accurately one great characteristic of
the Collect.
I have only to add respecting the Greek Evening
Office, that while, as an organized service, it has a less
purely primitive air than the Nocturns ; its structure
being, like that of Lauds, though in a less degree,
artificial : it nevertheless seems to bear a decided
note of primitiveness in the prokeimenon, and in sub-
stance is probably apostolic. It may indeed even be
thought, at a first glance, to favour the view of those
who would represent the ordinary services as being
the reliquice of the Eucharistic Rite. But though
there is a visibly designed parallel between the Even-
ing Office and the Eucharistic, it is plain that a parallel
it is, and no more. There are in the Eastern Com-
munion Offices two solemn " entrances the bring-
ing in, that is, of the Gospels, and of the elements. It
is the former of these alone (or rather a symbolical
commemoration of it by the entrance of the Priest
and Deacon, without the Gospels,) that occurs in the
Vespers. Of the other there is no trace. The Pre-
sence of Christ, which is recognised by the admonition,
" Stand up ; Wisdom," is not that which is connected
with the Elements, but His Presence as the Word or
Wisdom of God in the Holy Scriptures m.
1 Bona, p. 859; Wheatley, in loc.
m The ceremony of the Entrance of the Gospels is as follows. After
the prayer of entrance, "the holy doors are thrown open, and the
Deacon precedes the Priest through the north door of the sanctuary,
and so round in front of the holy doors, as in the little entrance in the
Liturgy. When they are before the doors, the Deacon saith, "Sir,
bless the holy Entrance ;" Priest, " Blessed be the Entrance of Thy
holy tilings (or Gospels) always, &c. Amen." Then the Deacon, stand-
ing within the doors, saith, "Wisdom; stand up." The Priest and
L 2
148 TITE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. I.
We have, however, in this ceremonial, a recog-
nition of two things: viz. 1. (as in the Eucharistic
" little Entrance") of the Presence of Christ with power
in the public reading of Holy Scripture ; and 2. of
the close connexion between all such public reading,
on ordinary occasions, and the Eucharist ; — the hear-
ing and meditation of Scripture being in truth a
lower yet most real reception of Christ to purposes of
divine wisdom and knowledge. The West did not
adopt this Eastern ceremony into her ordinary Offices".
Yet she gave full effect to it in a highly practical
form, by introducing the actual reading of the Scrip-
tures, to a considerable amount, into her scheme of
Services. The " prokeimenon" was developed into
the " Capitulum ;" the "Odes" into the lection sys-
tem. The English Church at her great Revision gave
yet fuller development to the lection element. And
in assigning so eminent a place as she does to Holy
Scripture in her ordinary worship, she acts entirely
in the spirit of her Eastern prototype ; translating, so
to speak, into language suited to the age in which
her lot is cast, the expressive symbols of a more
dramatic antiquity.
One or two remarks are naturally suggested by
what has been laid before the reader in this chapter.
Deacon go towards the altar, the doors are shut, and the choir sing
a hymn to the blessed Trinity, — "Joyful light," &c. (as above, p. 136).
" The French Church retained it, in some places, in the Liturgy.
Neale, p. 305.
SECT. TO.] PRIMITIVE FOHM 01' DAILY SERVICE. 149
1. One fact, then, which I conceive stands revealed
and unquestionable, is that from the very beginning
of the Christian Church another kind of service than
the Eucharistic co-existed side by side with it, absorb-
ing in no small degree the spiritual energies, and
expressing the religious emotions, of the earlier ages.
The importance of this fact, — combined with that of
the weekly, or at any rate festival, character of Eucha-
ristic worship, during the same period, — in its bear-
ing upon the intended character and province of
Christian Ritual as a whole, can hardly be overrated.
For a view of the relations and entire harmony of
operation subsisting between the Ordinary and the
Eucharistic worship of the Church, the reader is
referred to the next chapter.
2. A second point, which seems to be equally well
ascertained with the former, is that in the earliest age,
and down to about the fourth century, the Church
thought it good to have in effect two — at the utmost
they may be called three — solemn services of ordinary
public worship in the day, and no more. At the
last-mentioned epoch, she was induced0, under the
influence of the monastic system, or in emulation of
it, to institute public service at other times ; viz. the
1st, 3rd, 6th, and 9th hours, and late in the evening;
seasons of prayer which had doubtless from very
early, and some of them from apostolic times, been
observed as a matter of private or household devotion.
How far she in this respect acted the part of a wise
householder, may surely now at least be questioned.
The system, as a system of numerous daily Offices of
public worship, prescribed for the use of the mem-
bers of the Church, has been practically for hundreds
° See below, cliap. iii. sect. i.
150 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
of years abandoned throughout Christendom. So far
as the Offices survive at all, (and in the West it is
but a fragment that does so,) two Services, by aggre-
gation, or three at the most, testify p with no uncer-
tain voice to the sound wisdom of the primitive and
apostolic provision in this matter. The great Church
of the West, moreover, had she but eyes to see it,
has good reason, in the present degraded state of her
ordinary worship, to rue the day when, in the shape
of vastly multiplied, as well as complex and un ver-
nacular services, she laid a yoke upon the neck of her
children, which the event has shewn that they were
not able to bear.
3. Next, let it be noted by such as look upon the
ordinary Offices of the Church as a mere make-shift
of later and less devout ages, and would substitute
for them daily Celebrations, with or without commu-
nicants, that the first ages had not so received. The
further we go back, the more intense do we find this
token and expression of the Church's life, viz. watch-
fulness in offices of ordinary prayer. In such offices
it was that at midnight at the first, and still in after
days " very early, while it was yet dark," the Church
rose to seek her Lord ; only the more intensely, and
with longer watching and prayer, "as it began to
dawn towards the First Day of the week," — that Day
on which they looked, as of old, that He should
"stand in the midst of them" by Eucharistic Pre-
p Neale, p. 894: "At present, however, there axe in the Greek
Church eight canonical hours; prayers are actually, for the most
part, said three times daily: Matins, Lauds, and Prime by aggre-
gation, early in the morning; Tierce, Sexts, and the Liturgy (Com-
munion), later ; Nones, Vespers, and Compline, by aggregation, in the
evening." For the practice of the Western Church, see the end of
this chapter.
SECT. VII.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 151
sence ; when He should " stand at the door and
knock," and should " come in to sup with them, and
they with Himq." The early Church's mind unques-
tionably was, to carry on the work of her weekly and
Festival Eucharists by full and carefully adapted pro-
visions of daily prayer. In them her eyes still looked
backward, we may conceive, to past, as they certainly
looked forward to approaching celebration. Evening
by evening, probably from the very first, she recalled
to mind r the great Evening Institution ; and when
the Eucharist itself was removed from the eve to the
morning of the Lord's Day or Festival, she marked its
approach by suitable variation of the preceding ordi-
nary service. At the same time, the service which
was to this extent made much of, aspired to no co-
ordinate equality with the Eucharist. Causes which
must exist to the end of time sufficiently secured its
inferiority and due subordination. Already, in primi-
tive days, ordinary service was quite another thing
from Eucharistic ; so much so, that it but feebly im-
pressed the vision, or coloured the representations, of
the chroniclers of early Christianity s.
The corollary from these premises cannot be doubt-
ful. The most legitimate endeavour of a Church emu-
lous of apostolic practice, — the first axiom of Chris-
tian ritualism and apostolic polity and discipline, —
is surely the restoration of weekly Celebration and
Communion ; the one as a matter of faithfulness as
a Church, the other as the badge of Christian mem-
i This latter provision was extended to the eves of Festivals, as being
days of Eucharist ; while at very high seasons, as Easter, it is probable
that celebrations were at a very early time more frequent.
1 Viz. by the prokeimenon, "entrance" at Vespers, &c. Sup.,
sect. vii.
* See above, sect, i., ii.
152 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
bership. This, with occasional Festival opportunities,
and not either daily Celebrations or daily Commu-
nions, (which it is questionable if the Church ever
heard of until the third, or it may be the fourth, cen-
tury,) was the ancient and primitive way of Service.
And next, second only to this first and paramount
obligation, the Church is bound to provide a hum-
bler, yet not ignoble, sacrifice of morning and even-
ing worship. In point of attendance, it is all but im-
possible— though no pains should be spared in mak-
ing it do so — that this service should come up to the
standard of the weekly Eucharist. There is no reason
in the world, unless by the Church's fault, or their
own, that need prevent Christians, as a general rule,
from attendance on the latter; there are many that
must shut out not a few from the former. To bring
up, then, every one of her members, being of suffi-
cient age, in the habit of weekly (and, if it may be,
Festival) Communion, and the greatest possible num-
ber in that of daily Church worship ; this, and no
less, is the Church's bounden aim. I earnestly ques-
tion whether much more than this, save in the pe-
culiar case of the clergy, or at special times, comes
within the ordinary design of our Lord for the mem-
bers of the Mystical Body.
4. In the next place, enough has been disclosed in
this chapter of the links by which the later Western
ritual stands connected with the early Eastern formu-
laries, to evince the certainty that the former owes its
parentage to the latter. This is a fact, however, of
which the expounders of the Western Offices, from
Amalarius and Walafridus Strabo (in the ninth cen-
tury) downwards, have not had the slightest concep-
tion. Blinded by a fond belief that all ritual must
SECT. VII.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 153
have originated with Rome, — that she could not pos-
sibly be beholden, at any rate, to the despised Church
of the East, for any part of her ecclesiastical system, —
they have fallen into precisely the same error as we have
had occasion to observe in the professed expounders
(until lately) of our own Services. Leaving entirely
neglected the one chief and prerogative source of in-
formation as to the rationale of their Offices, they have
but guessed, not always very shrewdly, at the reasons
of things ; and have continually taken refuge in mysti-
cal ones, often absurd and puerile to the last degree.
There is no possible objection to devout musings, or
even fancies, as to the number, order, connection, and
the like, of the elements of service which the Church
has inherited. But it need not impose any undue
restrictions on such meditations, but only guide them
into channels where they may flow without risk of
bringing contempt on the whole subject, though we
should inquire somewhat after the historically ascer-
tainable origin, laws, and principles of the Church's
ritual. The true history of the ritual of Western
Christendom has yet to be written ; and, whenever it
is written, it must surely be by having recourse to
the materials and sources of information which have
been here indicated.
5. It is natural to inquire, again, What great and
guiding principles of Divine Service and Worship do
we gather from the review of these early and (in part,
at least) primitive forms ? What is the ideal of ordinary
Christian devotion which they exhibit to us ? and how
far are the existing ordinary Services of the English
Church true to those principles and to that ideal ?
And first, — not to enter now upon those Eucha-
ristical principles which must lie at the root of all
154 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. I.
Christian Service, — it is surely here represented that
to lose ourselves in the praise of God is the peculiar joy
and glory of the Christian estate. " Psalms and hymns
and spiritual songs ;" " singing and making melody
in the heart to the Lord ;" " giving thanks always
for all things to God and the Father in the Name of
the Lord Jesus Christ in one word, Praise, — is, ac-
cording to these Offices, the ruling aspect of Christian
devotion. — Next, the due nurture of the soul by me-
ditation on the law of God, and on the great Chris-
tian verities, is, though less prominently, and by
somewhat different media from those which were em-
ployed in later times, yet unquestionably designed in
these Services. The twofold idea under which the
119th and others of the Psalms were anciently used,
viz. as acts both of praise and of meditative learning,
has been already pointed out. In the hymns also,
and other addresses, the great subjects of adoring be-
lief— such as the Incarnation, the Passion, the Resur-
rection and Glory of Christ, and His coming to judg-
ment— are the ever-recurring topics. To these was
added, at the Night Office, the Creed itself ; besides
that by the prokeimenon, or summary of the Epistle,
very much as by our " First Collect," the Eucharistic
teaching of the week or day was in a measure kept
before the mind. — Thirdly, " Prayer and supplication
for all saints," and " for all men ; for kings, and for
all who are in authority," and in order to "making
our own requests known unto God," is the remaining
great work proposed to be done in these Services. —
And underlying all the rest, — laid as the basis of all
at the commencement of each Service, and breaking
out ever and anon afterwards throughout, more espe-
cially in the Morning daybreak Office, (which, as in
SECT. VII.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 155
the West afterwards, is half penitential,) — is the
deep confession of sin and unworthiness, powerfully
contrasting with the elevated tone of the Offices as
a whole.
Our own Daily Services, whatever judgment may
be formed of them as compared with those of the
middle period of the Church, do certainly, both as to
their elements and as to the proportion in which these
enter into them, accord in a striking manner with the
Services whose contents have just been sketched. I
speak not now of details, — these have been touched
upon before, and a more than sufficient correspondence
elicited — but of the kind of things that it is well for
Christian men to do in public worship, and of the
degree of prominence that they should give to them
respectively. For with us, too, the burden, the staple
of the Service, is, it may be confidently affirmed, and
will be more fully shewn hereafter, Praise. "The
greatest part of our daily Service consisteth," in the
words of Hooker, "in much variety of Psalms and
hymnsV But the position he intended to lay down
may be affirmed much more broadly when we have
grasped the true principles of our Service. From the
Venite to the end of the Creed, — nay, to the end of
the Office, — is, in one point of view, a continued act
of praise ; broken only by the introduction of the topics
of it by means of the Lessons ; carried on again, not
merely by the anthem or hymn, but by the invoca-
tion and adoration of God under various attributes,
with which every prayer commences, and many con-
clude ; and crowned by a general act of thanksgiving,
almost peculiar to us, though sufficiently countenanced"
« See above, p. 66. u L. E. P., v. 43. » See above, pp. 66, 134.
15G THE PRINCIPLES OF D1VINK SERVICE, [our. I.
by ancient Oriental precedent. It is, indeed, much
to be remarked, that the intercessory prayers and
thanksgivings which conclude our revised Daily Of-
fices, and which have on various grounds been ob-
jected to, possess at least this merit, that they exhibit
many admirable specimens of that towering sublimity
of address y, and that joy in exuberant praise, which
is characteristic of Eastern worship, and in which the
Western ritual is comparatively very deficient. They
restore, in a measure, the " exclamations" which occur
so frequently in Eastern Offices. It is chiefly in the
amount of her psalmody that our present Offices con-
trast unfavourably with those of the West, and yet
more with the Eastern. This, in itself to be earnestly
regretted, could it be avoided, is a result of the brevity
of the Offices themselves. All that is here maintained
is that the proportion of praise, in the entire Offices,
is not inadequate ; that this all-important element
pervades their entire structure, and that the later re-
visions of them, more especially, tended to enlarge it.
— With us, again, as with the Eastern Church, medi-
tative learning and pondering of Holy Scripture goes
hand in hand with praise, and is only second to it in
consideration. — With us, prayer and intercession come
in as a third element with these ; — prayer no less deep
and personal, and intercession no less wide and Ca-
tholic, at the least, than that which we discern in the
Greek Offices. — With us, finally, the foundation of
penitential confession is deeply laid at the commence-
ment of both our Services, and characterizes their
whole tenor to a degree which has called forth alike
the scorn of enemies and the half regretful and apolo-
* See the Prayer for the Queen, and the Occasional Prayers.
SECT. VII.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 157
getic admission of friends z. Surely, of one thing at
least the English Church needs not to be ashamed, viz.
of bearing in her ritual the marks of the Crucified a.
With her, as with her ancient Eastern prototype, the
"strength" of Praise is made perfect in the "weak-
ness" of Confession.
Lastly, let us for a moment compare this Service,
thus primitive alike in its ideal and its forms, with
that which in modern times has been adopted as a
substitute for it in two other Communions, each of
which is, by persons differently minded, deliberately
held up as a model for the imitation of the English
Church. To speak first of the newest Communion of
Western Christendom, the " Evangelical Church" of
Prussia and other parts of Germany. The summary
of their ordinary Service is as follows : —
A Hymn.
A Commencement Prayer (read at the altar-step).
The Epistle or Gospel.
A Hymn.
The Lord's Prayer.
The Sermon.
" Church Prayer," (read from the pulpit).
The Lord's Prayer.
Benediction, (Phil. iv. 7).
A Hymn.
Benediction, (Numb. vi. 26).
1 Vide Tracts for the Times, No. 86, on the comparatively penitential
character of our Offices. It should be remarked, however, that the
element of praise, though in many respects restrained, was in others en-
larged and intensified at the Revision; more especially by appointing
the Tc Deum (or an equivalent) daily, and by the addition of the General
Thanksgiving and the " exclamation" or doxology, " For Tliine is," &c,
by increasing the number of "Glorys," and omitting the penitential
Preces after the Creed.
* "Now, journeying west/card, evermore
We know the lonely Spouse
By the dear mark her Saviour bore
Traced on her patient brows." — Christian Year.
158
THE PRINCIPLES OE DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. L
It has been well observed that —
" This so-called Liturgy is wholly M»-liturgical : it has no
Creeds ; no Psalter ; no kneeling ; no responses ; no common
or congregational supplications or thanksgiving. The prayers
are mere book-exercises recited by the minister, and listened to
by the people. No lessons are appointed to be read from the
Bible. There is a Gospel or an Epistle in the morning, but no
Scripture at all in the afternoon. The only parts of the service
which exhibit real life, are the singing and preaching. The
language of the formularies is wordy and diffuse, conceived
in the flowing, periphrastic style which Baxter would have
substituted for the English Liturgy."
Such is the service seriously recommended for the
adoption of the Church of the Future. The ritual of
England's future, at any rate, may it never be.
From the newest we turn to the most ancient Com-
munion of Europe. We may at least look to find,
in the ways of ordinary service prevailing throughout
half Christendom, something to justify the confidence
with which the practical system of that Communion,
not least in the matter of ordinary worship, is held up
to our imitation. Now, that in many parts of the con-
tinent attendance upon some kind of ordinary worship
is far more extensively realized than in this country, is
not questioned ; nor can we too earnestly desire that
we may so far be enabled to follow so good an ex-
ample. But it is worth while to inquire what the
service is which commands this degree of attendance.
Now, first of all, it is not the anciently descended
scheme of service that is thus attended. The following
statement of a peculiarly well-informed writer, hav-
ing now been on record several years without being
called in question, may perhaps be taken fairly to re-
present the state of things in this respect throughout
Roman Catholic Europe : —
" Yet of one thing, in conclusion, it seems proper to remind
the reader, lest the glitter of so magnificent an array of seven-
SECT. VII.] PRIMITIVE FORM OF DAILY SERVICE. 159
fold devotion should blind the eyes of any to the real state of
the matter. Except in monastic bodies, the Breviary, as a
Church Office, is scarcely ever used as a whole. You may go,
we do not say from church to church, but from cathedral to
cathedral, of central Europe, and never hear — never have a
chance of hearing — Matins, save at high festivals. In Spain
and Portugal it is somewhat more frequent ; but there, as every-
where, it is a clerical devotion exclusively. But anywhere, as
we had occasion to say in a previous number, ' to find in a vil-
lage church a priest who daily recited his Matins publicly,
would be a phenomenon.' Then, again, the lesser Hours are not
often publicly said, except in cathedrals, and then principally
by aggregation, and in connexion with Mass. Vespers is the
only popular service ; and that, in connection with ' Benedic-
tion,' seems to be put forward by English Ultramontanes as the
congregational service of the Roman Church of the future. Our
readers will remember that some time ago we made a state-
ment, characterized by many persons at the time as ' startling,'
that ' in no national Church under the sun are so many Matin
Services daily said as in our own.' An Anglo-Roman priest
shortly afterwards strongly remonstrated with us for certain
other statements contained in the same number. But of this
point he took no notice ; and therefore, we may fairly presume,
allowed its truth. We feel it only right to dwell on this, be-
cause, having had occasion in the preceding pages to enlarge
with so much admiration on the Roman theory, we are bound
not to shut our eyes to Roman practice b."
Let us next inquire what the service used is. And
here, again, in preference to giving an estimate of my
own of the condition and merits of the ordinary wor-
ship practically existing in the Roman Church, I shall
quote the words of another. They will be recog-
nised as those of an able layman of our own day, well
qualified by information to speak on the subject, and
not chargeable with want of breadth or catholicity in
his sympathies. And as the passage to which I al-
lude happens to sum up with remarkable accuracy the
b "Christian Remembrancer," No. 70, Oct. 1850. For some account
of the present state of things, practically, in the East, sec note H.
1G0 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. f CHAP. I.
views expressed in this chapter, I shall make no
apology for citing it at length : —
" Christian worship is derived from that of the old faith. The
Jewish worship was, as all sects allow, of two kinds, — the more
solemn rite of sacrifice, and the auxiliary offering of prayer and
praise, and reading of Holy Scripture. The former confined at
first to the Tabernacle, and then to the Temple ; the latter
common to the Temple and the Synagogue. The former,
a thing which perished at the destruction of the Temple ; the
latter, a thing which continues to our own day. That Christian
worship strictly follows this analogy is not a matter of such
concurrent acceptation ; and yet it does so. . . ' Opus Dei, quod
singulis diebus, horis propriis ac distinctis, in Ecclesiis et Ora-
toriis celebratur, duplex est, Missa et Officium Divinum,' is
the majestic commencement — majestic from its truth and sim-
plicity— of the Rituale Cisterciense.
" In the primitive Church, the ' Opus Dei ' was, as later, two-
fold ; but it [afterwards] ceased to be vernacular, and, except in
churches which were collegiate, (to use the most general word,)
the Officium Divinum ceased to be necessarily collective ; and
nowhere, we feel we may speak generally, was it congregational.
Then came the days of the Reformation, and the Roman
Church, with a most deplorable deficiency of courage, would
neither make the ' Opus Dei ' in either branch vernacular, nor
the Officium Divinum at all congregational. The congrega-
tional attendance at (not participation in the Office of) the
Missa, the chief remnant of collective worship, was encouraged
by the building of churches consisting of altar alone, and nave,
and therefore unsuited to the Divine Office (i.e. ordinary ser-
vice). The English Reformers went to work root and branch, —
too much so, it might be said, in many particulars, — but, in
principle, in a clear-sighted and decisive manner, by rendering
both the Missa and Divine Office at once vernacular, collective,
and congregational. In the Roman Communion things could
not stop as they were ; popular devotion craved for vernacular
food. The result has been a singular system of compromise.
On the one hand, the Mass, and the observances growing from
it, ' Benediction' in particular, have almost exclusively occupied
the churches ; Vespers alone, as an authoritative service, out
of the various divisions of the Divine Office, struggling for
SECT. VII.] PRIMITIVE FORM OP DATLY SERVICE. TGI
recognition. On the' other hand, an irregular bundle of ver-
nacular forms of worship, litanies, methodistical hymns, and
modern prayers, &c. have accumulated, and are encouraged by
authority as the playthings, so to speak, of the laity, who, it
is assumed, cannot compass anything better ; while the old and
venerable Officium Divinum, the breviary services, are remanded
to the mere private use of the clergy1."
Meanwhile, the English Church holds fast to a
form of ordinary worship possessing, whatever its
defects otherwise, one advantage which the rest of
the Western Church has recklessly thrown away ; viz.
that of having come down to her in an unbroken
succession from primitive days. Her foot, in this
matter at any rate, is on the rock of apostolic prac-
tice and precedent : " her foundations are upon the
holy hills."
• "Oratorianism and Ecclesiology." (By A. J. B. H.)
M
CHAPTER II.
OS THE THEORY OF THE CHUECH's OEDISTAET WOESHIP.
SECTION I.
"Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things
which He suffered ; and being made perfect, He became the author of
eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him ; called of God an High-
Priest after the order of Melchisedec."
That the Church of Christ has never been without
some form of Ordinary Worship, in addition to the
Holy Communion, is so probable in itself, and is
countenanced by so many concurrent circumstances,
that few perhaps will be found, on reflection, to deny
the position altogether, though they may be unwilling
to acquiesce in all the conclusions arrived at in the
preceding chapter. And, at any rate, that the Church
was guided, at a period not long after the first age or
two, to the universal adoption of such services, none
will be hardy enough to gainsay. " De Divinis Of-
ficiis," says the deeply-learned Mabillon, " quae in
Ecclesia Gallicana jam inde a pri??iis temporibus obti-
nuerunt, breviter disseramus." And again : " Etsi in
publicis fidelium conventibus, jam inde ab Ecclesia
nascetitis exordio, Psalmi aliaeque preces recitatae sint,
tamen," &c. And once more : " Avariis divinorum
officiorum modis, qui tarn in Oriente quam in Occi-
dente a primordiis instituti sunt, exordium ducimus."
CH. n. S. I.] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP.
103
Such was his impression, from his acquaintance, in
a general way, with antiquity. And I believe it may
be said without fear of contradiction, that, from Ma-
labar to Ireland, no Church has ever yet been known
to exist, which had not ordinary offices of some kind
or other.
Here, then, an interesting and deeply important
question arises, as to the position which this kind of
service properly occupies in the Christian scheme,
and the ends which it was designed (can we doubt,
divinely designed?) to answer. It is indeed easy to
assign a variety of motives and reasons for such ser-
vices, all of which must be allowed their place, and
which help to make up the sum total of their rationale.
But if we inquire, as surely we ought, after the most
elevated conception which we may allowably, and
without trenching on the prerogatives of the highest
kind of Christian Service, entertain of this lower form
of it, the question is not so easily answered. The
statements which are ordinarily put forth on the sub-
ject in our popular manuals, or even in treatises of
greater pretensions, are seldom such as go to the
bottom of the matter, or can, on any profound view
of it, be deemed satisfactory. One favourite repre-
sentation is, that in these acts of worship, i. e. in
the use of the ordinary Offices of the Church, we dis-
charge a duty of merely natural piety, with only such
advantages as accrue to us from our better knowledge
of God under the Gospel dispensation, and from the
intercession of Christ, which we are privileged to
plead. Thus, among commentators on the Church's
daily Services, as used in the middle ages, Martene
(echoing, for the most part, the language of his pre-
decessors) is content to base the institution of such
m 2
164 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. n.
Offices on the general duty incumbent on Christians,
of continual prayer and service*. L' Estrange, an
early commentator on our present Offices, goes back
to grounds of natural religion in search of reasons for
public prayer b. Sparrow, again, in his well-known
work, falls back upon a fortiori arguments from the
Law °. Neither does Hooker, when speaking of the
Church's ordinary public Prayer, place it on such
grounds as might have been expected from the pro-
found manner in which he treats of the Sacraments ;
dwelling simply on the promise of our Lord to Chris-
tian assemblies, and on the prevailing power which
would be likely to belong to the prayers of an aggre-
gation of Christian men, as compared with those of an
individual d. These representations are, indeed, as far
as they go, to the purpose ; and must have their place
in any just and full view of the subject. But we may
reasonably ask whether this is the whole truth ? whe-
ther the whole case, so to speak, for ordinary Chris-
tian worship, is fully set before us here ? and whether
some broader and more distinctively Christian ground
may not be taken for it ?
And, accordingly, this kind of worship has by other
writers, who have formed juster conceptions of its
* Matisne de Ritib. Eccl., init.
b " As God is the first Principle and prime Efficient of our being, so
that very being is obligation of the highest importance for us to defer
Him the greatest honour." Alliance of Divine Offices, p. 23, ed. 1846.
c " Thus it was commanded under the Law, and certainly we Chris-
tians are as much at least obliged to God as the Jews were," &c. Ra-
tionale, init.
* " The service which we do as members of a public body must needs
be accounted so much worthier than the other, as a whole society of
such condition exceedeth the worth of any one. In which consideration
unto Christian assemblies there are most special promises made." Eccl.
Pol., V. xxiv. 1.
sect. I.] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIF. 165
dignity and its province, being variously characterized
as a means of union6 to Christ, an effective act of
communion with the Church, and of intercession with
and for her ; as the discharge, in a word, of an ele-
vated spiritual function, such as cannot in any lower
manner (as, e. g. by private or household worship) be
so effectually performed. And surely we may safely
reject such a view of it as would make it be no more
than the expression of natural devotion, — the orisons,
as it were, of the natural man, — only sanctioned and
sublimed by Christian promise and privilege. But
at the same time we must be equally careful lest we
exalt it to a position, and assign to it powers, to which
it can lay no claim. Be it what it may, how excellent
soever within its own sphere and limits, it is not,
after all, the Church's great, distinctive, and supreme
act of Service. In the endeavour to assign to it such
a place as will secure its observance on high Christian
grounds, there is no little risk of claiming for what is
confessedly a secondary mode of access to God, and of
reception of Divine gifts, those privileges which be-
long to the Eucharist, and to that only. Indeed it
must be said that ritualists and other writers have
not been sufficiently careful to keep distinct the posi-
tion and privileges of the Holy Communion on the
one hand, and those of ordinary acts of worship on
the other.
Thus, then, our present inquiry assumes the phase
of a comparison and discrimination between the lower
and higher forms of Christian Service and worship.
The point for our consideration is, how comes this
kind of service to be superadded to, and to co-exist
with, the one principal and supreme act of Christian
c Vide Wilberforce on the Incarnation, chap. xii.
1G6
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. II.
Ritual solemnly instituted by Christ Himself? Is it
independent of the Eucharistic Rite, or supplementary
to it ? Does it, on the one hand, occupy a distinct
ground of its own, a department of spiritual need
altogether unprovided for in the Eucharist ? And yet
how can we conceive that that great act of Service,
divinely ordained for the dedication and refection of
man's nature, leaves any department of his being
really undedicated or unprovided for? Or is this
lower kind of service, on the other hand, purely an-
cillary to the higher ; a branch proceeding from it ;
a tributary falling into it ; and to be conceived of as
always, and strictly, in subordination to it? This
view, again, rigidly accepted, is by no means free
from difficulty. Nor, I conceive, is it possible to
attain to a satisfactory solution of the question before
us, without taking a wider and more comprehensive
view than might at first sight seem necessary, of the
whole subject of the nature of Christian worship.
It has been well observed f, that the Church's rites,
even to her most ordinary ones, are based upon
her deepest doctrinal mysteries. Accordingly, when
Hooker would justify a particular kind of petition
in our ordinary Church Service, he is carried by
his subject into a consideration of the two Wills of
Christ s i and again, in expounding the nature of the
Sacraments, into the question of the two Natures in
Christ11, and their union in His one Person. An in-
quiry like the present, embracing, in outline at least,
the entire subject of the Church's ritual action, may
' See a thoughtful sermon on " The Prayers of the Saints," by Arch-
deacon Smith, of Jamaica.
* Laws of Eccl. Polity, V. 48.
h Ibid., V. 50—57.
SECT. I.J THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP. 167
well be expected to lead us, in like manner, into the
consideration of some one or more of the greater mys-
teries of the Gospel.
Now there are, as it would seem, two especial
mysteries of the Christian religion, in the right un-
derstanding of one or other of which, or of both
taken together, we may find the answer to most
questions, concerning either ritual or practice, which
can arise under that dispensation. These are, the
Incarnation, and the Priesthood, of Christ. In
those two Facts, taking both of them in their widest
sense, is summed up the whole of our Lord's opera-
tion on behalf of His Church ; as well those actions
of His by which the salvation of man was in the first
instance wrought, as the processes by which He still
carries on His great work until the consummation of
all things.
In the Incarnation of our Lord we may properly
include, not only the fact itself, but all those effects
and consequents of it, which, but for it, could not
have taken place : such as His Nativity, and all the
events of His Divine Childhood and Manhood ; His
Circumcision, Manifestation, and Presentation in the
Temple ; His Baptism and Ministry ; His Fasting and
Temptation ; His Miracles and Teaching ; His Agony
and Passion ; His Death and Resurrection ; His As-
cension, and Session at the Right Hand of God the
Father, which continues to this hour.
The Priesthood of Christ, though most closely
and intimately connected with His Incarnation, yet
seems capable of being discriminated from it as a
second and distinct step in His great work. The
Incarnation was in order to the Priesthood, as one
step may be in order to another, but did not properly
168 THE PRINCIPLES 01' DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. II.
involve it. Christ's " Body was prepared Him," in
order that, like all other priests, " He might have
somewhat to offer." "The Body" was assumed by
one act, in order to its becoming by another " a Tem-
ple," the sphere and scene of awful sacrificial trans-
actions. And the whole work of preparation and
adaptation for becoming a Priest and an Offering was
separated, in fact, from the act of oblation itself. First
of all, those actions which we have included under the
idea of the Incarnation, were done by the Son of
Man, the second Adam, as such ; by the new Head of
the human race working out a perfect and acceptable
obedience. And then the work thus done was, by a
distinct action, offered to God the Father by the same
Divine Person as Priest. True it is, that from the
beginning of the great Economy or arrangement, (as
they of old time used to designate the Incarnation,
with its whole effects,) the idea of dedication and
offering entered into every action of the obedient
Sonship. In this sense, and to this extent, the offer-
ing must be conceived of as having begun from the
very moment of the Incarnation1 itself. But not till
1 See Note F. Similarly, Dr. Jackson (Priesthood of Christ, IX. chap,
iv. 3) says : " Betwixt a priest complete, or actually consecrated, and no
priest at all, there is a mean or third estate or condition; to wit, a
priest in fieri, though not in facto, or a priest inter consecrandum, be-
fore he be completely and actually consecrated." And again, ch. xi.
5 : " During the time of His humiliation He was rather destinated than
concecrated to be the author and fountain of blessedness unto us." This
excellent writer has, however, involved himself in a difficulty, by in-
sisting that Clirist was not qualified to act, nor did act, as a priest at
all, until after His Resurrection, — appealing to Heb. v. 8 — 10. But
though the seal of the Father's acceptance of His Priesthood was
finally set by His Resurrection, it is unquestionable that His offering
of Himself upon the Cross was a proper act of Priesthood. It was at
once the act by w hich He consecrated Himself for His Priesthood, ("For
their sakes I sanctify Myself," St. John xvii.,) and by which He saved
and sanctified the world, ("that they also may be sanctified").
SECT. I.] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP. 1G9
the very close of His ministry in the flesh did our
Lord solemnly, and by a set and suitable action,
enter upon His Priesthood : " Then taking the dignity
of the Priesthood, or rather, then fulfilling in action
also the dignity which He had always had, He offered
the Sacrifice for usk."
It is next to be observed that the actions of Christ
consequent upon His Incarnation may be viewed
either (1), as personal actions merely ; or (2), in their
bearing upon the salvation of mankind.
(1.) Let us view them, first, as personal actions
merely. We shall find that they assume a very dif-
ferent aspect, according as we leave out or take in
His priestly functions and operation.
Viewed apart from their connection with His Priest-
hood, they are simply actions of obedient Sonship,
crowned with the reward of that obedience. The
spectacle, as has been already said, is that of the
second Adam accomplishing in Himself that perfect
conformity to the Divine Will which the first Adam
failed to exhibit. We behold a life of faultless obe-
dience to God and entire love towards man, — of
obedience unto death and love unto death, — crowned,
as its reward, with glory and worship.
But this series of personal actions assumes a new
character when it is conceived of not only as done, but
as offered. And a distinct operation was provided in
order to its being offered. Christ was not only con-
ceived at the first of the Holy Ghost, and afterwards
sanctified in all His actions by the same Holy Spirit,
but was also at the last, through the same Spirit,
sanctified (or rather "sanctified Himself") as an
k Hesychius, bishop of Jerusalem circ. 600. Li Lev. c. 4, Bibl. Patr.
torn. m. p. 63, ed. 1677.
170 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. II.
offering, (St. John xvii. 10). Not only was He "the
Lamb of God," but He also, "through the eternal
Spirit, offered Himself," as such, to God1. The ac-
tion of His Priesthood supervened upon the proper
action of His Incarnation"1. What He was as Man,
He offered as Priest. The obedient Sonship was
sanctified and offered in the office of the eternal
Priesthood. "Though He were a Son, yet learned
He obedience by the things which He suffered ; and
having thus been made perfect," (consecrated, TeXeico-
6ei?,) " He became the author of eternal salvation to
all them that obey Him ;" being then, and not till
then, named or "called of God an High Priest."
Thus was the second Adam, even towards Himself,
a second and a greater Aaron and Melchisedec".
(2.) But let us now consider the actions of our
Lord, not in their personal character, i. e. in their re-
lation to Christ's own Person, but in their bearing
upon man's interests; as actions representative and
potential, in which was wrought once for all, or out of
which issues, by unceasing application, the salvation
of mankind. We shall find the same duality of aspect
appertaining to them, as we did when we were con-
sidering them as personal actions merely.
These mystically effective actions, if we leave out of
view their connection with Christ's Priesthood, ap-
pear simply as great deeds of victorious re-creation ;
as the quelling, on behalf of mankind, in the Person
of Christ, of the old enemies, Sin and Death ; as the
1 Heb. k. 14.
m " The Priesthood is an accident, the Humanity or Manhood is the
subject or substance that supports it." Dr. Jackson, Priesthood of
Christ, p. 213.
■ On the question whether, and in what sense, Christ was a Priest
towards Himself, see Thos. Aquin,, Sunnna, iii. 22, 4.
sect. I.] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP. 171
dying out and abolition of the old corruption, and the
raising up of a new, perfect, and immortal manhood.
But the selfsame actions present themselves under
quite another and an added aspect, if we take into
consideration the Priesthood and its effects. We find
another set of phenomena taking their place as co-effi-
cients in the work of salvation. Conceivably, indeed,
it might have sufficed the good pleasure of the Divine
Will, and the exigency of the case, that by actions
partaking of the former character alone — actions, that
is, of a merely restorative and re-creative kind — the
salvation of man should be effected. The utmost
aspirations of heathen philosophies, whencesoever de-
rived, had dreamed of nothing beyond such a re-
constitution of human nature. Nor perhaps could un-
aided reason, even with the knowledge of the fact of
the Incarnation, have attained to the conception of any-
thing further. To restore to its perfection the original
ethical condition of man ; to place him in his primeval
position of harmonious discharge of his relations to
God, his fellow-man, and himself : this might well
be thought to be all that God purposed concerning
him, and might also seem capable of accomplishment
through the medium of the Incarnate Word, as Incar-
nate, without the intervention of any further economy.
And by some single rite, such as Baptism, it might
further be imagined, — a rite, that is, capable of im-
parting the regenerative and reconstitutive effects of
the actions of Christ, and guaranteeing the continually
renewing assistances of the Holy Spirit, — the entire
gift of salvation, in all its parts, might be conveyed
to man.
The illumination of a special teaching, — a teaching
directed towards the inculcation of a yet greater mys-
172 THE PRINCIPLES OP DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. II.
tery, and towards the unfolding of a still higher
destiny than that of mere renewal, — was, it should
seem, necessary to prepare mankind for the appre-
hension of any further privilege as being in store
for man. Accordingly, together with the mysterious
necessity for Atonement, and closely interwoven with
it, another great feature of human destiny had been
all along intimated. This was the acceptable oblation
of regenerated man to God by the Priesthood of Christ ;
and, together with this, the -power of acceptable offer-
ing of himself by man, in and through that Priest-
hood. Such an intimation was clearly involved in the
mysterious idea and practice of Sacrifice. That idea
and practice, undiscoverable, as it should seem, at
least in all its bearings, by the mere reason0, and
forming no part of the mental heritage of man in his
first estate, had been in the world coevally (in all pro-
bability) with the Fall, was familiar to the patriarchs,
descended almost universally to the Gentiles, and was
divinely expanded and reduced to detail for the chosen
people of God. And when all the particulars of the
teaching embodied in those old rites, whether pa-
triarchal, Gentile, or Mosaic, came at length to be
summed up and expounded in the priestly action of
Christ, it was seen that the purport of it, as regarded
man's position and functions towards God, was this ;
■ — that, besides the restoration of man to the image of
God, (which of itself, indeed, required an act of priest-
hood for its accomplishment,) the Divine purpose in-
cluded the setting on foot of certain new and bettered
relations to Himself, on the part of the creature so
restored. It was not to be deemed the goal of human
attainment or perfectibility " to do justly, and to love
0 See below, Part EL, Theory of Eucharistic Worship.
SECT. I.] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP. 173
mercy, and to walk humbly with his God or in
whatever other way ethical completeness may be de-
scribed. Such duties would indeed be indispensably
necessary, but they would be taken up into a higher
sphere. A new standing before God would now be
provided for man, consisting in a capacity for accept-
able oblation of himself to God, and for special and
transcendent participation of God by him. The great
saving actions of Christ were destined to include not
only such a dying and rising again as would redound
to the renewal and re-creation of man, but such a
Death as was, by virtue of priestly operation, a perfect
Reconciliation and Atonement ; such a presentation of
the risen and ascended Body as constituted It a perfect
and acceptable Gift and Oblation to God. Henceforth
man would be empowered and privileged not only to
do that which was well-pleasing in God's sight, but
also acceptably to offer it. That which henceforth he
did in Christ, and as a member of Him, would through
Christ have a real acceptableness with God, as a gift
to Him, and as redounding to the actual increase of
His glory. Henceforth he would be not only " a son,"
but " a priest unto God and his Father." For the
exercise of this exalted spiritual function, and for the
continuance and increase of his acceptableness in it,
a special rite, over and above the Sacrament of his
regeneration, would be provided. In that rite he
would be privileged, as a priest unto God, (1), to pre-
sent and to plead, in the way of memorial, the one
Sacrifice of Christ, and with it to offer himself accept-
ably; and (2), sacramentally to eat and drink of the
great High-Priest's Sacrifice of Himself.
And, exalted and mysterious as is the condition de-
scribed in these terms, it may be remarked, that such
174 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. n.
an advance, in point of spiritual position and functions,
is exactly what might be expected to accrue to man,
as the result of a Divine Person's having condescended
to enter into the human side of religious and ritual
transaction, and of man's having been marvellously
incorporated into Him. It could not be but that
such a wondrous event should involve a greatly ele-
vated ritual position towards God. It was in a man-
ner likely that man would in his measure inherit a
glorious priesthood, by his having been ingrafted into
the very Body of a Divine High- Priest5.
Now these considerations account for a very pecu-
liar feature, for such it is, in the economy of our sal-
vation : I mean the duality, and not the duality merely,
but wide diversity, of the Christian Sacraments ; the
distribution into two several and very different gifts,
the Baptismal and the Eucharistic, of the estate which
we have in Christ. Such a distribution, and such di-
versity, is a natural result of the twofold aspect which
the saving actions of Christ themselves possess. Those
actions being, under one aspect, purely re-creative, or
restorative; under another, sacrificial and oblationary;
are imparted (as to the virtue of them) to the one pur-
pose in one Sacrament, and to the other in the other.
The Sacraments, the instruments of salvation, are
fitted, in number and nature, to the twofold aspect of
the one series of saving actions to which they owe
their grace. Holy Baptism is so fashioned and em-
powered as to be the type and the instrument of
simple re-creation and restoration ; of the ethical re-
adjustment which needed to be made, in order " to
repair man that fell." The Holy Eucharist, again, is
so fashioned and empowered as to be the type and
p See S. Aug. in note G, at the end of the volume.
sect. I.] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP.
175
the instrument of those sacrificial functions, both of
oblation and participation, which form the crowning
stage of man's exaltation in Christ. Renewal, in
short, is but half the Christian's privilege; there is
added the yet more marvellous and inscrutable mys-
tery of his acceptable oblation of himself as a priest
to God, and effectual participation, in the same cha-
racter, of God. Baptism is the compendium and
the instrument of the one privilege, the Eucharist of
the other.
If it be asked how the selfsame series of actions of
our Lord, as e. g. His Death and Resurrection, (and
I conceive it to be of the last importance to maintain
that it is the selfsame actions that operate in the two
Sacraments,) are available to different effects in Bap-
tism and in the Eucharist ; — in the one to death unto
sin and new birth unto righteousness ; in the other,
to sacrificial oblation and participation : — it might
suffice to point to the analogy of the actions them-
selves, as done by our Lord, and considered as His
personal actions merely. There is every appearance of
their fulfilling, as personal actions, two distinct courses
at one and the same time. The actions from the Na-
tivity to the Ascension and Session go forward (under
one aspect) as simply those of the Man Christ Jesus,
or the Word Incarnate, fulfilling a course of Divine
Manhood. Yet all the time it is certain that the
whole course was of the nature of a continuous sacri-
ficial action, or possessed at least a sacrificial aspect :
each act, as it took place, had its sacrificial position
and character. Since, then, the two aspects of Christ's
acts, though concomitant, are strictly separable, what
should forbid but that the virtue of those actions
should be derived and drawn off, in a corresponding
manner, into two several channels : so that they
176 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. n.
should be present, in one rite, under one aspect, and
to one purpose; and in another rite under another
aspect, and to another purpose?
And there is yet another analogy to be found, in
the undoubted truth of the perfect union of the Divine
with the human Nature in the Person of Christ from
the very Incarnation ; combined with the equally un-
doubted difference of degree in which the lower nature
was at successive periods penetrated, irradiated, and
empowered by the higher. We might have concluded
that so intimate a presence of the Divine Nature
would at once, and from the first, have imparted to
the human all the exaltation and all the powers des-
tined for it. And yet, both in respect of growth and
of official functions, the perfectioning process was gra-
dual. " For as the parts, degrees, and offices of that
mystical administration did require which He volun-
tarily undertook, the beams of Deity did accordingly
either restrain or enlarge themselves q." Perfect God
and perfect Man from His birth, yet not perfect as to
the adolescence and illumination of His human Soul,
until His maturity, (for " He increased in wisdom ;")
not perfect for the work of His prophetic office until
His Baptism and Temptation ; nor for His Priesthood
until the eve of His Passion ; nor for His universal
kingly power as man until His Resurrection; He
experienced by degrees and instalments the enabling
powers of that Deity which, in point of presence and
personal union, was never absent from Him. And if
this was the case with respect to the imparting of
particular effects of the Divine Nature within Him to
His natural Body, Soul, and Spirit, may not the like
well have place at this hour in the case of the mem-
"> Hooker, Eccl. Pol. v. 54. Compare Moberly, Sayings of the Forty
Days, p. 32.
SECT. I.] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP. 177
bers of His Body mystical ? Here, too, the awful
Gift may restrain or enlarge itself. The selfsame Per-
son imparting Himself, with all His saving actions, in
both Sacraments alike, may impart one while, and by
one Sacrament, certain aspects and effects'" of those
actions ; at another time, and by the other Sacrament,
certain other aspects and effects of them. And it is,
to notice this in passing, one incidental confirmation
of this mode of viewing the Sacraments, that accord-
ing to it those two holy ordinances, whatever other
difference, or pre-eminence one over the other, they
may present, are in this respect at least co-equal;
that in both the whole Christ5, with all His saving
actions, is present : a consideration serving at once to
secure equal honour to the two ordinances in which,
and in which alone, our Saviour enters into entire
union with us ; and also to exalt them, at the same
time, to an immeasurable superiority above all others
claiming or possessing sacramental powers.
Baptism, then, in its proper and distinctive nature,
— as discriminated, that is, from the Eucharist, — is
the Sacrament of renewal and regeneration : being the
admission of man into the virtue of Christ's saving
actions considered as renewing and re-creative. The
Eucharist, again, in its proper and distinctive nature,
or as discriminated from Baptism, is the Sacrament of
priestly or sacrificial oblation and participation : being
* Hooker, V. lvi. 15: "Christ is truly said more or less to impart
Himself as the graces are fewer or more, greater or smaller, which
really flow into us from Christ ;" where he speaks, however, of ordinary
spiritual growth, and does not touch upon the question now before us,
whether the grace of all Christ's actions is imparted in both Sacraments.
See ibid., s. 13.
■ " Christ is whole in the whole Church, and whole with every part of
the Church, as touching His Person, which can no way divide Itself, or
be possessed by degrees or portions." Hooker, ibid.
N
178 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. n.
our admission into the virtue of the same actions, con-
sidered as priestly or sacrificial ; — as redounding to
capacities for acceptable oblation, and for feeding upon
Christ as an Offering. Not indeed that the two Sacra-
ments, though thus discriminated from each other by
strong distinctive differences, do not each partake, in
a degree, of the characters and qualities more imme-
diately and supremely pertaining to the other. Holy
Baptism does confer a kind and degree of priesthood*.
The holy Eucharist, again, is a signal and glorious in-
strument of renewal. Only, as there is a degree or
kind of renewal proper to Baptism, which the Eucharist
confessedly cannot give, viz. re-creation or regeneration
proper, — the initiation of life in Christ to them that
have it not : so is there a perfect and supreme degree
of priesthood enjoyed and exercised in the Eucharist,
which Baptism cannot bestow, and which they who
are merely baptised cannot exercise : viz. the pleading
of Christ's Sacrifice in the most prevailing form ; su-
premely acceptable oblation of themselves in Christ, as
" priests unto God;" and participation, to the purposes
of transcendently intimate union, of the one Sacrifice11.
* S. Cyril, Catech. Lect. xviii.
u Comp. Jer. Taylor, (Holy Living, IV. x. p. 266): "As the minis,
ters of the Sacraments do, in a sacramental manner, present to God the
sacrifice of the cross, by being imitators of Christ's intercession; so
the people are sacrificers too in their manner; for besides that, by say-
ing Amen, they join in the act of him that ministers, and make it also
to be their own; so, &c while in their sacrifice of obedience and
thanksgiving they present themselves to God with Christ, whom they
have spiritually received ; that is, themselves with that which will make
them gracious and acceptable." So Dean Jackson speaks of Eucharistic
participation as being a consecration of Christians to a priesthood pa-
rallel to that of Aaron : " Whoso eateth shall live for ever ; for he that
truly eateth is consecrated by it to be a king and priest for ever unto
God the Father." (Works, vol. viii. p. 378.) See further, note G.
SECT. II.] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP. 179
SECTION II.
" To whom coming, as unto a living stone, ye also, as lively stones,
are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual
sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. By Him therefore let us
offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our
lips giving thanks to His Name."
The views stated in the preceding section, besides
their bearing upon our present subject, furnish an
answer to several inquiries which can hardly fail to
force themselves upon thoughtful minds in reference
to the holy Sacraments. Such, for instance, as the
question how there should be in both Sacraments
an entire union to Christ, and yet the effects of the
two Sacraments be different. For it might well seem,
on a first view, that entire union to the same Person
would always produce the same effects. And again,
as to the real nature of the difference between the two
Sacraments, and of the great pre-eminence, in point
of awfulness and mysteriousness, universally accorded
from the earliest times to the second Sacrament. It
appears, from what has been said, that the difference
is partly one of degree only, but that there is also a
most important difference in kind. The Eucharist,
under one point of view, and that its simpler and less
transcendent one, is the making good and carrying
on, by fresh supplies of the same kind of grace, of the
renewal imparted in Baptism. Such is the account
Hooker gives of the relation of the Sacraments to
each other : —
"The grace which we have by the holy Eucharist doth not
begin but continue life. . . . Life being therefore proposed unto
N 2
ISO THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. II.
all men as their end, they which by Baptism have laid the foun-
dation and attained the first beginning of a new life, have here
their nourishment and food prescribed for continuance of life in
them V
Now even under this aspect the Eucharist may, in
a certain sense, be said to transcend Baptism ; so im-
mense is the spiritual advancement which it is capable
of imparting. So much so, indeed, that the analogy
of food can hardly be said to represent the fact ade-
quately. Food is by no means such a pi nary gift to
the body as the Eucharist is to the spiritual being.
Perhaps the nearest analogy which the natural life
presents is that of groxoth, more especially that degree
of it which transforms infancy into manhood. This
is so real a multiplication, so immense an exaltation,
in all its parts and powers, of the infantile life as at
first imparted, as not altogether inadequately to typify
the vast accessions to the first-imparted baptismal
life, which the Eucharist is capable of bestowing.
And this analogy, too, no less than that of food, is
fully sanctioned both in the Old and New Testa-
ment ; Christ being so constantly represented as the
" Growth," (i.e. means of growth) of His people \
But still it must be admitted that it is only in a sense
that the Eucharist, considered merely as a means of
the continuance and growth of the spiritual life, can
be said to be a greater gift than Baptism. After all,
the great law of being must hold, that " the life
is more than the meat." As the crowning marvel of
creative power and love is the imparting to inert
matter the mysterious principle of life, and of intel-
T Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxvii. 1.
x Zech. iii. 8, vi. 12 ; Is. iv. 5 ; Jer. xxiii. 5 ; Eph. ii. 21, iv. 16 ;
Col. ii. 19.
SECT. II. ] THEORY 01' ORDINARY WORSHIP.
181
lectual and spiritual existence; insomuch that the
subsequent maintenance and advancement of these
powers is as nothing in comparison, (it is our blessed
Lord's own estimate51:) so, however great, in potency
of virtue and fulness of measure, the spiritual susten-
ance and growth imparted by the Eucharist, it can
never, considered as sustenance, really transcend in
marvel lousness the mysterious quickening bestowed by
the spiritual new birth. At the utmost, there results
a co-equality in point of power and mysteriousness
between the two Sacraments, viewed as instruments
of spiritual life and growth merely; for if one of them
is greater in one point of view, the other is so in
another. Great is Baptism, inconceivably great ; for
it is " a new creation :" and great too, inconceivably
great, is the Eucharist also; for it draws out that,
which in Baptism is once for all created, into infinity
of increase, and eternity of duration. In a word, so
long as we consider the Sacraments as operating in
pari materia and ex loco cequali, — in the same sphere,
and as it were on the same level, — as only different
degrees or manifestations of the same kind of thing,
viz. renewal, — we have no faculties for pronouncing
whether of the two is the greater and the more
mysterious. Whether the spiritual new birth at the
first, or the eternal growth of the new being after-
wards, is the more marvellous and excellent, wrho
can with any confidence pronounce? Both are great
deeps ; whether of the two is the deeper, our line
is too short to fathom.
Whence then that peculiar character of profoundest
and most reverential awe, with which the Church2
f St. Matt. vi. 25.
1 Compare the greater awfulncss of St. Paul's language in Heb. x.
182 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. II.
from the earliest ages has invested the mystery of the
Holy Eucharist ? Or whence, — if participation in
order to growth is, as so many suppose, the whole
purport of the Eucharistic act, — whence the very large
proportion in which all ancient Eucharistic Offices
are directed to those other great topics of Oblation or
Dedication, and Pleading? The view which repre-
sents the Eucharist as merely a means of making
accessions, by way of growth, to the baptismal estate
of grace, yields no account whatever of these great
features in the ancient idea of the Eucharist. And
yet some grounds there must be for this comparative
estimate of the two Sacraments, which accords to the
second a vast and unqualified pre-eminence over the
first, both in point of solemnity, and also as an occa-
sion for the discharge of certain spiritual functions of
a Christian !
For though Baptism was held of old, as was fit-
ting, in exceeding reverence ; though it rightly enjoyed
the lofty titles a of " New Creation," the " Anointing,"
the " Giftb," " Illumination," " Consecration," and the
like, yet the language applied to it is still as nothing,
compared with what is said of the Eucharist. This
is spoken of in very early days, as " the awful, the
tremendous, the unspeakable mysteries," "the hal-
lowed, celestial, ineffable, stainless, terrible, tremen-
dous, divine gifts c." The Eucharistic Presence of
Christ, throughout the ancient Liturgies, or Com-
munion Offices, is ever represented as something far
29, than in Heb. vi, 1 ; in which passages he seems to speak of pro-
faning the two Sacraments respectively. See Note G.
" Vide Bingham, Eccl. Antiq., XL L 1—10. p. 399—411.
b Ibid., p. 412.
c Lit. St. James, (circ. a.d. 200, at latest). Neale, Gen. Litrod.,
vol. ii. p. 611.
SECT. II ] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP. 183
more awful and intimate than His Baptismal Pre-
sence ; and warnings of proportionate solemnity have
in all ages, after the example set by St. Pauld, been
used to deter men from partaking it unworthily. And
this is of itself a remarkable circumstance, that those
who have received the gift of new birth and spiritual
life should be so solemnly warned of the danger of
partaking, without certain special, and in a manner
new, qualifications, of the means of sustaining that
life. The qualifications for Baptism have ever been
"repentance and faith." This faith is directed, (1)
towards " all the articles" of the Creed ; and (2) to-
wards "the promises of God made in that Sacra-
ment," viz. that it shall be effectual to " death unto
sin and new birth unto righteousness," through the
virtue of Christ's Death and Resurrection6. The
requirements of our Church for Communion (justly
representing, I conceive, the mind of the Church
from the beginning) are still, as in Baptism, repent-
ance and faith. But this faith is now specially di-
rected towards right conceptions and due thankful re-
membrance of (1) the "Sacrifice of the Death of Christ,"
as such, and (2) of " the benefits which we receive
thereby ;" not towards His Death and Resurrection as
re-creative and regenerative mysteries. All this surely
bespeaks some further mystery as involved in the
Eucharist, beyond the character which it possesses as
a direct continuation and advancement, on the same
level, of the baptismal gift of life. And the fact which
it points to is doubtless that the Eucharist makes
d See above, note p. 181.
e See the end of the Baptismal Office : " That as He died and rose
again, so should we who are baptized die from sin and rise again unto
righteousness," &c. Compare Romans vi. 3 — 6.
184 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap.il
us partakers more intimately, more directly, com-
pletely, and peculiarly, of an aspect of our Lord's
actions into which Baptism but very partially and im-
perfectly admitted us. The Eucharist, over and above
its powers for the maintenance of the baptismal life,
admits us to a position and to functions awfully and
mysteriously related to the most awful and mysterious
of the characters and functions of Christ. Hence, then,
the surpassing solemnity of the action, and hence
the duties peculiarly assigned to it in the Eucharis-
tic Offices. If Baptism possesses, as it does, " the
shadow" of Christ's Priesthood, the Eucharist has
" the very image" of it. If Baptism makes us in
power, and de jure, " priests unto God," the Eucharist
constitutes and exhibits us as such de facto, and in
action. If Baptism makes us to be the spiritual
Israel, God's children and sons, supernaturally ga-
thered into One Body, and sustained by various lower
effluxes of the priestly and sacrificial work of the
Aaron of the heavenly sanctuary ; the Eucharist intro-
duces us to the inner privileges of priestly action and
participation, the antitypes in some sort of those
by which Aaron's seed was brought into a peculiar
nearness to God, and partook of that bread of pre-
sence, and of those more eminent sacrifices, which
were withheld from the rest. So much more intimate
is the Eucharistic than the baptismal Presence, Eucha-
ristic than baptismal Participation, of Christ; even
as the Israelitish priests stood in a more awful near-
ness to the presence of God than the people, and as
eating, e.g., of the sin-offerings was a more solemn
and privileged act than eating of the ordinary peace-
offeringsf.
' These illustrations canuot, perhaps, be pressed very closely in
SECT. II.] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP. 185
These considerations seern, further, to throw some
light on a point of much interest ; the existence,
namely, of Infant Communion in certain early ages of
the Church, and its abeyance since throughout West-
ern Christendom. That it was the primitive custom
to give the Holy Communion to infants has been
affirmed, but is absolutely devoid of proof ; and there
is a very strong presumption against it. Early
vouchers for it are Tertullian and St. Cyprian ; and
it prevailed till perhaps the middle ages in the West,
and is continued at this day in the Eastern Church.
And were participation in certain consecrated things
by a fit (or not unfit) recipient the whole matter, the
analogy of Baptism would all but enforce the practice
in question. But it is not so. To the full and proper
Eucharistic act, a conscious act of oblation and pre-
sentation is indispensable. Now this cannot be dis-
charged by unconscious, nor even by young, children.
While, therefore, there is not a little to be said, at
first sight, in favour of giving the Eucharist to infants,
as being the Sacrament of growth, and the carrying
on of the life imparted in Baptism, — we see that the
practice is in some sort a putting asunder of things
which Christ has joined together in His ordinance, by
bringing those to it who can join but in a part of it,
viz. the receptive; the very converse error to that
by which the later Western Church has systematized
non-communicating attendance on the Eucharistic offer-
ing. On this ground we may not only, I conceive,
acquiesce in the disuse of Infant Communion, but also
most seriously question its having been apostolic or
primitive. The early zeal for the Holy Eucharist will
all particulars ; but they may serve to give an idea of what is meant.
Vide Levit. vi. 26.
ISO THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. II.
abundantly account for a well-intended deviation from
primitive order in this matter, even as soon as the
days of Tertullian.
But let us now proceed to inquire what light we
derive, from the considerations here set forth, upon
the question before us, as to the true theory of
the Church's ordinary worship contained in her Daily
Offices.
Now in the first place, our observing that the Holy
Eucharist, if we include all aspects of it, is of so
sublime and transcendent a character, makes it rea-
sonable or likely that there would be provided within
the Church lower and simpler means of Divine wor-
ship and intercommunion. In proportion as the
Eucharist is excellent and awful, admitting man to
the very inner mysteries of his Christian estate, and
so calls for the most intense concentration of his
entire powers upon the discharge of his part in it ; in
that proportion is it unfitted to be the ordinary and
continually applied, still less the exclusive instrument
of spiritual intercourse between God and man.
This view, or so much of it as denies the every-day
character of the Eucharist, will doubtless be exceed-
ingly unacceptable to many persons in the present
day. It is probably a growing opinion among mem-
bers of the English Church, and those not the least
learned or entitled to carry least weight in such a
matter, that daily Communion, where it can be had,
is the proper instrument of Christian perfection. The
intended and normal condition of the Church is, they
conceive, that there should be everywhere a daily
Eucharist, and that all faithful persons should be daily
communicants ; or at any rate as many persons as
possible. But, while I yield to none either in a deep
sect. II.] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP. 187
sense of the lamentable infrequency of that celebra-
tion among us, or in the earnest desire that it
might be, according to apostolic practice, weekly, at
least, everywhere, — more constant or even daily, at
some special seasons : I would at the same time no
less earnestly protest against a view which has no
standing-ground in apostolic or primitive usage ; and
the attempt to carry out which can, as experience has
shewn, only end in the depravation of the holy rite it
is designed to exalt. Let us by all means do honour
to God in all ways of His appointing ; but let us
not think to do so by straining His sacred ordinances
to other purposes than those which they were designed
to answer. Let us accept with teachableness the les-
sons on this point which are written for us, alike in
the scriptural and apostolic, as in the post-apostolic,
history of the Church.
Now looking to those lessons, and that history,
I venture to affirm, 1st, that the Holy Eucharist is in
its proper nature a festival thing ; by which I mean
a high, occasional, and solemn one, not every-day or
common ; and 2ndly, that in the very earliest, and
surely the wisest and holiest age, celebration, though
never less than weekly, was rarely more frequent than
that ; never, that we know of for certain, (though at
high seasons it may possibly have been so,) daily ; —
and that in these considerations, not in any a priori
arguments as to the excellence of the rite, is to be
laid the basis of a right estimate as to the frequency
of celebration which is either to be expected or desired.
Sunday and festival celebration, in a word, — a desig-
nation which leaves ample verge for diversity within
certain intelligible limits, — may safely be affirmed to
be, as a general rule, the prescript for the Church, and
188 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. II.
to exhibit with the greatest fidelity the true character
and purpose of the Holy Eucharist. That the clergy
may have occasion to celebrate much more frequently
than this, publicly or privately, as a part of their
ministrations to the people, is of course undeniable.
And that this measure may be in different degrees ex-
ceeded by clergy and laity alike, even to the degree
of daily celebration at particular times, is conceded
also. But that whensoever and wheresoever this is
the case, it is the bringing in a Festival, i. e. a high
and solemn idea and character, into the common and
average tenor of the life of Christians, — that it is the
elevation of the Christian life into an uncommon con-
dition of privilege, and one not designed for them as
a general rule, — this I would affirm no less.
Such a view, I venture to assert, not merely the
nature of the thing, but the practice of the Church in
the earliest and purest ages, her sad experience in all
later and less clearly-sighted ones, and certain of her
disciplinary rules at all times, entirely fall in with. It
is indeed commonly and inconsiderately said, and the
saying passes from mouth to mouth without inquiry,
that the first Christians communicated every day.
Thus Jeremy Taylor frequently assumes this to have
been the practice. (See, e. g., Worthy Communicant,
p. 621.) So others : —
(Sparrow, Rat., p. 221): "In the primitive Church, while
Christians continued in the strength of faith and devotion, they
did communicate every day. This custom continued in Africa
till St. Cyprian's time, kc. But afterwards the custom grew
faint, and some upon one pretence, some upon another, would
communicate once a-week." And Wheatly, chap. vi. sect. i. :
" We find the Eucharist was always in the purest ages of the
Church, a daily part of the Common Prayer."
The truth is, that there is not a shadow of evidence
sect. II.] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP. 189
that in apostolic times, at least after the very first
Pentecostal inauguration of the Church, if even then,
there was daily celebration of the Eucharist. The
evidence is, on the contrary, entirely the other way.
That there may have been immediately after the Day
of Pentecost, such daily celebration, the well-known
passage in Acts ii. 42, 46, no doubt affords a strong
presumption. But even this must be allowed to be
capable of another interpretation. All that is cer-
tainty affirmed by it is, that besides their daily attend-
ance at the temple, the faithful did also at a house or
houses, in contradistinction to the temple, (most pro-
bably in the upper chamber of the holy Institution,)
"break bread." Whether the Ka& rjfAtpav, " daily,"
applies to the Eucharistic celebration as well as to
the temple services, is a question for criticism, which
I apprehend there is nothing in the passage to de-
cide for us either way. On the whole, I conceive the
improbability of new converts being thus admitted to
a daily Eucharist to be very strong indeed. It is
certainly at variance with all else that we subse-
quently gather on the subject. The manner in which
the first day of the week stands out, from the Acts
(ch. ii. 1.) to the Revelation, (i. 10,) especially for
Eucharistic assemblies, (Acts xx. 7 ; 1 Cor. xvi. 2.)
must be admitted. And though an ingenious and
devout writer endeavours to shew that the celebration
at Troas was twofold, one before, and one after,
St. Paul's preaching e ; the more probable opinion
certainly is that which an ordinary reader derives
from the passage. External evidence towards the
close of the apostolic times comes in to prove con-
« Bp. Jolly, on the Eucharist, p. 160. Fleury (Mceurs de Chretiens,
iii. 14,) takes the ordinary view.
190 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. II.
clusively that then, at least, weekly Eucharist was the
ordinary ruleh. The well-known letter of Pliny, mani-
festly describing the Eucharistic practice of Chris-
tians, from the mouth of one of them, represents it as
confined to a certain day, — no doubt the Sunday.
Justin Martyr's testimony (a.d. 150) probably recog-
nises occasional celebrations on other days, but most
distinctly gives Sunday as the rule. Tertullian (at the
end of the second century) speaks of celebration twice
a-wee/c, besides, and on festivals. But St. Cyprian,
250 b.c, is the first who alludes to it as taking place
daily. Thenceforward there is occasional mention of
it as such, but nothing approaching to a proof that it
was of universal prevalence ; indeed, there is abundant
proof that it was not. And the inference is irre-
sistible, that if apostolic and post-apostolic Christians
maintained the life of faith with far less than a daily
Eucharist, it follows, 1st, that that rite in its primary
intention, was, as has been said, a Festival, i. e. a high
and solemn, not ordinary and every-day, thing ; and
2nd, that, with this apostolic example before our eyes,
it is at least a question (surely one which all but de-
mands an affirmative) whether great moderation in mul-
tiplying of Eucharistic celebrations be not the part of
h Vide Bingham, XIII ix. 1, vol. iv. p. 353, (and Cotelerius, ibid.);
also XV. ix. 2, p. 358 ; where the question of ancient frequency of cele-
bration is fully discussed. The following are some of his conclusions :
— " This frequency of Communion may reasonably be supposed to be,
then, according to the known practice, once a-week, on every Lord's
• day. Roman Catholic writers, though somewhat concerned to prove
ancient daily celebration, admit the same. So Cotelerius, as above.
So Fleury (Mceurs des Chretiens, iii. 39) : " On offrait le sacrifice tous
les Dimanches, et encore deux fois de la semaine ;" speaking of the
times of the first Christian Emperors. Again, i. 14, speaking of the
primitive ages : " Chaque Eglise particuliere s' assemblait le Dimanche.
.... On s' assemblait aussi le Vendredi ;" alluding perhaps to Tertul-
lian's stationary days. So too Krazer, de Liturg.
SECT. II.] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP. 191
Christian wisdom, not to say of apostolic conformity.
Such, at any rate, seems to have been the view se-
riously entertained and acted upon in many parts of
the ancient Church. The Church at large was slow
to admit any innovation in the apostolic usage. This
appears from an expression in the very ancient Eucha-
ristic Office of the Alexandrian Church, the Liturgy of
St. Mark intimating that celebration was confined to
Sundays or Festivals. The first prayer in it (which I
have elsewhere 1 given reasons for considering to be of
primitive antiquity) contains the words, "And, we
pray Thee, grant us to spend this holy day" &c.
And in full accordance with this, again, we find, as an
historical fact, that even in the ancient monasteries of
Egypt " it was peculiar to Sundays and Festivals
that, in addition to the daily Offices, " they met at
the third hour for the celebration of the sacred Mys-
teries1'." And, indeed, throughout the Church of
Alexandria, so late as the end of the fourth century,
the Eucharist was only celebrated on Saturdays and
Sundays, both these days being reckoned as Festivals.
For among the canons preserved by Timothy, bishop
of Alexandria, (a. d. 380,) we find a restrictive in-
junction laid upon married persons, applying to those
two days, based upon the ground " that upon them
the spiritual Sacrifice is offered to the Lord The
Armenian Church, again, an offshoot of that of Cse-
sarea in Cappadocia, founded by St. Gregory the Illu-
minator towards the close of the third century"1, has
1 Vide infra, vol. ii., chap, on Prim. Liturgy. The date of St. Mark's
Liturgy is believed to be about a.d. 200.
k Cassian, ap. Mabillon, De Lit. Gall., p. 383. He writes in the fifth
century, but is doubtless describing customs of long standing.
1 Tim. Epist. Can., c. xiii., ap. Bingh. XIII. ix. 3.
m Vide Neale, Gen. Introd., p. 67.
192 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. ir.
to this day a most remarkable regulation, viz. that the
Eucharist may not be celebrated excepting on Satur-
day and Sunday, or on great Festivals of our Lord or
the blessed Virgin Mary. This probably represents,
though perhaps it enforces too rigidly, the ordinary
usage of the Church of Caesarea at the time of St.
Gregory aforesaid, which would thus accord with the
Alexandrine usage just referred to. We find St. Basil,
bishop of the same Caesarea about seventy years after,
testifying that they had Communion on four days of
the week, viz. Wednesday and Friday, in addition to
Saturday and Sunday n. The Church at large, again,
by an almost universal provision, has declared her
mind that the Eucharist is of the nature of a festival
thing. Whence, otherwise, the rule that none should
participate in the Eucharistic elements oftener than
once in the same day? Why not twice or thrice
a-day or even hourly? There is nothing in the
world that can account for this prohibition on the part
of the Church, but her strongly entertained mind that
participation more than once in a day would evacuate
the great rite of some important and indispensable
feature. And what can that be? Its sacramental
efficacy ? Surely not. The reason manifestly is this :
that in daily participation the Eucharistic act is carried
to the utmost limit it is capable of, consistently with
its character as the high Festival of Christianity.
I have only to add here on this subject, that the
Church seems early to have rued having innovated
upon the apostolic usage by the introduction of daily
celebration. There is certainly a remarkable and
ominous synchronism between this change and the
grievous falling off of that primitive custom of weekly
" St. Basil, Ep. 289, ap. Bingh. ib. 3.
SECT. II.] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP.
193
reception of the mysteries, which the Church has
never yet been able to bring back as the badge of
Christian membership. It is in the time of St.Chryso-
stom, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose, and St. Augustine, that
we first find daily celebration to have obtained an
extensive footing in the Church. The Churches of
Constantinople and Carthage, of Rome and of Spain,
now provided a daily Eucharist 0 for such as desired
it ; and these great Doctors are busied with settling
a question, comparatively new to the Church, as to the
expediency of such frequent reception. And it is at
this very time that we also first hear, from the same
writers, of Christian men, alike in the East and in the
West, contenting themselves with Communion once
a-year ; which still remains as the allowed minimum
in the Western Church, England only excepted. " If
it be our daily bread," says St. Ambrose, " why dost
thou then receive it once a-year only, as the Greeks
have come to do in the East p ?" This is a fact which
we shall do well to ponder. I shall have occasion to
return to it in connection with the duty of the English
Church at the present day.
° St. Jerome, Ep. 50, 58; St. Aug., Ep. ad Jan. 118. Yide Bingh.,
XV. ix. 4.
» St. Amb , de Sacr. v. 4.
0
194 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. n.
SECTION III.
"And they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the
Lord out of all nations, to My holy mountain, to Jerusalem, saith the
Lord. And I will also take of them for priests and for Levites."
"That I should be the minister of Jesus Christ unto the Gentiles,
ministering the gospel of God, that the offering up of the Gentiles might
be acceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost."
The necessary existence of some kind of ordinary
.service follows as an obvious corollary from that or-
dained infrequency (comparatively) of the Eucharistic
rite, which has been spoken of in the preceding sec-
tion. The character, position, and functions, again,
of such ordinary service, may be in a great measure
deduced from the sacramental principles we were lately
engaged in tracing, and of which we may now resume
the consideration.
It was well said of old, insomuch that the saying
has passed into what may be called an axiom of
the Church, that " the Sacraments are the extension
of the Incarnation." They are, that is to say, the
instruments whereby (to use the words of St. Paul)
" the Body of Christ increaseth with the increase of
God q." " Christians are really, though mysteriously,
incorporated into the incarnate Body of the Lord Je-
sus Christ, by virtue of their incorporation into that
Church which is His mystical Body r." Thus is the
mystical Body true to the qualities of a body in this
« Col. ii. 19 ; Eph. iv. 16.
' Serm. by Rev. C. T. Smith, ubi supra. So Hooker : " In Him,
even according to His Manhood, we, according to our heavenly being,
are as branches in that root out of which they grow." (V. lvi. 7.)
SECT. III.] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP.
195
respect even, as well as in others, that it too " grow-
eth," " until we all," the parts of that Body taken
together, " come to a perfect man, to the measure of
the full stature of Christ s."
But how are the Sacraments empowered to be
"the extension of the Incarnation ;" the means, that
is, of extending it, so as that it shall include conti-
nually more and more members ? The nature of this
Divine Economy would seem to be as follows. There
is in spiritual things, as in natural, causation. Christ's
Sacraments produce their effects, not in the manner
of a holy charm, in virtue merely of His promise to
them, but as causes, by reason of His presence in them.
For the natural Body of Christ, with all its wondrous
doings and characters, was to be as a germ, no less
than a type, to that greater mystical Body of His, which
was to bear as a whole the impress of those doings
and characters. And that the Body, as a whole, might
be conformed to its type and exemplar, it was neces-
sary that the several members and parts of it should
be first so conformed, each one by itself. In order to
this, then, the grace of the aforesaid actions and cha-
racters of the incarnate Word was gathered into those
Sacraments which were destined to be the instruments
of the entire Body's growth. The instruments of in-
grafting were no rude or random ones, but worthy of
the Divine Artificer of this new masterpiece of creation,
the mystical Body of the incarnate Word. They were
so fashioned as to contain within them, by an especial
fiat of the Divine Will, the virtue of those actions and
characters of the Word made flesh, in conformity to
which the bettered estate of man was to consist. It
is therefore that they are instruments of power to
• Eph. iv. 13.
o 2
196
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. n.
ingraft into Christ's Body, and to produce conformity to
His likeness, because they are themselves replete with
the virtue and potency of His Person and actions'.
The Sacraments then being of this nature ; thus
epitomizing, so to speak, the Person and actions of
the Lord Jesus Christ, in order to convey the virtue
of them : the Christian life was to be the development
of these sacramental compendia into suitable action ;
that so out of a sacramental conformity imparted once
for all, might grow an actual or acted conformity.
(Conversely, of course, the Sacraments are the con-
centration of the Christian life into certain intensified
and all-including formulae.)
In this consideration is to be found the true answer
to every question concerning Christian practice and
duty. As our natural duties as men arise from the
position in which, as men, we find ourselves placed, —
duties, domestic, patriotic, or international, — so do our
supranatural duties and functions, as Christians, arise
from the nature and particulars of the estate into
which, as Christians, we are admitted. As no man
knows what are his rights and duties as a citizen,
otherwise than by consideration of the constitution
under which he lives ; so, of what we are, or what
bound or designed to do, as Christians, we can form
no idea, but by re-perusal of that twofold charter
which has admitted us to the privileges of the spiritual
kingdom. The Sacraments, therefore, are really fun-
damental to the whole matter. To them, and through
them to the Person and actions of Christ, the grace
1 Rom. vi. 3 — 5 : " Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized
into Christ Jesus, were baptized into His Death ? Therefore we are
buried with Him by baptism into death. . . If we have been planted to-
gether in (rather, made to partake of the nature of) the likeness of His
Death, we shall also [partake of the nature of] His Resurrection."
SECT. III. J THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP. 197
whereof they embody and convey, we must look.
Whatsoever is involved or implied in them, that is our
position, and thence flows our business and calling as
Christian men. The Sacraments describe and set out
to us, how compendiously soever, the duties of our
Christian estate and citizenship. It is in full accord-
ance with this statement, that the Epistles, especially
St. Paul's, are mainly directed, as will be seen on
careful consideration of them, to unfolding the duties
of Christians, arising out of the position given them by
the Sacraments* ; — a truth which, had it been duly
borne in mind, would have done away with all suspi-
cion of any possible rivalry or contrariety between the
true doctrine of the Sacraments and that of the writ-
ten Word ; or of any incompatibility between zeal
for the one and implicit reverence for, and submis-
sion to, the other.
But the Sacraments are twofold. Do they then, it
may be asked, respectively set out to us two different
lines or classes of duties ? Not so ; they do but ex-
hibit the selfsame duties under two different aspects ;
following herein, it will be perceived, the analogy of
that one series of actions of our Lord, whose twofold
aspects they respectively embody. The Christian es-
tate, though exhibited to us under two forms in the
Sacraments, is, like the double vision of Pharaoh,
strictly one ; its series of actions and duties is one,
though consecrated, as it were, to different purposes
by these two ordinances respectively. Every Chris-
tian duty would appear to have, or to be capable
of, a distinct relation to either Sacrament ; it has a
lower or a higher standing, ascends to a lower or
a higher sphere, and so is in some sense a different
a See, in note G, quotations from the Apostolic Epistles.
198 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [cHAP. n.
thing, according as it is viewed in connection with the
one Sacrament or with the other. The selfsame phe-
nomenon has been already pointed out in reference to
our Lord's actions. And as they appertained, under one
aspect, to His Incarnation, and under another to His
Priesthood ; as they were, in one character, in order
to the renewal of humanity, and in another in order
to its acceptable presentation : so is it with our actions
also. Viewed in connection with Baptism, they are
the carrying out into action all that Baptism implies ;
the making good of the estate and condition of death
to sin and new birth to holiness ; of the renunciation
of the dominion of sin, and obedience to the laws of
God's kingdom ; of putting off the spirit of bondage,
and putting on the adoption of the sons of God; with
whatever else Baptism involves. In a word, the whole
Christian life, in all its parts and acts, is, from the
baptismal point of view, a persistence in that condition
of renewing and sanctifying union to the perfected
Humanity of our Lord, in which the essence of Bap-
tism consists. And this aspect alone, it is needless to
say, can the Christian life possess for those who have
as yet been made partakers of but one Sacrament
only, that of new birth, renewal, and adoption. What-
ever aspect or colour the having been made partakers
of the other Sacrament may impart to the actions of
a Christian, for them, at present, no such second as-
pect exists.
But for those who have been made partakers of the
other Sacrament, the Christian life, in all its parts,
owns a second and a superadded aspect. Viewed in
connection with that rite, it is now the carrying out
into act of those priestly and sacrificial relations which
Eucharistic celebration and participation involve, as
SECT. III.] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP. 199
before of those re-creative ones which belong to Bap-
tism. Life is no longer merely a continual dying and
rising, a daily putting off the old man and putting on
the new, an estate of adoption and sonship. Though
it is still all this, it is now, over and above, a con-
tinual sacrifice of that which dies and rises again ;
a reiterated, life-long oblation of the renewed man ;
and partakes, as the means of its sustentation in this
elevated condition, of peculiar effluxes of the Divine
Nature x, by feeding on a sacrifice. It has become, in
short, an estate of priesthood unto God, involving
functions and powers derived immediately from the
one perfect Priesthood, as were those former ones
from the one perfect Manhood, of Christ.
Now the ordinance of Public "Worship is only one
particular instance of that development of the Sacra-
ments, that carrying out of them into detailed action,
which has been here spoken of. Were those ordi-
nances of such a nature as to terminate in themselves ;
did they convey a gift and a position of which no
subsequent account was to be rendered by the re-
ceiver; or were sacramental participation the whole
matter; then doubtless there had been, besides and
beyond the Sacraments, no other duties of direct ser-
vice and ritual towards God. It is because the deeds
of a life, as well ritual as ordinary, are potentially
wrapped up, as the oak within the acorn, in the
reception of either Sacrament, — it is therefore that,
by the necessity of the case, there must be other
Christian rites continuative of these. The being of
1 2 Pet. i. 4 : " Whereby are given to us" (have been bestowed upon
us, SeSwpriTai,) " exceeding great and precious promises," (rather, " the
most exceeding precious promised gifts," ivayyeK/iaTa,) " that by these
ye might be" (become) "partakers of the Divine Nature."
200 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. II.
man stands in need, for its maintenance in those
refined spiritual relations to God, upon which in the
Sacraments it enters, of some more spiritual and
ritual media than the ordinary actions of life supply.
Whatever in the way of direct mutual communication
between God and man, is compendiously transacted
in the Sacraments, has to be done in a more deve-
loped and leisurely manner by actions of a corre-
sponding and kindred nature.
The actual celebration of the Sacraments, accord-
ingly, has ever been accompanied, at the very time,
by such actions, — spiritual exercises of detailed prayer
and profession of faith on the one hand, and of intel-
lectual reception of Christian mysteries, as contained
in Holy Scripture, on the other. These, though
not y essential to the validity of the Sacraments,
(which are both transacted, as to their essentials, with
certain short ordained formulas of words,) are the
proper development of what is contained in them ;
and they serve for the germ, and furnish the pattern,
and in some degree the substance, of more ordinary
offices of worship.
Is there, as the common feature of both Sacraments,
entire union to Christ, — a union which supposes, on
the part of man, repentance, faith, love, and other
Christian graces ; and consists on God's part of an
essential Presence vouchsafed? Those graces must
be provided with a fitting vehicle and expression.
There must be prayer of some sort. That Presence
must be sought there, where it is specially promised ;
i The essential formula for valid Baptism is known to be very brief :
for proof that the essential formula for Eucharistic Consecration is
proportionately compendious, see below, vol. ii., chapter on Primitive
Form of Liturgy. —
SECT. III.] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP. 201
viz. in the common prayer of the many members of
the One Body. Does the same union extend to
all the saving actions of Christ, and must these be
severally apprehended by the understanding, and
embraced by faith and love with the heart ? A
necessity arises for knowledge, to be attained by
adoring meditation of the whole economy of grace.
And this too must be sought more especially there
(viz. in the Church's public assemblies) where He who
is "our Wisdom*" as well as "our Eighteousness" is
especially present in the one character no less than in
the other. Has, again, either Sacrament its own pro-
per gift ; the one regeneration and renewal, the other
priestly acceptableness and privilege ? These estates
obviously require, for their continued maintenance
"after their kind," suitable ritual media of action and
reception. For both purposes, ascendat oratio ut de-
scended gratia*. 1. That the renewed estate may be
persevered in, recourse must be had not only to the
other Sacrament, which is the high festival of its
being, but also, (since that by its ordained nature
cannot be continual), to more ordinary means of
growth and perfection. For daily renewal, daily
prayer must be made; that it may be according to
knowledge, there must be daily exercise in the law
of God ; that the functions of the new estate may be
duly performed, there must be praise, which is the
life of the divinely conformed. That all these things,
again, may be done in their perfection, the prayer,
the meditation, and the praise, must be those, not of
the single member, but of the Body, the Church.
1 Compare the Eastern exclamation at the bringing in of the Gospels,
"Wisdom: stand up." Supra, p. 131.
* St. Augustine.
202 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. II.
2. Still more, if possible, is public ordinary worship
the necessary complement and filling up of that Chris-
tian priesthood which is supremely exercised in the
Eucharistic act. For this purpose there must be
" prayer set forth as incense and the lifting up of the
hands as sacrifice," the " pure offering" of praise and
self- dedication, by resorting to the highest vouch-
safed Presence after the Eucharistic; there must be
full and varied reception, by hearing of the myste-
ries of divine knowledge ; lastly, there must be ever-
renewed pleading, in the Church's great secondary
method, and with detailed application to her needs, of
the merits of the One Sacrifice.
Thus, then, Public Worship, as discharged by the
Ordinary Offices of the Church, is far indeed from
being, as some have imagined, an act of merely
natural piety. Neither is it, as others perhaps con-
ceive it, a Christian function indeed, yet an isolated
thing, having no particular relation to the Sacra-
ments, or occupying ground for which no provision
is made, compendiously or otherwise, in those ordi-
nances. The account to be given of Christian Public
Worship — of the existence of such a thing at all — is,
that it is strictly complementary to the Sacraments in
the sense above explained. Complementary to them,
I say, as filling up their idea ; not supplementary, as
if adding anything to it. To refer to the never-fail-
ing archetypal analogy of the Body of Christ : as
"it pleaseth Him in mercy to account Himself in-
complete and maimed without usb," the Church being
the necessary "filling up" or "complement" of Him
b Hooker, V. lvi. 10.
sect. III.] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP. 203
" Who filleth all in all so is the Christian life in
general, but Public Worship in particular, and in an
especial degree, the "filling up" of the scheme or
idea of the Sacraments. And of both Sacraments :
not, as a third opinion would make it, of one only,
that of Baptism ; a view which is often more or less
explicitly put forth, even in the improved theological
teaching of the present day. That it is the acting
out of that Sacrament, and may at all times be most
properly used as such, has been fully admitted, and
is to be most earnestly maintained. But its aspect
towards the other Sacrament must be no less clearly
held and contended for. To disallow a close con-
nection as capable of existing between ordinary wor-
ship and the Eucharist, must appear on the slightest
reflection most unsatisfactory. Of the two, indeed,
it stands in more obvious connection with this than
with Baptism ; the work of prayer, praise, and of re-
ceiving knowledge of divine mysteries, being more
strikingly akin to the Eucharistic action of conscious
and active oblation and participation, than to that
more passive and often unconscious process of re-
newal, of which Baptism is the instrument.
The Ordinary Worship of the Church, then, to state
briefly the conclusion from our premises, is an emi-
nent means of discharging the obligations and func-
tions imposed, and of receiving the benefits guaranteed,
in both the Sacraments. But its peculiar character
is, that it is an exercise, in a lower way, of that
Christian priesthood which we have in Christ, which
is given to us in a measure in Baptism, but only
bestowed in its fulness, or exercised in its highest
form, in the celebration of the Eucharist.
The practical bearing of this view upon the mind
204 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. II.
with which Ordinary Worship is to be joined iD, is
obvious.
There is a natural impulse, in the case of any one
who has recently participated in the Eucharist, to
view prayer, praise, and other devotional actions in
connection with that great rite ; as modes of realiz-
ing and carrying out the Eucharistic frame and posi-
tion. The Church, by her Daily Offices, both recog-
nizes and formalizes this rightful conception. Her
ordinary public devotions are designed to be, to those
who are in a position to use them as such, an expan-
sion and carrying on of the Eucharistic functions and
relations. To such, the general act of public worship
is but a further cementing of the eucharistically im-
parted union with Christ and with His Body, the
Church ; — praise and thanksgiving, whether in Psalms
or other forms, are as a tributary stream falling into
the ocean of the Church's Eucharistic praise and
oblation of herself in Christ; — the hearing of Divine
mysteries of Scripture is an " eating °," as it were,
" of the crumbs that fall " from the holy table ; a
continuation of the act of receiving into the soul Him
who is the Eternal Word, and in Whom are hid
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge ; — prayer
and pleading are a keeping hold of the horn of the
altar d. A view, it may surely be said, which dig-
c Compare St. Aug., Sermon vii. p. 85, vol. xvi. "Library of Fathers :"
"What I am handling before you now" (i.e. the Scriptures) "is
daily bread; and the daily lessons which ye hear in church are daily
Iread."
d Hooker has briefly expressed the converse of this view : " Instruc-
tion and prayer," (by means of ordinary services of the Church,)
" whereof we have hitherto spoken, are duties which serve as elements,
parts, or principles, to the rest that follow; in which number the
Sacraments of the Church are chief." (V. i. 1.)
SECT. III.] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP. 205
nifies, while yet it duly subordinates, the act of
Ordinary Worship.
In other respects, too, I venture to hope not only
that the general correctness of these views will be
admitted, but that they may prove the source to not
a few of solid and enduring satisfaction, by exhibiting
all the great lines of Christian ritual working unitedly
and harmoniously together.
Such an adjustment between the Church's greater
and lesser acts of worship would seem to be the
proper antidote to a tendency which has begun to
appear here and there amongst us, to depreciate the
Church's Ordinary Worship, if not to desire even
the partial abolition of it. There are those who,
rightly impressed with the transcendent excellence
of the Eucharistic rite, and possessed with a pro-
portionate desire for more frequent celebration of
it, are inclined to look upon the Church's Ordinary
Offices with toleration at best, and as impeding rather
than promoting the highest kind of spiritual life and
growth. They see not why the ordinary Daily Offices,
or the Morning Office at the least, might not be dis-
pensed with, and daily celebration of the Eucharist
be put in its place. The rest of the Western Church
is known to have even substituted, in practice, non-
communicating attendance at the celebration of the
Eucharist, for her nominal Morning Offices; which
have accordingly, as has been already e pointed out,
ceased to exist as the vehicle of the people's devotion.
And some among us would perhaps advocate our
following even this extreme example1. But at pre-
" Compare ch. i., sub fin.
• On non-communicating attendance at the Eucharist, see the last
chapter of this volume.
206 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. n.
sent I have in view the case of those only who would
desire the substitution of a daily and genuine congre-
gational Eucharist for our ordinary Office of Morn-
ing Prayer. This view, as expressing a zeal for the
one act of worship instituted by our Lord Himself,
is naturally engaging to devout and reverent minds.
But it leaves out of sight, on the one hand, certain
limiting and restraining facts adduced above, which
render it likely — nay, which prove with the force of
a moral demonstration — that daily Eucharistic cele-
bration was not the intended rule for the Church's
observance ; — such as the absence, acknowledged by
all learned men who have examined the subject, of
such frequency during apostolic and early times ;
the declension of Christianity under the condition
of daily celebration ; and the high festival character
of the rite itself. And again, on the other hand, this
expression of zeal for the Eucharist ignores the posi-
tion, dignity, and powers of the Ordinary Worship
of the Church ; its position as being, under one view,
the indispensable instrument for the carrying out
of the Eucharistic idea ; its dignity in virtue of that
connection ; and its powers, in virtue both of our
Lord's express and separate promise to it, and of the
quasi-priestly and sacrificial character which, in its
degree, it shares with the Eucharist.
Others, again, without concurring in the desires
and aims of those just alluded to, yet are impressed,
more or less consciously, with the sense of there being
a kind of rivalry between the Eucharistic and the
Ordinary Worship of the Church, rather than that
perfect compatibility and harmonious connection which
in reality, as has been here shewn, exists between
them.
SECT. III.] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP.
207
Nor are such views of the whole field of Christian
ritual less necessary for those — including, perhaps, the
vast proportion of the English Church, both lay and
clerical — whose danger lies in the opposite direction ;
who are even too well satisfied with the ordinary
Services of the Church. Nothing short of an entire
and radical misconception as to the Apostolic idea of
Christian Worship and Service as a whole, could have
brought in that generally prevailing acquiescence in
infrequent celebration of the Holy Communion which
characterizes the English Church at the present day.
I say acquiescence in such infrequency ; for that is the
peculiar character of our shortcoming in the matter.
While other Churches, to secure Apostolic frequency,
have resorted to unapostolic and unjustifiable modes
of celebrating, we have secured Apostolic and genuine
celebrations, but Apostolic frequency we have, speak-
ing generally, been careless of. This subject will be
treated of hereafter ; I will only point out here, with
reference alike to Sunday and week-day Ordinary
Offices, that in Apostolic times, the idea of their
standing alone, or superseding the weekly Eucharist,
was absolutely unknown.
There is, again, an important theological difference
in the present day, about which the views contained
in this chapter would seem to open the way towards
something like an agreement. The assertion of cer-
tain real priestly functions as peculiar to the clergy,
and specially of a commission to consecrate and ad-
minister the Holy Eucharist, is the distinguishing
note of one large and influential school within the
English Church. The assertion, again, of a Christian
priesthood as appertaining to the laity, has been taken
up as an antagonistic truth in other quarters. But
208
THE PRINCIPLES OP DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. II.
surely the two positions, far from being antagonistic,
not only may be harmonized, but must both of them
be most firmly and fully maintained, if we would hold
the true Christian doctrine in perfection. Each of
these two great and earnest parties may, in fact, learn
somewhat from the other. The one, in maintaining
the power, undoubtedly pertaining to the clergy, to
consecrate and administer the Holy Eucharist, have
perhaps been too little careful to represent them as,
(1) essentially and entirely ministerial under the Great
High-Priest, whose Hand, as it were, they are ; and
as also (2) needing the concurrent action of the people ;
not without whom, as necessary consentients and co-
adjutors, they perform that sacred function. Such
is unquestionably the view of the early Church as
expressed in her Liturgies. " Be present, be present,
0 Jesu, Thou good High-Priest, in the midst of us,
as Thou wert in the midst of Thy Disciples," (i.e. at
the original institution,) " and sanctify this Oblation,
that we may by the hands of Thy holy Angel receive
that which is sanctified," are the words of one very
ancient Communion Officeg; and correctly represent
the mind of all. And again, it is priest and people
united that make the solemn oblation of the Elements,
call down the grace of the Holy Spirit upon them, and
plead the merits of the One all-prevailing Sacrifice. It
is in the plural number, in the congregational form,
that these great transactions between heaven and
earth take place. Above all, it is in the presentation,
yet more by themselves than by the clergy, of an ac-
ceptable people, — acceptable11 in Christ, and as the
s The Mozarabic, or ancient Spanish. Vide Neale, Tetral. Liturgic,
or Gen. Introd., p. 545. On the joint action of priest and people in
the consecration, see also Note G.
h Compare Jer. Taylor, Golden Grove, (Works, vol. xv. p. 61) : " That
SECT, ill.] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP.
209
Body of Christ, — that the glory of that great Offering
consists. The holocaust that flames on the altar,
M the sweet savour acceptable to the Lord," is " them-
selves, their souls and bodies, a reasonable, holy, and
lively sacrifice." In the power thus concurrently with
the clergy to offer and plead, and finally to participate,
the Christian priesthood of the people formally and
essentially consists ; nor can any of these functions be
denied to them without abridging the gifts and privi-
leges which are theirs in Christ. And these functions
of the people as " priests unto God," thus chiefly and
supremely exercised in taking part in the Eucharistic
Rite, they do in a lower degree, as has been repre-
sented in this chapter, discharge also in joining in the
Ordinary Services of the Church. Nay, even in their
common life, they part not with these powers, but
carry on the same work : it is their privilege accept-
ably to present to God in Christ every action and
every hour of their lives ; and what is priesthood but
the power to present acceptably? Only this priest-
like action, as we may venture to call it, is to be ever
and anon gathered up for more formal and ritual pre-
sentation in the Services, both Eucharistic and ordi-
nary, of the Sanctuary.
It is then in the more habitual recognition of a
priesthood as appertaining to the people, that, as I
conceive, the one of the two schools of theological
opinion referred to may take example from the other.
It may be questioned whether such recognition ap-
pears so distinctly, prominently, and broadly in their
teaching as might be desired, and as it certainly ap-
pears in every line of the ancient Communion Offices,
she may for ever advance the honour of the Lord Jesus, and represent
His Sacrifice, &c, &c, and be accepted of Thee in her Blessed Lord."
P
210
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. II.
and of our own. So long as we stipulate for the in-
dispensableness of a duly (i.e. an apostolically) com-
missioned ministering priesthood in order to the effec-
tual celebration of the Holy Communion, it would seem
to be almost impossible to insist too strongly on the
people's position as " priests unto God." For it may
truly be said that all other priesthood, yea, the very
Priesthood of Christ Himself, exists but for the sake
of this, as the means exist for the sake of the end.
Not for His own sake, but " for their sakes" did He
" sanctify Himself," i.e. consecrate Himself as a Priest
and Offering unto God, "that they also might be sanc-
tified," and become prevailing priests, and an accept-
able sacrifice. Nor is there, perhaps, any truth which
the laity generally have greater need to be taught, than
the existence and nature of these lofty privileges of
theirs, and how the exercise of them is involved, in
different degrees, in the higher and lower kinds of
attendance in the Sanctuary.
Those, on the other hand, who are so earnest in
maintaining the existence and the rights of Christian
priesthood as pertaining to the people, are in general
very far from entertaining any just or adequate con-
ception of what priesthood is. For this they must
have recourse to the ancient teaching of the Church,
embodied in her Communion Offices, and thoroughly
confirmed by Scripture11. They must in their turn be
willing to learn much on this point from those whom
they now look upon as enthusiasts or upholders of
priestcraft. Let them accept and realize, first, the
verity of the Priesthood of Christ, and especially its
intimate connection with the original institution of
the Eucharist ; next, the continuation of that priestly
1 St. John xvii. 19. k See Part II.
SECT. III.] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP. 211
operation of His on earth by the hands of His mi-
nisters, as in heaven by His own ; and lastly, the
priestly character of even the people's part in that
most exalted function of humanity, the great Eucha-
ristic Transaction. Then, but not till then, they will
believe in a "lay priesthood" worth upholding. At
present, it must be plainly said, their view is for the
most part a purely rationalistic one ; a mere negation
of the gifts and powers of the Gospel ; a casting down
of the ladder between heaven and earth, with all its
array of ascending and descending ministries, in order
to substitute for it the efforts of all but unaided natural
piety. Those who entertain this view, while profess-
edly looking to the grace of God, do in reality seek
to cut the Church off from the guaranteed reservoirs
and channels of that grace : those reservoirs being
the Incarnation and the Priesthood of Christ ; those
channels, the Sacraments ordained by Him. Would
that such could be brought to see that, in their zeal
against a ministering priesthood, they really arrive at
a position which evacuates the Gospel, for clergy and
people alike, of its best gifts and privileges ; and that
it is through the instrumentality of such a duly em-
powered priesthood, and no otherwise, that the Chris-
tian scheme provides a true and worthy priesthood for
the people of God.
It is obvious to remark upon the illustration which
the views here expressed receive from the contents of
the Church's Ordinary Offices, which are to some ex-
tent derived from the Baptismal Office on the one hand,
and from the Eucharistic on the other. One feature
of our own morning offices, from St. Gregory's time
downwards, has been, there can be little doubt l, that
1 See above, chap. i. p. 97-
p2
212
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. II.
Creed which is the peculiar note of Baptismal profession.
That symbol of our faith having had a place in the
ancient Prime Office for near a thousand years, was
maintained in a corresponding position in our present
Morning Office. Thus is the Baptismal position day
by day taken up, by profession of the Baptismal Creed :
whether, as in the case of the merely baptized, setting
forth the whole of their Christian position; or, as
in that of communicants, recalling to their recollec-
tion these first and earlier vows. The Lord's Prayer,
whether primitively or not, has certainly for many
hundred years been in use, both in the Eastern and
the "Western Church. This may be viewed indiffer-
ently, either as imparting a Baptismal or Eucharistic
character to the office : that prayer having so signal
a place in the offices proper to both Sacraments ; in
the one, as the prayer of the adopted ; in the other,
as the perfect verbal compendium111 of the great Eucha-
ristic actions of Oblation, Participation, and Pleading.
But again, the Ordinary Offices of the Church, in
the East and West alike, have ever, as we have seen
in the first chapter, embodied some portion of the
Eucharistic Offices. It may suffice now to advert
to one or two signal instances of this. The " Col-
lect for the Day," which has always formed part of
the English Morning Offices, is manifestly designed
to import into it the entire spirit and essence of
the variable part of the Eucharistic Office ; being,
as a general, if not a universal rule, the concentra-
tion into a prayer of the spirit of the Epistle and
Gospel. Nothing can more clearly, or in a more
practical form, mark the desire of the Church that
the Daily or Ordinary Offices should not lose sight of
m See Part II., Primitive Form of Liturgy.
SECT. III.] THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP.
213
the Eucharistical, but be considered as ancillary to
it. We have a recognition, in this adoption of a Eu-
charistic feature in Ordinary Worship, of that lower
kind or degree of Priesthood which has been above
spoken of as attaching to the latter.
In the Eastern Church, again, we have discerned
a kindred phenomenon to the Western Collect, only
on a yet broader scale. The Ectenes, or supplications,
too, used at the Ordinary Offices are borrowed entire,
with much besides, from the great Liturgies D ; some-
times from the very Consecration Prayer itself.
But it is much to be observed, that while the
Church draws thus freely upon her Eucharistic Offices
for the materials of her Ordinary Worship£ she is
careful to reserve to the exclusive use of the former
certain high and transcending ideas and expressions ;
thus vindicating to the Eucharist its proper character
as the supreme channel of intercommunion between
God and man, and as having certain aspects and
privileges of which no more than the shadow or faint
image is communicable to lower forms of worship.
Thus, though praise of any kind may not unjustly be
called a sacrifice, and the application of this term even
to Ordinary Worship might reasonably plead the
sanction of St. Paul's words in Heb. xiii.0, yet we
find that in the practice of the Church, the expres-
sion is generally restricted to directly Eucharistic
Offices. Our own Daily Office is an instance of this.
" Instances may be seen in Neale's Introd. to Hist, of Eastern
Church, vol. ii. p. 897, compared with vol. i. p. 381 ; at p. 901, with
p. 595 ; p. 902 with 442. See ch. i. s. 6.
0 "By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God con-
tinually, that is, the fruit of our hps, giving thanks to His Name."
If may of course be maintained that this is a strictly Eucharistic
injunction.
214 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. II.
In the General Thanksgiving we desire grace "to
shew forth God's praise, not only with our lips but
in our lives ; by giving up ourselves to His service,"
&c. ; thus following closely upon the steps of the
apostolic injunction, and of the Eucharistic Offices.
Yet we forbear to take into our lips the expression,
"sacrifice," and use only those of "praise" and
" service." Very different is the holy boldness with
which, in a single Eucharistic prayer, we three times
use the term " sacrifice ;" " entirely desiring God's
fatherly goodness to accept our sacrifice of praise and
thanksgiving," presenting " ourselves as a reasonable,
holy, and lively sacrifice," and acknowledging our
unworthiness, yet our bounden duty, to offer such
" sacrifice."
The same is observable in the Eastern Offices. A
remarkable instance occurs in the adaptation made of
a portion of St. James' Liturgy to ordinary use. It
is part of the solemn intercession immediately after
consecration, and we find all that modesty, so to
speak, in making use of it, which becomes the inferior
Office. While the things prayed for are the same,
the form of prayer is in one case the high and solemn
Eucharistic phrase, " Remember p;" in the other it is
lowered to the more ordinary form, " We pray for."
A comparison of our Baptismal and Eucharistic
Offices in like manner, exhibits very strikingly the
discrimination to be made, in the Church's view,
between Baptismal and Eucharistic powers and func-
tions. The ideas which pervade the Baptismal Office
are purely those of renewal and regeneration ; death
" Remember, Lord, them that bear fruit and do great deeds in Thy
holy Churches," &c. (Lit. S.James, Neale, vol. ii. p. 594). But,
" We pray for them that bear fruit and do good deeds in this holy
Church," &c. (Eastern Vespers, ibid., p. 001).
SECT. III. J THEORY OF ORDINARY WORSHIP. 215
to the old man, and rising again in newness of life.
The particular aspect, that is to say, of the saving
actions of our Lord, into which the baptized enters, is
that which belongs to them as the direct working out
of the Incarnation. Though the baptized necessarily
partake of the benefit of the Death of Christ as
a Sacrifice, and are admitted by Baptism to the
rights of active Christian priesthood, yet their position
and duties are described without reference to these
ideas. The dedication of them to God is spoken of
as a passive thing (" Grant that whosoever is here
dedicated to Thee by our office and ministry," &c.)
even in the case of adults ; they are not exhorted
to " present themselves a reasonable sacrifice," or the
like; because, although in some true sense they are
capable of doing so, yet for the highest and truest
measure of that capacity they must await their enter-
ing, by Eucharistic attendance and participation, on
the actual discharge of the priestly or sacrificial func-
tions of a Christian.
CHAPTER III.
ON THE STRUCTURE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ANCIENT
ENGLISH OFFICES.
SECTION L
" And these words, which I command thee this day, shall he
in thine heart ; and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children,
and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when
thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou
risest up."
The earliest phase of our Offices of Ordinary Wor-
ship, discernible in the corresponding ritual of the
Eastern Church, has been dwelt upon at some length
in the first chapter of this volume ; with a minute-
ness, indeed, which may at first sight seem dis-
proportionate. Yet I know not to which of the two
classes of readers into whose hands this work may
fall, any apology on the score of such minuteness is
likely, on consideration, to seem necessary. Such as
possess much previous acquaintance with the Daily
Offices either of the East or the West, or of both,
will, it may reasonably be hoped, be interested in the
line of research here pursued; this department of
Eastern ritual having never before, I believe, been
investigated, or only cursorily and unsysteuiatically,
with a view to elucidating the Western Offices. The
feeling which naturally accompanies such an investi-
SECT. I.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES.
217
gation and comparative analysis, is surely not unlike
that with which the modern astronomer studies the
constellations of another hemisphere, and finds in them
ever new illustrations of the sidereal truths familiar to
him in his own ; or even elaborates, by the help of
them, a more comprehensive and sounder conception
of the entire science. Those, again, to whom such
researches are more or less new, will find their ac-
count in this somewhat full inquiry into the earlier
condition of the Church's ritual : —
" Lorsqu' on veut exposer," says a methodical and effective
writer on a very different subject, "une science peu connue,
le moyen le plus simple consiste a en faire l' histoire. Les
connaissances s'introduisent alors dans l'esprit du lecteur,
comme elles se sont formees dans celui des generations ; on
suit, pour ainsi dire, la science pas a pas : et Ton passe avec
elle de ses elemens les plus simples a ses theories les plus
complexes \"
Now, as Mr. Palmer, in his invaluable "Disser-
tation on Primitive Liturgies," or Communion Offices,
has once for all elevated that branch of ritual study
from a mere empiricism and guess-work to the dignity
of a regular science, having its fixed laws and its
classified phenomena ; so is it a part of my endeavour,
in this volume, to perform a like service for the study
of the Ordinary Offices of the Christian Church : and
it is in a clear and detailed conception of their earlier
successive stages and aspects that the foundations of
a correct apprehension of them can be most easily
and securely laid. But so it is, that in the annals
of the Ordinary Offices of the East, and there only,
can we study that succession. We there obtain a
* Paul de Remusat, sur une Revolution daus la Cuimie (vid. Revue
des deux Mondes, 1855).
218 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP, nr.
view, not of the result merely, as in studying the cor-
responding "Western Offices, but of the process also.
Their stratification, if I may be allowed to borrow an
illustration from modern science, is distinctly seen
in the order of its occurrence. The successive depo-
sition of a first, a second, and a third formation go
on almost before our eyes in the ritual history of the
first few ages in the East. We have first the primary
and simple twofold structure, composed in a great
measure of the detritus of the elder Jewish forma-
tion, and comparative!} little organized. This passes,
within the first three or four centuries, into the three-
fold and far more elaborately organized structures of
what we may call the second period. And we shall
presently be called upon to witness the leisurely super-
position of an entirely novel group, completing the
series. The Western scheme, on the contrary, forged
or recast as it was by a single process, (so to speak,)
out of the Eastern materials laid ready to hand, pre-
sents no such leisurely and progressive phenomeua to
the eye of the student.
But again, the nomenclature, and to a certain ex-
tent the nature, of the elements entering into certain
of the Western Offices, and those the great and prin-
cipal ones, have meanwhile been gradually brought to
view by this method of proceeding. The invitatory ;
the hymns ; the various modes of using the Psalms, —
whether continuously and without selection, or by se-
lecting them with adaptation to particular purposes; —
the different number of them appropriated almost uni-
versally to the different services, — as 12 to Matins, 6
to Lauds, 5 to Vespers ; — the nature of Antiphons, and
the various classes of them ; the complex system by
which the Psalms, on festivals more especially, were
SECT. I.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 219
interwoven with the Lessons in one great musical
scheme of mingled meditation and praise; the Re-
sponsories entering into that scheme ; the Canticles
forming another important feature of it ; the Versicles
and Responses, the Capitula, the Collect, the Confes-
sion and Absolution ; — all these we have discerned in
their rudiments, and, as it were, in the very course of
formation. And even of our existing ritual not a few
particulars have been examined by the way, and the
view to be taken of them in a great measure sug-
gested. So that not only the general purpose of this
work, to investigate the universal principles of Chris-
tian worship, but its more particular aim of fixing the
ideas proper to our own forms of service, have been
more materially advanced in our first chapter than
might at the time appear.
The object, however, with which we set out, was,
it will be remembered b, to ascertain the earlier his-
tory of the entire body of Offices of ordinary worship
which reached our shores at the end of the sixth cen-
tury ; not merely of those principal, and, as it appears,
more primitive ones, which have alone come under
our observation hitherto. We have yet to complete
our survey, therefore, by including within it those
other and secondary Eastern Offices, which, though
neither of apostolic nor early post-apostolic date as
Church Services, had nevertheless probably existed
in a rudimentary form, as private or household devo-
tions, from a very early period, and had been received
into the number of recognised public formularies pre-
vious to the re-organization of the Western ritual after
the Eastern model.
The Offices in question are those called in the East
b Chap. i. sect. 1, p. 41.
220 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. III.
the Offices of the first, third, sixth, ninth hours, and
the Office for " after supper," {airoStLirvov) ; after-
wards known in the West by the names of Prime,
Tierce, Sext, Nones, and Completorium, or Compline,
(the completion of the day's services). That these ser-
vices were without exception of later date in the East
than those of the early morning and evening, has been
sufficiently proved by Bingham °. Let us now briefly
inquire into their nature and contents ; and in what
points they furnished a model to the corresponding
Western Offices.
First, as to the Office for Prime. Cassian (circ.
420) expressly records the setting up of the service of
the First hour as a new thing which had taken place
in his time d, having been first introduced in St. Je-
rome's monastery at Bethlehem, of which he himself
had been a member. It was quickly adopted, pro-
bably through his influence, in many parts of the
West. The contents of this " novella solemnitas," as
he calls it, were chiefly three Psalms, v., xc, ci. These
were evidently selected as practical Psalms to com-
mence the day with. The first and third of them
contain professions of stedfast duty; the 90th brings
to view the entire condition of man, but is perhaps
chiefly selected for the sake of ver. 14 : " We have
been filled with Thy mercy, 0 Lord, in the morning ;"
and ver. 17 : " Prosper Thou the work of our hands
upon us." To these were added a few verses from
the latter part of Ps. cxix. : " Order my steps in Thy
word," &c, (vv. 133 — 135) ; and Ps. lxxi. ver. 7 : " 0
c XIII. ix. 8.
d Instit. iii. 4: "Hanc matutiaum functionem nostro tempore in
nostro quoque monasterio prhnitiis institutam." See the interesting
note of Gazseus in loc.
SECT. I.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 221
let my mouth be filled with Thy praise, that I may
sing of Thy honour and glory all the day long." And
with some brief hymns the Office concludes. There
is, however, attached to each of these " day-hours"
a "mid- hour" Office, (ixeacopiov",) to be said mid-
way between each hour and the next. The " mid-
hour" attached to Prime contains especially two
prayers of St. Basil, formed upon the Psalms just
mentioned.
Now the Western Prime is, first of all, entirely of
the same practical tone as the Eastern. While reject-
ing the particular Psalms used in the East, it adopts
and carries out in the fullest manner the use of the
119th as a practical Psalm ; the Benedictine and other
uses all agreeing in transferring it from its ancient
place in Nocturns to the Prime and other day-hours.
(We have already noticed f other features for which
the Western Prime was indebted to the Eastern Noc-
turns ; as, e. g. the Creed, the Preces, the Confession,
&c.) Some other correspondences with the Eastern
Prime are still more striking. Thus it has among its
versicles the last verse of Ps. xc. ; " The glorious ma-
jesty, &c. ; prosper Thou the work of our hands upon
us," &c. : and ver. 7 of Ps. lxxi., (as above) ; " O let
my mouth," &c. And again, this is combined with ver.
14 of Ps. xc. in a prayer peculiar to the English Of-
fice : " In this hour of this day fill us with Thy mercy,
O Lord, that we may rejoice in Thy praise all the day
long." Another prayer is literally translated from
St. Basil's : " Almighty God, direct our acts accord-
ing to Thy good pleasure, that in the Name of Thy be-
loved Son we may be found worthy to abound in good
« Goar, p. 107; Neale, p. 932, &c. ' Chap. i. sect. 5, pp. 98, 103.
222 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. in.
works e." But the following prayer more especially,
which has descended to us as our third morning Col-
lect, and which in the Sarum Prime Office differs ma-
terially from the Roman form, has every appearance of
having been derived from the two prayers of St. Basil
attached to the Eastern Prime, and founded chiefly,
as has been said, on the Psalms of that Office, though
partly also on Ps. xci., used at noon : —
PRIME PEAYEES OF ST. BASIL.
'O &ebs 6 alavios, to clvapxov
Kai diSiov . . . (Ps. XC. 1.)
Xapicrat *ip~iv iv rrj Trapovo-rj
fjp-epa (vapccrTeTv croi, 8ia(pv\dr-
rav rjfias dno irao~qs apaprias Kai
irdo-r)i Trovripas Trpd^ecos, pvoptvos
fjpdi dirb /3e'Xovr ireTopivov fjpepas
Kai Trdo-r)s dvTiKfiptvrjs Svvdpecos.
(From Second Prayer.)
Ta toiv xeLP<^v ripuv tfpya, . . .
irpdrreiv rjpds ra troi evdpeaTa Kai
(fiiKa, evoSaxrov.
OLD ENGLISH COLLECT AT
PEIME.
Domine Sancte, Pater Om-
nipotens, Eterne Deus, qui nos
ad principium liujus diei per-
venire fecisti tua nos hodie
salva virtute (Swdpeas) et con-
cede ut in Jiac die ad nullum
declinemus peccatum, nec ul-
lum incurramus periculum,
sed semper ad tuam faciendam
justitiam omnis nostra actio tuo
moderamine dirigatur.
The Latin form, as usual, is more terse and com-
pact, but the opening address, the order of topics, and
to some extent the expressions, are closely similar.
The service of the third hour, or nine o'clock, as
used in St. Basil's time, contained the 51st Psalm, in
reference partly to its being the penitential hour of our
Lord's crucifixion h, partly to the descent of the Holy
Spirit, to which the verse, " Eenew a right spirit
within me1,'' was applied. The Office for the sixth
S 'O &(hs 6 aldvios, . . . Tct tuv xftP®" vpuv *py"- »pJ>s rh <rbv KinevBvvov
0e\-nna, 'Iva Kai Sm ruv ava^wv rjuZv, k.t.a. Prayer of St. Basil, Mesorion
of the first hour, Horolog., p. 114.
h Ap. Constit. viii. 34. 1 St. Basil, Regul. Maj., is. 37.
SECT. I.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 223
hour, or noon, in like manner contained the 91st
Psalm, on account of the verse, " Thou shalt not be
afraid for the sickness" (or the evil one) "that de-
stroyed in the noonday ;" and the 55th, for the sake
of the verse, "Morning, and evening, and at noonday
will I pray." The Offices for these hours contain the
very same Psalm still. We have no similar evidence
for the antiquity of the Ninth hour Office, as now used
in the East ; nor indeed is there, apparently, the same
peculiar fitness in the Psalms appointed for it, as in
the case of the two preceding Offices. Yet the hour
was certainly of very ancient observance in the East,
since a canon of the year 360k prescribes the same
prayers to be used at it as at Vespers. This was how-
ever, probably, a new and merely local arrangement.
The Western Offices for these minor hours bear
a general testimony to the existence of the Eastern
ones, either for public or private use, in the fifth cen-
tury, by having adopted the Eastern number of three
Psalms ; while they differ, both among themselves
and from the East altogether, as to the particular
Psalms used1. This perhaps indicates that these
Offices had not yet obtained universal recognition in
the East as Church services ; so that the Western
framers felt at liberty to choose their own Psalms,
only observing the traditional number. It was na-
tural, as before observed, that they should make use
of Ps. cxix. for the purpose, not only on account of
its practical character, but as having been of most
k Concil. Laod., can. xviii. Bingham (vol. iv. p. 378) thinks the
ninth hour service may have been in public use in St. Chrysostom's
time.
1 The Horn. Sar., &c, used three sections of Ps. cxix. daily at each of
those hours, (tliird, sixth, and ninth,) as did the Benedictine on Mondays
and Tuesdays; but three "gradual Psalms" on other days
224
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. in.
ancient use in the East, (viz. in the Night Office,) and
perhaps in the West also.
The date of the Eastern Compline, the last office
of the day, is abundantly testified to by the univer-
sality with which the West has adopted, not the num-
ber only of its Psalms, but the very Psalms them-
selves. It is a common opinion, indeed, that St.
Benedict was the actual inventor of this office; but
with the facts of the case before us, this is absolutely
incredible. It is true that the actual name Comple-
torium seems to have been unknown in the East;
but the thing, and even the name, in a rudimentary
form, doubtless existed there long before St. Bene-
dict's time, (530,) and evidently furnished the basis
of all the Western varieties of the office. St. Basil,
(370,) to whom we are indebted for so many parti-
culars respecting the ancient services, appoints in his
" Rules m" certain observances for the close of the
day, making use of the very expression answering to
the Latin Completorium (-rrX-qpcoa-ai rrjv rjpepav.) He
enjoins a giving of thanks for whatever benefits have
been received in the day ; confession of sins, volun-
tary and involuntary ; and prayer to pass the night
without offence, disturbance, or sin ; and desires that
Psalm xci. (" Whoso dwelleth," &c.) should be said.
Now a prayer bearing the name of " the great Basil,"
and embracing precisely these topics, to a great ex-
tent in St. Basil's very words, is subjoined to the con-
clusion of the Eastern Vespers at this day n. It is not,
however, part of the service ; and the saying of it is
optional. The 91st Psalm, again, is among those ap-
pointed for the following office of Compline. Surely
m Bas. E«gul. ix. 37 ; ap. Bon., ubi supr.
" Horolog. Vesp. ad fin.
sect. I.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES.
225
then we have in the aforesaid injunction of St. Basil
the rudiments and earliest outline of Compline. It
is probable that other suitable Psalms, as the 4th,
(ending with "I will lay me down in peace," &c.,)
had been customary for private use at bed-time ; and
that in the interval between the date of St. Basil
and that of Cassian or Benedict the Eastern Compline
office, very much as it now exists, was formed and
introduced into the Churches, just as the other minor
hours had already been. St. Benedict0 also places
Compline expressly after supper-time ; thus recog-
nising the Eastern nomenclature of airobenrvov.
There are now two or three forms of Compline
in the East, varying in length. But the later addi-
tions, chiefly penitential Psalms and prayers, are easily
discernible from the essentials of the Office, which
are such as fully to establish the derivation of the
Western Compline from it. We have, in the fuller
form, Psalms iv. vi. xiii. xxv. xxxi. xci. ; a very grand
choral odep on the Incarnation, based on Isaiah viii.
12 — 18, ix. 1 — 6, the burden being, "For God is
with us ;" a hymn of three stanzas to Christ, giving
thanks for preservation during the day, and praying
to be kept during the night without sin, scandal, or
disturbance, — the very topics prescribed by St. Basil ;
a great hymn of praise, the manifest original of much
of the Te Deum q ; the Nicene Creed, the Trisagion,
and the Lord's Prayer ; a short prayer in the form of
a hymn for illumination and protection during the
night ; followed by longer ones, and a prayer of St.
Basil, all to the same effect, and all founded on the
Psalms which have preceded. Subsequently, after
• Rule, ch. 42. p See note D.
* Comp. above, p. 65, &c, and see note D.
226 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. in.
some penitential Psalms and prayers, — apparently a
later insertion, — we have the Gloria in Excelsis, Preces,
or versicles and responses, for protection ; Psalm cl. ;
a short thanksgiving for redemption; and, as at Noc-
turns, an interchange of confession and absolution,
and a litany.
I have here selected, out of a service of immense
length, (divided, in fact, into three great portions by
the usual threefold invitatory,) such features as seem
to be characteristic, as being common to the greater
and lesser forms of the Office; or, again, such as
have visibly passed over to the Western, more
especially to the English Compline Office. It will
be seen that we have, with great fulness, all the
elements suggested by St. Basil for the close of the
day, — viz., praise and thanksgiving for preservation
and other benefits; confession and prayers for pro-
tection, &c. ; and also Ps. xci. In the West, out of
the six Eastern Psalms, three (iv. xxxi. 1-6, xci.) were
adopted for Compline, with the addition of Ps. cxxxiv.
borrowed from the Greek Nocturns, (St. Benedict
omitted Ps. xxxi.) In lieu, as it would seem, of
the great "Emmanuel" Ode, (by which the Eastern
Compline Psalms are followed, just as the Nocturns,
Lauds, and Vespers Psalms are by the midnight
hymn, the Canticle, and the "Joyful light" respec-
tively), the West subjoins to its Compline psalmody
the Nunc Dimittis, instead of using it at the Vespers.
And it is perhaps worthy of notice, as completing
the resemblance, that the West has in this part of
Compline a passage of Scripture (viz. the Capitulum,
from Jerem. xiv.) on the dwelling of God with men :
(" Thou art in us, O Lord; and Thy Name is called
upon us; leave us not, O Lord our God,") accom-
SECT. I.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 227
panied by its song — that of Simeon — on the In-
carnation, and followed closely by a hymn of three
stanzas for protection. The theme, in a word, is the
same, and the manner of treating it, though more
brief in the West, entirely parallel. It may be men-
tioned here, that the old English Compline differed
widely from the Roman both in the order of its parts,
and in possessing no less than twenty-two varieties
for different days and seasons, while the Roman is
nearly unvarying. Among the variations are seven
hymns s and these are manifest translations, though
with much of compression, of various hymns or
prayers in the great and protracted Eastern Com-
pline Office.
But now follow, in the Greek Office, features which
render absolutely certain the derivation from it of the
Western Compline, of the English form more espe-
cially ; and which moreover possess peculiar interest
for us, from our having so fully inherited them in
our existing evening Service. We have first, with
the Lord's Prayer accompanying it, the Creed ; a
feature which, it will be remembered, has its place
in Nocturns after the Psalms, but is not found
again in the Eastern Offices we have been surveying
until its occurrence here in Compline. Precisely the
same is the case in the West : at Prime only and at
Compline, — the first and the last offices, in one point
of view, of the day, — is the Creed said. This corre-
spondence cannot be accidental. And while it is a
proof of communication between the East and West
in the matter, it is also a disproof of the ordinary
but intrinsically improbable assertion, that the Creed
was not used in any Church Service until the begin-
ning of the sixth century. It shews that in the East
Q 2
228 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. m.
it certainly had place early in the fifth, when the
service was imported thence ; whilst its occurrence in
Prime indicates, as has been already said, that it had
from time immemorial been used in some part of the
morning service, probably in the East and West alike.
But the Creed and Lord's Prayer in the Eastern
Compline are followed shortly by a prayer-like hymn
for illumination and protection. Now about this, two
things, both of deepest interest, are to be remarked.
The first is, that the hymn or prayer is distinctly
based on the Psalms of the Office which have pre-
ceded. It is as follows.
" Lighten my eyes, O Christ my God, that I sleep
not in death : lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed
against him," (Ps. xiii. 4, 5.) " Be Thou the helper
of my soul, 0 God, for I walk through the midst of
snares ; deliver me from them, and save me, Thou
that art good, as being the lover of men," (Ps. xxxi.
1,3, 5 ; comp. Ps. xci. 2, 3.) The latter part of the
hymn in particular is a curious cento from the Psalms
indicated.
avTiXrjnTap rr)r ^v^rjs pov
yevov 6 Oeos.
or/ peaov 8iaj3aivco nayiSau
pvaai pe c'£ avrwv.
Ps. Xci. 2. ai/Tt\rjT7T(op pov
ft 6 Qeos pov.
Ps. xxxi. 2. yevov pot fig Qeou
vTTepaamaTrjV.
Ib. 4. e£d£f(f pe ck iray&os.
Ib. 1. pvaai pe. Ps. xci. 3.
pvaera'i ae ex nayibos.
The second thing to be remarked is, that this same
hymn -like prayer, thus formed out of the Compline
Psalms, is the original, as seems unquestionable, of
the English Compline prayer, " Illumina quaesumus
Domine Deus tenebras nostras," &c, so familiar to
us as our third evening collect, "Lighten our dark-
SECT. L] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 229
ness," &c. The characteristic commencement, " Illu-
niina," (with only the substitution from Ps. xviii. 23
of "tenebras" for " oculos,") and afterwards "noctis
hujus insidias," with the concluding " a nobis repelle
propitius," (a>? fyiXavOpcairos) seem sufficiently to
make good the connection. The Roman Compline has
a different collect, but it is equally based on the Psalms
of the Greek Office ; especially on Ps. xci. 1, 3, 11, and
Ps. cxxxiv. 4. It will be remembered that we found
our English Prime Collect, in precisely a parallel man-
ner, based on the prayers of the Eastern Prime, and
through them on the Psalms of that Office. The re-
sult of this investigation is surely most satisfactory,
as tracing our third Collects at morning and evening
prayer to their very sources in the heart of Eastern
antiquity. There are other resemblances between
the Eastern and Western Compline; above all, the
confession and absolution, resembling that which we
have seen the "Western Prime form borrowing from
the Nocturns of the East, and occurring towards the
close of the English, (as of the Greek,) though in
the beginning of the Roman Prime.
Such then is the supplementary group of the East-
ern Church's services, by which her eightfold (or,
reckoning the Mesoria, her twelvefold) scheme was
completed ; and such the connection between it and
the corresponding Offices of the West. Nothing is
more clear than that the whole of these additions
were imported out of the private closet, or the house-
hold or monastic oratory, into the public sanctuary.
The hours from first to ninth, and Compline, were
the growth of the private and household devotions of
the earlier ages in the East, probably those of the very
first ages. This view is entirely corroborated by our
230 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. DEC.
finding features of these Offices enjoined as matter of
private prayer by early Eastern writers. Thus Atha-
nasius p, the Apostolical Constitutions, and St. Cbryso-
stom, agree in recommending the Gloria in Excelsis
(which was only used on Sundays in the public ser-
vices, viz. at Lauds) for daily use in private. The
Constitutions set down part of the Gloria in Excelsis,
together with the Nunc Dimittis, for evening use. The
former hymn, accordingly, we find in the Eastern
Compline ; and the occurrence of the latter in the
Western, (not in Benedict's, however,) instead of at
Vespers, is best accounted for by supposing that it
held that place in some parts of the East, as a
matter of private use. That as private forms these
services are of immense and perhaps primitive anti-
quity, is indicated by the Psalms used in them, which
are in most cases so singularly adapted to the time of
the day for which they are prescribed, (as e. g. Ps. iv.
to Prime, Ps. xci. to Compline,) that it is incon-
ceivable but that they would have been adopted as
part of the public daily services from the beginning,
had they not been already allotted to private use : for
which indeed, from the personal nature of them, they
are more peculiarly suited.
One remark connected with the English Revision
is suggested by this review of the supplementary Of-
fices, so to call them, of the Eastern scheme. Of the
expediency of introducing them as entire Offices into
the sanctuary, I have ventured already to express a
doubt. Not, of course, that the public ritual was not
enriched and adorned by the addition of formularies
so devoutly and beautifully conceived, and breathing
so refined a spirit of meditation on Holy Scripture.
r Bingham, XIII. x. 9.
SECT. I.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 231
The objection is not to the adoption of new features,
but to the inconsiderate accumulation of offices, with-
out any such fusion or adaptation as might render the
service, as a whole, still practicable for the members
of the Christian body. There may indeed have been
temporary reasons, such as the presence of Arianism
and Pelagianism, which called for or justified at the
time such an enlarged exhibition of public devotion.
But the after-experience of the Church testifies that
she would have done more wisely, had she been
content to transplant within the bounds of that
narrower re/xevo?, which apostolic wisdom seems in
a general way to have defined, the spiritual plants
which personal, or household, or monastic piety had
nurtured, instead of thus enlarging its border by
taking whole tracts of service into it. And this is
surely the very thing which the English Church, long
and long after, but not too late, nor yet without signal
results, — whether with perfect wisdom, and in the
best manner that could have been, is not the ques-
tion,— essayed to do. She retained the essence of
the several Offices, as represented by certain of their
features; an example which the West had already
set her in some instances, e. g. by concentrating the
whole spirit of the Eastern Prime into her Collect for
that Office, founded on St. Basil's prayer. The East-
ern Church might have done the same ; she too might
have invigorated, not have overlaid and crushed, her
daily ritual. But, already possessing in her offices
selections of Psalms, hymns, prayers, and litanies, she
accumulated, without the smallest attempt at accom-
modation, system upon system, added more selections
of Psalms, more hymns, prayers, and litanies, aiming
in the main at the selfsame objects. And such an
232 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. in.
undigested mass, absolutely incapable of being really
used as it stands, either by clergy or people, and only
got through at all by a variety of senseless expedients,
the Eastern hour- system continues to the present dayq.
The course pursued in the West was on the whole the
same. Not content with enriching — a task which she
executed most admirably — her older framework with
elements drawn from every region of the East, she
multiplied her services at the same time ; thus piling
together a structure which from its cumbersomeness
has fallen into utter decay, leaving but a single frag-
ment erect amid its ruins.
I must not take leave of the Eastern Offices without
briefly summing up the doctrinal character which was
visibly, though not always strongly, impressed upon
them respectively. To Nocturns, then, belongs more
particularly the idea and the doctrine of Christ's
second Coming to Judgment. This has passed into
our Matins in the form of the latter part of the Te
Deum. In Lauds is expressed, rather in the broad
characteristics of the Office than by direct allusion,
the idea and the doctrine of the past Resurrection of
Christ, and of our own hereafter. In Vespers, the
Incarnation, being the coming in of the true Light in
the eventide of the world, is commemorated ; and the
allusion is preserved to us in the Nunc Dimittis. This
idea, again, easily combines with that of our Lord's
giving Himself, at the institution of the last Supper,
for our salvation. It was probably partly from a de-
sire to complete this doctrinal scheme by the comme-
moration of other facts or truths of Christianity, that
the later group of offices was adopted into the Church.
Thus in Prime, the idea of the Resurrection is resumed
i See note H.
sect. I.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 233
in the hymns ; and at Compline that of the Incarna-
tion is still more distinctly expressed, as we have seen,
than at Vespers. And throughout all these Offices
there runs more or less of reference to the Passion.
Thus at Prime on Wednesdays and Fridays there is
a special prayer or hymn for the aid of the Cross of
Christ; and the hymn on which our evening third
Collect is founded evidently alludes to the " snares"
(insidiae) laid for our Lord in His betrayal and cruci-
fixion.
The Western Offices carry out these ideas in vari-
ous degrees, as we shall have occasion to notice here-
after. In Prime, more especially, the Eastern refer-
ence to the Passion was rendered with great fulness,
Pss. xxii. — xxv. being appointed to be used on Sun-
days ; all of them probably, but the 22nd certainly, in
this connection. It is remarkable that Ps. xxii. alone
is appointed for the Prime Office of the Armenian
Church ; to which St. Benedict, too, appears to have
been indebted, through whatever channel, for much
of his scheme. These five Prime Psalms were subse-
quently distributed in the Roman ritual (by Pius V.)
over the other days of the week, Ps. xxii. being appro-
priately allotted to Priday, and Ps. xxiii. to Thursday.
Our own third Collects at morning and evening, as
being based on Pss. xc, xci., and xxxi. 1 — 6, (see
p. 228,) necessarily recal, according to the profound-
est conception of them, those sorrows and perils of
our Lord, and that triumph over them, which are at
once the type of our daily condition, as the members
of His Body, the Church, and the assurance of pro-
tection and deliverance.
234 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. III.
SECTION II.
" Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is
risen upon thee . . . And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings
to the brightness of thy rising . . . Who are these that fly as a cloud,
and as the doves to their windows ? Surely the isles shall wait for me,
and the ships of Tarshish first."
The most obscure chapter in the ritual annals of
the Western Church is confessedly that which em-
braces the period from the first introduction of Chris-
tianity till the beginning of the fifth century. At this
latter epoch, tradition, rather than history, begins to
shed a feeble and uncertain light upon the past. The
information that we obtain, even then, is chiefly of
a negative kind. We discern, that is to say, the in-
auguration of a new and different era, in ritual mat-
ters, from that which preceded it. But wherein the
difference consisted, and what consequently was the
character of the superseded state of things, we are still
left for the most part to conjecture. All that we know
is, that by the hands of some persons, either tradi-
tionally named, (as St. Ambrose at Milan, and St.
Jerome and St. Damasus at Rome,) or plausibly con-
jectured from their writings and known history, (as
Cassian in the south of France,) the older forms were
laid aside or remodelled, and new ones introduced;
of which, while some have been swept away, others
survive in some form or other to the present hour.
In this dearth of historical testimony, the internal
evidence, which the Western ritual on examination
supplies, of its derivation from Eastern sources, comes
SECT. II. J ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 235
most opportunely to our aid. For if the arguments
be well founded, by which I have endeavoured, in the
first chapter, to make good the claims of certain of
the Eastern Offices to represent in the main, and even
as to some details, the apostolic manner of ordinary
worship, it will follow, almost as a matter of course,
that similar forms of service must have been widely
if not universally diffused throughout the Christian
world. Following the analogy of the ancient Com-
munion Services or Liturgies, this more ordinary kind
of worship would be likely to retain in all lands, as
those certainly did r, the same leading features, with
only such variations as might arise from the differing
mental or spiritual constitution of the first evange-
lizers, or from other accidental circumstances. If
such services existed at all in the Church at the first,
they would be likely, by the time the faith began to
be preached to the world at large, (which was not
until twelve years after the Ascension8), to have ac-
quired a tolerably settled form. And then both habit,
and reverence for apostolic institution, would conspire
to secure a considerable uniformity in the ordinary
worship of all Churches.
This conjecture is entirely confirmed by such notices
as we have in ancient writers of the Church's ordinary
service. Inhabitants of the most widely separated
regions render, in the main, the same account of it.
St. Basil in Cappadocia, St. Chrysostom at Constanti-
nople, Origen in Egypt, Tertullian in Africa, Justin
Martyr at Rome (probably), bear witness that it took
place partly by night and partly by day. That its
staple contents were Psalms and hymns we learn
* Vide Palmer's Dissertation on Primitive Liturgies.
■ Vide Burton's Eccl. Hist., lect. v.
236 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. in.
from the same writers, and indirectly indeed from
others, as many as speak of Psalms and hymns as
having been in use in the Churches, since we know
that the Communion Offices were otherwise con-
stituted. In the third and fourth centuries par-
ticular writers positively affirm the general preva-
lence of such services : as Origen and St. Basil in
passages already quoted 4 ; and Epiphanius, bishop of
Salamis, circ. 370, " Morning hymns are used con-
tinually in the Church, and morning prayers; and
evening (lychnic) Psalms and prayers." When the
Church of Malabar11, said to have been founded
by the apostle St. Thomas, was discovered by the
Portuguese in the year 1501, "The priests," it was
found, "performed the Divine Office twice daily, at
three in the morning and five in the evening;" a
striking testimony, as it should seem, to the general
correctness of the view which we have been led to,
as to the ancient practice in this matter. Particular
features of the Office, again, are occasionally testified
to by remote and independent witnesses : as the 51st
Psalm, and the prolongation of the Night Office into
the daylight, by Tertullian and Basil ; the invitatory
of the Constantinopolitan Office by Athanasius in
Egypt; "Before the beginning of their prayers, the
Christians invite and exhort one another in the words
of this Psalm (95th x)." Arnobius, an African, in the
fourth century, writing a general apology for the de-
votions of Christians, enumerates the topics of prayer
as nearly as possible in the order, and that a some-
what peculiar one, which is found in the Litany sub-
1 Supr., ch. i. sect. ii. Add S. Aug. Conf., ix. 4. " Toto orbe cantantur."
■ For an interesting account of this Church, sec Neale, p. 145.
x Athanas. De Viiginitate.
SECT. II.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 237
joined to the Eastern Nocturns, viz., "for magistrates,
the army, kings, friends, enemies, the living, the de-
parted." That the Office was universally devoid of les-
sons from Scripture, is both negatively testified by the
absence of any mention of them ; and positively by
the council of the fourth century at Laodicea, which
provides for their introduction as a new thing.
In the West, although, as J h&ve said, direct his-
torical testimony is all but wanting, the conclusions
arrived at by the best informed and most cautious
of Western Ritualists lepresents ordinary worship as
having probably exhibited the selfsame general aspect
as in the East. Grancolas, to whom I refer, conceives
its leading characteristics previous to the fifth century
to have been abundance of Psalms and entire absence
of lessons.
" Je ne fais pas meme difficulte d' avancer que le Pseautier dis-
tribue par le semaine etait l'ancien Office Romain, dont on a
conserve" le titre a la tete du Breviaire ; ' Psalterium dispositum
per hebdomadam ;' et que comme le Pseautier faisait le Bre-
viaire des Juifs, l'Eglise n' eut d'abord que les Pseaumes avec
1' Oraison Doininicale . . . II n' y avait a Pome de Lecon dans
V office, ni d' Hymne, ni de Collecte. A 1' egard des Lectures,
elles ne se firent pendant long-tems qu' a la Messe . . . . Ce sont
les Moines qu' ont les premiers insert les lecons dans 1' office?."
These views of a very learned member of the Gal-
lican Church, at the beginning of the 17th century,
are thoroughly coincident, as to their main tenor,
with those to which we are conducted by our investi-
gations into the Eastern ritual, and into the relations
between it and the Western. Only it is probable that
the earlier Western ritual was more organized than
Grancolas supposed, and already possessed the basis
of those arrangements which it afterwards adopted in
» Grancolas, Comment, sur le Breviaire, i. p. 23. Compare Milman,
Lat. Christianity, p. 28.
238 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. ill.
fuller measure from the East. The Churches of the
West, if there be anything in the hypothesis we have
proceeded upon, can hardly but have received, at their
first planting, some kind of Nocturnal Office of Psalms
and hymns. The testimony of Justin Martyr and
Hippolytus z, accordingly, is, as we have seen, as far
as it goes, to this effect ; the one speaking of noc-
turnal worship, the other of Psalms and hymns as its
contents. And, indeed, independently of this pre-
sumption, and this degree of testimony, such a sup-
position seems almost necessary to account for the
facility with which these Churches accepted Eastern
arrangements and details at the hands of Cassian or
others. It is most improbable that they would throw
away entirely all their established usages ; most na-
tural, that, having a common basis with the Orientals,
they should accept and incorporate their improvements
or enlargements upon it. The same supposition is
again confirmed by a certain independence with which,
after all, and notwithstanding the vast deference they
paid to Eastern arrangements, they of the West acted
in the reconstruction of their Offices. We observe
this in their incorporating the continuous psalmody
with their first and Nocturnal, and not (as the Ori-
entals since Basil's time) with their second or Matu-
tinal Office; in their free rejection of some Psalms,
as e. g., some of those of the hexapsalmus, while
retaining others ; in their different appropriation of
the canticles to the several days of the week; and in
their superseding some of the Eastern canticles them-
selves in favour of other claimants. All this was pro-
bably the result of adherence to their own usages.
And in one or two particulars we seem to possess
1 Supr., ch. i. sect. ii. Milman (Hist. Lat. Christianity, p. 27.) con-
siders that the Roman ritual for three centuries was Greek. So also
Wisemau, Bunsen, &c. This would fall in with the view in the text.
SECT. II. J ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 239
direct evidence of their having inherited certain ritual
ways, some coinciding with, some differing from the
Eastern. Thus Cassian testifies3 that all the Churches
of Italy in his time had Ps. li. at the end of their Matins
Psalms or hymns ; exactly as the East has always
had it (vide p. 112) after theirs, and as the West has
retained it in effect ever since, viz. on the confines of
Matins and Lauds b. Again he says, still speaking
apparently of the West before the introduction of the
new services, that they had the 63rd Psalm in the
early morning, and also the 119th°, as the East had.
Their Te Deum, judging from its universality in the
West, and from its unvarying responsive position,
they had probably wrought out some time before,
out of ancient elements common to them with the
East. Other features they seem to have inherited
from Jewish times. For example, it is very singular
that the West should unanimously, alike in the mo-
nastic and in the other uses, sing the Venite entire ;
the East, no less universally, using only an invitatory
formed out of it. It was most likely a Western habit
from the first so to use itd. Still more striking is it
that the whole West should have one of the Songs of
Moses (Deut. xxxii.) and also Ps. xcii. on the Satur-
day or Sabbath (at Lauds), this usage being a feature
a Instit., Hi. 6.
b Mr. Palmer (i. 215) supposes that Cassian meant the end of
Lauds, or even of Prime, and makes this a note of difference between
East and West.
c Instit., iii. 3. In matutina solemnitate decantari solet "Deus
Deus meus,:' &c., et "Preeveniunt oculi mei in diluculo," (Ps. cxix.
148.) Now the latter of these passages is nowhere used now in the
West in the morning. If Cassian then is speaking of the West, we
have proof that Ps. cxix. was used there, as in the East, in the ante-
lucan service. The Te Deum has been ascribed to Hilary of Poitiers,
circ. 354.
d See note B.
240 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. m.
of the Jewish Temple service, and yet one which
they cannot have received through the Greek Offices,
since these have them not on that day. These con-
siderations, indeed, suggest the possibility that in some
few other instances they may have been retaining
usages which they already had, and not — as I have
for the most part assumed to be the case — borrowing
them from the Greeks for the first time in the fifth
century. It is of no importance for our present
purpose, in what proportion the West inherited or
adopted her existing forms. That all the more ela-
borate features of them, however, are due to the
latter cause, we have, I think, seen abundant reason
for believing.
Tf then it be asked, what was the ordinary service
of the Church of this country from the first introduc-
tion of Christianity, down to the time of St. Augus-
tine's arrival, it may be answered that here, as
throughout Western Christendom, it was most pro-
bably a service of Psalms and hymns ; performed,
originally at least, partly at night, partly in the early
morning, and again in the evening; possessing per-
haps the same fixed Psalms as the Eastern Nocturns
and Vespers, with a considerable addition of continu-
ous psalmody ; that it commenced possibly with some
kind of penitential preparation, or else with the Venite ;
was devoid of Scripture Lessons, the Psalms being
used for the purposes of meditation as well as of praise ;
but contained responsive Canticles, among them the
Te Deum, the Magnificat, and Nunc Dimittis. The
51st and C3rd Psalms were also probably used in the
Morning Office at day-break, with more Canticles,
such as the Benedictus, the Songs of Moses, &c.
Such, in their general outline, we may fairly presume,
sect. II.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 241
were the offices used by the Church of St.Alban and
St. Amphibalus. The change to the offices introduced
by St. Augustine, though considerable, would thus be
no greater than the other Churches of the West had
experienced in the century or two preceding; and
would be rather of the nature of a development than
of an actual substitution.
The next question is, How came this earlier and
simpler state of things to be innovated upon and al-
tered throughout the West ? through what agency, or
by what men, was so serious a change effected ? Now
there is a story6, dating no further back however than
the ninth century, and founded on a letter supposed
to be spurious, — that Pope Damasus, in the end of
the fourth century, at the suggestion of the Emperor
Theodosius, commissioned St. Jerome to distribute the
Psalms, fix the Lections, and otherwise re-arrange the
old Roman Office after the Eastern model. And though
this tradition is valueless so far as it rests on the letter
in question, we shall see presently that it contains a
substratum of fact; the letter, indeed, was probably
forged to fill up a blank in a history substantially true.
But rejecting the story as it stands, to whom can we
point as likely to have originated the Western Offices ?
Now the fact that Cassian, so often alluded to already,
dwells muchf upon the number of twelve Psalms as
prevailing in the Egyptian monasteries, joined to the
almost universal prevalence of that number as the
characteristic of Nocturns in the West, and to his
known zeal in founding monasteries at Marseilles, —
has procured him the reputation, by the general voice,
of having been at least a principal agent in introduc-
ing the newer ritual. And whatever share he may
e Durandus, V. ii. 2; Grancolas, i. p. 22. ' Instit. ii. 5, G.
it
242 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. in.
have had in originating the Ordinary Offices of the
rest of Europe, — a point which, from our imperfect
information as to their contents, we are not in a posi-
tion to decide, — it may, I think, be shewn that of his
having been concerned in the construction of the
Roman Office and of our own, there is very great
probability indeed.
Those who, rejecting the account of St. Jerome's or
St. Damasus' authorship, have gone furthest back in
search of the origin of the Roman Office as a whole,
have not ventured to carry it higher than the date of
St. Benedict, circ, 530. It has been discussed " whether
the Roman Offices were taken from the Benedictine,
or the Benedictine from the Roman e." To this ques-
tion we may confidently answer, Neither. Notwith-
standing their general similarity, the internal structure
of the Offices differs in such important points, that
even without any knowledge of a common source to
which their peculiarities may be traced, we could
hardly resist this conclusion. Thus the number of Noc-
turns in the Benedictine (two) ; of Psalms in a Noc-
turn (six) ; of Antiphons (one to every Psalm) ; of
Lessons in a Nocturn (four), — is quite different from
the Roman. So are the selections of Psalms for Prime
and all the other minor hours except Compline. And
when in the rites of the East, we read a full and satis-
factory account, as well of their resemblance as of their
irreconcilable discrepancies, this conviction as to their
independence amounts to certainty. Examples have
from time to time been given in this work. With
these facts before us, it is as incredible that either of
these rites can have come from the other, instead
of from the East as a common source, as it is that
e Palmer, i. 215.
SECT. II.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 243
the "French language can have been derived from the
Italian, or vice versa, and not both alike from Latin.
St. Benedict refers (Reg. cap. 13.) to the Roman rite as
furnishing the rule for his own in a single point, viz.
the appropriation of the Canticles for each day. This
affords a presumption of his independence of it in
other respects, as well as a proof that the Roman was
a rite then existing. It has been supposed that the
Roman use in its turn borrowed Compline from St.
Benedict : but for this opinion there are, as I have
shewn, no grounds whatever ; Compline having come
to both rites alike from the East. I will only add that
the Armenian variety of the Eastern Offices appears in
several respects to have furnished the type of the
Benedictine ; having two sets of Psalms sung continu-
ously at Nocturns, and followed by four homilies with
responsory hymns. And that St. Benedict had the
Armenian rite before his eyes, we have this curious in-
dication, that in his Rule he speaks of it as the practice
of monks in former days, which he would fain have
imitated, to go through the whole Psalter every day.
Now this was precisely the practice of the Armenian
monasteries; while the Churches distributed it over
the week h. It is very conceivable that monachism and
monastic ritual may have passed over from that or any
other part of the East to the southern parts of Italy
and supplied the foundation of St. Benedict's Offices.
Setting aside, then, the Benedictine scheme of ser-
h Bona, ib. 10.
1 St. Equitius, an Abbot of Abruzzo, was about a contemporary of
St. Benedict, (S. Greg. Dial. i. 4). It has been supposed by some that
St. Gregory and St. Augustine were of his order. That they were
Benedictines, though volumes have been written to prove it, (vide
Rayuer's Benedict, in Regno Angliae,) is infinitely improbable; their
ritual sympathies flowing, as we have seen, in quite another channel.
B 2
244 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. in.
vices as having certainly not been the parent of the
Roman, we may next observe that those of the various
European Churches, as far as we are acquainted with
them, are such as may very well have owed their origin
to the impulse first given by Cassian to the spirit of
ritual reconstruction. They exhibit, indeed, in very
different degrees the peculiar characters of Cassian's
revival ; and all bear the marks, more or less, of con-
nection with the East through other channels, besides
what they owe to the Cassianic movement. Thus we
find the Church of Aries k having two Nocturns;
agreeing herein with the East and St. Benedict, while
differing from Cassian, who fused the two Nocturns
into one of twelve Psalms. The same Church had
the Magnificat 1 at Lauds, adding the Gloria in Excelsis
on Sundays ; and the Kyrie eleison, on occasion, twelve
times repeated ; all features, as we have seen, of the
Eastern Offices, though not adopted in the Roman.
The authors of these Oriental arrangements were
Csesarius and Aurelian m, at the beginning of the sixth
century. Again,.both the French and Spanish Churches
go back to the Council of Laodicea as of great au-
thority ; and they may have derived their Psalm and
lection arrangements, (as has been already suggested,)
in a great measure at least, from that source n. The
Church of Spain has been supposed to have differed 0
from all the West generally, in having little or no
psalmody in its ancient Nocturns. But this is mani-
festly an error. Isidore of Seville prescribes for Noc-
turns, first, " the three regular Psalms," (meaning pro-
bably Pss. iii. xcv. li.) ; then three services (or sets, —
k Mabill. Curs. Gall., p. 406. 1 Vid. supr., p. 112.
m Mabillon, p. 406, quotes their rules. n Supr., ck. i. sect. vi.
0 Mabillon Curs. Gall., p. 391 : Palmer, i. p. 224.
sect. II.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 245
Missas) of Psalms ; a fourth of Canticles ; a fifth con-
sisting of the Matins (i. e. Lauds) Office p. This is
plainly the meaning of the passage, which Menar-
dus, and after him Mabillon, misunderstood, taking
" Missse" to mean " Collects" connected with the
Psalms. But its use in the sense of a "service,"
almost of any kind, is familiar to the readers of Bing-
ham and Mabillon q. The rule of Fructuosus con-
firms the fact that there were numerous Psalms in
the Spanish night Office. It may be observed, too,
that one of St. Benedict's Nocturns on Sundays con-
sists of Canticles, exactly as is here prescribed. That
the Spanish Church had also Scripture lessons in their
daily Offices is affirmed in the same passage of Isidore.
The Church of Milan, once more, though manifestly
Oriental in many of its provisions, and according with
the Roman to a great extent as to the minor hours, is
singularly independent in its arrangement of Psalms,
and in various other respects : especially it pays no
regard to the Cassianic number of twelve Psalms ;
spreads the Psalter over a fortnight ; and has but two
"festivals of nine lections" (viz. Christmas-day and
Epiphany) in the year r.
The Orientally-derived Western rituals hitherto
enumerated, manifest, together with much of affinity,
a marked independence of the Roman and of each
other. There are, on the other hand, two which co-
incide so nearly, that it is hardly to be wondered that
their coincidence has hitherto been taken, on a super-
ficial view of them, for actual identity. I mean the
Roman and the ancient English rituals. Of the cor-
respondence of these it is unnecessary to speak.
t Isid. Hispal. Reg. 7, apud Mabillon, ut supr. ; and Fructuosus, ibid,
i Bingh. xiii. 4 j of Mabillon, p. 406.
* Bona, Psalmod. Xviii. 10.
246 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. m.
The number of their Psalms in the several Offices,
the selection and appropriation (with very few excep-
tions) of the Psalms themselves, the position of the
Antiphons, the structure of the complex Psalm-lec-
tion-responsory-and-canticle system, the number of
lessons, the prefixing of benedictions, the arrange-
ments about the hymns, Capitula, Creed, Lord's
Prayer, Preces, Collects, and countless other par-
ticulars, are for the most part, though not always,
precisely the same. No such resemblance can be
predicated of any two Western rites that we are ac-
quainted with. The two sets of Offices, in a word,
are cast unquestionably, as to all essential points, in
the same mould. Yet that they are not identical,
but only very closely akin, after all, — sister-rites, as
it were, — a careful examination of them, combined
with historical evidence, no less certainly evinces.
In the first place, the two books which contain these
two rites are totally different, — as different as their
names of Breviarium Eomanum and Portiforium (also
Breviarium) Sarisburiense. The one is mostly in four
volumes, the other in two ; the one has the Psalter at the
beginning, the other in the middle. The rubrical struc-
ture and phraseology is widely different : the Roman
knows nothing of the English " Rules called the Pie,"
(Pica); the English nothing of the" Rubricce generates."
The English has a peculiar title for the series of lection-
responsories, viz. " historia s ;" and by the change of
this the character of the day is in a great measure
determined. It also distinguishes between memories
and commemorationes, and has many other rubrical
peculiarities. But there are also great differences,
s Vide Pica de Dom. i. Adv. Brev. Sar. " Portiforium appears to have
been adopted only in England." Maskell, Diss. vol. I. p. Lxxxviii.
SECT. II.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 247
both of structure and contents, even in the body of
the Offices themselves. First, of structure. The Ro-
man use has the Gloria after every Psalm, unless the
contrary is specified ; the English only at certain spe-
cified places : the English had no absolutions what-
ever before the lessons ; the Roman has a very elabo-
rate system of them : the Roman substitutes the Te
Deum for the last responsory on Festivals ; the English
added it, and repeated the responsory where the Te
Deum was not used: the English prefaced Lauds
with a Versus sacerdotalis, quite unknown, name and
thing, to the Roman : the English had a full respon-
sory to the Vespers Capitnlum on Festivals ; the Roman
none. The Preces at Prime and Compline, (including
the Apostles' Creed, and also the Creed of Athanasius,)
were said all the year round in the English Church,
though only on certain days in the Roman. She
had also a special addition to these Offices, entitled,
" For the peace of the Church," including Ps. cxxi. at
Prime, and Ps. cxxiii. at Compline. And while the
Roman use has but one form of Compline, the English
has twenty -two. It would be easy to add to these
differences. The variation of contents, again, between
the two Uses, is on occasion very great, even where
the structure is identical. The particular antiphons,
benedictions, lections, responsories, hymns, Capitula,
Preces, versicles and responses, are to a great extent,
especially at particular seasons, quite different from
the Roman. Sometimes, too, the number even of
the Psalms is different. Thus on Low Sunday the
English use had but three Psalms and lessons ; the
Roman, nine.
These diversities as clearly establish the distinctness,
as the correspondences before mentioned do the close
248 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. III.
affinity, of the two rites. For that the variations of the
English use from the Roman are of the essence of it,
and not, or rarely, the effect, as might be supposed,
of a gradual departure from the forms at first received,
appears in various ways. Some of them, as e. g. the
Compline and Prime peculiarities, have every appear-
ance of having come direct from the East. The
whole rite is by many degrees more Oriental than the
Roman. How should the English Church develope
such Orientalisms ? Again, it is well known that the
Roman Church, on more than one occasion, used con-
siderable efforts to assimilate the English use to her
own ; as, e. g. at the Council of Cloveshoo* (748), and
probably did so to some extent. Grancolas, who pro-
bably never had seen the English rite, hastily con-
cludes hence that it was originally the same as the
Roman : whereas it proves exactly the contrary. The
fact that such material variation remained after all,
argues the essential and invincible irreconcilableness
of the two rites.
But further, some of these peculiarities are shared
by certain other rituals otherwise of the Roman type,
and thus tend to class the English rite in a particular
variety of that species to which the Roman belongs.
It is a curious fact, that the ritual of the Church of
Lyons'1, otherwise agreeing with the Roman in all
essential points, even more closely than the English
does, departs from it in several of the selfsame respects
as the English. It adds the Te Deum to the ninth re-
sponsory, prefixes a versus to Lauds, and on Sexage-
sima and following Sundays substitutes Ps. xciii. for Ps.
cxviii. at Prime ; which same thing the English did, only
beginning on Septuagesima. But another French rite,
• Concil. Clovesk.. can. 24. 1 Bona, Psahnod. xviii. 6.
SECT. II.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES.
249
still existing, — that of the Premonstratensians x, — co-
incides still more exactly with the English in its vari-
ations from the Roman. It had, 1, no absolutions be-
fore the lessons ; 2, it prefixed a Versus sacerdotalis
to Lauds ; 3, on the first Vespers of great Festivals it
had a responsory to the Capitulum ; 4, finally, on Sep-
tuagesima Sunday it began to make the substitution
just mentioned at Prime. Bona, who notices these
peculiarities, adds that the Premonstratensians main-
tain "that theirs is the original Roman Breviary,
which they have preserved in its purity, rejecting later
alterations and reforms."
The English rite, it would seem from hence, may
properly be classed with the Gallican variety of the
family to which the Roman belongs. The only ques-
tion is, how did two varieties so similar, yet so dis-
tinct, originate ? and how came the French variety to
be imported into England by St. Augustine ? Now
as to the first point, Cassian was singularly in a posi-
tion to originate two rites thus circumstanced, as a
brief glance at his history will shew y. A Thracian or
Scythian by birth, he seems to have spent his earlier
years as an inmate of St. Jerome's monastery at Beth-
lehem, and afterwards lived at least seven years in
Egypt, in diligent study, as well as practice, of the
peculiar monastic system, both disciplinary and ritual,
of that country. Returning to his native region, he
* Vide Bona, ibid., 6. This order was founded by St. Norbert, an.
1115, at Premontre, near Rheims. It was, however, only a reformation
of the order of Regular Canons of St. Austin, already settled at Laon,
in that neighbourhood, and so might very well be in possession of the
ancient French variety of the Roman rite. Vide Butler, Life of Norbert,
June G ; Helyot, Ordres Monastiques, torn. ii. ch. 23.
y See Life of Cassian, prefixed to his works, by Gazseus ; and Butler's
Lives of the Saints, note on St. Victor, July 21.
250 THE PRINCIPLES OP DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. IH.
was ordained deacon by St. Chrysostom at Constanti-
nople, circ. 403, (some think that he was his archdea-
con z,) and was sent by that Church, during Chryso-
stom's exile, on a mission on his behalf to Pope Inno-
cent3. It was probably in consequence of the destruc-
tion of St. Jerome's monastery by the Pelagians, in
the year 41 G, that he removed to Marseilles. Here
he founded two monasteries, and wrote his " Institu-
tions of the Ccenobitic Life," describing minutely the
Egyptian monastic ways and ritual. In this work he
dwells especially on the number of twelve Psalms,
which the Egyptian monks alleged had been fixed
by revelation ; and on the reading of two lessons of
Scripture, one from the Old Testament and one from
the New, (both from the New on Sundays b,) in their
daily office; a thing unknown, as we have seen, to
the rest of the East. He was also requested by St.
Leo, then archdeacon of Rome under Pope Celestiue,
(422,) to write against Nestorius on the Incarnation.
This must have been between the years 422 and 433,
soon after which Cassian died. Leo became pope in
440.
Cassian then lacked no qualification, either of date,
position, knowledge, influence, or inclination, for the
chief authorship of these two rituals. Imbued from
his youth with the Eastern ritual system, and espe-
cially with that expanded form of it which had re-
cently grown up in the monasteries ; equally well ac-
quainted with the Egyptian monastic offices, and so
* Gazaeus, ut supra. * Innocent. Ep. ap. Hieron.
b It is curious, and indicates the influence of the Egyptian monastic
ritual system, probably through Cassian, upon the Spanish Church,
that its rule was to have lessons out of the Old and New Testament on
week-days, but on Sundays from the New only. Isidor., ap. Mabillon,
p. 393.
SECT. II.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 251
habituated to the number of twelve Psalms, and to
the daily reading of Scripture, (which are the charac-
teristics of the Western family of offices as compared
with the Eastern) ; a diligent propagator of Eastern
monastic ways on Western ground ; holding a position
in the south of France, yet reaching by his influence
to Rome through one of the greatest of her Popes, to
whom, as well as to Rome generally, he probably be-
came known on the occasion of his embassy ; the re-
presentative, in a manner, of the mind of St. Jerome,
to whom the arrangement of the Roman Offices is tra-
ditionally ascribed; — there is hardly any feature or
circumstance belonging to these Offices which is not
accounted for on the hypothesis of his authorship.
St. Jerome may perfectly well have been consulted by
Damasus, as tradition represents c, and have performed
through his disciple Cassian the task commonly as-
cribed to him. He died in the very year (420) com-
monly named d for the reconstruction of the Roman
ritual, the very same time at which Cassian must have
been engaged on that of the French Churches. And
as Leo is known to have been the originator of a par-
ticular feature in these offices, viz. of the Collects, and
also the writer of a large proportion of the homilies
used as lessons, we shall probably be not far wrong
in ascribing to him, conjointly with Cassian, the au-
thorship, in the main e, of the existing Roman Daily
Offices.
Again, as to the formation of the French variety of
c Vide supr. St. Gregory says (Ep. vii. 19.) that St. Damasus ad-
opted some Greek usages at St. Jerome's suggestion. He died, how-
ever, in 384.
d Grancolas, ubi supr.
e Milman observes, (Hist, of Latin Christianity, vol. i. p. 20, 29,) (hat
Leo was the first distinguished writer among the popes.
252 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. in.
the Roman rite, and its transmission to England.
Cassian would naturally draw up for the use of his
own or neighbouring monasteries or Churches, a
scheme of service after the Oriental model, grafted on
the older and simpler forms of the "West, combined
with such methods as Lyons or other Churches had
already derived from the East. The Church of Mar-
seilles, of whose ritual we know nothing f, may have
adopted this. He would be free here to copy the
Eastern model more closely, than when acting as the
counsellor and assessor of Leo. The result would
be such a service as that which England inherited,
really independent of the Roman, and more distinctly
Oriental. Neither is there any difficulty in under-
standing how Cassian's scheme of service found its
way to England by the hands of St. Augustine. Here,
too, authoritative history furnishes a most reasonable
account of the matter. When St. Augustine was sent
by St. Gregory on his mission to England, "they took
ship," says St. Augustine's most recent biographer8,
" at one of the Italian ports, and landed probably at
Marseilles." He was well received by Arigius, the
bishop, by the neighbouring bishop of Aix, and by
Stephen, abbot of Lerins. Returning to St. Gre-
gory for further instructions, he received from him
letters11 to both the bishop of Marseilles and the
abbot of Lerins, commending him to their counsel
and guidance in the matter of evangelizing England.
He was to acquaint the bishop 1 more especially with
the occasion of his journey, and seek help from him.
He was also to take with him some French presby-
tersk, to assist him in his undertaking. Moreover,
' Mabillon, Curs. Gall. * Lives of the Saints.
h Ep. Greg., vi. 51, &c. 1 lb., vi 52. k lb., vi 58, 59.
SECT. II.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 253
he afterwards returned from England to Aries to ob-
tain consecration, and spent about two years there,
from 596 to 598. Add to all this, that having sought
from St. Gregory directions as to what ritual he should
adopt, he was instructed "that whatever he found,
either in the Roman Church, or in the Church of
Gaul, or in any other, which might be more pleasing
to Almighty God, he should most carefully {sollicite)
select, and should thus introduce into the English
Church, as being new to the faith, (and therefore a fit
subject for a special ordinance in the matter of ritual,)
what he had been able to collect from many Churches1."
St. Augustine would be fulfilling these instructions
most equably, by introducing into England the Com-
munion Office of the Roman, and the Ordinary Offices
of the southern French Churches. The commonly-
received hypothesis, that he merely adopted into the
Roman Office some variations derived from Erench
sources, is manifestly untenable. The English varia-
tions bespeak an Oriental hand, and extend to the
whole structure of the rubrical part of the Office, and
to not a little of the Office itself. Some alterations,
tending to assimilate it to the Roman, such as certain
of the Gelasian or Gregorian adjustments in respect of
the Collects or antiphons, St. Augustine may have in-
troduced ; though I think it more probable that even
these had reached the Erench Churches previously.
But in any case, the stock upon which he grafted
them was indisputably, I conceive, not the Roman,
but the French, or pure Cassianic ritual.
1 Bed. Hist. i. 27. "MiM placet, sive in Romana, sive in Gallicana,
seu in qualibet Ecclesia aliquid invenisti, quod plus omnipotenti Deo
possit placere, sollicite eligas, et in Anglorum Ecclesia, quae adhuc ad
fidem nova est, institutione proecipua, quae de multis Ecclesiis colligere
potuisti, infundas.
254 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. III.
The contents and character of the English Office,
whose history we have now investigated, will form the
subject of the next section. But some remarks on
the result of our inquiry will not be misplaced here.
In the first place, then, it is deeply interesting to
observe, that it was ordained that the whole West
should, in the fifth and sixth centuries, brighten afresh
the torch of her public devotions at the same Eastern
fount of sacred fire at which she had at the first kin-
dled it. " The isles waited" once more, for their portion
in spiritual things, upon the more favoured and more
fervid regions upon which " the light" had first risen™
of old : and the East dictated, for a second time, the
ritual of the world. It is, I conceive, as well ascer-
tained as any fact of the kind can be, that the later
Western ritual, in all its known forms, is universally
derived from the Eastern. It is as clear from internal
evidence, that St. Benedict's Offices, and the Roman,
and the Milanese, and the Spanish, and the French,
and the English, were largely indebted to the Greek
Offices, as it is that the Italian, the Spanish, the
French, and the English languages were indebted to
the Latin, or Latin and Greek to Sanscrit. The no-
tion, for example, that St. Benedict invented this
scheme of services, though believed in Europe for a
thousand years, and contributing largely to the extra-
ordinary reverence in which he was held, is a fable
and a dream. We of the West must be content to
speak of the greater part, and of all the more striking
features of our rituals, as of things which we have
received from others, not struck out for ourselves.
Now this consideration may well moderate the con-
tempt with which the West has so long looked upon the
■ Isa. k. 1, 9.
SECT. II.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 255
ritual, as well as the position in other respects, of her
Eastern sister ; that is to say, of sixty millions of Chris-
tians. There was a time when she as teachably sat
at the feet of the Eastern Church in the matter of
ritual, and even (too much so, indeed,) of doctrine
also, as she now loftily affects to ignore her existence,
except on condition of receiving her homage. The
Churches of the West in the fifth and sixth centuries
vied with each other in importing into their own simpler
and perhaps declining ritual, the features and arrange-
ments with which the East had enriched hers. They
found that, while they had been content to keep the de-
posit of apostolically-derived service unimpaired, — if in-
deed they had so kept it, — the Eastern Church had laid
out the same to usury. " We know certainly," says Mr.
Palmer, — though it is astonishing that, with his in-
formation, he followed out the clue no further, — " that
the Eastern Churches at an early period devised many
improvements in the celebration of Divine Service,
which did not occur to the less lively and inventive
imagination of their brethren in the West ; and that
the latter were accustomed to imitate the former in
their rites and ceremonies11." Stimulated, apparently,
by the necessity for making a stand0, in the shape of
a more elaborate and attractive ritual, against the
rising Arian heresy, the East had drawn off into more
diversified channels the reservoir of ritual which in
common with the West she inherited. Hence, in the
earlier stage of her development, her splendidly con-
ceived Morning Office ; and her Vespers, less grand,
■ Orig. Lit., vol. i. p. 310. He only instances alternate chanting, —
the Kyrie eleison, the Niceue Creed, litanies and processions, and the
position of the Lord's Prayer in the Roman Canon.
> 0 See Bingham, XIII. x. 12; Socr., Mb. vi. 7.
256 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. in.
but even more refined in conception. Hence, a little
later, the multiplication in number, as before the aug-
mentation in bulk, of her services. Thus, when she
sought "to water abundantly her garden-bed, her
brook became a river, and her river became a sea."
And from that deep and broad fount of waters it was
that the West drew her later ritual conceptions and
arrangements ; nor can she deny her obligations, how-
ever she may desire to forget them.
But it is still more to the purpose of this work to
observe, that the facts which have here been pointed
out furnish a complete answer to that favourite theme
of declamation against the English Church j viz. that
in the full and fearless Revision she made of her ritual
in the 16th and 17th centuries, she committed an act
unprecedented, singular, and schismatic. I have al-
ready had occasion to allude to the condemnation
which has been freely and confidently pronounced
upon particular features of her revised Offices ; as, for
example, upon the penitential commencement and the
thanksgiving close. We have seen how entire a justifica-
tion those features receive from the primitive condition
of our Offices, and indeed from the general principles,
recognised in the East and West alike, of Christian
worship. But, as is well known, this sentence of con-
demnation is by no means limited to details, but ex-
tends to the act of Revision itself, in all its parts.
Now it is certain that neither the Western Church as
a whole, nor any particular branch of it, is in a posi-
tion to judge us in this matter; "for she herself, that
judges, has done the same things." Of all the points
in which Rome and the West have sat in judgment
on the English Church, there is not one in which they
have not set us the example.
sect. II.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 257
To confine ourselves here to the Daily Offices.
Did the English Church, in the 16th century, re-
adjust the whole scheme of her services? All the
Churches of the West in the fifth and sixth centu-
ries did the same. Did England add new features ?
Rome and the West imported new offices. Are we
accused of fusing together offices originally distinct,
by the omission of some things, and the transposition
of others? They dismembered the great Morning Of-
fice of the East, and divided its spoils between their
Lauds and Nocturns. Did our revision involve the
rejection of the then existing scheme of Psalms, omit-
ting the fixed and re-arranging the continuous psal-
mody ? The West revolutionized hers no less ; reject-
ing, we can hardly doubt, the 119th, and perhaps other
anciently fixed Nocturns Psalms, and substituting for
the free course of Psalmsp, which followed, a fixed daily
portion. Was the number of Psalms thus used in
the English Church greatly reduced ? So was it, in
all probability, by the Western revision. Is it an
unheard-of thing for a Church to be for three centu-
ries without antiphons ? The whole West had probably
had few or none for four or five. Did we, again, put
our lection system on a new footing? Pome and the
West devised the system itself. Did we increase
the amount of Scripture used ? They brought in the
reading of Scripture into their Daily Offices for the
first time. Did Ridley and Sanderson compose Col-
lects ? Leo invented them. Or, lastly, was the sin of
the English Church in this, that she acted for herself
as a national Church, and not in concert with the
whole West ? Nay, all the Churches of the West acted
p Vide Grancolas, ubi supra.
S
258 THE PRINCIPLES OP DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. III.
with the same independence, revising, as we have
seen, each one their own ritual ; and that not even
simultaneously, but in the course of two centuries.
And the real " composers and compilers" of services,
after all, were Leo and Gregory, Isidore and Fruc-
tuosus, Caesarius and Hilary.
It is in no spirit of recrimination that these things
are pointed out. On the contrary, as I have said at
the outset, I conceive that the Churches of the West
were not only justified in the main principle of thus
revising their ritual, hut were, so far as we can judge,
fulfilling therein a great and general law of the
Church's growth and progress. All I desire to do
is to point out this as a signal exemplification of
the saying,
" Quam temere in nosmet legem sancimus iniquam ;"
and to claim for the English Church of the 16th cen-
tury the benefit of that weighty truth, which, though
she was the first to enunciate it, the whole West had
accepted and acted upon a thousand years before, viz.
that—
" The particular forms of divine worship, and the rites and ce-
remonies appointed to be used therein, being things in their own
nature indifferent ; it is but reasonable, that upon weighty and
important considerations, such changes and alterations should be
made therein, as to those that are in place of authority shall
from time to time seem either necessary or expedient*."
Freely, too, is it admitted, as was indeed noticed
in the first chapter, that the changes effected in the
West, though very great, were after all sufficiently
conservative of the old landmarks to ensure ritual
continuity. Only we claim no less for the English
Revised Offices, as compared with the older forms,
*> Preface to the Book of Common Prayer, 1662.
SECT, in.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES.
259
that (to adopt again the language of the document
just quoted) this Church did indeed, —
" Upon just and weighty considerations her thereunto moving,
yield to make such alterations as were thought convenient ; yet
so as that the main body and essentials (as well in the chiefest
materials, as in the frame and order thereof,) have still continued
the tame until this day."
SECTION III.
"When ye come together, every one of you hath a Psalm, hath
a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation.
Let all things be done to edifying."
We have now seen what was the history, and made
some acquaintance with the materials, of our ancient
Services. But before we can appreciate the character
which our present Offices derive from their relation to
these older formularies, and the mind with which they
should be used in consequence, we must endeavour
to gather more exactly what was the characteristic
spirit of each of them. For though it is exceedingly
instructive to contemplate the earlier and Eastern
phase of our Services, it must be borne in mind that
it is from the Western ordinary ritual, from the
English variety of it in particular, and from no other,
that our own is immediately derived. Not a few,
indeed, of the characteristics of the West have un-
avoidably come before us in connection with the East-
ern Offices, whose spirit, together with their contents,
it to a great extent inherited. Still the Western,
and specially the English ritual, had a character of its
own ; and to offer a brief and summary view of this1,
* Tor the scheme and contents of our older Offices, see the tables
below, ch. iv. sect. 1, p. 288.
s 2
260 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chav. hi.
will be the design of the present section. For a
full appreciation of it, it will be necessary that the
reader should combine those former notices with what
is here set down.
I have already remarked, that multitudinous as are
the commentators, ancient and modern, on the ritual
of the Western Church, they are of very little service
indeed for our present purpose. They are mainly
occupied with minute observations, and fail to appre-
ciate broad general characteristics ; nor do they dream
of having recourse to Eucharistic sources or Oriental
forms for purposes of illustration. From these causes,
they constantly miss the true character, the most
striking beauties, of their own ritual. Much greater
weight is attached to a pious reflection, or suggestion
of some ingenious writer, than to the manifest intent
of an office as indicated by its structure and contents.
It is rare, indeed, to find a simple and real, because
historical account given of anything ; or if there be,
it is set side by side, and on a level, with a variety of
mere conjectures, some of them, perhaps, far-fetched and
preposterous. Thus, for example, Durandus suggests
that the three Nocturns into which the Psalms of the
old Matin Services on Sundays and Festivals were
divided, are intended to remind us respectively of those
who lived before the Law, under the Law, and since
the Law; or of faith in the Holy Trinity ; or of the thrice
three orders of angels which theologians discern in the
Holy Scriptures, and together with whom we sing to the
glory of God. It may be so : but who would place spe-
culations such as these at the same value, as helps to
enter into the nature and spirit of the Matins Office,
with the certain and leading fact that these " Xoc-
turns" preserve in their name the traces of the ancient
intention and use of them ; viz. to serve as " songs in
SECT. III.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 2G1
the night," as a high chorus of praise in the still
and undisturbed hours of darkness ; or, again, with
the probability that they originated with the ancient
watches, already consecrated to sacred uses in the days
of David ? Still less can any such co-equal importance
be properly attached to the more minute, not to say
trivial, speculations and analogies in which the Ritual-
ists indulge : as when, for example, it is remarked that
the Psalms precede the Lessons, just as the angels were
elect before men, (for whose benefit the latter were
written) ; that the twelve Psalms in a Nocturn corre-
spond in number to the twelve Patriarchs or Apostles ;
the quaternary of Psalms repeated under one anti-
phon to the four cardinal virtues, of which the patri-
archs are presumed to have been the example ; the
first quaternary representing, moreover, Abel, Enos,
Enoch, and Lamech ; Abel being an example of the
first Psalm, "Beatus vir;" Enos of the second, be-
cause in his times (qu. Seth's ?) " men began to serve
the Lord in fear." The second quaternary is assigned,
with the like fanciful applications, to Noah, Shem,
Eber, and Terah ; the third to Abraham, Isaac, Ja-
cob, and Joseph. In like manner, the three Psalms
which form the second Nocturn on Sunday are made
to represent three orders of saints who lived under
the Law, — Lawgivers, Psalmists, and Prophets ; or
Priests, Judges, and Kings. The three Psalms of
the third Nocturn are to remind us of the faithful in
the three parts of the world, — Asia, Europe, and
Africa ; of the three orders of saints under the Gospel,
Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors3. The application here
made of the Psalms is, however, apt enough: Ps. xix.,
" Cceli enarrant," is for the Apostles, because " their
■ Duraiid., in loc.
2G2 THE PRINCIPLES OP DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. JO.
sound is gone out," &c. ; Ps. xx., " Exaudiat te," for
the Martyrs, because " the Lord heard them in the
day of trouble ;" Ps. xxi., " Domine in virtute," for
the Confessors, because " God hath not denied them
the request of their lips."
In the following sketch of the nature and object
of the old Services, my endeavour will be to catch
the real and essential features of them, passing by,
or placing in a very subordinate rank, such views of
them as seem rather suggested by pious ingenuity,
than to have any proper connection with them.
The old Matins then is, as we know, originally and
properly a nocturnal, or even a midnight, Service. This
character of our ancient Matins is marked by the ordi-
nary4 versicle and response after the first Nocturn on
Sunday, — " I have remembered Thy Name, 0 Lord, in
the night season." The ordinary" versicle after the
second Nocturn is, " At midnight I will rise to give
thanks unto Thee," &c. It may be observed that
both verses are from Ps. cxix. ; and their use counte-
nances the supposition which we have already seen
reason for entertaining, viz. that that Psalm was,
before the Cassianic revision, used in the West at
Nocturns. The versicle and response of the third
Nocturn have reference, not to the time, but the cha-
racter, of the Service, considered as a service of sing-
ing praises more especially. V. " Be Thou exalted,
Lord, in Thine own strength. R. We will sing and
utter Psalms of Thy power." The adoption of this
versicle and response is again thoroughly Oriental.
• Viz., except in Advent. The Roman Use had it not either in Lent,
Easter, or Advent.
" The Roman has instead averse from Ps. xviii. : " Thou shalt lighten
my candle." These are instances of a lower degree of Orientalism, or
of less tenacity of tradition, in the Roman rite.
SECT. III.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 263
It is the last verse of Ps. xxi. which has just been
sung, and the desire to include which seems* to have
dictated the number of the Western Sunday Psalms ;
it having been the key-note of the Matutinal psalmody,
which was about to follow, in the East, and perhaps
in the West also. The contents of the Service are
entirely Psalms and Lessons ; the Psalms being accom-
panied by glorias, antiphons, versicles and responses,
and the Lessons by responsories ; the Psalms and
Lessons changing with the day ; the antiphons, versi-
cles, and responsories with the season. The Te Deum
was added on Sundays and Festivals, except in Ad-
vent and Ember weeks.
The idea under which this character was given
to the Nocturns Office in the West may be easily
conjectured. The day brings with it the works,
the wants, the interests of man ; but the night may
well vacare laudibus et meditationi, — spend itself in
pure praise and meditation. The soul of the Church
rises free and unencumbered by earthly things to
God. She confines herself at this season to singing
God's praise and meditating upon His works and
Word. Other associations belong to a Nocturnal or
Midnight Service, and may have influenced its con-
tents ; e. g. the symbolical character which night
bears in Holy Scripture, representing the deeds and
thoughts of darkness, against which we are to strive
by occupying ourselves in praises and meditation ;
the association of night with the deliverance from
Egypt, with our Lord's betrayal and sufferings, and
that of midnight with the coming of the Bridegroom.
The beautiful character which this Office possesses,
as distinguished from the rest, when thus viewed
1 Supr., ch. i. sect. 4.
264 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. III.
as a great tide of elevated and unmingled praise
and meditation, seems to be entirely lost upon the
commentators on the Western Ritual. Baronius,
however, has applied with some felicity the words of
St. Paul, 1 Cor. xiv. 26, as a sort of motto descriptive
of this Office : " When ye come together, every one
of you hath a Psalm, hath a doctrine, a revelation,
tongue, interpretation." For there are Psalms, lessons
for doctrine, responsories for revelation, (considering
them as an expository key-note,) readings of the
Gospel for a tongue, (on Sundays and festivals,) and
of a homily for interpretation. The festival Te Deum
is, of course, a noble descant of praise upon the whole
of the preceding topics, whether of praise or medi-
tation. The extraordinary uniformity with which it
occupies this position in all Western Offices (includ-
ing St. Benedict's) whose structure is known to us,
while it is, at least in its complete form, unknown to
the East, leaves no room to doubt either of its great
antiquity, or of its responsorial intention.
The Lauds Office is at once seen to be in a far
less degree a Service of broad and general praise and
of meditation. First of all there are fewer Psalms by
far ; — only six, (including the canticles, and reckoning
Psalms cxlviii. — cl. as one,) instead of twelve or eigh-
teen. Then the lessons for meditation are reduced to
a single text ; and collects are introduced towards the
close. And when we inquire for the positive cha-
racteristics of the Office, they are easily discoverable,
and accord well with the hour to which it properly be-
longed. That hour, as in the East, was sunrise ; the
first breaking forth of light upon the earth : " Ad
Auroram, seu luce incipiente canebantur V Hence
* Martene, quoting S. Benedict.
SECT, ill.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 265
in Benedict's time the Service was called Matutince
and Matura ; the night service being called Vigilice.
And the Nocturnal Service was only completed on
this condition, " nisi forte aurora interveniens hoc
distulerit." Hence the characteristics of the Office.
Instead of the quiet, continuous praise of Matins,
taking the Book of Psalms in order, we have first of
all Psalms, &c. selected on purpose for a keen burst of
lauds at the return of daylight. This we have in the
unvarying 63rd, and jubilant 148 — 150th, in Bene-
dicts, and (generally) in the " song" from the Old
Testament, one for each day in the week. But the
return of man's portion of time, the day, brings with
it penitential2 associations also ; hence the 51st Psalm
was used every day but Sundays, and on Sundays
also from Septuagesima to Palm Sunday. This double
character of Lauds was further marked, as has been
pointed out elsewhere a, by the selection made of other
appropriate Psalms besides the unvarying 63rd and
51st. This mixed aspect extends in a measure to
the "songs" used one each day of the week. The
joyful Song of the Three Children on Sunday, of
Isaiah on Monday, and of Hannah on Wednesday,
combine well with the jubilant Psalms appropriated
to those days, (viz. xciii., c, lxvii. , v. ; and lxv.). The
more subdued or even mournful strains of Hezekiah
on Tuesday, (very similar to the appointed Ps. xliii.,)
and those of Habukkuk on Friday (with Ps. cxliii.),
and Moses on Saturday, both telling of the terrors
of God, leave the balance evenly suspended between
"mercy and judgment;" — the other song of Moses,
on Thursday, striking it in favour of mercy.
1 Comp. Hugo ap. Gavanti, in loc. ; and Durandus : " Dies ferialcs
recolunt pcregiinationcs sanctorum ct pcenitentiam."
' Ch. i. sect. 6.
266 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. hi.
The Lauds Office, according to the English use,
has also a feature peculiar to itself, in which the two-
fold character belonging to it is clearly brought out.
The Versus sacerdotalis already mentioned, on Sundays
expresses praise, and on the week-days penitence :
being, on Sunday, " The Lord is high above all peo-
ple, and His glory above the heavens on week-days,
"0 Lord, let Thy mercy be shewed upon us. As
we do put our trust in Thee." This latter versicle and
response seem to be a sort of residuum and represen-
tative of the Te Deum, (which was not used on week-
days,) being the penultimate verse of it. This Office
has also, in virtue of its numerous morning allusions,
a near affinity to the topic of the Resurrection \
In the same connection it is that Collects now
for the first time appear, having reference to man's
estate in Christ. The Collect for the day, from thf
Communion Office, is of this kind ; as are the Memo-
rials. This marks the care of the Church to place
the first prayers, which her children utter in the
day, in connection with the One all-prevailing Sacri-
fice, and with the Eucharistic Oblation and Com-
munion.
Lauds, therefore, differs from Matins, on the one
hand, in that it makes a different use of the Psalms,
aiming at specific objects by the selections made of
them, viz. the praise of God for the return of light,
and the fallen but restored estate of man. As com-
pared, on the other hand, with Prime, we shall find
that its characteristic is, that it has Psalms of praise,
selected as such ; which Prime has not. But in those
of its Psalms which respect man, we shall see that
b Durand. : " Officium Laudum Domini Resurrectionem signifies ;
qua; jam completa in capite, scilicet ill Christo, adhuc est in membris
compleuda."
sect. m.J ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 267
it is less pointedly practical than Prime ; not dealing
so much with the particulars of duty, as with the
general fact of man's feebleness, as set forth in the
penitential Psalms, such as the 51st and 143rd. Its
Collects in like manner have respect to the general
condition of man, not to the specific wants of the
day. Compare the Collect for Peace in this Service,
or the Communion Collects generally, with those that
occur in the Prime Service, e. g. our third Collect, for
defence during the day, &c.
In Prime, again, we have pre-eminently what may
be called a practical service c. It is the Office for the
first hour of the day, as its name implies : — a time
when the world and its concerns are now a whole
hour on their way, and consequently the whole busi-
ness and needs of man are in a manner before the
Church, and call for the prayers of her members.
And to these human wants the whole structure of the
Service is manifestly directed. The unvarying hymn,
"Jam lucis orto sidere," is against the temptations
of the world and the flesh. The Psalms are not taken
in course, as at Matins, but selected ; yet neither, as
in Lauds, as Psalms of praise for the opening of the
day, but of direction and guidance ; e. g. Ps. liv. and
part of cxix. The idea with which, on Sunday, Psalms
xxii. — xxv. were used, has been remarked upon (p. 233)
in speaking of the Eastern Prime ; viz. in reference
to our Lord's Passion. On Sunday, too, Ps. cxviii.
was added, carrying on the idea of Christ's Resur-
rection, contained in Lauds ; indeed, that Psalm was
transferred to Lauds, from Septuagesima to Easter.
The Prime Capitulum on week-days is practical ; Zech.
viii. 19, "Love peace and truth," &c. : the Collects,
0 Compare above, sect. i. See also Durandus in loc.
208 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [ciIAP. in.
as already observed, are on the actual wants of the
day. It is in the same connection that certain fea-
tures now appear for the first time for unvarying use.
In this Service, in the English form, there are preces
for daily use throughout the year. Now these are,
chiefly, earnest petitions for pardon and guidance.
The occurrence of the Lord's Prayer (twice) is also
a new feature of the same character. Such also are
the two Creeds, daily used, one aloud. It was ob-
viously fitting that Christian men at the threshold of
their day should thus make open profession of the
God in Whom they believe. We have seen the
Eastern Office introducing it similarly at the close
of their Night Office. Next we have the Confession,
with the interchanged Misereatur and Absolution, the
petitions for pardon and direction, and Psalm li. ; and
the practical Collects, — among them our third Collect.
The Office concluded with this benediction : " In the
Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost. Amen."
We may well pause here in the consideration of
these daily Morning Services, now wrought up into
our own, to pay a just tribute of admiration to their
beauty and fitness in the abstract, according to the
original conception of them. If we have not erred in our
attempts to interpret their meaning and design, there
is a grandeur at once and a correctness in the theory
of them, an adaptation to the real state of the case, if
we may so speak, between God Almighty on the one
hand, and His redeemed and sanctified creatures on
the other. There is Matins, with its simple Nocturnal
idea, its philosophic as well as religious recognition
of night as the season for sacred meditation*1 ; with its
d Compare the Greek ev<pp6i>r).
SECT. III.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES.
2G9
broad, deep, and unceasing river of praise and medi-
tation, flowing ever onwards in tribute to the ocean
of God's perfections. There is Lauds, with its pecu-
liar aspect of care for man's redeemed yet still sorrow-
ful estate, — a grateful yet humbled " song of mercy
and judgment;" — a daily fresh-springing fountain,
morning by morning, of sweet waters and bitter, both
awakened to life by the touch of light, by the return
of new present mercies, and of new memories and
hopes of resurrection ; not without its gleam, too, of
Eucharistic light and strength from the central orb of
the Church's high act of Offering and Communion.
There is Prime, with its more varied face of " Quid-
quid agunt homines ;" reflecting in detail the parti-
culars of man's estate towards God, such as he is " in
Christ." Man therefore appears in these two later
Offices as a supernaturally-endowed creature, recon-
ciled and saved, baptized and eucharistized ; baptized
into a Triune Name, and " going forth to his work and
to his labour until the evening," with the sense of a
baptismal vow upon him, and the facts of a baptismal
Creed surrounding him ; sustained in act or desire, by
present or recent participation, with super-substantial
food, and himself offered and accepted in a continual
Eucharistic oblation ; though reconciled, yet needing
daily reconciliation for daily falls, by the healing virtue
of Confession and Absolution ; having the Spirit, yet
requiring daily fresh supplies of it for guidance, to be
sought for in set prayers, through the all-prevailing
Name; finally, passing through a circuit of days,
which, by the ordinance either of God or His Church,
" are distinguished, some of them made high days, and
hallowed, and some of them made ordinary days," and
which receive their commemoration accordingly.
270 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. in.
The Offices of Terce, Sext, and Nones carry on, as
it were, the proper work of the Prime Office through
the day ; and by continued use of the same instru-
ment, the 119th Psalm, that "paradise of fruits and
storehouse of the Holy Spirit, on which the Church
therefore feedeth and ruminateth through the hours,
as on sweet spices of the Garden of Eden, that she
may be as a sweet aroma to God."
Of this Psalm, the first four sections, according
to our division, are used daily at Prime ; the remain-
ing eighteen are assigned to these Offices, — six to
each. And it may be observed that herein lies the
bond of union between these four hours ; a bond
which, from their common nomenclature of first,
third, sixth, ninth hours, (whereas all the others are
named either from the season of their occurrence, as
Matins, Vespers, or from their contents, as Lauds,
Compline,) one would expect beforehand to find ex-
isting somewhere. The ritualists, as Durandus, sug-
gest various mystical applications, in connection with
the acts of our Lord's Passion, of the contents of the
Psalm to the various hours of the day ; but it is evi-
dent that, though frequently apposite, they must be
accidental : no such application can have been in the
thoughts of those who arranged these Services, since
this Psalm is taken in its natural order. They have
themselves, however, introduced some allusions of this
kind into each hour, in the form of antiphons be-
fore, or versicles and responses after the Capitulum.
And in the Capitula thus accompanied we detect a
further characteristic of these three Offices. There is
a different one assigned for each of the three hours,
for Sundays and week-days. The Sunday Capitulum
is in each case doctrinal, setting forth the doctrine of
SECT. Ill] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES. 271
the Holy Trinity in a text from the Epistles ; and the
antiphon ascribes glory to the Holy Trinity accord-
ingly. Nor only so; but by the selection made of
the text and antiphon, and the adaptation of a Versicle
and a Response taken from the Psalm, the three Per-
sons of the Holy Trinity are severally honoured at the
third, the sixth, and the ninth hour ; not, however, in
their theological order, but the reverse. The Sunday
Capitulum at the end of the third hour, the only one
on which our existing services lead us to dwell, is
2 Cor. xiii. ult., " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,"
&c. This text, relating to the Holy Trinity, would
seem to be selected for this hour on account of its
being a prayer for the indwelling of the proper grace
of each of the three Persons in man, and especially for
the full communication of the Holy Spirit, which na-
turally belongs to the third hour, as the hour of His
Pentecostal descent. With this exception, Terce, Sext,
and Nones, add no new feature to those of the pre-
ceding Offices ; they do but sustain and prolong cer-
tain elements of them. The same is, to a certain
degree, true of Vespers and Compline ; we shall find
that, besides their actual brevity, no new methods of
worship make their appearance in them. Yet there
are here, in Compline especially, as there are in some
degree in Vespers also, new and beautiful applications
of the same or similar elements to the associations
and needs of eventide.
The Vespers Office will be found to be, in its ele-
ments and structure, a copy or reflection, in reduced
proportions, of two of the Morning Offices. I say of
two Offices, not of one of them only ; for though the
ritualists, ancient and modern, are agreed in limiting
the resemblance to Lauds, a little consideration will
272 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. m.
shew that it is otherwise, and that Vespers reflects
the structure and spirit both of Matins and Lauds,
in at least equal proportions6.
The characteristic of Matins, we have seen, is its
continuous flow both of praise and meditation; for
which respectively the Psalms (taken in course, and
without selection,) and reading of Holy Scripture in
considerable proportions, supply the medium. Now
Vespers for the first day of the week resumes this
continuous and unselected saying of the Psalms at the
point (Ps. cix.) where it is left by the Matins Office of
the seventh day. The number of Psalms used on each
evening is however reduced from twelve to five ; the
reading of Scripture, beyond a text, is laid aside alto-
gether. But the Office, as far as the Psalms are con-
cerned, evidently proceeds upon the Matins idea. It
is important to remark this, because in virtue of this
correspondence of its idea with that of Matins, the
Vesper Office serves to dedicate the whole of the latter
portion of the day to Divine praise, just as Matins
does the earlier portion. It does not seize on special
topics or associations as subjects of praise, but sends
up general, irrespective adoration ; the incense of
man's existence to God's glory. Though in volume
far scantier than its great morning prototype, it is
evidently in idea and intention parallel. But the re-
maining features of the Office not less certainly be-
speak it, as far as they are concerned, a parallel Office
to Lauds. In fact, it is a combination of the Matins
and Lauds types. In what may be called its numerical
structure, i.e. the number of elements contained in it,
it is parallel to the latter ; it has five Psalms, hymn,
• See above, chap. i. sect. 7; and the tables and analysis below,
ch. iv. sect. 1.
SECT. III.] ON THE ANCIENT ENGLISH OFFICES.
273
Capitulum, Canticle, (reckoned as a sixth Psalm,) Col-
lects, and " memorials."
Vespers then, considered as the Lauds of Eventide,
breathes, like Lauds itself, (chiefly in virtue of its
Magnificat and Collects,) a spirit of remembrance of
man's redeemed estate through the Incarnation.
Finally, Compline, like Prime, with which it has
so much in common, — viz. Psalms and Collects for
guidance, Creed, Lord's Prayer, Confession and Ab-
solution, Petitions and Intercessions, — is an eminently
practical and personal Office. It carries on, too, in
virtue of its Capitulum (Jer. xiv. — see p. 226) and
Nunc Dimittis, the. Vespers allusion to the Incar-
nation ; and by its Collect and Psalms (xxxi. xci.)
rests the Christian's hope of protection on the sor-
rows and victory of Christ.
It will not be uninteresting to endeavour briefly to
discriminate in this place the genius of the East and
of the West, as exhibited in their respective forms of
Ordinary Worship which we have now passed under
review; more especially as our present Offices com-
bine, in a measure, the temper and characteristics of
both.
The East then, if we leave out of the account those
enrichments which her ordinary Offices derive from
the Eucharist on Sundays and Festivals, and take her,
so to speak, in her every-day dress, is more uniform
and unchanging ; the West more multiform and vari-
able. Witness the single, changeless Invitatory and
Benediction f of the one Church, and their endless va-
rieties in the other. While the West rings countless
' pp. 75, 114.
T
274 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. III.
changes, according to the season, on the same essen-
tial idea, the East prolongs it in one unvaried and
majestic toll, from the beginning to the end of the
year. The East, again, is more rapt, the West more
intellectual. The East loves rather to meditate on
God as He is, and on the facts of Christian doctrine
as they stand in the Creed ; the West contemplates
more practically the great phenomena of Christian
psychology, and the relations of man to God. The
East has had its Athanasius, and its Andrew of
Crete h; the West its Augustine and Leo. Hence
Psalms and hymns in more profuse abundance charac-
terize the Eastern ; larger use and more elaborate
adaptations of Scripture, the Western Offices. The
East, by making the Psalms all her meditation, seems
to declare her mind that praise is the only way to
knowledge ; the West by her combined Psalm and
lection system, that knowledge is the proper fuel of
praise. While the East, again, soars to God in excla-
mations of angelic self-forgetfulness, the West com-
prehends all the spiritual needs of man in Collects of
matchless profundity ; reminding us of the alleged
distinction between the Seraphim, who love most, and
the Cherubim, who know most. Thus the East praises,
the West pleads ; the one has fixed her eye more in-
tently on the Glory-throne of Christ, the other on His
Cross. Both alike have been dazzled and led astray by
the wondrous accidents of the Incarnation'. Finally,
the East has been more inquisitive and inventive in
the departments both of knowledge and praise : the
West, more constructive, has wrought up, out of
scattered Eastern materials, her exhaustive Athanasian
Creed, and her matchless Te Deum.
h The author of some of the finest odes. 1 See note A.
CHAPTER IV.
ON THE STBTTCTITEE AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE OEDEB TOE
MOENING AND EVENING PEATEE.
SECTION L
" The living, the living, he shall praise Thee, as I do tin's day : the
father to the children shall make known Thy truth. The Lord was
ready to save me : therefore will we sing my songs to the stringed
instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord."
In turning now at length to take a more connected
view of our existing services, seen in the light of the
preceding inquiry, we are met by one very practical
and indeed paramount consideration. It is this ; that,
as far as the Western Church at least is concerned,
we herein take off our eyes from an extinct and buried
past, to fix them on a living and an energizing pre-
sent. Whatever the abstract difference between our
ordinary service and that of all other Churches of the
West ; however to our disadvantage, in point of large-
ness, beauty, or the like j — in practice the great dif-
ference is this, — that the one speaks, the other, (with
exceptions not worth naming, either as compared
with the bulk of the services as a whole, or with the
extent of Western Christendom,) is silent. To what
purpose is it, as regards these services themselves, that
I or any other should dwell on their glorious propor-
t 2
276 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. iv.
tions, or trace their old and ennobling descent*, or ex-
hibit the exquisite skill with which they are harmonized
to express the emotions or inform the life of Christian
men ? The goodly edifice is in ruins ; the noble race
is extinct ; the exquisite harmony has ceased. Though
the eloquence of a Chrysostom or a Bernard should be
expended on these topics, it would answer no spiri-
tual and practical purpose whatsoever : no one's de-
votion, speaking broadly, would be the better for it.
The life, that is, the living use, of those once animated
and still beautiful forms has passed away, apparently
for ever. Some of them, as the Gallican and the
Spanish, have been extinct for a thousand years, and
survive but in the merest fragments. Others, as the
Roman and the Milanese, exist as the devotions of
the clergy, but of them alone. The Churches, wdiose
devotions they nominally are, have long given over
the struggle which for ages, with whatever success,
they maintained, against the tendency to decay innate
in services so numerous and complex, as well as un-
vernacular, and therefore uncongregational and un-
popular. In truth, as we have already seen, the
Offices of the Western Church, such as they con-
tinued from the sixth to the sixteenth century, were
by their origin, and also in the general cast and
scheme of them, monastic, and bear the marks of
this deeply impressed upon their structure. St. Basil
in the East, Cassian in the West, were earnest advo-
cates of the monastic way of ritual, and indeed in a
great measure the authors of it. The sevenfold scheme
of service, whatever may be said, was not the Church's
• " Stemmata quid fachuit ? Quid prodest, Pontice, longo
Sanguine censeri ....
Si coram Lepidis male vivitur?"
sect. I.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 277
originally, but was urged upon her by the influence of
a few, rather animated by monastic zeal than endued
with apostolic and practical wisdom. And the ritual
history of the centuries referred to, and of the Eng-
lish Church not least, presents the spectacle of a
ceaseless, and it must be added a fruitless endeavour
to coerce a service so originated and constructed, into
a popular and universally used formulary; to make
it, in practice as well as in theory, the ritual of the
whole body of the faithful. Some indeed in the pre-
sent day have ventured to maintain that the Church
never intended these services for the use of the peo-
ple, but for that of the clergy only ; and defend their
desuetude in modern times on this ground. No asser-
tion could be more unfounded. Mabillon was not
mistaken when he affirmed b, speaking of the French
Offices, " publicarum precum institutionem non minus
in gratiam populi quam cleri factam fuisse."
" St. Basil, St. Chrysostom, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, all
speak of this important duty, and press the fulfilment of it.
And in succeeding ages we find frequent exhortations to the
same purpose. It is indeed a certain thing, that the Divine
Office was not instituted solely for the clergy, but for all men
who called themselves Christians0."
The writer just quoted gives accordingly1 a most
interesting series of decrees of bishops, and canons
of councils, in this country, from Abp. Egbert down-
wards, urging the attendance of the laity on these
services. By the middle of the sixteenth century we
have a most striking indication of the practical aban-
donment in other countries of the system as a popular
scheme of services, in the revision made of it by
b Curs. Gall., p. 405. 0 Maskell, Mon. Bit., vol. ii. p. xxx,
d lb., pp. xxv. — xxxL
278 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. nr.
Cardinal Quignon in 1535. In the elaborate preface
to this breviary — which was sanctioned for thirty or
forty years — there is not, as far as I have observed,
the slightest allusion to the use of it by the laity : it
plainly assumes that the clergy, and they alone, were
concerned in the matter. In this country, however,
and probably in others also, attendance on some parts
of the Daily Office on Sundays or Festivals — I have
found no instance of other days — certainly survived
in some degree6 ; — to what extent it is very difficult
to ascertain. There has therefore been no inconsider-
able declension, even since that period, until at length
the state of things described in an earlier chapter of
this work prevails throughout Europe.
Let it be understood, then, that the noble scheme
of services we have been contemplating is a thing
of the past; and of which none, that we know of,
desire or attempt the revival. Other aims engross the
mind of the continental Churches; as 'Benediction/
or other newly-devised services ; not Matins or Lauds,
Prime or Compline. Even Vespers, the sole relic of
the great system, is the object of earnest and un-
compromising attack' by the most advanced section
of Eomanists. The study, therefore, of the Western
scheme of Offices in its old form, is the study of a dead
language. The inquiry into it is strictly an antiqua-
rian one. Regarded as a public Service of the Church,
there is, it may be said, no such thing anywhere now.
Let this be distinctly realized : it is of the utmost mo-
' For interesting illustrations of this, see Maitland's Essays on the
Reformation, pp. 275, 277, 2 SI. Compare Preface to Prayer-book,
" Concerning the Service of the Church."
' See " Oratorianism and Ecclesiology." (See above, ch. i. fin.) It is,
I am informed, a rule with the Oratorians never to say the daily Offices
together, for fear of bringing back a system so obnoxious to them.
SECT. I.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 279
ment, in its influence upon the spirit in which we ap-
proach the subject of the present chapter. Let it be
clearly apprehended that the Churches, the congrega-
tions of Christian men and women, who use these
ancient and grand services, nowhere exist. Sundays
or week-days, no such tide of psalmody as we have
been contemplating flows to the glory of God ; no such
adoring meditation on Holy Scripture occupies the
hours whether of night or day ; no Te Deum sums up
the meditation or the praise ; no Lauds salute the
return of day with mixed notes of penitence and joy,
or awaken Resurrection memories or hopes ; no Prime
pleads for pardon, or prays for guidance ; no Creed is
uttered as with one voice and heart ; no Collect gathers
into it the Eucharistic association of the passing week
or season. The curious and exquisite devices of ever-
varying Invitatory, Antiphon, and Responsory; the
several doctrinal associations beating as pulses through
the different offices, — these no longer quicken or guide
the devotions of any. All this was done once, we
hardly know when : all we do know is that it is not
done now. In one country alone, in one form alone,
does the ancient Western Office really survive. Psal-
mody, Scripture, responsive Canticles, Preces, Collects,
the media of Europe's ancient worship, banished from
all other lands, have taken refuge in the Churches of
the English Communion. The English Church is in
this matter the heir of the world. She may have
diminished her inheritance ; but all other Western
Churches have thrown it away. The question is really
between these ordinary offices and none : —
" Quod quserimus, hie est,
Aut nusquam."
" Roman controversialists," says a recent and well-informed
-80 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. IV.
■writer, "not unfrequently compare the poverty of our two
offices with the richness of their seven. I know that in com-
parison they are poor ; but every word in them, which our peo-
ple have, is just so much more than they give to their own.
The priests of that Church keep these seven Offices to them-
selves, convents and cathedral choirs alone excepted; and yet
that exclusive use is a burden to them ; nay, it is so from its
very solitariness Offices moulded for joint or common use
are muttered over in private ; and even when sung in choir are
never listened to or joined in, by the people ; with the excep-
tion of Sunday Vespers in some Countries, — but not even these
in Italy The laity are absolutely ignorant of the Psalms.
The Psalter, which always formed the chief manual of devotion
of Christians in former days, so much so as to have been called
' the Prayer-book of the Saints,' and which is so largely used
for devotional purposes amongst ourselves, is entirely un-
known to the Roman Catholic laity, especially in Italy. The
seven Penitential Psalms are all that are known among them.
In France and England the Sunday Vesper Psalms are also
known 8."
It is this, then, which lends a life and an interest
of its own to this part of our inquiry. The forms
which we discern in the English Offices of Morning
and Evening Prayer, with whatever degree of correct-
ness they represent the older ones, are at any rate
living forms ; they animate the religious life, and
transact the spiritual concerns, of tens of thousands of
congregations, and of millions of Christians. Ear from
being devoid of vitality, they never manifested more
of vigour, or of expansive power, than at the present
moment. Wherever, from Canada to China, the Eng-
lish Church has taken root, they are enshrined as its
choicest possession, as the palladium of its existence ;
they are the living language which all Churches of the
English Communion speak. And though, as week-day
and continual services, they have in times past been suf-
« "Divine Service," by Rev. W. Perceval Ward, 1855.
SECT. I.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
281
fered to fall into grievous desuetude, yet even in this
character they have never ceased, were it only in Ca-
thedral churches, to breathe representatively, by how-
ever scanty a delegation, the breath of the Church's
collective and corporate life. And this use of them is
continually on the increase, and bids fair, if it receive
no injurious shock from ill-advised substitution of
other forms, instead of the well-managed use of those
which we have, to realize to a considerable degree the
entire design of such services.
Whatever, therefore, of added light or heightened
beauty may accrue to these Offices from investigations
like the present, will serve a nobler object than that
of awakening a merely speculative admiration ; it will
inform and invigorate a present and a living religion,
not merely illustrate a past one.
It is first to be observed, and borne in mind as a
leading principle of the utmost importance for the due
appreciation of our Services, that all things of price,
whether of Divine or human workmanship, are subject
to this law, — that they cannot be estimated from any
single point of view. This is more especially true of
such things as are the work of long time, or of many
and various influences. Thus, among works of the hu-
man mind, poetry, to be thoroughly appreciated, requires
the heightened and perfect exercise of as many faculties
and kinds of knowledge as there were concurrent causes
in the production of it. The thought, the language, the
rhythm, the figure or the classical allusion involved,
all are so many aspects of the one thing ; and it is
the complex of these, and no one of them singly, that
makes up the poetical character of the whole. And
it may require much knowledge of past modes of lan-
282 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. IV.
gunge and thought, besides other accomplishments, to
be equal to the due apprehension and enjoyment of
such poetry. Can it be otherwise with a thing which
has been so pre-eminently many-sided and historical,
so truly a growth of ages, and a product of divers in-
fluences, as we have seen that our ordinary ritual is?
Granting that our services are level, as happily in their
first aspect they are, to the commonest apprehension ;
it must still be admitted that so to use as to do en-
tire justice to them, requires that many distinct lines
of thought, many separate fields of inquiry, be held
under view. Nor, perhaps, will the best-instructed
mind be able to grasp simultaneously the several as-
pects which belong to them ; these will, for the most
part, have to be appreciated and acted upon by turns.
But it is in the possession of such varied aspects, and
such multiform relations, that the wealth and glory of
a ritual really consists : it is in exhausting, or at least
using these to the best of our power, that the most
elevated realization of worship is attained ; simply
because each such aspect or relation is an enrich-
ing element in man's service, and so enters as a
fresh item into the sum of what is offered to God's
glory.
Out of the mass of facts and considerations, how-
ever, which have now been presented to the reader in
connection with our Services, we may disengage three
principal aspects belonging to them. These are, 1,
their Eucharistic aspect, — that which appertains to
them in virtue of their relation, in part essential and
unavoidable, in part express and designed, to the holy
Eucharist ; 2. what may be called their structural as-
pect,— the character which they derive from their hav-
ing inherited certain general features of structure, and
sect. I.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
283
so preserving traits of modes of service once carried
out in a fuller and more artificial manner; and, 3.
their implicit or representative aspect; that which
they possess as condensing into a comparatively brief
compass large tracts of ancient service, Eastern or
Western, apostolic or mediaeval.
1. We have seen that, in what we have reason to
believe were the earliest forms of ordinary worship,
there was little indeed of express allusion to the
Eucharistic rite, or of marked connection with it.
The primitive Office was not, that we can perceive,
avowedly framed after the Eucharistic as a pattern ;
it was merely a body of Psalms, hymns, and prayers ;
organized, indeed, but not, discernibly, after this
model. It lacked one leading element, inseparable,
as far back as we can trace, from solemn Eucharistic
celebration ; viz. the reading of Scripture. But we
may be quite sure that this ordinary worship was
none the less, in the sense above explained h, a eucha-
ristic, or rather eucharistically based and connected
act. The whole life, the ritual action more especially,
of a Christian, was deemed of by Apostles and apostolic
men as a thing rising out of Baptism and the Eucha-
rist, and owning no other root. That they were " in
Christ," first by baptismal union, and next, more inti-
mately still, by eucharistic offering and participation,
— this was manifestly, as appears ' from the apostolic
Epistles, their entire idea of what, as Christians, they
were. And the absence of any marked and artificial
connection or parallel between the form of their daily
devotions and the structure of the weekly Eucharistic
rite, (if we except the Creed and Lord's Prayer, which
connected it both with that and with baptism,) is in
reality an indication how entirely it was taken for
h Chap. ii. sect, 3. ' See passages referred to in note G.
284 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. IV.
granted that all acts of worship and intercommunion
with God must be of this character, — must spring from
sacramental roots, and own sacramental relations ;
since only through Sacraments did they know of them-
selves as having attained to the Christian position at
all. Our knowing that the Eucharist was with them
a thing of weekly, or not much more frequent occur-
rence,— a point, I must be allowed to remind the
reader, which all learned inquirers have conceded, — of
itself might satisfy us that this was so. There is, we
may say, in those primitive forms, a beautiful uncon-
sciousness of there being any necessity for proclaim-
ing the eucharistic character of a Christian's worship.
All praise was for them, by the nature of the case,
oblation in Christ, all knowledge was reception of
Him, all prayer was pleading of His Sacrifice. It
was in later ages that, by expedients tending to re-
flectk back upon the preceding Offices, (as e. g. by the
Eastern ' prokeimenon' and Western Capitulum,) or
forward upon them, (e. g. by our weekly Collect,) the
mind of the current Eucharistic Scriptures, the two
kinds of office were visibly linked and allied to each
other. These later methods are doubtless merely the
translation into outward form of the older apostolic
habit of looking back or forward to the Eucharistic
Scriptures as ruling the meditation of the week.
Thus too, then, should our offices of ordinary wor-
ship be used. The general aspect of them, first of all,
is, as I have already had occasion to point out \ that
they are a great act of Praise. Now herein they
reflect the most general conception of the Eucharist,
according to the ancient and undoubtedly true view of
it. The name it most anciently"1 bears is Evxapia-rla,
k Supr., ch. i. sect. 6. 1 p. 155.
m St. Ign. ad Pliilacl, c. 4; ad Sniyrn., c. 7.
SECT. I.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
285
" giving of thanks, or praise ;" thankful memorial be-
ing the basis and essence of the rite, out of which
both its oblationary and its receptive characters grow.
This aspect of praise belongs to our Services in
virtue of their derivation from the older forms, both
Eastern and Western. From the very beginning, and
all along, as we have seen, and as various authors have
remarked, the ruling idea of ordinary worship has been
praise by means of Psalms and hymns, Psalms more
especially. \ Of the East it is unnecessary to speak.
The West marked the same view by the most usual
title of her Office-book, namely, ' Psalterium",' no less
than by its plan and contents ; the whole inclusive of
lections, being one great musical scheme of praise, to
which all else was subordinated. The Psalms were
the dominant, as well as the unfailing element. The
one Western rite, the Spanish, which has been hitherto
supposed0 to be an exception to this rule, has been
above shewn to be conformable to it ; and the very
phraseology usually applied to the whole act of or-
dinary worship p, notwithstanding its varied contents,
is grounded upon this view, that the singing of praise
is the essence of the whole action.
In the East and West alike, therefore, and in our
own existing Offices, the key-note is correctly pitched,
for the whole of the ordinary Service of the day, by
means, 1. of the Invitatory and 95th Psalm; 2. of the
single preliminary " Glory be," &c. By these we are
admonished that the idea of praise claims to subordi-
" Grancolas, ch. iii. sect. 2. Compare Bona, Psalmod. ii. 2, on the
various titles of the Daily Offices.
° " Cum in toto orbe psalmi tam in nocturnis quam in diurnis fidelium
conventibus canerentur, ita ut ■primus, medius et novissimus esset Duoid,
teste Chrysostomo : apud Mozarabes, saltern recentiores, non ita," &c.
So Mabillon, Curs. GalL But see above, ch. iii. sect. 2.
r Thus Mabillon always speaks of it as " psallendi ritus ;" Bona de-
rives the term cursus from " quia legendo et cantando percummtur "
286 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. IV.
nate and appropriate, in a manner, any other element
and conception belonging to our Service, whether con-
fession, hearing, prayer, or whatsoever it may be. - It
is the very triumph of grace over nature; it is the
higher element fusing by its native fervour, and assi-
milating to its own more ethereal essence, the lower
and more human accidents of our being.
Now this is a very elevated and ennobling view to
take of our Services. Thoroughly to realize it in the
use of them is to take up the standing-ground nearest
to heaven on earth that man can habitually attain.
For whereas some features in our service towards God
are notes of our imperfection and low estate, — such
as the receiving of knowledge through hearing of the
written Word, and the act of prayer ; — praise is con-
fessedly that which approximates our worship to that
of the angels. Of angelic service we know but two
things ; the heavenly Ritual is revealed to us as having
for its substance praise, and for its manner, joint ac-
tion, and mutual exhortation : " Thou art worthy, 0
Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power and
again, "Hallelujah," and again they said "Hallelujah."
And when the spirit of collective and mutually sus-
tained praise so enters into our service towards God
as to fuse and harmonize all, even to its lesser ele-
ments, into one homogeneous action of this kind, we
seem most nearly to ascend to the height of that con-
dition, in which intuition will have superseded know-
ledge, and fruition prayer.
It should be remarked, again, in connection with
the Eucharistic bearing of our Services, that there is
not improbably an intended parallelism, up to a cer-
tain point, between them and our Communion Office,
as they now both of them stand. The revision of
1552, which prefixed our penitential commencement
SECT. I ] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 287
to the Daily Office, placed a similar act of confession
before the Communion Office, where the Confession
and Absolution had anciently been. At the same date
the Gloria in Excelsis was placed after the Commu-
nion, instead of at the beginning of the rite. And to
this entirely corresponds the subjoining of a thanks-
giving to the entire Daily Office (in 1662) for the
means of grace. The beginning and end, then, of the
two Offices agree in character. Nor are these the only
indications we have of a design thus to conform the
lower to the higher Office as to outward form. Our
present prayers for the Queen, Clergy, and people, &c.
were first added to the Litany in 1559, and ulti-
mately, in 1662, removed to their present place, as
a substitute for the Litany on ordinary days. The
intention most probably was to supply, by means of
the ordinary office, that intercession which heretofore
had been made daily, or on most days, by means of
the Communion Office*1. The scheme was further com-
pleted in 1662 by the addition of the "Prayer for
all conditions of men," together with the " General
Thanksgiving," as before mentioned. Whether so in-
tended or not, however, these correspondences of form
between our Ordinary and our Communion Office may
well assist us in using the former as a means of carry-
ing out the spirit of the latter.
2. But we shall be better able to appreciate this as-
pect of our Offices, when we have considered their struc-
ture and contents somewhat more in detail. The follow-
ing scheme will exhibit more clearly than a lengthened
description their structural connection with the older
ones, from which they were immediately derived.
i Canon Missse Sarisb., &c. init. " Pro Ecclesia tua sancta Catholica
...papa),..antistite nostro,...et rege nost.ro et omnibus orthodoxis."
288 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. IV.
Ancient English Offices.
Revised Office.
Matins.
Lauds.
Prime.
Morning Prayer.
In the Name . .
Vers, and resp.
In the Name . .
Sentences.
Exhortation.
(Priv.)
[See below] . .
Conf., AbsoL
Our Father . .
Our Father
0 Lord, open
0 God, make . .
0 God, make . .
0 God, make . .
0 God, make
Glory be . . .
Glory be . . .
Glory be . . .
Glory be
Alleluia
Alleluia.
Alleluia "S
or, Praise be .
. or, Praise be . .
or, Praise be . (
Praise ye
Invitatory.
j
The Lord's Name
J
Hymn.
Hymn.
12 Pss. 6 Ant. .
5 Pss. and Ant. .
3 Pss. 1 Ant. . .
The Psalms,
(S. 18 Pss. 9 Ant.)
(S. Jubilate,) . .
(S. 9 Pss. 1 Ant.)
(in course).
9 Glory's . . .
IGlor/s . . .
1 Glory ....
Glory's.
Benedictions . .
f " Here begm-
3 or 9 lessons >
< neth". 1st Les-
v. son, 0. T#
Respocsories ,\
Te Deum
Canticle.
Athan. Creed.
or
(S. Benedicite) .
Benedicite.
Short chapter . .
Short chapter
2nd Less., IN. 1.
Hymn.
[Anthem.]
Benedictus.
Jubilate.
[See above] . .
Athan. Creed.
[Ap. Creed.] . .
or, Ap. Creed.
[The Lord be] .
The Lord be
Short Litany . .
Short Litany.
Our Father . .
Our Father
Petitions . . .
Petitions . . .
Petitions.
Conf., AbsoJ.
Comm. Collect .
1st Collect.
Coll. for Peace .
Coll. for Peace.
Coll. for Grace .
Coll. for Grace.
Intercessions . .
Intercessions.
Thanksgiving.
Benediction . .")
( Benediction.
Short chapter, 2 Coi
. xiii. Sunday, 3d hour " The grace" J
1 " The grace."
Note.— In these tables the dotted lines will shew from which of the old Offices the
parts of our own are derived. Any features transposed for the sate of comparison are
SECT. I.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 289
Ancient English Offices. Revised Office.
Scheie"*9 ^
I
n e ame
n le ame
Turn Thou us
Exhortation.
(Priv.)
[See helow.]
Conf., Absol.
Our Father ....
Our Father . . .
Our Father
0 Lord, open
0 God, make ....
0 God, make ....
0 God, make
5 Pss. and Ant. .
4 Pss., 1 Ant. ....
The Psalms.
5 Glory's ...
o oioiy S ....
S ort c ■ p
irs esson.
Hymn
Ps. XCVlll., of
Short chapter ....
Second Lesson.
Hymn
Ps. lxvii., or
Nunc Dimittis • •
Nunc Dimittis.
[Ap. Creed] ....
Ap. Creed.
Short litany • • « •
Short litany ....
Short litany.
Our Father ....
Our Father
Our Father
Petitions.
Conf., Absol
Coll. for Peace.
Collect for aid ...
Coll. for aid.
Intercession . . . .
Intercessions.
Thanksgiving.
Benediction . . . .
Benediction.
Confining ourselves for the present to the Morning
Office, we may observe, first of all, that with the excep-
tion of the Sentences, Exhortation, and Thanksgiving,
there is not a single feature which does not either ac-
tually come from some one of the older offices, or find
its parallel and counterpart there. And at the primary
Revision of 1549, whatever might be omitted, nothing
new was introduced ; only the brief lessons at Matins,
and again, the " short chapters" of Lauds and Prime,
were expanded into an entire chapter of the Old and
New Testament respectively ; the Te Deum made
permanent; and the Benedicite classed with it as
a responsive Canticle. So truly and bond fide was
the new scheme redacted and developed out of the
older. It will be found, moreover, that, with an ex-
u
290 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. IV.
ception to be mentioned presently, and that rattier
apparent than real, the old order of the retained fea-
tures was in the original Revision r strictly preserved.
And, to the last, nothing was added in kind but the
Sentences and Exhortation at the beginning, and the
General Thanksgiving at the close.
The most general way of characterizing the process
thus performed upon the older offices, is perhaps to
say, that it was an endeavour to return to first princi-
ples, preserving, meanwhile, as far as might consist
with that design, the existing organizations. The Re-
visers had before their eyes, on the one hand 8, an ideal
which they knew, by her own testimony, that the
Church had aimed at by the general institution of
such offices, viz. the public devotional use of the Book
of Psalms at large, and no less broad knowledge of, and
meditation on, Holy Scripture. On the other hand,
they saw in operation a system, which, however de-
signed, and whatever its other merits, certainly was in
practice utterly subversive of that ideal. But few of
the Psalms were said, chiefly owing to the substitution
for the daily portion of some few and almost unvary-
ing ones on the plea of a " festival of three or nine
lections." Of the Scriptures, only the few earlier
chapters of the different books were really in use.
And, besides all this, the language of the services ex-
cluded the people practically from all share in them.
Here, then, was a broad, general aim, and surely
a correct one, to be carried out ; viz. to bring back the
' It can hardly be necessary to recommend to the reader, as indis-
pensable for studying the successive Revisions of the Prayer-book, Mr.
Keeling' s valuable "Liturgiaj Britannicae," exhibiting them in parallel
columns. See also Procter on the Prayer-book, L'Estrange's Alliance
of Divine Offices, &c.
• See their Preface " Concerning the Service of the Church."
SECT. I.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 291
Psalms and Holy Scripture, the great features of ordi-
nary worship, to real and effective use as instruments
of praise and divine knowledge. But how was this to
be attained, consistently with preserving sensible con-
tinuity between the old and the revised forms ? Now
whether the first Revisers debated previously of any
other method of doing this than that which they in
fact adopted, we are not informed. It is not impro-
bable that they did so, but perceived that any attempt
to retain either the old express division into three of-
fices, or certain complicating features of their contents,
would be fatal to that practicability for congregational
use which they desired to bring about. On determin-
ing, then, to reduce the three offices to one, they
would at once perceive certain phenomena in them
favourable to such a design. The commencement of
all of them, to a certain point, (see the table,) was all
but identical. A single such commencement would
therefore entail no loss of ritual elements. Next, the
order of parts in all was so far the same, that, in each,
Psalms were followed up by Scripture, however dif-
ferent the treatment of both Psalms and Scripture in
each case might be. At the same time, the first of-
fice, that of Matins, took a decided lead and prepon-
derance in respect of these elements. It contained,
theoretically at least, the great mass of the psalmody
and reading for each day. A body of Psalms and
Scripture, then, standing first, and as the staple of
the new office, would serve to give the old Matins
conception its due place ; while yet the psalmody and
Scripture of the other offices would not be left unre-
presented, since the whole of the Psalms, and every
part of Scripture, were to enter by turns into the
office. Next, they would observe that each of the
u 2
292 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. rv.
offices possessed, chiefly towards its close, certain fea-
tures peculiar to itself; viz. Matins its Te Deum,
besides (at the beginning) the " 0 Lord, open," the
Invitatory, and Venite ; Lauds its Canticles, Benedic-
ts, and Communion Collects ; Prime its Creeds and
Lord's Prayer, its Collects, petitions, and intercessions.
These completing portions of the offices might there-
fore preserve, in a single service, the same order rela-
tively to each other, and to the psalmody and Scrip-
ture, which they had always stood in. And thus, by
retaining once for all such elements (e. g. the intro-
ductory part, and the Psalms and Scripture) as were
common to all, and subjoining, in their natural order,
features peculiar to the several offices, a single whole
would result, recalling sufficiently, for the purposes of
continuity, the older forms. It would only be neces-
sary to combine, in one or two instances, the ritual
methods observable in different offices ; as for ex-
ample, by imparting to the Benedicite (an unrespon-
sive Canticle, retained from Sunday Lauds in its
proper relative place,) the responsive character towards
the reading of Scripture which the Te Deum already
possessed. The Benedictus would not need even this
degree of modification as to its use, since it already
stood in a truly responsive position to the " short
chapter" from the New Testament at Lauds. The
adaptation of the Jubilate, from the same office, as
another responsive Canticle to the second Lesson,
as before of Benedicite to the first, was a natural
afterthought, at the second Revision in 1552. In
these cases, then, kindred features of the several offices
were made to coalesce and conspire towards one
purpose. The Collects of the two later offices fell
easily, in like manner, from their natural affinity, into
sect. I.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 293
one group. The ordinary Sunday Capitulum at Terce,
or 9 a.m., (2 Cor. xiii. 13 : " The grace of our Lord,"
&c.,) performing the function of the final Prime bene-
diction, would fitly conclude the office.
Such, in general terms, was the nature of our great
Revision, as to the facts of it ; such the mechanical
process, so to speak, of which our present Morn-
ing Office is the result, preserving in its features a
certain correspondence with three of the older of-
fices, and even a slight memorial of a fourth. The
next question is, how far may we consider the idea of
them severally to have survived intact? Is the re-
semblance which remains merely an external and me-
chanical one, not extending to the inner mind and
spirit of the offices ? Has this been really transfused,
or has it perished in the process ?
In endeavouring to answer this question, we shall
do well to bear in mind that, so long as certain ele-
ments and media of service are retained at all, there
is not much fear but that the essential thing designed
by the offices of Matins, Lauds, Prime, &c, will be
really preserved. AVith what distinctness this is done
is a further, and comparatively secondary, though not
unimportant point. A review of the Church's past
history in this department of ritual, and the earlier
stage of it especially, shews us that the great matter,
after all, from the very beginning, was " to sing praises
with understanding." That axiom, taken in its widest,
deepest sense, as including completest Christian ado-
ration, and profoundest Christian knowledge, is the
prescript of all ordinary worship. The manner of
carrying it out, though far from indifferent, is second-
ary to the broad design itself. And that manner has,
within certain limits, varied in all ages. No Church
294
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. iv.
that we know of performs it now exactly in the same
manner as the apostles did. Nor can any Church,
under whatever variations of form, have really intro-
duced any principle into this kind of service which
the simpler apostolic method did not involve. All
distinctive ideas of Matins, Lauds, Prime, and the
like, necessarily existed, with all essential complete-
ness, in apostolic worship. It is one and the same
primeval light, only parted into manifold hues, that
appears in the more gorgeous systems of later ages.
These distinctly elaborated and discriminated offices
were but as the prism interposed. And when, as in
the instance before us, the decomposing media are in
a measure withdrawn, it may surely be maintained, 1.
that neither the essence of the act performed is in any
way affected, nor any of its varied aspects really done
away with ; and, 2. that enough of the old methods
may remain to assist greatly in the realization of that
distinctness of hue which it was their purpose to im-
part to the services ; more especially when we call to
our aid the knowledge that we possess of what those
methods in their completeness were.
The bearing of these remarks is more especially
on the new treatment of the Psalms in the Revised
English Office. How far such compensating con-
siderations were in the mind of the Revisers, when
doing away the distinction between Matins Psalms,
Lauds Psalms, &c. ; and again between the con-
tinuous psalmody of one office, and the selection
made in others, we are not actually informed. But
seeing that they preserved, with no less than reve-
rent care, and in untouched order, as many of the
other distinctive features of each office as their lead-
ing aim allowed, — it seems a fair inference that their
SECT. I.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 295
hope was, that not in these features only, but in the
use of the Psalms also, now thrown open to varied
applications, the old ideas would in a great measure
survive and be expressed. There is in their original
preface, as was observed in the Introductory Chapter,
a most remarkable unconsciousness of having effected
any change in the purpose or nature of the services.
If this principal point then be conceded, viz. that
the continuous and unselected psalmody of our service
was probably intended to represent, not the old Matins
Psalms merely, but also those of Lauds and Prime,
we shall have less difficulty in recognising in the re-
mainder of it the reality of all three offices, briefly
indeed, but not inadequately represented, and surviv-
ing in a genuine though condensed form. Our Morn-
ing Service will then assume for us the following
aspect, as the result of its derivation from the older
offices. As being a day-office, and the first in the
day, it not unfitly draws its penitential prelude from
the Prime (or First Hour) Office ; which itself com-
menced with Ps. li., and also, towards its close, pro-
vided a confession and absolution, especially in regard
of imperfections in the service*; and so sent forth the
worshipper, humbled and reconciled, on the duties of
the day. The commencement of the service proper,
until the Venite, is due to all the Offices alike ; ex-
cepting only the " 0 Lord, open," peculiar to Matins.
With the Venite the great Matins Office begins to
assert its prerogative, and continues to be the domi-
nant element as far as the Te Deum inclusive; nor
is its force fully spent until the end of the second
Canticle. Considered as continuous, the whole psal-
mody is of Matins character; while yet in virtue of
1 See supr., p. 103.
296 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CKAP. IV.
such Psalms as are allied by their tenor to Lauds or
Prime, it breathes from time to time the spirit of those
Offices. The Psalms, Lessons, and Canticles, again,
viewed as woven up into one complex act of praise
and meditation", still wear the Matins aspect through-
out. But meanwhile, in the Benedicite (if used), in
the Lesson from the New Testament, and in the Bene-
dicts or Jubilate, Lauds has gradually come to view;
at first with faint streaks, as of the dawn, afterwards
with a steadier and more certain light. Prime in
like manner may claim some connection with both
our Lessons, in virtue of its Capitulum, — which was
indifferently from the Old Testament or the Newx.
But it is at the Creed, Apostolic or Athanasian, that
the Office fairly modulates into the key of Prime.
Prom thence throughout, the peculiar practical7 cha-
racter of that Office is maintained : Matins has ceased
to contribute anything to the idea of the service. Prom
Lauds alone the two kindred Collects gravitate to-
wards this part of our Office, and are naturally ab-
sorbed and assimilated by it. Lastly, as has been
already observed, Terce contributes a Capitulum,
taking the form of a dismissal Benediction.
An interesting and pertinent illustration of the pro-
cess by which our present form may have evolved
itself, in the mind of the Revisers, out of the older
ones, is furnished by a parallel and in a great degree
independent revision of the older forms of private
devotion, which was going on side by side with that
of the public services from the year 1545 to 1575z.
" See p. 129.
x The ordinary Sunday Capitulum at Prime was 1 Tim. i. 17 ; the
-week-day, Zach. viii. 19.
* See pp. 221, 267.
7 Tor these forms see Cardwell's Three Primers of Henry VIII.;
SECT. I.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
297
In the former year, as is well known, Henry the
Eighth's Primer, superseding all former ones, was
published. Like them, it provided devotions (founded
on those of the Office for Festivals of the Blessed
Virgin Mary, only revised) for the several hours of
Matins, Lauds, &c. This book was published in
Edward the Sixth's reign, 1547, and again, with pro-
gressive revisions, 1549 — 1552. It appeared again
in Elizabeth's reign, both in English and Latin, (en-
titled Ovarium,) viz. in 1559 and 1560, and even in
1575 ; still exhibiting the old divisions of Matins,
Lauds, &c. But meanwhile (viz. in 1564) appeared
a highly modified form of it in Latin3, expressly
reducing the services to two, under the titles of
Preces Matutinm and Vespertine. As might be ex-
pected, it proceeded, in the main, on the same re-
visionary principles as had guided the construction
of the Prayer-book Offices. Yet it was markedly
independent in many points ; and, what is very much
to our purpose, belongs, so to speak, to an earlier
stage of evolution. Thus the Morning Office, com-
mencing much in the same way as our public one
as far as the Venite, only with a prayer of Absolu-
tion, has then a Hymn, three Psalms (viii., xix., xxiv.)
with one Antiphon ; a first lesson (Prov. i., &c.) not
preceded, as in the book of 1560, by a benediction,
but ending with "Thus saith the Lord," &c. ; and
the Te Deum. At this point the transition to Lauds
is announced by prefixing that title, and the prefatory
" O God, make speed, &c," " Glory be," &c. ; but
Mr. Clay's valuable and learned volume of " Private Prayers put forth
by authority in the reigu of Queen Elizabeth," Parker Society, 1S51;
aud for a complete and carefid resume, Procter, chap. iii. App. 2.
• " Preces private, in studiosorum gratiam collects!, et iicgia autho-
ritate approbate." Parker Society, ubi sapr., p. 115.
298
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. IV.
there is no Lauds versicle preceding, as in the older
Primer of 1559, nor any Alleluia. Now commenced
the Lauds Psalms, or rather Pss. c. and cxlviii., with
the Canticle Benedicite ; all of them, it will be ob-
served, genuine Lauds features, and two the same as
we have retained in our Office ; only that here they
appear simply in their old characters, not as respon-
sive to a Lesson. Then a second Lesson, (St. John
hi. 10 — 22, iv. 11, &c.) hymn, and the Benedictus ;
Creed, short Litany, Lord's Prayer, one versicle, a
Collect, (second Sunday after Easter,) one prayer for
the Queen, second and third Collects, blessing and
Litany. It will be seen that this Office keeps much
closer to the older ones ; as, e. g. in having an ex-
press recognition of Lauds, though not (as in 1560)
of Prime ; antiphons, though but one to each group of
Psalms ; an actual set of Lauds Psalms, used as such,
though no Prime ones, (the Orarium of 1560 had one
Prime Psalm, cxviii.) ; hymns, and in the old places.
We could almost imagine that the Office had been
framed on the basis of an earlier project entertained
by the Revisers of 1549 ; so entirely is it transitional
towards the plan which they adopted. Of course the
fear of complexity which confessedly operated to the
rejection of certain features, as e. g. antiphons, from
the public Office, would have less place here, where
the office was to be unvarying.
Nor can I forbear to remark, that if any revision
of our Morning Office were undertaken, on the prin-
ciple of enriching it, with the least possible amount
of disturbance, or increase of complexity, from the
older forms, the Office which we have just reviewed
would suggest one effective method of accomplishing
this object. The weak points of our present Office,
SECT. I.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
299
so to speak, — those in which it fails to render, with
as much fulness as could be desired, the mind of the
older forms, — are, 1. the small amount, quantitatively,
of psalmody ; and, 2. the absence of any expression,
by means of selected Psalms, of Lauds or Prime ideas.
The expression of these is thrown upon other features,
as Canticles, (or Psalms used as Canticles,) Collects,
petitions, &c. Now by introducing, immediately after
the Te Deurn or Benedicite, a small group of Lauds
and Prime Psalms, exactly as is done in the private
Office before us, this defect would be in a measure
remedied. Two unvarying Lauds Psalms, as e. g. the
63rd and 148th, both of universal use in East and
West, might suffice ; with one of the Prime Psalms
(118th, on the Resurrection,) for Sundays, and one
(the practical 101st, or part of 119th,) for week-days.
A single and fixed Anliphon, as here, or varying only
for the Sunday or other Festival, might be added.
This group of Psalms then, following the Te Deum
or Benedicite, (itself a Lauds feature,) would precede
the Second Lesson ; and thus the ancient alternation
of Psalmody and Lessons be in a very simple manner
restored. But the great purpose answered would be
the increased fulness of expression hereby given to
the Lauds and Prime ideas. What has here been
pointed out is, however, intended less as a sugges-
tion, than as an illustration of the near approach
which our present Offices make to the older forms ;
as is proved by the simplicity of the means required
for bringing about a greatly increased resemblance
between the two.
An analysis of our Office for Evening Prayer will
make good in like manner its claims to be a genuine
300 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. IV.
representative of the older ones of Vespers and Com-
pline. Only there enters in, to a certain extent, in
this case, a manifest design of equalizing and assimi-
lating the Evening to the Morning Office, which exer-
cises no inconsiderable influence on the general ap-
pearance of the service. This is chiefly discernible
in the entire theoretical equality of the two offices
in respect both of the number of Psalms, and of the
amount of Scripture ; though on careful examination
it proves that a clear preponderance is given, even in
these respects, to the Morning Office6. And the
Canticles being also shorter, while the Litany is never
appointed to be added to Evensong, the result is that
the latter is always perceptibly shorter than the former.
This approximate equalization, in point of length, of
the ordinary Morning and Evening Office, is some-
what peculiar to our Church. But it must be borne
in mind, that the greater length universally accorded
in other rituals to the morning offices originated in
times when they were chiefly ante-lucan, and so could
realize such greater length without trenching unduly
on the works of the day. In times when the services
are diurnal, as in practice they have long been through-
out the Church generally, there would seem to be no
reason for any great disparity; the breathing times
between rest and labour in the morning, and between
labour and rest in the evening, being theoretically of
much the same length0. On Sundays and other days
b The entire number of Psalms, reckoning each of the twenty-two
portions of Ps. cxix. as one Psalm, is 171 : of which 91 are allotted to
Matins ; 88 to Evensong, The disparity in amount, reckoned in verses,
is however but slight; the number in the morning being on an average
but a few more than in the evening. The Gospels aud Acts are also
longer than the Epistles, in the proportion of about 10 to 7.
o The subject of practical adaptation of our services to the various
sect. I.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 301
of note, when it seems natural to throw the stress of
our devotion on the earlier acts of it, while it is yet
in its freshness, we, like the rest of the world, add
other offices accordingly, whether the Litany, or the
Communion Office, (or the earlier portion of it,) or
both together.
The assimilation of the two services, as to the
nature of their contents, yet still without rendering
them by any means identical, is entirely in the spirit
of the older offices. We have seen that both in East d
and West e, the Vespers Office reflected the features of
the Nocturns and Lauds conjoined. The East, for
example, used the same intercessions at Lauds and
at Vespers ; in which we now resemble it f. In the
West, these two Offices, besides that they both had
Canticle, Collects, Petitions, and " Memorials," as
already pointed out, had to some extent the same
things j the same Communion Collect and Petitions,
and some of the same Memorials e. Compline again
accorded in the East with the Nocturnal Office11, in
the West with Prime, in having the Creed and Lord's
Prayer, Petitions, Confession and Absolution, and
Collects for protection.
Thus the close parallel, for it is no more, which
exists between our Offices of Matins and Evensong,
is due partly to principles of equalization acted upon
by the first Revisers, and carried out by subsequent
ones ; but mainly, after all, to correspondences inhe-
rent in the two sets of ancient Offices incorporated
into them respectively. For the rest, the reader will
circumstances, in point of leisure, &c, of different persons and classes,
is a distinct question.
d pp. 131, 272. « p. 130. ' Vide Neale, pp. 901, 916.
* See Transl. Sar. Psalt., pp. 175, 292, &c. h Supr., p. 214, &c.
302
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. IV.
easily trace in the table (p. 288) the operation of the
same methods of evolution as before. It will be seen
that Vespers, as corresponding up to a certain point
with Matins, takes a similar lead in the structure of
our Evensong, viz. as far as the Magnificat. Com-
pline features then begin to enter in, and engross the
rest of the Office; only, as in the morning from
Lauds, so here from the Lauds-like portion of Vespers,
Communion Collects are derived. The only points of
difference are that our First Evening Lesson arises
out of a single " short chapter" of Vespers, instead
of, as in the morning, out of the threefold set of
Matins lections ; and that the alternative Canticles pro-
vided, are not drawn, as in the morning, from the older
offices ; but one (Ps. lxvii.) from another known source,
the other arbitrarily, or from some source unknown to
us. The " 0 Lord, open Thou," at the beginning, is
borrowed from Matins, and is peculiar to the English
Evensong.
Here then, on the same grounds as before, we may
safely consider that the mind of the entire Vespers
and Compline was intended to be preserved in the
consolidated Office. The Psalms, though used in the
main with the general idea of continuous praise, as in
the old Vespers, will on occasion harmonize with the
confessed Compline features of the Office, and breathe
the spirit of devout retrospect and commendation, or
the like. It will be perceived, too, that the introduc-
tion of the few and short Compline Psalms (iv., xxxi.
1 — 6, xci., cxxxiv.), or of some of them, before the
second Lesson, would have the same effect of bring-
ing back the outline of the old twofold Offices with
the least possible disturbance, as in the case of the
Morning Offices. And in both these instances the
sect. I.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
303
resolution of each of the existing Offices, when desired,
into two well-constituted parts, would be greatly faci-
litated by the arrangement suggested.
I will only further remark on the comparative struc-
ture of the older and newer offices, that there is one
apparent exception to that strict preservation of the
old order of parts, which the original Revisers — scarcely
by a conscious effort, but rather as the natural course
to pursue — sedulously observed elsewhere. In the
old Prime and Compline Offices the short Litany and
Lord's Prayer 'preceded the Apostles' Creed, whereas
now they follow it. But it must be borne in mind,
that from the short Litany to the end of the Collect
for grace, — including the Lord's Prayer, Apostles'
Creed, Petitions, Confession and Absolution, and sun-
dry Versicles and Responses, — was all reckoned as one
group, following the " short chapter," under the title
of Preces. And this group, as a group, was strictly
kept in its place at the Revision ; the transposition
of the Apostles' Creed and Lord's Prayer within it
was a very secondary matter. But, in truth, there
was a special reason for such transposition. The
Athanasian Creed, it will be observed, had a place
earlier than that of the Apostles' in the Prime Office,
viz. after Psalms, and before the short chapter; a
position which it could not now retain without dis-
turbing the whole of the proposed order. It was
natural, however, on this account, to give as early
a place as might be, after the Lessons, to the Creed
element. Hence, probably, this transposition. The
Athanasian Creed had heretofore been publicly said
daily1, not, as in the Roman Church, on Sundays
only. The Apostles' Creed was now to take its place
1 Brev. Sar. K-ubr. ad Prim.
304 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. IV.
in this respect, having hitherto been said privately,
except the two last clauses ; and thus it naturally ob-
tained an earlier position than heretofore.
It is curious, and a fresh indication of the Oriental
origin of our older Offices, that in them (viz. in Prime)
the Athanasian Creed occupies precisely the same posi-
tion as the Nicene Creed does in the Eastern Noc-
turns, (p. 107,) viz. immediately after the Psalms ; and,
indeed, after the selfsame Psalm, the practical 119th.
This circumstance may well suggest to us that we
should use our daily Creed as summing up, or rather
as rounding up and completing, of all Divine truth
that has come before us in the previous part of the
service, in the Psalms no less than in the other Scrip-
tures. It speaks, too, of that basing of all Christian
practice upon Divine facts, which is the very differ-
entia between the Gospel and all mere philosophy or
morality.
On the whole, I conceive that we may, without any
unreal assumption, or any straining of the facts of
the case, deal with our Offices as designedly and con-
sciously representing the ancient ones ; to whose po-
sition as national Offices of ordinary worship, they
have in all respects succeeded. In virtue of that real
and genuine descent, they inherit a finely-conceived
general structure, as well as a profound significance
of details, which a newly-originated office, unless dic-
tated by almost superhuman or apostolic wisdom,
would be very unlikely to possess. To speak at pre-
sent of general structure only. The chief points to be
borne in mind in using the services under this aspect
are such as the following. That the whole offices are
in their primary conception an act of praise, of wor-
ship of the Great King, of which the key-note is struck
sect, l] morning and evening prayer. 305
by the Invitatory Psalm of the morning. That, how-
ever, this act of praise is very varied in its expression,
character, and topics. That, accordingly, while Psalms,
Canticles, and Invocations are the more immediate
vehicles of it, it yet waits to be duly chastened, in-
formed, and directed to particular objects, by particu-
lar provisions in the service : chastened by confession,
and other penitential features, informed by Holy
Scripture, directed to single Divine truths or attri-
butes, or to the whole body of truth ; and again, to
circumstances in man's condition, special or universal.
That in the older offices, from the earliest and apos-
tolic down to the latest forms of them, and those of
our own Church in particular, distinct provision was
made for all these various accidents, so to speak, of the
essential action, praise ; as well as for due accompani-
ments of prayer and intercession. That the functions,
however, of Matins, Lauds, and Prime, and again of
Vespers and Compline, being not in their nature sepa-
rated from each other by rigid lines, nor so discrimi-
nated in early times, are capable of being exercised
together or by turns in one whole, such as our Matins
Office, or, again, our Evensong ; containing actually or
representatively, and for the most part in the same
order, the elements of the older ones.
3. The third aspect under which I proposed to
consider our Offices was that which has just been re-
ferred to, and which belongs to them as representing
in a brief compass whole tracts and departments of
ancient service. It is a result of their connection with
the ritual of former times, that while, owing to their
comparative brevity and simplicity, their treasures lie
strewn in abundance on the very surface of them, so
that they can hardly escape the notice even of the
x
306 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. iv.
most careless, and may be appropriated by the sim-
plest of worshippers ; yet for those who are led by
devotion, and qualified by knowledge, to enter into
their depths, they open out into "a deep that lieth
under," into vast fields of ritual and spiritual wealth.
Our ritual, in short, is a microcosm, — I had almost
said a system of microcosms. Both as a whole, and
in its several parts, it reveals, on careful inquiry, a
fulness and minuteness of organization, which go
far to render its brevity a matter of secondary im-
portance.
In this consideration is to be found, to a great de-
gree, the true answer to objections which have been
alleged, from directly opposite points of view, against
the existing status, in point of fulness, of the English
Offices. I speak not now of the different degrees of
leisure of different persons, but of the varying ideal
which they entertain of this kind of service. Our
Offices are by many deemed far too long, by others
far too short. There are those who, in spite of them-
selves, find them formal and wearisome. But this is,
doubtless, in most cases, because they have not a suffi-
cient conception of the full and interesting mental and
spiritual occupation which every part of them, rightly
understood, supplies. As St. Jerome says : " Breve
videbitur tempus, quod tantis operum varietatibus oc-
cupatur." And the same consideration may well re-
deem these services from the charge of essential per-
functoriness or brevity. For so great is the range
of topics concentrated into them ; so pregnant are
they with baptismal, and above all with Eucharistic
associations ; so linked on by their contents to the
whole Church of the past and of the present, of
the East and West, and by their tenor to the whole
SECT. I.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 307
contexture of the Christian life ; that, looking to the
inner reality of things, they leave little in point of es-
sential fulness and largeness to desire. Time, indeed,
may sometimes well be craved for dwelling more at
length on their varied contents, and for drawing out
at greater leisure the fulness of their deep-lying sig-
nificance. But even this is in a great measure sup-
plied, wherever, as at our cathedrals, and now in not
a few parochial churches, the musical presentation of
our services is more or less fully given. Among other
high purposes which that mode of performing them
answers is this, of prolonging as well as deepening the
mental act whereby we enter into their meaning.
Thus does a brief but anciently connected ritual, such
as that of the English Church, expand with the desires
of those who use it ; like the tent of oriental fable,
which might at pleasure be grasped in the hand, or
spread out to be the covering of a multitude of nations.
SECTION II.
"Receive ye the Holy Ghost: ■whosesoever sins ye remit, they are
remitted unto them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are re-
tained."
" Now then are we ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech
you by us : we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."
It only remains to pass under review the details of
our Offices of Morning and Evening Prayer. In so
doing we shall in part be recapitulating the results of
the preceding investigation, but shall also touch upon
various points not included within it.
x 2
308 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. iv.
I will first remark, that the simplest view to take of
the distribution of our Office into parts is that which
makes it to consist of one introductory and three sub-
stantial portions ; the introductory extending from
the sentences to the end of the Absolution, or to the
Lord's Prayer ; the first division of the service proper,
from the Lord's Prayer to the end of the Psalms ; the
next, from the First Lesson to the second Canticle,
inclusive ; the last, from the Creed to the end. But
this, though the simplest and most convenient divi-
sion, and in one point of view a correct one, must not
be so entertained as to keep out of sight the real
blending into one whole, which properly belongs to
the service. There are in reality no hard and rigid
lines of separation and demarcation in it. We may,
indeed, for convenience' sake, group the service into
Psalms, Lessons, and Prayers, and take these groups
as embodying in a more especial manner the three
great ideas of Praise, Knowledge, and Pleading, re-
spectively. But, as we have seen, neither are the
Psalms, the chief instruments of praise, to be disso-
ciated from knowledge, nor the lessons or the prayers
from praise. The older forms, again, of Matins, Lauds,
&c, suggest altogether another way of looking at the
service. What is desirable, therefore, is that the mind
be kept open to these various modes of conception,
without being absolutely tied down to any. We shall
do well to avail ourselves of them, in so far as they
conduce to clearness, but lay them aside when they
tend to deprive the services of that play and freedom
which is proper to them.
On one portion of the services, however, it will be
necessary to speak somewhat more at length than on
the rest. Of the Penitential Introduction, as such,
SECT. II.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 309
I have already had occasion to speakk, and to point out
that it is in full accordance with the ancient Eastern
phase of these services, and possibly with that which
originally prevailed in this country l. The form of it,
however, its origin, and the purpose which it was in-
tended to answer, are points which call for more parti-
cular consideration. The germ, then, and indeed the
substantial part of it, is, I conceive, beyond all question,
traceable to the older forms of the English Church.
Eirst, as to the Confession and Absolution. Those
of the old Prime and Compline Offices had, by Car-
dinal Quignon, whose revision of the Roman Offices
in 1535 furnished in a great measure the idea of our
own, been prefixed m to the Matins Office. There was,
therefore, sufficient precedent and suggestion for com-
mencing both daily Offices with a similar form. Next,
the old formulary was, as has been already pointed
out, (p. 104,) primarily a deprecation of God's judg-
ment in respect of any imperfection in the perform-
ance of the service, whether on the part of clergy or
people. Now such, too, is expressly the more imme-
diate design of our form : " Though we ought at all
times to acknowledge our sins before God, yet ought
we most chiefly so to do when we assemble and meet
together," &c. And again, the particular thing de-
sired by the whole is, " that those things may please
Him which we do at this present;" i.e. doubtless the
service we are offering11, or about to offer. If our form
k p. 72. i p. 240.
m This, which was done in his second edition, appears to have es-
caped general observation. For a brief account of Quignon's revision,
see Palmer, i. p 228 ; Procter, p. 22.
n The Prayer-book translated into French for the use of the Channel
Islands, (in 1549 and 1552; see Procter, p. 33,) well renders "le culte
que nous lui offrirons." So Comber, in his paraphrase ; " That is, our
310
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. IV.
is also, by its tenor, of wider extent, — "Let us be-
seech Him to grant us true repentance and His Holy
Spirit, that, &c, and that the rest of our life hereafter
may be pure and holy," — such also is the tenor, and
such, we may say, the very words, of the older form :
" Spatinm verce pwnitentice, gratium et consolationem
Sancti Spirit/is .... tribuat omnipotens et misericors
Dominus." Our form adds, " so that at the last we
may come to His eternal joy." The old form had
already said, " et ad vitam perducat eternam. Amea."
But besides this identity of purpose and language, we
may observe one or two other indications pointing to
the same conclusion. The full expression, " absolution
and remission of their sins," is exactly the " absolu-
tionem et remissionem .... peccatorum vestrorum,"
and would of itself suffice, perhaps was designed, to
identify the new form with the old. Again, the old
form was said interchangeably, with the exception of
the last clause, by priest and people0. Now to this
there is, I conceive, a clear allusion in the title of the
Absolution, " to be pronounced by the priest alone."
This is very commonly, but without the slightest rea-
son, supposed to design the exclusion of a deacon from
saying the Absolution. It is infinitely improbable
that the possibility of his doing so ever crossed the
absolution, our prayers, and all the other duties which we do at this
present perform in His house."
0 The outline of the entire form was : "Priest. 'I confess to God . . .
and beseech . . . you all to pray for me.' Choir. ' Almighty God have
mercy upon you,5 (vestri, Sar. ; ltd, Rom. Vide Maskell, Anc. Lit. p. 6,)
' and forgive you all your sins, deliver you from all evil ; preserve and
confirm you in what is good, and bring you to eternal life. Amen.' Choir.
' I confess,' &c. Priest. ' Almighty God have mercy, &c. . . . eternal life.
Absolution and remission of all your sins, space for true repentance,
amendment of life, the grace and consolation of the Holy Spirit, may
the almighty aud merciful God grant unto you. Amen.' "
SECT, n.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
311
Revisers' minds. It refers, doubtless, in part, as
Wheatly, &c., take it, to the preceding rubric, order-
ing the Confession to be said by all. But it is impro-
bable that it would have been thought necessary to
add, in this place only, the word " alone," to the title,
"Absolution, &c, to be pronounced by the priest,"
but for some risk there was, or was conceived to be,
of a misunderstanding. Now such was very likely to
arise in the minds of those who knew and were accus-
tomed to the old Offices ; for there, as has been said,
the people (or choir rather) had been used to desire
pardon for the priest, no less than he for them. It
would not have comported with the congregational
aims of the Revisers to retain the old choral inter-
change of acknowledgments ; they therefore expressly
provided against the continuance of it by this word
in the rubric.
To the same cause is probably to be attributed a
peculiar expression in the original and proper form of
our Absolution : " Wherefore we beseech Him," &c,
(and so the Primer and Orarium, 1559 and 1560,)
altered at the last revision to " let us beseech." As
it stood at first, it would preserve in a measure the old
community of action and mutual intercession between
priest and people. It has been thought by some that
our present form cannot be intended to convey a par-
don, but merely to announce the existence of such
pardon, and to invite the people to pray for it. Had
this been its intention, however, it would doubtless
have been followed by a prayer to that effect, which
it is not. And in truth we see that originally no such
invitation was expressed. It was rather a wish or
desire arising out of what went before, equivalent to
"may God therefore grant us true repentance," &c. ;
312 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. IV.
and so corresponded precisely to the latter part of the
old form : " God grant you .... space for true re-
pentance, . . . amendment of life, and the grace of
His Holy Spirit." Only with us it assumes in the
priest's mouth the plural form, herein returning to
the Eastern original of all : " God have mercy on us,
and pity us all through His grace." (See p. 102.)
The two great clauses into which our Absolution
falls are in themselves some evidence of its derivation
from the similarly constituted older formula; only
there has been some interchange of ideas and expres-
sions. All objections which have been urged against
the possibility of our form being intended for a ge-
nuine absolution, on the ground that the latter part
of it goes on to desire the gift of " true repentance,"
&c, would lie equally against the older form, which
desires the same things in the same position, viz. after
the precatory and absolving portions. The truth is,
that what is desired in both cases, after absolution
prayed for or pronounced, is the grace of perse-
verance, and of genuine fruits of repentance.
Thus does the older form, in those points in which
our own is indebted to it, throw great light upon the
latter, instructing us in what manner we should un-
derstand a portion of it, otherwise somewhat ambigu-
ous. It may be added, that the more elevated turn
given to the last clause, " may come to His eternal
joy!' as compared with the old " ad vitam perducat
eternam," not improbably represents the joyful inter-
change of versicles and responses which followed the
old absolution : — V. " God, Thou wilt turn again and
quicken us." R. " And Thy people shall rejoice in
Thee," &c.
But while our Morning and Evening Absolution is
RBCT.II.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 313
distinctly traceable to this extent to the old Prime
and Compline form, it is no less plain that it differs
from it in the mould into which the absolving part
is cast : the old form being throughout a prayer or
desire ; while the significant part of ours is an an-
nouncement or declaration. There is little difficulty,
as it would seem, in pointing either to the source
whence this changed form was derived, or the motive
for adopting it. As to the former point, there is in
a Latin Service-Book published for the use of the
German refugees in this country, about the year
1550p, a declaratory absolution which we can hardly
doubt suggested the phraseology of our own ; though
this is probably the only point in which this introduc-
tion was indebted to foreign reformers. In it occur
the expressions : —
" . . „ desirest not the death of a sinner, but rather that he
should be converted and live .... [and that] He may entirely
pardon and abolish, all their sins for all them that truly repent
to all of you, I say, who are thus minded, I pronounce (or declare,
denuncio) on the faith of the promise of Christ, that all your sins
are forgiven in heaven by God our Father . . . We beseech Thee
that Thou wouldst give us Thy Holy Spirit . . . that Thy holy
law may in all our life be expressed?."
We may especially note, besides the pervading
resemblance in other respects, the irregularity of
* By John a Lasco the Pole, an intimate friend of Cranmer. See
Procter, p. 44; Clay, ut supr. : Laurence.. Bampton Lect., p. 210.
i See the original Latin, Procter, p. 44. This form was, it is true, as
we shall see presently, based throughout upon certain old formulse of
confession and absolution : which is the secret indeed of many resem-
blances between our forms and those of foreign bodies ;— but its order
and phraseology are so singularly those of our own form, that I cannot
doubt, after the fullest consideration, that it was here that our Revisers
found the old elements put together for them in the shape which they
adopted.
314 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [cHAr. IV.
construction, which required the insertion, "to all
of you, I say;" strongly reminding us of our very
similar suspended clause : " Almighty God Who
desireth not . ... He pardoneth," &c. But the most
important point is the authoritative pronunciation of
pardon based on Christ's promise to His Ministers
that His Father in heaven would ratify their acts of
this kind. For there is a plain and unquestionable
allusion, in the words, " that your sins are forgiven
in heaven by God the Father," to St. Matth. xviii.
18, 19 : " Whatsoever ye shall bind, &c. . . , . oi my
Father which is in heaven." This Absolution, then,
somewhat stronger and more distinct in its terms than
our own, but otherwise a twin formula with it, most
clearly, and as it were authoritatively, (if our obliga-
tion to it be admitted,) interprets for us the earlier,
as the old Latin forms do the latter part of our ab-
solution. And it entirely bears out the view enter-
tained by Comber and others as to the construction
of it. According to them, there is first the opening
of the ministerial commission, " Almighty God ....
who hath given power," &c. ; equivalent merely to
the assertion that " God hath given such powerr," &c.
Next, a solemn exercise of this power towards all pre-
sent and duly qualified persons, (compare a Lasco's,
"To all of you I say who are thus minded, I de-
clare,") by a minister understood to be so commis-
sioned8; and then lastly follows the wish or recom-
r So Comber in his paraphrase : " Be it known unto you .... that
Almighty God .... He whose prerogative it is to acquit or condemn,
hath solemnly sworn , . ; . and to confirm this, hath given power."
■ Comber: "Know ye, therefore, that we are authorised in Gods
Name, to bring to such this message of absolution .... and by virtue
of the power and in obedience to the command given us by God, we do
note proclaim" &c.
SECT. II.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 315
mendation, already illustrated out of the old forms,
on the subject of persevering repentance. Thus from
two widely different sources, but both alike familiar
to our Revisers, we seem to obtain a firmly based
construction, in lieu of any merely conjectural one,
to put upon our daily Absolution.
The only remaining question is as to the object of
thus departing from the older structure. With what
view did the Revisers, while taking the old forms as
a guide, thus innovate after the example of the foreign
form just examined, upon the previous cast of the
absolution ? Now, that it was not through any shrink-
ing from the old precatory form, is manifest from
hence, that in the Communion Office they translated
and adopted, with little variation, the very form in
question. The reason then of the change probably
was, that they desired to give to the public daily ab-
solution that form which would most completely adapt
it for superseding, in all ordinary cases, private con-
fession and absolution. The particular thing which
would need in the first place to be set forth for the
satisfaction of persons accustomed to that practice
hitherto, was that the Divine pardon was capable of
being effectually and sufficiently conveyed to all truly
penitent persons confessing their sins to God ("to
His people being penitent"), through the public minis-
trations of a duly commissioned order of ministers ;
without insisting on that private laying open of the
heart to man which had hitherto been deemed neces-
sary. The preamble then of our form of absolution
was designed, as it should seem, as a protest against
a favourite opinion with Roman canonists, that public
absolutions do not reckon for much, or are applicable
only to venial sins. And it was only a natural sequel
316
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. IV.
to this, that the absolving formula should take the
authoritative and declaratory, not the precatory form.
For that was exactly the distinction as to form be-
tween the public and private absolutions then in use,
as we shall see presently. It will at the same time
appear, that for making such public and general use
of the private and authoritative forms, there was al-
ready a distinct precedent in the usages of the Eng-
lish Church.
This is not the place for vindicating at length the
view upon which our Revisers would thus seem to
have proceeded. It may suffice to remark, that it was
undoubtedly the tendency of the later ages of the
Church, in the West more especially, to narrow, in
a manner unknown to earlier times, the application
of pardoning grace to the soul of man through the
Church's ministrations. There is not the slightest
appearance, in the most ancient rituals, of the de-
pendence of man, as a condition of the Divine for-
giveness, upon the entire privity of his fellow-man
as to the state of his heart. The ancient view mani-
festly was that which speaks in the absolutionary form
which we have been considering; viz. that while the
message of pardon has from the beginning been com-
mitted to mortal lips, the bestowal of it by them was
meant to be free as the breath of heaven itself. It
is therefore committed to them that they may fling it
abroad, not jealously narrow and husband its appli-
cation. The lightest word spoken in His Master's
Name by such a duly commissioned ambassador, is
with power, — his every prayer for his fellow-men has
a peculiar promise of being accepted and ratified.
Whether this ministration of his be public or private,
whether in the form of a desire, a petition, or a deck-
sect. II.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
317
ration, matters nothing to its efficacy ; for, in all forms
alike, it waits on the same heavenly ratification. All
that is needed is that there be fit, i.e. truly re-
pentant recipients of it ; that secured, wheresoever it
touches, it blesses and heals. Not as though the
private opening of griefs and receiving of assured
pardon has not its own peculiar power for comfort,
as the Exhortation in our Communion Office fully
recognises ; but that that is the extraordinary and
occasional, this the ordinary and indefeasible minis-
tration. The following prayer of absolution from an
ancient Eastern Communion Office will at once ex-
emplify the views here stated, and supply an illustra-
tion and almost a paraphrase of our present form : —
Prayer of Absolution to the Son, in the Coptic Liturgy
of St. Basil K
" O Lord Jesu Christ, the Only-Begotten Son, the Word of God
the Father, Who by Thy salutary and life-giving passion hast
burst in sunder all the chains of our sins ; Who didst breathe on
the faces of Thine Holy Apostles, saying unto them, ' Receive ye
the Holy Ghost : whose sins soever ye remit, they are remitted
unto them ; and whose sins soever ye retain, they are retained ;'
Thou hast also, 0 Lord, made choice, by the same Thine Apostles,
of those that should always discharge the Office of the Priest-
hood in Thy Holy Church, to the end that they may remit sins
upon the earth, and bind and loose all the bonds of iniquity.
We pray and beseech Thy goodness, O Thou lover of men, for
Thy servants our fathers, our brethren, and our own infirmity,
who now bow down our heads before Thy holy glory : shew us
1 Neale, Gen. Introd., p. 389. It is curious, as completing the pa-
rallel suggested in the text, that by the same arbitrary distinction as
in the West, this form "was not considered," at one time, " of sacra-
mental efficacy, but simply as designed for the remission of venial sins :
till auricular confession was for a time abandoned ; and then this prayer
was supposed to suuply its place." Neale, ibid.
318 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. rv.
Thy loving-kindness and burst all the chains of our sins. And
if we have offended against Thee by knowledge or ignorance, or
by hardness of heart, by word, by deed, or by weakness, do
Thou, 0 Lord, which knowest the frailty of man, which art
gracious, and the lover of men, give unto us the remission of our
sins : bless us and purify us, absolve us and all Thy people : fill
us with Thy fear, and direct us into Thy holy and gracious will ;
for Thou art our God, and to Thee, with Thy good Father and
the Holy Ghost, all honour and glory is now and evermore to be
ascribed."
The same design of substituting in all ordinary-
cases public for private confession and absolution,
which we have seen influencing the cast of the latter,
would naturally suggest the working up of the well-
known contents of the private forms as materials for
the public ones. This accordingly appears to have
been done to some extent. Thus the ancient and
customary form of private absolution was (as has
been already remarked) authoritative and declaratory,
as follows : —
" Our Lord Jesus Christ of His great goodness absolve thee,"
&c, and " I by the authority of the same God and Lord Jesus
Christ committed unto me, absolve thee from all those sins
which, being contrite in heart, thou hast confessed to me"."
Compare "Almighty God, the Father of our Lord Jesus, who
desireth not, &c, and hath given power and commandment to
His ministers to declare and pronounce to His people, being
penitent, absolution ... of their sins. He . . . absolveth all
them that truly repent," &c. ; together with the exhortation to
" confess our sins with a penitent heart."
The only addition in our form (viz. " who desireth
not," &c.) is supplied by one of the customary prayers
preceding private absolution : " Who hast said I
■ From the Manuale Sarisb., a form of very ancient use in the Eng-
lish Church. It will be found with others here referred to, in Lumley's
" Companion to Confession and Communion," translated from the Eng-
lish Sarum Offices, p. 21, &c.
SECT. II.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
319
would not the death of a sinner, but rather that he
should be converted and live \"
Our Confession, again, is emphatically entitled "A
general confession to be said of the whole congrega-
tion," probably in contradistinction to these private
forms. One of them, called the "Orison of David," &c,
opens with the same idea as ours : " 0 Lord .... be
intent unto us, who all as sheep have gone astray,
who are all dying creatures." Now this seems to fix
for us in a deeply interesting manner the allusion in-
tended in " we have erred and strayed like lost sheep."
It is not a mere quotation from Ps. cxix. ult., or
Is. liii. 6, but rests, as those passages themselves
probably do, on the archetypal fact of David's sin in
numbering the people, which is the subject of this
"Orison," (" I have sinned, and I have done wickedly;
but these sheep, what have they done ?" &c. ; see
1 Sam. xxiv. 17;) and this is the probable key to
the profoundly penitential character of our confession;
viz. that it is thus based upon a private form of such
deep intensity. To this too may possibly be traced
in part the adoption of such strong language in the
Exhortation, as " manifold sins and wickedness ;" for
the prayer alluded to proceeds : " It is I who have
sinned: it is I who have done wickedly. O Lord,
lay not to heart my wickedness. I acknowledge my
sin," &c.
The next few clauses of our Confession seem plainly
based upon Rom. vii. 8 — 25; perhaps as an expan-
sion of the idea which comes next in the " Orison of
David," as above given, (" we are all dying creatures.")
The parallelism will be best seen in the following
comparison : —
x Vide Lumley, p. 11.
320 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. IV.
Confession.
We have followed too much
the devices and desires of our
own hearts.
We have offended against
Thy holy laws.
We have left undone those
things which we ought to have
done ;
We have done those things
which we ought not to have
done ;
And there is no health in us.
But Thou, 0 Lord, have
mercy upon us, miserable of-
fenders.
According to Thy promises,
declared unto mankind in Christ
Jesu our Lord.
Romans vii. 8 — 25.
Sin . . . wrought in me all
concupiscence.
The law is holy, . . But I
am carnal, sold under sin.
The good that I would I do
not:
But the evil which I would
not, that I do.
In me dwelleth no good
thing. O . . the body of this
death.
0 wretched man that I am !
who shall deliver me ?
1 thank God through Jesus
Christ our Lord.
The idea of sin as death, or as "the body of death,"
(Rom. vii. 24,) is the central one alike in the passage
of Romans and in the Confession. The division
of sins into those of omission and commission, the
former placed first, and the whole taking the form of
a confession, is found in this place of Scripture alone.
The epithet " miserable," or " wretched," (ra\aL7ra>-
pos,) applied to man as sinful, is also peculiar to this
passage, and was hence adopted in the old private
forms : " Have mercy upon me, and be favourable to
me a most miserable sinner y." It may be added, as
' Orison, &c. : Lumley, p. 11. Compare the whole context. " If
sick, Thou canst heal me ; if dead and buried, Thou canst quicken me
. . . Regard not therefore the multitude of my iniquities, but have mercy
upon me, and be favourable to me a most miserable sinner. Say unto
my soul, I am thy salvation, Who hast said, I would not the death of
a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live."
SECT. II.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 321
corroborating the view that this part of the Confes-
sion is a paraphrase of a whole passage of Scrip-
ture, that the particular phrase towards the close of
it, " But Thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us," was
the customary and universal one all over the West,
at the end of the short passages of Scripture which
formed the lections at Matins, (" Tu autem, Domine,
miserere nostri ;") unless they were taken from the
Prophets, when the phrase was, "Thus saith the
Lord." And we have proof of a habit existing in
the English Church long before, of framing private
prayers, at any rate, by paraphrasing Scripture, in
the " Orison of David ;" and indeed in the other
forms I have referred to. Finally, the remainder of
the Confession, " Spare Thou them, 0 God, which
confess, .... restore Thou them that are penitent, ....
that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and
sober life," finds its counterpart in another private
form, called the " Orison of the Priest and of the Peni-
tent V just as our Confession is " to be said of the
whole congregation after the Minister." It concludes,
" Spare Thou them that confess ; that by Thy help
. . . returning from the ways of error to the paths of
righteousness, they may possess what Thy grace hath
bestowed, and Thy mercy hath restored."
It may be well, by way of answer to different classes
of objections, no less than for the sake of a juster con-
ception of this Confession, thus to have pointed out
how it is based to all appearance, 1. on ancient and
usual forms of the English Church ; and 2. through
them, on an extensive and profound combination of
Holy Scripture. And it is by taking these passages
of Scripture along with us in using the Confession, —
1 Lumley, p. 19.
r
322 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. IV.
more especially the searching and humbling expres-
sions from Rom. vii., in their order, — that we shall
most fully enter into the mind of it.
Of the Sentences and Exhortation a slightly dif-
ferent account must be given. Yet these too represent,
in a far greater degree than is generally imagined, old
established devotional ways and forms of the English
Church. First, two of the old English Offices, (not
of the Roman,) one in the morning and one in the
evening, viz. Lauds and Compline, commenced with
a single penitential verse a of a Psalm ; only in the
form of a versicle and response, coming before the
usual opening, " 0 God make speed," &c. It is just
possible that this may have suggested the idea of
the Sentences. Next, a form of exhortation to confes-
sion and repentance, preparatory to absolution, was a
regular part of the old English Visitation of the Sick;
and it would have been perfectly analogous to the
general design of our Revisers (as above described) in
this part of the office, had they on this ground alone
introduced such an exhortation in this place. But in
truth a public Exhortation, in English, followed by
a form of confession and absolution, and forming
an introduction to a Service of the Church, (viz. the
Communion,) was already in use, apparently when-
ever there were communicants, in some parts, at least,
of the English Church \ And while the earlier part
* Viz. Lauds, on week-days, "Let Thy mercy, O Lord, be upon
us," &c. And Compline, " Turn us, 0 God our Saviour, and let Thine
anger cease from us." This was never omitted but on Easter-eve and
Easter-day.
b The form is given by Maskell, vol. iii. p. 348. The earlier part
ran thus: "Good men and women, I charge you by the authority
of holy Church, that no man nor woman that this day proposes to be
communed, (communicated,) go not to God's board, unless that he
believe stedfastly, &c, and that he be of his sins clean confessed, and
SECT. II.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 323
of it is the manifest original 0 of our present Exhorta-
tion before Communion, the few concluding words
no less clearly shew that from hence, and not from
any novel or foreign source, the whole idea and
method d of our daily Exhortation was derived. For
it thus concludes : " Furthermore, . . , that he be of
his sins clean confessed, and for them contrite. Also
ye shall kneel down, saying after me. . . ." Next
came a confession in English ; then (in Latin) the
ordinary public Misereatur and Absolution, and the
authoritative form used in private absolution, as above
given : " Our Lord Jesus Christ of His great mercy
absolve you .... and by the authority .... I ab-
solve," &c. It hence appears there was already actual
precedent in the English Church, with reference to
the Communion Office, for that bringing into the
sanctuary of the private and authoritative form of
absolution, and that conversion of it into a general
and public ministration, which at our Eevision was
adopted in the daily services.
For the materials, again, of such an Exhortation to
penitence, it would be natural to turn to the offices
for Ash- Wednesday, and for Lent. Now on that day,
by an arrangement peculiar to it, a regular address or
exhortation on the topics of the season — not, as was
often the case, a passage from a homily — formed the
three lections at Matins. It commenced, as was
indeed very usual, with "Dearly beloved brethren,"
for them contrite. Also ye shall kneel down upon your knees, saying
after me, ' I cry God mercy.' " &c.
c Maskell, ubi supr.
d One turn in it is traceable to Abp. Hermann: ,:It is agreeable to
godliness, that as often as we appear before the Lord, before all things
we should acknowledge and confess our sins, and pray for remission of
the same." (Sec Procter, p. 1S7.) Yet compare too the Lenten homily
from St. Leo, to be quoted presently.
Y 2
324 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap.it.
("Fratres charissimi, or dilectissimi,") and was mainly
a cento of suitable passages of Scripture. On the
next Wednesday, reckoned the first Wednesday in
Lent, (as indeed on other days of the season,) there
was a very similar homily from St. Leo. In it occur
the following expressions, which seem the manifest
original of a part of our Exhortation. " For although,
dearly beloved, there is no time which is not full of
the divine gifts ; and we have always access afforded
us, through God's grace, to His mercy," (compare
" accompany me to the throne of the heavenly grace,")
"yet now ought all our minds to be moved, ....
more zealously, .... when," &c, &c. Other pro-
minent features of the Lent services, were the fixed
Capitula, daily said at the hours from Lauds to
Vespers ; and the penitential Psalms also, said every
day, one at each office. Now on these hints there is
considerable appearance of our Sentences and Exhorta-
tion having been framed. The Lenten Capitula were
all penitential texts from the Prophets. So also are
the Sentences, so far as they are taken from the Old
Testament. And with a single exception, they are all
but identical with those Capitula : or else are taken
from the penitential Psalms. Thus we have for the
first of the Sentences, as they stood originally, a com-
position, rather than a quotation, from Ezek. xviii. :
" At what time soever a sinner doth repent him of his
sin from the bottom of his heart, I will put all his
wickedness out of My remembrance, saith the Lord."
(Ver. 27 was substituted for this in 1662.) Now
this same chapter of Ezekiel (ver. 20) furnished
the fixed week-day Capitulum at Vespers throughout
Lent6. The Capitulum for the sixth hour was nearly
• Brev. Sar. Fer. ii. Hebd. i. Quadrag.
SECI. ii.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 325
the same ; viz. " Let the wicked forsake," &c. Our
next Sentence from the Prophets (Joel ii. 13, " Rend
your hearts," &c.) furnished the week-day Capitulum
at Lauds through the same season, and also the re-
sponsory to the second lesson on Ash-Wednesday f.
Another, from Jeremiah x. 24, (" Correct me, 0 Lord,")
is nearly identical with the well-known "Domine
ne in iias," the responsory at beginning of this season.
The remaining Sentence from Dan. ix. is probably due
to some similar association. Passages are added from
the penitential Psalms, especially three from the great
central one, the 51st ; and others follow from the New
Testament. These Sentences then being prefixed, the
Exhortation which follows is in its earlier part little
else than a cento formed out of them in the order
of their occurrence ; just as the Ash-Wednesday ad-
dress is out of similar passages on repentance. Por
we have represented to us in the beginning of the
Exhortation, as in the earlier Sentences, "our sins
and wickedness," (Ezek. xviii. , Ps. Ii. 3). Next, that
we should not " hide them from the face of God,"
(Ps. Ii. 9,) but " confess them with contrite hearts," (Ps.
Ii. 17; Joel ii. 13,) in order to obtain "forgiveness
through His goodness and mercy," (Joel ii. 13 ; Dan.
ix. 9). This, then, and not any design of meeting the
wants of various classes of penitents, as Comber
imagined, seems to be the probable rationale of these
Sentences. The remainder of them, being from the
New Testament, are perhaps intended to represent
in a general way the necessity of repentance under
the Gospel dispensation. The last, from 1 St. John i.,
' lb. Fer. iv. in capite Jejuiiii ad Laud. ; fer. ii. liebd. i. quadrag.
*d sext.
* Brev. Sar. Dom. i. post Oct. Epipli.
326 THE PRINCIPLES OP DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. IV.
is specially to this purpose ; that from St. Luke (" I
will arise,") seems aptly to represent the desire of the
adopted to retain their place, by forgiveness, in their
Father's house h. In the rest of the Exhortation occa-
sion is taken to set forth, as a means of steadying and
methodizing the thoughts of those present, the several
purposes which are proper to all acts of ordinary wor-
ship, and for which due provision is made in that
which follows. These are correctly characterized as,
1. to render thanks and praise to God ; a description
applying in truth to the whole service, but especially
to the compound scheme of Psalms, Lessons, and
Canticles ; 2. to hear His Holy Word, which is done
at the saying of Psalms and the reading of Lessons ;
3. to make request for all temporal and spiritual
needs.
On the whole, the Sentences and Exhortation may
be viewed in the light of a varying Capitulum or Text,
followed by a brief and unvarying homily on the parts
and objects of ordinary worship, especially on the
necessity of repentance as a preparative for it. It
should accordingly be listened to as suggestive of
mental prayer or desire for what may be called the
proper graces of Divine Service. And its effect as
designed to awaken a penitential feeling in particular,
will be greatly promoted if either the eye is allowed
to glance over the passages of Scripture on which it
is founded, or the mind be duly trained habitually to
associate those passages with it. When thus used,
far from being a superfluous feature in our Offices,
h This same sentence was prefixed as a versicle and response to the
aucient Spanish Communion Office, (Neale, Tetral., p. 3,) and indeed
seems to be the basis of the Western Conjileor, especially "I have
sinned against heaven and before Thee." Compare " I confess to God
. . . and to you, that I have sinned," &c.
SECT. II.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
327
much less an objectionable one, or alien to their
proper spirit, it may well be deemed a help to devo-
tion, than which nothing more effective, or more true
to the mind of the Church, has in these later ages
been devised : it is an exact and well-weighed invita-
tory to the act of public worship, such as would
not have discredited the thoughtful pen of St. Leo,
(from which indeed it seems partly to have proceeded,)
and is in singular accord with the ritual mind of the
earliest age. (See p. 73.)
I have only to add, that we possess in these Sen-
tences, or variable Capitula, as we may call them, one
of the few appliances which remain to us for setting
the tone of the service according to the season or day.
For this purpose, however, they are capable of becom-
ing far from inefficient instruments, thus compensating
for the absence of variety in our Invitatory. Their posi-
tion at the very outset of the service gives them per-
fect command over the whole of it, enabling them to
fix its character from the very first. They can indeed
only mark different degrees of penitence ; nor, all
things considered, and looking especially to the exam-
ple of the Eastern Church, can we wisely desire that,
even on Sundays or Festivals, the Office should alto-
gether part with this character. The Sentences from
the Prophets, then, as being old Lenten features, and
again those from the penitential Psalms, will fitly
characterize penitential seasons or days. The one
exception is Dan. ix. 9, 10, " To the Lord our God,"
&c, which, differing in origin, is also of a more cheer-
ful tone. This, therefore, with the New Testament
Sentences, is suitable for Sundays and Festivals, or
ordinary days ; St. Matthew iii. 2, perhaps, to Advent.
328
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. iv.
SECTION III.
"0 sing praises, sing praises unto our God; sing praises, sing
praises unto our King. For God is the King of all the earth; sing
ye praises with understanding."
The Lord's Prater, which follows the Absolution,
having first become a feature of the public Office at
the Revision, it may be considered somewhat doubt-
ful whether we ought to reckon it in the intro-
ductory portion, or as the commencement of the
service itself; which certainly was anciently held to
begin with' "0 Lord, open," &c. In the Eastern
ordinary offices (p. 66) it was also part of the intro-
duction. It is perhaps best, therefore, so to consider
it still. The design, however, with which it was first
made to preface all ordinary, and perhaps all Commu-
nion Offices k also, was probably not so much (like the
penitential prefaces) by way of preparation, as (1) to
pay due honour to our Lord's own Prayer, and (2)
that it might serve as a summary of all the succeed-
ing acts of worship. Por such would seem to be the
original character of it1. It is a matter of ancient
observation that this Prayer furnishes in a measure
the outline of Eucharistic Service m, having its act of
praise and thanksgiving, and also its act of pleading
and prayer ; the mention of " daily bread" serving to
' Brev. Sar. Mat. de Adv. Dicat sacerdos Pater Noster et Ave Maria.
Postea sacerdos incipiat servitiuin hoc modo, Douiine labia, &c.
* See Part II. chap, on Primitive Liturgy.
1 See Note K.
m Greg. Nyssen, de Orat. Domini 2.
SECT. III.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 329
complete the parallel". It would no less fitly take
its place, as a summary, at the beginning of ordinary
Offices. It may well be used therefore with this re-
ference. The first three clauses are a great act of
praise, corresponding to and representing all that is
more fully done afterwards by Psalms, Canticles re-
sponsive to reading, and the addresses at the com-
mencement, or doxologies at the close, of collects and
prayers. The central petition, " Give us this day our
daily bread," will have special application to the re-
ception of Divine knowledge through the Lessons
and Psalms. The remaining petitions will be a sum-
mary of all prayer and intercession. The doxology
at the close, used here only in the office, is greatly to
be prized, as possessed by us alone among Western
Churches. It also serves to impart to this Divine
summary of our worship, as the General Thanks-
giving does to the Office itself, the dominant and per-
vading aspect of praise.
The opening versicle and answer, " 0 Lord, open,"
&c, should be used (see p. 116) as the link between
our penitential preface and the act of worship itself;
its humbling character, as being taken from Ps. li.,
being also duly remembered. The next, " O God
make speed," &c, has a no less penitential connec-
tion with Ps. lxx.
With the " Glory be," &c, the Praise of the Office
commences. There is no reason whatever to suppose
with Mr. Palmer (i. 220) that, as occurring here, it was
originally no more than the termination of the 70th,
or some other introductory Psalm; since it has the
same independent position at the beginning of the
Eastern Offices, (pp. 66, 112). Far from being a mere
n See St. Augustine, referred to in note G,
330
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [ciiap. IV.
appendage to something else, and the result of accident,
it is designedly set on high to proclaim the object of
our entire act of worship, as the Lord's Prayer is to
sum up its contents.
It has already been explained 0 that our versicle and
response, " Praise ye, &c, The Lord's Name," &c,
represents for us both the Alleluia and the Invitatory.
The entire dropping out of the former, in its Hebrew
form, from our services, is much to be regretted. Of
the latter I have spoken in the place referred to.
The Venite itself, as an Invitatory Psalm, it is
difficult to estimate too highly, whether on the score
of the antiquity and universality with which it has
ever supplied throughout the Christian world the key-
note of all ordinary worship, or for its perfect suit-
ableness to answer that purpose. Its claims on the
latter score have for the most part been but partially
realized. It is not merely that, in common with many
other Psalms, it invites to the worship of the Great
King; but that it goes on to exhibit so perfect a
portraiture, in terms of Israelitish history, of the frail
and erring, though redeemed and covenanted estate of
man. It is this that fits it to be a prelude to the
whole psalmody and worship of the day, whatever
its character ; since it touches with so perfect a felicity
the highest and lowest notes of the scale, that there is
nothing so jubilant or so penitential as not to lie
within the compass of it. The Church of old time
was not insensible to this, as has been before ob-
served5. It may appear from hence that nothing
could be more ill-advised than any idea of rejecting
or omitting, under any circumstances, this feature of
our Morning Office. I may add, that it is some coin-
0 p. 76. » p. 74.
SECT. III.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 331
pensation for whatever loss we sustain in the gene-
rally unvarying character of our Invitatory Psalm, that
this tends to put a singular degree of honour upon the
one Day in the year on which we lay it aside, the great
and supreme Festival of Easter. It is not that at
other times we fail to acknowledge Christ as the
Great King, One with the Father and the Holy Spirit ;
but that the one piece of heavenly tidings which we
recognise as making Christian praise itself more Chris-
tian still, and so claiming to supersede our ordinary
Invitatory, is that " Christ is risen from the dead, and
become the first-fruits of them that slept*1." The
omission of the Venite as an Invitatory when it
occurs in the ordinary course of the Psalms, which
has sometimes been animadverted on as a novelty,
was customary throughout the West r. It anciently
occurred as a proper Psalm for the Epiphany.
The chief thing to be borne in mind in the saying
or singing of the Psalms is, that we are now fairly
embarked on our great enterprise of Praise. With
that thought in the mind we can scarcely go wrong ;
only let us at the same time bear in mind the lesson
which the Eastern Offices in various ways so signifi-
cantly teach us, (as e. g. by the absence of all other
Lessons, and by following up the Psalms with the
Creed,) and which St. Basil points out as one use of
* A perfectly analogous usage prevails in the East. On Easter-day
alone, the Morning Office commences (see the Pentecostarion) with the
anthem or hymn, "Chkist is risen from the dead;" the wonderful
effect of which is described by a modem traveller (vide Neale, p. 878,
note). Hence, doubtless, was directly derived our old Easter-day usage ;
the Matins being prefaced by the anthem, " Christus resurgens, non
jam moritur," &c, with response and collect. Hence, finally, our present
usage referred to in the text.
' In Brev. Rom. the Psalm was still treated Tnvitatory-wise, but in
Sar. not so.
332
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. IV.
the alternate method of singing or saying, viz. that
they are also great media of knowledge, as well as of
praise, though that is doubtless their first function.
And with a moderate degree of thought and attention
we may also appropriate the advantages which the
older services possessed in their distinct and varied
treatment of the Psalms. Considered as flowing on-
ward and onward still in praise to God, all will have
a Matins or Vespers character. The want which can
scarcely fail to be felt here, is that of a greater body
and abundance of psalmody. Such Psalms, again, as
speak more especially of meditation on the Divine
law, of judgment, or of other topics associated of old
time with Matins and the nocturnal hour, may be used
in the same feeling still. Psalms of the Incarnation,
occurring in the Evening Office, will waken up the
spirit of the old Vespers, and anticipate the Magnificat.
Whatever Psalms, again, bear upon topics s proper to
Lauds, as the morning hour, the works of Creation,
the Resurrection ; or, again, the low estate of man,
and the penitential side of his being : all these may
be used accordingly. As many, once more, as are
practical and personal, Psalms speaking of Divine
guidance, or of human temptation and struggle; of
faith resting in God ; of the sorrows, Passion, and
deliverance of Christ ; all such may be to us, to all
intents and purposes, Psalms of Prime or Compline.
Of the degree of importance that can fairly be
attached at ordinary seasons to the absence of Anti-
phons from our Office I have already spoken *. It is
commonly represented that the Antiphon at all times
brought out, as a key-note, the meaning of the Psalm.
But this, especially in the case of the Matins and
■ pp. 131-2, 266. « pp. 120—123.
sect. III.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
333
Vespers Psalms, was far from being the case. The
antiphons for these offices were for the most part
totally incapable of answering any such purpose.
A fragment of the first verse; an echo of the last;
some ordinary devotional sentiment applicable to any
Psalm whatever ; or a verse, well selected enough in
its application to some one Psalm, but pointless when
applied (as on Sundays or at Compline) to some three
or four ; such are the most usual types of these much
coveted antiphons. And at speical seasons even, it
was to the season, not to the Psalms, that the anti-
phons were really harmonized and adapted. This of
course was desirable enough, considered as merely
calling to nuid ever and anon the associations of the
season ; but it is quite another thing from a skilful
bringing out of a given Psalm in its real application
to such and such a season or doctrine.
Yet the antiphon system, like the larger scheme
of services, is in a high degree suggestive as to the
manner of using the Psalms. It spoke of meditation
on the words used ; it recognised, though often it but
very ill brought to view, a leading significance as
belonging to each, and doctrinal references as under-
lying all. Whether it could ever be made a very
effectual instrument for the two former purposes may
be doubted; for the last-mentioned it might, as I
have already ventured to suggest", be found valuable
at the greater seasons. But the truth is, that the
antiphon idea, as to the essence of it, may become a
powerful instrument for stimulating and guiding the
devotional use of Psalms, without our having any
recourse to the introduction of the antiphons them-
selves. A large proportion of the Psalms have visible
■ p. 123.
334 THE PRINCIPLES OP DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. IV.
and determinate Christian associations, in virtue of
references made to them by our Lord Himself or by
His Apostles x; others are associated, by traditional
usage Avhich has descended to our own Church, with
doctrinal or other conceptions7. From these two
causes, there are about fifty Psalms which, in the
mind of any person fairly acquainted with Scripture,
and trained in the ways of the Church, wear a dis-
tinct Christian aspect, and will without any effort be
used as such ; and the number may easily be added
to. To a fairly catechised and instructed people, in
a word, the greater part of the Psalms are nobly and
effectually antiphoned already. It may be added, that
an ill-catechised one will remain blind to these bear-
ings of them, though provided with the most perfect
system of antiphons that could be devised.
And here we may remark on some compensating
advantages belonging to the cycle for saying the
Psalms which is peculiar to the English Church.
Owing to their revolving, not with the week, but
with the month, the Sundays, or other days of obser-
vation, on which there is naturally the greatest at-
tendance of worshippers, come in for all parts of the
Book of Psalms in turn : whereas in the old Western
cycle the same Psalms were said at Vespers and
Matins, as a general rule, on all the Sundays of the
year; and those not by any means selected, though
many of them (as ii. iii. viii. xv — xxi. cx — cxv.)
were appropriate enough, and the Lauds and Prime
offices added others equally so. But admitting this
to the utmost, it still remains that the Sunday psal-
1 See Bp. Home on the Psalms.
* See the table of proper Psalms for certain days ; the Offices for
the Visitation of the Sick, Matrimony, Burial of the Dead, Churching
of Women, Commination.
SECT, in.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
335
mody was narrow and confined in point of range.
Whatever of Eucharistic, or Resurrection, or other
high doctrinal allusion is scattered through the Psalms
at large, was absolutely excluded from use on the
great high day of Christian worship and assembly.
The same remark applies to the Saints' days : the
Psalms chosen were suitable enough, but never de-
viated from a narrowly selected few. The English
Church then, taking the year round, now feeds the
mass of her children in far wider and freer pastures
than of old, as regards the use of the Psalms, for
doctrinal purposes more especially. Her application
of them knows no other limit than that of the
Psalter itself. Her manner of treating the Psalms,
if less pointed and directly didactic, is more com-
prehensive ; and, it must be added, doubtless in
that degree more apostolic. The Eastern Churches,
by similar fixed applications, suffer the same kind
of loss as the Western, though not in the same
degree, since their weekly cycle varies at different
seasons of the yearz. The English Revision then
thoroughly succeeded in one of the objects proposed
by ita, viz. that of bringing the whole Psalter into
general use. One minor improvement was also ef-
fected at the same time, by bringing back the ancient
Western usage1' of saying the " Glory" at the end of
every Psalm, instead of, as in the Eastern use which
the English Church had inherited, at certain intervals
only in the Psalmody.
It has been thought, again, a disadvantage in the
present English method, that the " penitential Psalms,"
■ Vide Neale, Gen. Introd , p. 856.
* See the Preface " concerning the Service of the Church."
b Cassian.
33G THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. IV.
technically so called, are not removed, as in the old
Western scheme, from ordinary, and more especially
from Sunday and Festival use ; but have their place,
if it so chance, on those days, like any other Psalms.
The same remark is made on the use of the Lauds
or other jubilant Psalms on penitential days. But
the truth is, that the design of eliminating either the
penitential or the jubilant element from the Book of
Psalms, by way of adapting them to festival or peni-
tential use, is alike impracticable and undesirable, and
indeed was only partially attempted even in the West.
It is impracticable by reason of the constitution of the
Psalms themselves, which, like that of human nature,
even under the conditions of grace, whose language
they speak, is necessarily and inextricably mixed as
to its elements. The East knows not — the Apostolic
Church, we may with some confidence say, never
knew — of any such elimination. On the contrary,
as we have seen, the selection of the Lauds Hexa-
psalmusc, in equal proportions of jubilant and peni-
tential, (followed in a measure by the West,) marks
the ancient sense of what the character of Psalmody
must ever be. Nor, in the East, are even those
Psalms which are selected for particular purposes,
on that account omitted in the continuous psalmody.
While, therefore, it might be well, as I have already
expressed d, that we had some few Psalms selected for
doctrinal or practical application, in addition to our
continuous course, we at the same time have no
reason whatever to deprecate the free entrance, in
turn, into it, of all the Psalms without exception.
Unless on the highest festival or most deeply peni-
tential days, — for which provision accordingly is
c p. 11 9. d See above, sect. i.
sect, iv.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 337
made, — there is no one of the Psalms, sorrowful or
jubilant, which can really be out of place.
It only remains to speak of the Psalms under their
highest aspect. The Psalms then, from the Eucha-
ristic point of view, are the carrying on of that great
act of Thanksgiving, Praise, and Oblation, by obe-
dient dedication of the entire being to the glory of
God, which is supremely and most effectually per-
formed in the Eucharist. By means of them the tones
of the Tersanctus, the Gloria in excelsis, and similar
features of the Communion Office, are prolonged, and
re-echo through the Sunday and the week : a con-
tinued presentation of " ourselves, a reasonable, holy,
and lively sacrifice."
SECTION IV.
"And when He had taken the Book, the four beasts and the four-
and-twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, saying, ' Thou art worthy
to take the Book, and to open the seals thereof.' "
The Lessons and Canticles should, in accordance
with the ancient ideas and modes of service which
they represent, be considered primarily as carrying
on jointly the work of Praise begun in the Psalms :
the former supplying fresh matter for it by con-
tinually advancing our knowledge of God, and of
His work on behalf of man ; the latter descanting on
these great subjects, and rendering due acknowledg-
ment for them. It is while doing this, and making
this our primary aim, that we shall most effectually
attain to the other great purpose of hearing, viz. the
gathering of Divine counsels for our guidance and
instruction. The first reason for desiring to know
z
338 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINK SERVICE. [chap. I v.
God is that we may glorify Him when known. " The
fear of God," too, after all, " is the beginning of
wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy is under-
standing6." Nothing can be more instructive on
this point, or more significant of the order in which
these two uses of Scripture have ever been estimated,
than the astonishing universality with which, in all
offices, all Churches, and all times, the reading of it
has used to be followed by a burst of praise in the
form of canticle, or hymn, or responsory', sometimes
of all three g. In the East the Psalms, in the West
the Lections, have ever been so attended. The peti-
tions for practical guidance, &c, always followed later ;
sometimes, as in the West, in separate offices : the
Matins being devoid of prayers altogether, the Ves-
pers nearly so.
It is in this ancient and rightful conception of the
leading purpose with which Holy Scripture is read in
the Church at all, that our large and ample use of it
finds its fullest and most unanswerable justification.
If that purpose be the knowledge and adoration of God
as revealed by Divine history and fact, and the history
be of great extent, and the body of fact large, as con-
fessedly they are, — how else than by taking cogni-
zance of them on a scale of some magnitude, can the
object be effected ? Why was the Book of the Divine
wisdom and doings written at large, but that at large
it should be " read and known of all men ?" why made
e Prov. ix. 10.
1 See pp. 107, 112, 134, 226. In the Vespers Office, (p. 134,) it will
be remembered that the hymn " Joyful Light" follows the entrance of
the Gospels.
b See the old Offices passim, and the table supr. p. 2S8. Prime is
the one apparent exception ; yet even it had its Deo grutias after the
short chapter.
sect.it.] morning and evening prayer. 339
various and multiform in its contents, but that men
might know and adore " the manifold wisdom," the
iroXviro'iKiXos (ro(f)la, of God ? Why was Redemp-
tion a world-wide history, but that it should be histo-
rically apprehended ? It has become necessary to in-
sist on these obvious truths, because a notion has been
taken up and earnestly entertained by members of
the English Church, that we read too much of Holy
Scripture in our Services. The undoubted truth, that
short passages of Scripture, commented on or other-
wise emphasized, (as e. g. by short responses, or the
like,) are capable of being made a valuable instrument
of Christian knowledge, is urged to the prejudice of
all reading of Scripture in larger portions. The old
Capitula, consisting of a single verse, and yet more
the old lections, containing at most three or four, with
responsories subjoined, are pointed to and regretted,
as furnishing the true model for the reading of Scrip-
ture in the Church. Now I have no desire to set
below its due psychological value this particular treat-
ment of Holy Scripture, and I should gladly h, as I
have already implied, see the revival of the genuine
Capitulum in particular, could it be accomplished by
any simple adjustment. But I would also observe,
1, that we already have, to some extent, the principle
of the Capitulum in operation in our services, and have
retained some genuine specimens of it, though not
under that name. Whether the principle of the Ca-
pitulum be defined to be the repetition and inculca-
tion of some short text of Scripture, varying or vari-
able with the season, we have in our " Sentences," as
I have shewn, variable Capitula, for the most part an-
ciently selected, followed by a brief homily pressing
h See p 140.
z 2
340 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. IV.
home their argument. "We have in 1 Cor. xiii. ult.
another old and familiar Capitulum'. I will add,
what is the main thing after all, that these Capitula
or texts do the proper work of such ritual provisions
upon the common mind of the English Church. The
familiar tones of some of them more especially, such
as, " To the Lord our God belong mercies," &c. ; and
again, " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," &c. ; —
live, and not in vain, on the ear, and wind themselves
about the heart, of Christian millions. Or if the Ca-
pitulum idea be conceived of as either the anticipation
or the carrying on through the week of the Sunday's
Eucharistic Epistle j, all this we have in our first Col-
lect. And again, what are the Sunday Epistle and
Gospel, appointed to recur in the week whenever the
Communion Office or any part of it is used, but brief
lections with their responsory, " Glory be to God on
high," emphasized by repetition, and brought home,
when the Church's evident design is carried out, by
expository comment? The essence, too, of the re-
sponsory system, nay, its highest realization, we have,
as will be more fully shewn presently, in our ordinary
Office, in the form of the Canticles. But I would
remark, 2, that the desire of superseding our larger
reading of Holy Scripture, by returning to the old
system of brief lections and responsories, proceeds
upon more than one misconception, and would, if
carried into effect, be as ill-advised a measure as
could be conceived. It proceeds, first, upon a misap-
prehension of the nature of the old responsories. The
responsory was not, as is commonly supposed, a brief
and pertinent reflection or meditation introduced at
intervals in the course of the reading. It was mostly
1 See table, p. 288. J p. 137.
sect, iv.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
341
a totally independent and very complex anthem, as we
should now call it, two or three times the length (in-
cluding its versicle, repetitions, &c.,) of the portion of
Scripture read, rarely adapted to it, often of most
widely diverse import. The adaptation, in truth, was
either to the season in a general way, or to the les-
son, by the repetition of some sentence of it. In the
former case the thought of the season lived on in a
manner theoretically beautiful ; but in practice struck
in at such random intervals, as to confuse, rather
than to steady and guide the mind. In the other case
no idea was added ; and as the same series of respon-
sories was made to serve for several chapters, they
became an element of merest confusion. Thus, e. g.
on Sexagesima, when St. Leo's homily is on the para-
ble of the sower, the responsories are on the build-
ing of the ark. The same responsories, again, would
recur every Sunday in a season, and partly on week-
days, without the slightest adaptation to the change
of lesson. In Advent, the responsory would be about
the first Coming of Christ, when the lection was about
the second, and vice versa. In the Epiphany season,
again, in our Church, the responsories were verses,
varying with the day, selected from Psalms vi. to
lxxxvi.. one or two each day, but absolutely devoid
of any particular reference to the passages of Scrip-
ture they were appointed to. The aspect, in fact,
which, owing to these provisions, the lectionary part
of the office assumed, was that of a long and elaborate
piece of music, interrupted at intervals by a very brief
recitative out of Holy Scripture as a homily \
k Specimens illustrative in some degree of these statements, may be
seen in Leslie's Portiforium Sarisb., Pica, pp. 1 — 36. See also Bennett's
Principles of the Prayer-book, p. 85, &c.
342 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAT. IV.
It is, again, an entire misconception to suppose, as
many would seem to do, that prolonged reading of
Scripture is a modern device, and foreign to the mind
of the Church of the first ages. It were strange in-
deed,— supposing there is any truth in the grounds
above alleged for such reading, — if it were so. And
in point of fact, all the records and indications that
we possess of the early practice in this matter point
to large and unstinted use of Scripture in the Sunday
assemblies. The author of the Apostolic Constitutions
gives apparently a very wide scope to the lessons
which were to be read on the same day : two (at
least) out of the Old Testament, one from the Acts,
from the Epistles, and from the Gospels ; or possibly
two from each of these l. Little reliance indeed could
be placed on his representation, if isolated, or contra-
dicted by other testimony. But Justin Martyr gives
a similar account of the Sunday service in the second
century, saying that the memorials of the Apostles, or
writings of the Prophets, were read " as long as the
time permitted m ;" after which the minister exhorted
the people to the imitation of these good deeds; —
a proof that it was not a mere verse or two which was
read. And the ancient Liturgy of St. James (circ.
200) confirms all this to the letter; saying, "Then
are read at very great length {AIEHLOAIKflTATA, lite-
rally, "through and through"), the oracles of the Old
Testament, and of the Prophets ; and the Incarnation
of Christ is shewn forth, and His Passion, &c. . . .
and this is done on all occasions in the holy celebra-
tion, and after this reading and instruction0," &c.
1 Constit. Ap., 57. Bingham supposes but four lessons to be meant;
but the only question is, whether the author did not mean many more
than I have assumed in the text.
m Apol. i. ■ Neale, Tetral., pp. 31, 39.
sect, iv.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
343
This rubric has the air of the most primitive antiquity,
since it seems to belong to a time when the old Scrip-
tures only were in existence, and the facts of the
Christian Creed were as yet taught by word of mouth
only. Relics of this multitudinous reading have sur-
vived, on certain days, both in the East and West.
In the East on Maunday Thursday evening are read
twelve Gospels °, some of them of great length, besides
an Epistle, and four long passages from the Old Tes-
tament in the morning. On Easter-eve and Whitsun-
eve, in the West, twelve long prophecies p are read.
The only difference between the English and the
primitive Church, then, in this matter, is that whereas
the former set the Scriptures with great fulness before
her children on the Sunday only, doubtless designing
them for the meditation of the week, the latter spreads
this ample reading over the other days also. The
West, at the time of our Revision, had for many hun-
dred years abandoned the ancient use of the Scrip-
tures at large, and doubtless had suffered propor-
tionate loss. It was rare indeed for an entire chapter
to be accomplished in a week, — a state of things which
loudly called for redress. And it is remarkable that
on English ground, a quarter of a century before our
Revision, and long anterior even to Quignon's reform,
an attempt at amendment had been made. An edi-
tion of the old Offices published in 1516, and again
in 1531, exhibited Lessons'1 of double the old length,
and assigned them for every day in the week, instead
of for some days only. It also went on the plan of
finishing a chapter when begun ; and in all respects
was a manifest instalment of our existing lesson-
0 Occupying forty columns of the Triodion.
p Occupying sixteen columns of the Missale.
« See Leslie's Portiforium, second edition, notes, p. 6.
344 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. IV.
system. But it remained for our Revisers to bring
back the apostolic largeness of Scripture reading, and
to restore to the people something of that historical
knowledge of Divine things which must, after all, be
the basis of all other. It may be added, that as the
Psalms, more especially under the old Matins con-
ception of them, are a type and foretaste of future
unceasing Praise, so are our full Lessons of future
untiring contemplation.
It is not my purpose to speak in detail of the
particular cycle of Lessons adopted at our Revision.
The appointment of them from the Old and New Tes-
tament alike, in accordance with an ancient Western
usage r, is an arrangement beyond all praise, and well
worthy of the meditative mind of that old Egyptian
Christianity from which it first emanated. In our
own ancient lection system, it was the Old or the
New Testament that was read, never both on the
same day : except that when the lections were from
the former, there would follow on Sundays a few
lines from the Gospel, by way of text to the Homily ;
and again, the Capitula, chiefly from the New Testa-
ment. We may remark the more equable conception
which such a method as ours tends to generate and
maintain in the mind, as to the importance of studying
all parts of Holy Scripture. It may safely be said,
that either the Old without the New Testament, or
the New without the Old, were equally 'an enigma.
The two are mutually interpretative on a basis of per-
fect equality. And if in other points of view the
New Testament challenges superior importance, this
is fully recognised by its being thrice read through
in the year, the Old but once.
r Supr., p. 250, note.
sect. IV.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 345
Of the advantage of reading such large portions,
viewed as historically informing the mind in Divine
things, and so qualifying it for rightly directed acts of
praise, I have already spoken. Of its value as an in-
strument of ethical and spiritual formation, I would
venture, in accordance with the old psychological
views, to speak no less confidently, in opposition to
the almost universal disposition of later ages, and of
the present day more especially, to depreciate its effec-
tiveness for this purpose : some (whom Hooker has
long ago answered8), confiding rather in the effect of
sermons, others in that of short passages of Scripture.
The process by which mental and spiritual formation
takes place, though generally assumed to be obvious, is
in reality one of the least-probed mysteries of our being.
One thing bearing upon the present point is certain,
viz. that the passing be fore the mind of realized images
has a tendency to conform it, apart from any conscious
effort, to an attitude or position correspondent to the
ideas so excited. The mind is not what it was pre-
vious to such apprehension. Its world, so to speak,
has become enlarged or varied by the entering in of
a new feature ; and its own recognition of this newly
apprehended fact has made it also, pro tanto, and for
the time being, different. And when, as is universally
the case in the hearing of Holy Scripture, the objects
set before the mind are such as it must entertain some
disposition towards either of approval or disapproval,
sympathy or distaste, — growth (i. e. variation), of a
moral kind, ensues. We admit this freely as regards
evil ; we speak of hurtful and defiling images passing
through the mind or soul. And doubtless the same
is the case with the images of good, with the repre-
• L E. P., v. 22.
34G THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. IV.
sentations, narrative or didactic, which Scripture brings
before us. The faith, e.g. of Abraham in offering up
Isaac, — a faith, be it observed, in its nature Christian ;
— or again, the direct admonitions of the Prophets ; — ■
these, looked on, approved, sympathized with almost
unconsciously, are directly formative of the mind, be-
cause of their throwing it, pro tempore, into such
attitudes of approval and sympathy. Of course the
sympathy, and the consequent profit, are in proportion
to the Divine grace given and attained ; but there is
no reason to doubt that that grace acts through uni-
versal mental laws, such as that just enunciated. And
the spiritual profit of hearing is probably to be mea-
sured, not, as is so often imagined, by the amount of
knowledge, historical or moral, that we consciously
have carried away, and are able to call up before us
at will ; but by the degree of faithful and loving
sympathy which we at the time exercise on the
things divinely submitted to us. Improved mental
and spiritual action, as far as it results from hearing,
is comparatively seldom due to particular precepts re-
called at the moment : as a general rule, it flows rather
out of strengthened and improved tone and character,
itself formed by sympathetic conformity to the good
propounded to us. Spiritual growth on this principle
of course finds its highest realization in the devout and
loving contemplation of Christ Himself, the Image of
the Invisible God. " We all, with open face, beholding
as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into
the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the
Spirit of the Lord1."
In reference to the old system, we may remark
■ 2 Cor. iii. 18. Coinp. 1 St. John iii. 2 : " We know that when He
shall appear, ice shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." For
a singular testimony to our Lesson-system, see note L.
sect, iv.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 347
that our first morning Lesson has somewhat of the
Nocturns character, as succeeding (p. 288) to the
position of the Scripture read in that Office. The
second stands similarly related to the " short chapter"
of Lauds. Their selection in this point of view is
appropriate ; for " by Matins that are said in the
night is understood the old Law, that was all in
figures of darkness ; and by Lauds that are said in
the morning-tide the new Law ; that is the light of
grace V
The cycle according to which Scripture is read on
week-days in the English Church has this incidental
advantage, that it produces a variety of instructive
combinations. The self-same chapter of the New
Testament appears at three periods of the year in
conjunction with as many different chapters of the
Old Testament ; and a watchful and well-trained eye
will continually discern beautiful correspondences or
contrasts, of the same kind as are often so finely
worked out and stereotyped for us in the old Offices.
That system, however, excluded these fortuitous com-
binations between Lesson and Lesson ; the configura-
tion of Scripture, for a given day, being fixed. Our
Sunday cycle, in which one Lesson is regulated by
the season, the other by the day of the month, pre-
sents a still more varied field for such combinations.
The Proper Lessons are a finely conceived addition to
our ritual possessions ; while deferring in a great de-
gree to the old mind of the Church, and taking coun-
sel of it, they are as a whole perfectly original in con-
ception, and proceed mainly on the principles above
traced out, of presenting large tracts of the Divine
doings in old time, wrought up, as far as the case
" The Myrroure, ap. Maskell, ii. 39.
348 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. IV.
admitted of, into a harmonized picture of the elder
Economy. For the Festival cycle, unless when there
were Lessons especially proper, the principle was
adopted of selecting them from the didactic books,
as Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, and the apocry-
phal ones of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus. Such Les-
sons could hardly fail to illustrate appropriately the
general idea of the saintly character, and had further
the advantage, compared with historical chapters, of
being intelligible each one by itself. And it may be
remarked here that a somewhat excessive anxiety has
of late been manifested for the possession of precisely
and minutely adapted Offices for particular days.
While some degree of character is of course desirable,
the advantages of largeness and freedom in such ar-
rangements are also, as I think we have seen reason
to admit, very considerable.
Among the old accompaniments of the Lessons in
the West, we miss chiefly, and cannot but regret,
the Benedictions. The universality of this religious
feature of service has been before pointed out1, and
it were much to be wished that some one or more
of our old forms of it might be restored to us. The
Absolutions, which in the Roman rite are prefixed
also, were never possessed in this country7. Our
present manner of commencing the Lessons was re-
tained, with slight variation, from that which was
used before the exposition of the Gospel at Matins on
Sunday ; " a Lesson of the Holy Gospel," &c.
I have only to point out, lastly, that the hearing of
the Lessons is, from the Eucharistic point of view,
a most true and real reception of Christ, closely akin
to that which takes place in the Holy Communion.
1 p. 113. r Notes to Leslie's Portif. Sar.
SECT. iv. ] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
349
Though His indwelling in us is effectual to the sanc-
tification of the whole being, in body, soul, and spirit ;
yet is knowledge and apprehension of Him by the
understanding, the will, and the affections, the chief
purpose of it. And while, in the reception of the
Holy Communion, the soul is, we may not doubt, in-
formed and illuminated in a peculiar manner, trans-
cending the processes of natural knowledge ; yet are
these too accredited media of supernatural illumina-
tion, and as such to be resorted to diligently. The
condition of our perfection through sacramental recep-
tion is, that we keep the subject-matter of it, which
is no other than Christ Himself, continually before us ;
" feeding on Him," as our formula for communicating
well expresses it, " by faith with thanksgiving." Such
is our Lord's own instruction to us in His prayer to
the Father immediately after imparting to the dis-
ciples the Eucharistic gift of life in Himz : "As Thou
hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should
give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him.
And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast
sent." That passage is the Church's warrant to the
end of time, for making much of Divine knowledge,
as the proper complement, the involved accessory, to
sacramental reception of Christ. Eucharistic celebra-
tion, accordingly, has ever had its Lessons of Holy
Scripture ; in early times very full and large, as we
have seen. And the daily lessons are but the pro-
longation of these. The Eastern recognition a of Christ
as the " Wisdom" of the Father, as enshrined in a
1 St. John xvii. 2. See Sermon on Eucharistical Offices, by Rev.
J. Kcble.
* pp. 135, 148.
350 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. iv.
manner in the Scripture, the Gospels especially, will
be remembered. As " Wisdom," He waits continu-
ally to enter into the soul in the public hearing of
Scripture, illuminating, conforming, assimilating it to
His own Divine Manhood.
Among the Canticles responding to the Lessons,
the Te Deum challenges the first place, as in order,
so also as furnishing in some degree the type of the
rest. A Canticle has been defined b as "a Song of
Thanksgiving for some great benefit." And of the
intended character of the Te Deum as a thanks-
giving for the knowledge of God revealed in the
Scripture, there would seem to be no doubt, from
its universal position at the end of the Nocturns or
Matins lections °. In the English Church d this was
further marked by its being substituted, when used,
for the customary repetition of the responsory to the
last lection. The whole of the responsory idea is
indeed gathered and summed up into this most noble
hymn. And the guiding thought for the due use
both of it and all the other responsive canticles, is
that whatever of Holy Scripture has preceded it (in-
clusive, be it borne in mind, of the Psalms,) is not
read for its own sake alone, or even chiefly, nor for
the sake of the particular lessons it may convey ; but
as a sample and specimen of the vast whole to which
it belongs, — a single streak of the " cloudless depth oi
light" which beams from the great orb of Scripture.
It is therefore that this great Canticle is ever in
place; never, with all its grandeur and depth of
b Ricard. Abbas, ap. Bona, Psalmod. xvi. 2.
c Even in the East, in its rudimentary forms, it universally followed '
Scripture. See pp. 107, 225. See also the Eastern Lauds. Neale, p. 924.
d Transl. Sar. Psalt., p. 53.
SECT. IV.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
851
meaning, speaking a word too much for the thought
which the Lesson is meant to convey or suggest.
Whether what we have heard be some shewing forth
of God's power, some ray of His wisdom, or some
foreshadowing of His promised redemption, it suf-
fices to set the whole before us, and thus fully justifies
the most exalted and angelic forms of adoration. Yet
particular circumstances contained, or Christian events
foreshadowed, in the Lesson just before read from the
Old Testament, may be kept in view. We may add,
that whereas, in the old Offices, the use of the Te
Deum was fitly limited to those days on which, be-
sides the lections, the Gospel, or part of it, and the
martyrology, had preceded ; it was with equal reason
now appointed for continual use, when the Gospels
and Epistles had become a constant feature of the
Office. Though said when the reading of the New
Testament is yet to come, it may well be used with
anticipative reference to it.
It has been sometimes felt to be a note of inferiority
in the Te Deum, that it is not, like other Canticles,
taken from Scripture. But though this is so, a glance
at its structure and essential character will serve to
establish for it a strong claim, even on scriptural
grounds, to occupy the position assigned to it. The
essential part of the Te Deum, out of which all the
rest grows, is the angelic hymn, " Holy, Holy, Holy."
This accordingly is the one feature which is common
to all, even the briefer and more rudimentary Te Deums6
of the East. Now the angelic hymn is found once
in the Old, and once in the New Testament, (Is. vi. 2,
Rev. iv. 8,) with certain variations. The Western
Te Deum adopts nearly the Old Testament theme,
' For these, see note D; and above, pp. 101, 225.
352 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap.it.
" Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth ; the whole
earth is full of His glory." But it leads up to this in-
vocation by declaring who they are that use it, viz. the
whole earth, the Angels, Cherubim, Seraphim ; thus
combining, after the Eastern models referred to, the
features of the two passages, in the former of which
only the Seraphim, in the latter only the Cherubim,
(the "living creatures," or "beasts,") are mentioned.
It then takes up the subject in the New Testament
development, according to which, "when those beasts,"
themselves representing the worship of the universal
Church f, " give glory .... to Him that sat on the
throne .... the four-and-twenty elders g" also "fell
down and worshipped," &c. This is expressed by
the " glorious company of the Apostles, the goodly
fellowship of the Prophets, the noble army of Martyrs
praise Thee ; the Holy Church throughout all the
world," &c. And then the Three Divine Persons in the
Holy Trinity, shadowed forth h in " Which was, and
is, and is to come," in the Revelation, appear more
distinctly as " the Father of an infinite Majesty," &c.
So much is there of faithfully rendered Scripture in
the entire tenor of the Te Deum.
But. the conception under which it was so universally
subjoined to the revelation of God as contained in
Scripture, and made known to the Church by reading,
seems to be based on a yet further passage in the
Revelation of St. John. In those which we have
' See Mr. Isaac "Williams' beautiful exposition. Apocalypse, p. 68.
s " The number being twelve of the Law and twelve of the Gospel,
may serve to comprehend the twelve Prophets and the twelve Apostles
.... or the Church of the Jews and Gentiles combined." " With the
Priesthood of the Elders the natural accompaniment is the whole body
of the elect, gathered from the four winds." — pp. 58 to 68.
h Williams, ibid.
SECT. IV.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 353
already considered, both from the Prophet and the
Divine, the adoration of the created universe is offered
to the Triune God as the Holy, and Almighty, and
Eternal Creator : " Holy .... Almighty .... Which
was, and is, and is to come .... Who liveth for ever
and ever; .... Thou hast created all things." Nor
does the Te Deurn, though associating Prophets, Apo-
stles, and Martyrs, and the whole redeemed Church,
in the adoration, thus far speak anything of the pro-
cess of redemption which gave them a part in it : they
appear as " equal with the angels," and as " the chil-
dren of God '," without any hint that it is as " the
children of the Resurrection k" that they became so.
But in the next chapter of the Eevelation, " He that
sat on the throne" has a sealed Book in His right
hand ; and "no man in heaven or earth, neither under
the earth, is able to open it. . . . No man is found
worthy to open and to read the Book, neither to look
therein1." But "in the midst of the throne, and of
the four beasts, and of the elders, stood a Lamb, as it
had been slain .... and when He had taken the
Book," they all " fell down before the Lamb, having
every one of them harps, and golden vials full of
odours, which are the prayers of the saints: and they
sang a new song, saying, " Thou art worthy to take
the Book, and to open the seals thereof, for Thou wast
slain, and hast redeemed us unto God by Thy blood,
out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and
nation, and hast made us unto our God kings and
priests, and we shall reign on the earth (for ever and
ever, xxii. 5). And I heard the voice of many angels
.... and every creature which is in heaven and earth
.... saying, Blessing ... to Him that sitteth on the
1 St. Luke xx. 36. k lb. 1 Rev. v. 4.
a a
354 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. IV.
throne and to the Lamb." This time, then, the uni-
versal adoration is also of the Lamb ; of God the Re-
deemer, as such ; and that not for Eedemption only,
but also, and more immediately, for the Revelation of
it by opening of the Book; evidently the Book of
that Redemption, which none but He could open.
This wondrous scene, then, it is that the Church
throughout the world, as it should seem, has sought
to enact, or however to perform her own part in,
in accordance with this Divine prescription, by the
acclamation of praise with which she has ever saluted
"the opening of the BooKm" by Him Who alone
has power so to do, and Who still opens the sense
of the Scripture to the Church "in the reading of
the Old" and the New "Testament"." But it is in
the angelic language of the Te Deum, and in the
Western form of it, that she chiefly, and with the
most exact imitation of the revealed pattern, does this.
The angelic hymn, as said in the Eucharistic Office, is
rather on behalf of the redeemed estate itself, and the
Eucharistic gift of it, than immediately and directly
for the written Revelation of it, though this is in-
cluded. But in the Ordinary Office throughout the
world, it is Christ as opening the Book, Christ pre-
sent as " Wisdom" in reading of Holy Scripture, that
m Compare Berengaudus (quoted by Williams) on the words, "When
He had taken the Book," &c. "They fall before the Lamb, when
through meditation of the Divine Scriptures, considering the boundless
mercy of God, they humble themselves in the sight of their Creator."
"Thus the vision of this chapter is in fact being fulfilled from the Re-
surrection until the end of the world. Christ began to open at His
Resurrection, and is opening still, .... and in His opening the Church
is in spirit giving thanks. And this worship is with ' harps and golden
vials of incense ;' which are Psalms and Liturgies and prayers. And it
is a new song they sing, for in the Gospel," &c. Williams, p. 79.
» 2 Cor. iii. 14.
SECT. IV.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
355
is specially and immediately in view in the singing
of the Te Deum. And accordingly the rest of this
great Canticle, from the point up to which, as we
have seen, it is an act of irrespective adoration, takes
up (in the words, to a very great extent, of the pas-
sage in Revelation,) a " new song," the adoration
of Christ as Redeemer for His great work, and as
King for His coequal glory. "Thou art the King
of Glory, 0 Christ;" ("Worthy is the Lamb to re-
ceive . . . glory.") " When Thou tookest upon Thee
to deliver man, &c. . . . When Thou hadst overcome
the sharpness of death ;" (" Thou wast slain." . . . .)
" Thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all
believers ;" (" out of every kindred and tongue, &c.
. . . "). "Thou sittest at the right hand of God;"
(" in the midst of the throne"). " Help Thy ser-
vants whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy precious
blood ;" ("Thou hast redeemed us unto God by Thy
blood"). "Make them to be numbered with Thy
saints in glory everlasting ;" (" Thou hast made us
kings .... and we shall reign" .... "for ever and
ever." "And the number0 of them was ten thou-
sand times ten thousand, and thousands of thou-
sands").
The exalted estimation in which it would thus ap-
pear that ordinary worship was anciently held, need
hardly be pointed out.
The Benedicite, or Song of the Three Children,
was in the older Offices the Lauds Canticle for Sun-
days. As a canticle then, aud an honoured one, it
was fitly enough at our first Revision appointed as
an alternative for the Te Deum, to be used during
0 This point of the parallel gives some countenance to the peculiar
English reading, " Fac cum Sanctis tuis numerari," (Rom. munerari).
a a 2
356 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [ciur. IV.
Lent ; at which time, and perhaps in Advent too,
it would seem most fitting still to use it ; to the lay-
ing aside at those times the exalted tone of jubilant
adoration which, as we have just seen, belongs to
the Te Deum. At the same time it is by no means
ill-qualified for the function assigned to it, and ac-
cordingly was used in the old French and Spanish
Communion Offices as a responsory to the reading of
Scripture. Though wanting the angelic hymn, and
the grand structure of the Te Deum, it is in point
of range no way inferior to it, summoning "all the
works of the Lord," without exception, to praise Him :
the Angels, the heavens, the Powers of the Lord ; all
nature, animate or inanimate, the children of men,
the spiritual Israel, the Priests of the Lord, and finally
"the spirits and souls of the righteous." It is to
be regretted that its proper conclusion, " Blessed art
Thou, 0 Lord, in the firmament of heaven, worthy to
be praised, and glorified, and highly exalted for ever,"
was laid aside. It need scarcely be added, that though
now adapted to a responsive use, the Benedicite still
retains its Lauds character, which must always pre-
dominate in it, in virtue of its dwelling so largely on
the works of Creation p.
Its contents admirably adapt the Benedictus to
be the responsory canticle to the second Morning
Lesson from the Gospels or the Acts, as it formerly
was to the "short chapter" at Lauds. It there pos-
sessed, indeed, precisely the twofold character which
has now been imparted to the Benedicite. In its
Lauds aspect it gave thanks for the spiritual day-
spring from on high ; but yet kept in view the peni-
tential side of things, as relating to St. John the
* p. 132.
SECT. IV.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
357
Baptist, and speaking of the " remission of sins," and
of '•' them that sit in darkness and the shadow of
death." But this acknowledgment was called forth,
as by a memento, by the text of Scripture, jubilant
or penitential.
The Jubilate, a Sunday Lauds Psalm, has been
promoted, exactly as the Benedicite, to the position of
a responsive canticle. Being throughout jubilant, it is
scarcely fitted to be used in lieu of the Benedictus at
Lent or Advent. But it would seem, as inviting all
nations to the praise of God, to harmonize especially
with the Epiphany period. And both from its tone,
and as a feature of the old Sunday Lauds, it is not
undeserving of that very general use into which it
has been brought on that day ; probably from an
intuitive perception of the more mixed and less purely
jubilant tone of the Benedictus.
In using the Magnificat, it will be well to bear
especially in mind what has been said of the canticles
generally, viz. that they are a descant upon the whole
of revealed truth in all its extent. Though indeed
the particular fact for which the Song of the Blessed
Virgin was an acknowledgment, viz. the Incarna-
tion, is in itself of sufficient compass to include, in
some sense, the whole scheme of salvation. Used
with this fact in mind, the Magnificat will interpret
for us, as well as enable us with due thankfulness to
acknowledge, the pregnant economy of the elder period
of the Church, as set forth in the Old Testament,
ever pointing on to the Incarnation of the Word.
And, on the principle already enunciated, it may,
like the Te Deum, be viewed as referring also to
the Scriptures of the New Testament, about to be
read. It has already been pointed out that this
358 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. it.
reference to the Incarnation11 has always been a cha-
racteristic of the Church's Evensong ; though the East
did not employ the Magnificat for its expression, but
the hymn of the "Joyful Light," instead; — a com-
posed canticle, like the Te Deum.
To what ritual association, if any, the appointment
of the Cantate Domino, (Ps. xcviii.,) as an alterna-
tive canticle for the Magnificat, is due, I have been
unable to trace. It may suffice that it abounds in
striking parallels to the Magnificat; the phraseology
of which, indeed, would seem in part to be derived
from this very Psalm'. It is also called a "new
song;" a title which especially consecrates it, (com-
pare above on the Te Deum,) to the position of a
Christian canticle responsive to the reading of the
Scriptures. Its invitation to " all lands" fits it, like
the Jubilate, for Epiphany.
The profound and touching aspect which belongs
to the Nunc Dimittis, as the responsive canticle
to the Epistles, will be best appreciated by studying
its position in the Eastern Vespers". It is true that,
as a feature of the Western Compline, the last office
of the day, it breathes, like the Psalms and Collect,
the spirit of consummated work, and repose in Christ.
But it originally occurred in an office in which the
True Light had symbolically been brought in, in the
form of the Gospels ; the summary of the Eucharistic
Epistle read ; and other features of the great Rite im-
i pp. 135, 232, 273.
r Compare especially, "He hath done marvellous things;" "hath
done to me great things:" "With His holy arm;" "hath shewed
strength with His arm :" " He hath remembered His mercy and truth
toward the house of Israel;" "He remembering His mercy, hath
holpen His servant Israel."
• pp. 135, 140, 141.
SECT. IV.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
359
itated or paralleled1. It was a thanksgiving, therefore,
not for the Incarnation only, — which it was the more
especial function of the hymn "Joyful light" to ac-
knowledge,— but for the Eucharistic consummation,
and the great eventide Offering ; and for the Apostolic
announcement to all nations, "by word or Epistle","
of the finished work of salvation. The Nunc Dimittis
has a special fitness to discharge this office, more
especially as compared with the Magnificat : not
being addressed, like that, to the fact of the Incarna-
tion merely, but to the offering also of Christ, now
inchoate1 by His presentation in the Temple. To
His Passion, accordingly, the words of Simeon to the
Blessed Virgin, recorded next after the Nunc Dimittis.
pointedly refer (St. Luke ii. 34, 35). These great
topics then, associated with the eventide of the world
and of the day, may well be in our thoughts in using
this Canticle, and not merely, or even chiefly, our
personal repose in the thought of the Saviour; true
as such feelings are to the spirit of the Nunc Dimittis.
And in taking it with reference to the Passion in par-
ticular, we shall be in harmony with the entire mind
of the ancient Compline, Eastern and Western, ex-
pressed in Pss. xiii., xxxi. 1 — 6, and preserved to us
in our third evening collect for aid against all perils.
Nor can we ever fail in the Epistles which are so
largely commended, beyond the example of other
Churches, to our evening meditation, to find abun-
dant topics of thankfulness, general and particular,
for the True Light which, specially through the preach-
' pp. 136, 147. u 2 Thess. ii. 15.
1 See note F, on the earlier manifestations of Christ's Priesthood ; also
Dr. Mill's invaluable volume of twenty -four Sermons, Serm. xxi. pp. 41 0,
412 : e. g., "He Who was to interpose His precious Blood, . . . was now
presented as it were in earnest of His future all-pertect self-oblation."
3C0 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. iv.
ing of the great Apostle St. Paul, " lightens the Gen-
tiles," and " is the glory of God's people Israel."
The Deus misereatur (Ps. lxvii.), the alternative
for the Nunc Dimittis, is a feature borrowed from
Lauds, but also familiar to the English Church in
a bidding prayer7 used every Sunday. There is
nothing to surprise us in such interchange between
Morning and Evening, the Offices having many ideas
in common2. The East (and part of the West) had
the Magnificat at Lauds, the Gloria in excelsis at
Compline. The key to the selection in this case is
probably the first verse of the Psalm, " Shew us the
light of His countenance," and the summons, as in
Ps. xcviii., of all nations to the praise of God.
SECTION V.
" If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they
shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven."
The leading conception under which the Creed is
to be used in our daily Offices, judging from its posi-
tion in the old ones, is that it lays the foundation,
and declares the object, of the act of prayer ; with
which it has always stood nearly associated* in the
Services, and upon which we, for our parts, enter
immediately after it. Using it as an act of faith,
we by it severally avow, as the many members of the
one Body, the profession made at our baptism in the
r See below, sect. v.
* In the revised Primer above described, (p. 297,) the second group
of Vespers Psalms was borrowed from Lauds. Vide Clay in loc.
■ See for the East, pp. 87, 277 : for the West, pp. 268, 288.
sect, v.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 361
matter of belief. It is therefore that this alone, of all
publicly used formulae, is conceived in the singular
number. Nor only so, but we also recal and accept
anew the position b then sacramentally given us as
members of the body of Christ " by the washing of
regeneration, and renewal of the Holy Ghost." And
this is fitly followed by the prayer which none but
the baptized are privileged to use; the symbol, by its
plural form, of our common inherence in One, as the
Creed of our distinct consciousness and responsibility.
For this reason it is, probably, that baptisms were
ordered to take place after the second Lesson; that
so the admission of the newly baptized might be fol-
lowed by liturgical avowal, so to speak, of that Creed,
and saying of that Prayer, which, as a part of the rite,
have already been avowed and used. It need hardly
be added, that both of these all-important formulas, as
used by communicants, and with Eucharistic thoughts
in view, assume a yet profounder meaning, and lay
yet deeper the foundation of all prayer. With this
Creed then — thus widely related to our whole posi-
tion as Christians — on our lips, we go on to prayer,
and thence pass forth 0 strengthened and armed to the
Christian warfare of the day or night.
But while the Creed is thus primarily and empha-
tically a personal and practical, or, to speak the old
language, a Prime or Compline feature, it stands
also in an avowed relation to the preceding part of
the Office. It has ever succeeded hearing, whether
of Psalms or other Scriptures, or both ; no less than
it has preceded, or been associated with prayer. It is
this that renders the transition to the prayers from
the lessons and canticles, — to the Prime or Com-
b p. 212. ' Compare the remarks on Lauds and Prime, p. 2C9.
362 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. IV.
pline tone, from that of Matins and Lauds, or that
of Vespers, — though sensible, by no means abrupt.
We pass by a nicely shaded gradation out of the stage
of service in which the objective is dominant, to that
in which the subjective claims the larger part, though
it can never rightly be the supreme consideration.
This function is finely performed by the Creed ; while
it rounds up, fills in, and completes the cycle of Chris-
tian doctrine brought to view by the Lessons ; it at the
same time turns towards us its subjective and prac-
tical side, as the faith of living men ; and admonishes
that " praying is the end of preaching," and prayer,
in this world, the condition and the instrument of the
fruition of God. It has already been observed how
completely the Athanasian and the Apostles' Creed
changed places at our Revision, as to the manner, and
partly as to the occasion of using them. The former
had till then been said daily aloud d ; the latter, only
under the breath. In appointing the Athanasian for
certain high Festivals, and some secondary ones, our
Revisers approximated somewhat to the Roman use ;
which is to have it on Trinity Sunday and all ordi-
nary Sundays.
The brief interchange of benediction between priest
and people, " The Lord be with you : and with thy
spirit," is of known antiquity, and seems to be alluded
to in St. Paul's, " The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with your spirit," (Gal. vi. 18). St. Chrysostom
remarks e that the people's rejoinder, " and with thy
spirit'' is a recognition of the absolute need the
clergy had of the grace of the Spirit to effect any-
thing. It is a desire for the " stirring up of the
* Mr. Palmer (in loc), with very unusual incorrectness, says that it
was used on Sundays only. * Bingham, iv. 382. 1 Tim. i. 6.
SECT, v.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 363
gift," and spiritual power, "that is in them" by
virtue of their Ordination. It was therefore, in the
ordinary offices of the West, specially prefixed to the
Collects ; prayer being " the proper weapon of their
ministry." In our first Revision it retained this
place, together with the usual "Let us pray." At
the second it was, by a slight departure from Western
precedent, placed where it now stands. But as
L'Estrange remarks, " it was of old used as a notice
of transition to some new department of service,"
and is appropriate enough here, when we pass on,
from other elements, to prayer. It may be remarked
too, that this interchange between clergy and people
of mutual prayer or desire for each other's good success
in the spiritual work of the sanctuary, is entirely in
the spirit, and to the purpose, of the old interchange
of Confiteor and Misereatur. It is still to us, what
that formula was designed to be, a touching recogni-
tion of the equal need, under difference of position,
of clergy and people, and well illustrates the mutually
sustaining character of their common worship.
The " short Litany," or threefold petition, " Lord
have mercy," &c, ushering in the Lord's Prayer,
Petitions, and Collects, is to the prayer, what the
" Glory be" is to the praise, of the whole Office ; a
prayer setting the tone and fixing the object of all the
rest, by being addressed to the Holy Trinity. It was
triple, as with us, at its first occurrence in the old
Eastern Offices f ; in our own it was threefold before the
Lord's prayer at Lauds, though ninefold at Prime g.
It will already have been discerned that the Lord's
Prater, at this its second occurrence in the service,
wears a widely different aspect, and discharges quite
' p. 66. i Tiansl. Sar. Psalt., p. 71.
304 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [cuap. iv.
other functions, from what it did as prefacing the
whole Office. A preface, indeed, it still is, to all the
coming acts of prayer, and the model and summary
of them. But, 1, it has a peculiarly baptismal as-
pect in this place, from its connection with the Creed ;
and, 2, it is now used far less in reference to the re-
mainder of the Office than to the needs of the coming
day or night. In its position towards the close of
Prime and of Compline, it very distinctly wore this
character, as the first step in the closing stage of the
long enterprise of morning or evening worship.
The Petitions, which follow, are a selection from the
Preces used at Lauds and Prime, and again at Ves-
pers and Compline. At the two later services of the
morning and evening they occurred daily ; at Lauds
and Vespers only on week-days. They are taken in
somewhat larger proportion from the earlier Office in
each case. The number of them, however, (six, with
answers to each,) is much the same as occurred in one
group in Prime and Compline. But it would seem
that the exact number, and the selection made, are to
be traced to another source. On all Sundays and
Festivals, according to the Sarum use, a Bidding
Prayer, in English, was given out ; then was said, in
Latin, a Psalm (Ixvii.) and the Lord's Prayer, followed
by precisely this number of petitions ; and, with one
exception, the selfsame in topic, and nearly in expres-
sion, as those we now have. Whereas, to derive them
from the hour Offices, we must gather them as they are
strewed up and down there, as may be seen in Mr.
Palmer's table of them. The exception referred to is,
that for the last petition in the old Bidding Prayer,
" 0 Lord, hear our prayer," &c, is substituted, " O
God, make clean," &c. ; "And take not Thy Holy
SECT, v.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 305
Spirit," &c. ; representing, as it would seem, a collect
which immediately followed the petitions in the Bid-
ding Prayer, " 0 God, who through the power of Thy
Holy Spirit," &c.
The order in which the temporal powers and the
clergy were prayed for was here, as elsewhere in
the old Western forms, the reverse of that which we
now have, both in these petitions and in the longer
prayers, and which has often been severely commented
on as a note of Erastianism \ It is however, the old
Eastern order, both in the Liturgies ' and ordinary
Offices k ; and, indeed, we may add that it is the order
prescribed by St. Paul himself1. The words of the
form of Bidding just referred to bear a considerable
resemblance to the earlier part of the Eastern Lauds m,
of which the ruling idea is prayer for victory on behalf
of faithful kings, and for the good estate of the whole
Church and clergy ; and it was not improbably de-
rived from thence. And thus the " petitions" before
us would own a direct Eastern parentage, and one
which well illustrates their character and design.
These Petitions are also important as having a de-
signed reference, apparently, to the subsequent collects
and prayers on the same topics respectively. This cor-
respondence has been pointed out by Wheatly (in loc).
The first and two last, " Grant us Thy salvation ;"
" Give peace," &c. ; " Take not Thy Holy Spirit," &c,
correspond with the three Collects ; which are respec-
tively for salvation, peace, and grace. And that this is
fc See " Loss and Gain." Compare Tracts for the Times, 86.
1 Viz. St. Mark's ; Syriac St. James', St. Basil's. The Greek St.
James' does not mention "kings." St. Clirysostom's and the Arme-
nian have the Western order.
* See the Eastern Lauds, Neale, pp. 915, 916.
1 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2. » p. 112; and Neule, p. 913.
3C6 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. IV.
not accidental appears from hence, that the petition
for " peace" is the old antiphon used at Vespers just
before the Collect for peace n, having been substituted
at the Revision for the older petition, (" Grant them
peace in Thy strength," &c.,) which formed the ver-
sicle and response to that Collect. The intermediate
three answer to the prayers for the Queen, the Clergy,
and for all Conditions of men. And it is by no means
improbable, though we have no proof of the fact, that
the filling in, at the later revisions, of the scheme of
our collects and prayers, was suggested by the head-
ings which these petitions furnish. Whether the cor-
respondence, however, was designed or accidental, it
legitimates our present intercessory prayers in refer-
ence to the old forms, as being a natural development
out of them ; though, indeed, as will be pointed out
presently, the old Offices were by no means so devoid
of detailed intercessions as is commonly supposed.
Of the three Collects at Morning and Evening
Prayer, it may be truly said that each one is a micro-
cosm, revealing, on close examination, singular beau-
ties of structure and contents. And the morning and
evening group, though composed, as regards the two
last, of different elements, are, even as regards thesej
perfectly parallel and in harmony, owing to their being
drawn from parallel parts of the older system. It
should be observed, however, that though all three of
these prayers are alike called Collects, they are so in
different senses. The two former only are connected
with the Communion Office at all, and only the first
with that of the current week.
No part of the ritual mechanism of the West is
more worthy of admiration than the means by which
- Transl. Sar. Psalt., p. 298.
SECT, v.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
367
the ordinary Office is continually linked on to the
Eucharistic. The chief medium for effecting this,
and indeed the only one that is of continual applica-
tion, is the weekly Collect. We have traced 0 in an
earlier page the probable derivation of this element of
sen ice from the Eastern system. But it possesses
such marked characteristics of its own, that it may
nevertheless be said of it that tota nostra est. In its
terseness and high finish, and in its continual use, it
differs widely from its Eastern prototypes. In the
East, the Vespers and Lauds preceding a Sunday or
Festival are largely coloured by the infusion of a va-
riety of hymns, many of them resembling prayers, and
all referring to the Gospel of the coming day. In the
West, though originally there were several p, we have
now (mostly) a single prayer, composed generally out
of Epistle and Gospel taken together, or with some
reference to both. And this, though specially used
at the Vespers of the Eve, and characteristic of that
office, is also continued throughout the week.
It is to be observed, then, that our First Collect
is not merely a bond of union between our common
and our Eucharistic Office, but such a one as to pre-
sent to us the appointed variation of that Office for
the current week. The Collect, every one knows,
varies with the week ; but it is not so generally ob-
served, or taken into account, that it is of itself no
random thing, but a reflection of the mind and spirit
of the Epistle and Gospel q. Here, then, is opened up
a field of weekly study, really indispensable to a full
0 pp. 141—147. " p. 145.
1 A valuable series of sermons, bringing out the design of the Epi-
stles, Gospels, and Collects, has just been put forth by Mr. Isaac
Williams.
3G8 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. IT.
perception and right use of a portion of our Daily
Offices. At each Communion our Lord is presented
to us, through the medium of the Epistle and Gospel,
under some special aspect ; or some particular duty or
doctrine is set forth to us. Now such varying aspect
of our Blessed Lord, such duty, or doctrine, is only
appreciable in one way. If we would be faithful to the
design of the Church for us in her Daily Offices, — I
had almost said, if we use them as a whole in any in-
telligible sense, — it need scarcely be pointed out what
our endeavour or desire in this matter should be. The
Epistle and Gospel, and the Collect epitomizing them,
were appointed and fixed with no other design in the
world than that they should accompany Eucharistic
celebration ; that they should impart a certain colour,
varying with the season or the week, to the one di-
vinely-appointed memorial Offering and participation
of Christ. It is when, by joining in that high act, we
have taken home to ourselves, under circumstances of
special supernatural aid, the lesson of those Scrip-
tures ; when it has blended itself with the most awful
and absorbing moments of our spiritual existence on
earth ; it is then that we are fitted, in any true sense,
to say with the Church her profoundly-related weekly
Collect. The mere reading and hearing on the Sun-
day of the Epistle and Gospel, apart from Communion,
though better than no hearing of them at all, and
serving to set, to that extent, the tone of the week,
is a feeble substitute indeed, as regards the purpose
before us, for the use of them according to their pro-
per intention. Used, on the other hand, after such
celebration, the Collect is endued with a wonderful
power for carrying on through the week the peculiar
Eucharistic memories and work of the preceding Sun-
sect, v.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
369
day, or of a Festival. Under whatsoever engaging or
aweing aspect our Lord has more especially come to
ns then in virtue of the appointed Scriptures, the
gracious and healthful visitation lives on in memory,
nay, is prolonged in fact. Or in whatever special re-
spect, again, suggested by these same Scriptures, and
embodied for us in the Collect, we have desired to
present ourselves " a holy and lively sacrifice" in that
high ordinance, the same oblation of ourselves do we
carry on and perpetuate by it. Through the Collect,
in a word, we lay continually upon the altar our pre-
sent sacrifice and service, and receive, in a manner,
from the altar, a continuation of the heavenly gift.
The Second Collects at Morning and Evening,
both entitled "for Peace r," have a peculiar and
deeply interesting origin. It should perhaps have
been explained before, that in the old English Lauds
and Vesper Offices certain features s, called " Memo-
rials," were introduced on week-days, varying with
the season. Each "Memorial" consisted of a special
antiphon prefixed to the Benedictus or Magnificat,
a versicle, and a Collect ; all bearing upon some one
doctrine, such as the Incarnation, the Crucifixion, the
Holy Spirit, the Communion of Saints. The Collect
was mostly taken from the Communion Offices of
the Festivals connected with these doctrines, such as
the Purification, Whitsuntide, All Saints &c. Thus
was the Lauds Office, — the Office, as , it may be
called, of man's mystical estate in Christ, — and the
' Matins, rubric and title ; Evensong, rubric.
• See Transl. Sar. Psalt., pp. 175, 181, for an accurate account of
the Memorials.
' In a perfectly parallel manner were the daily Offices of the Eastern
Church enriched with Theotokia, Staurotheotokia, Anastasima, &c. See
the Octoechus, &c.
B b
370 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. IV.
Vespers corresponding to it, enriched with general col-
lects, bearing on the great Christian verities, besides
the particular one for the weeku. But besides these,
there were one or two fixed memorials used daily.
One of these was of the Holy Spirit, another of
Peace. Of the Collects on the latter subject, one,
(our Evening Collect for Peace) was used at Lauds
and Vespers, the other (our Morning Collect) at
Lauds only. They were from a special Eucharistic
Office on the subject of peace. The Epistle for that
Office was a suitable passage from Maccabees ; the
Gospel was St. John xx. 19, 24, — Christ giving His
peace to His disciples after His Resurrection. But
the Collects7 are also full of allusions to the "Peace"
similarly given at the Eucharistic Institution, and to
our Lord's discourses and prayer at that time. These
Collects, then, represent a whole Communion Office,
designed to embody, and appropriate in the highest
way, our Lord's Eucharistic promises of peace.
Though the Third Collects at Matins and Even-
song are found in the Sacramentaries or Collect-books
of Gelasius and Gregory, there is no reason for sup-
posing that they were ever part of any Communion
Office1. They have in a former page been traced
1 Miss. Sar. et Rom.
T Strictly speaking, the Collect and " Postcommunio." Compare more
especially the words, " this is eternal life, that they may know Thee
the only true God:" ("in knowledge of Whom standeth our eternal
life") : " My peace I give unto you, not as the world giTeth,'' &c. ;
(" that peace which the world cannot give") : " Let not your hearts be
troubled;" "If ye love Me, keep My commandments;" ("that both
our hearts may be set to obey Thy commandments .... and that by
Thee we being defended from the fear of our enemies, may pass our
time in rest and quietness.")
x The commencement of the former is however a part of the "Western
Tersanctus preface ("Domine Sancte, Pater omnipotens, seterne Deus)."
SECT, v.] MORNING AND EVENiNG PRAYER. 371
through our own Prime and Compline Offices to
corresponding Offices in the East ; and through them
again to certain of the Psalms7. It will only be
necessary by way of recapitulation to observe, that
the third Morning Collect thus stands based (p. 222)
on Psalms xc. and xci. From the former (ver. 1, 2,)
it derives its contrasting of the pre-mundane Eternity
— ex parte ante, as it seems to mean especially —
of God, with the days of man (ver. 3 — 12) ; and its
prayer, " That all our doings may be ordered," &c. ;
("Prosper Thou the work," &c, ver. 17). From the
latter Psalm it frames its petitions for bodily and
spiritual protection, on behalf of the mystical mem-
bers of Him, of whom the Psalm primarily speaks
(ver. 11 — 16). The third evening Collect, again, (p„
228,) rests on Pss. xiii. 4 ; xviii. 28 ; " Lighten mine
eyes;" "Thou shalt make my darkness to be light;"
and Ps. xxi. 1 — 6 : and in virtue of the latter refe-
rence associates us with our Lord in His commenda-
tion of His spirit into the hands of God.
The remainder of our Office consists almost entirely
of intercessory prayers. It is not a little remarkable
that at our last revision there should have been none
such appointed for daily use. An impression has from
hence arisen that there were no intercessions in the
old Offices ; and that consequently those which were
added to ours at successive Revisions were an inno-
vation on the old ways. But this is a misconception.
On all week-days, as a general rule, there was in the
English Lauds, immediately after the Collect or Col-
lects, a short office of intercession for the Church,
containing a fully developed prayer, that " being de-
t pp. 222, 228.
b b 2
372 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. iv.
livered from all adversity and error, it might serve
God in freedom and safety z." And there was an-
other short office, with prayer of intercession, attached
to Prime ; only it was said in chapter, not in choir a :
and this intercession was in behalf of the sick and
afflicted: "Hear us in behalf of those Thy servants
for whom we entreat Thy compassion, that so their
health being restored to them they may," &c. So
again there was the same prayer for the Church at
Compline ; and at Vespers an intercession of some
length (comparatively), for " mercy and grace to the
living, pardon to the departed, rest to the Church,
peace and concord to the Kingdom." And thus our
intercessions, though added in times when the old
forms had been lost sight of, and probably rather
designed to follow the pattern of the Communion
Office b, yet had their counterpart in the former
phase of our Ordinary Offices.
I will first remark on the structure common to the
Collects and to these prayers alike. There is then in
Western prayer-forms, as a general rule, first an invo-
cation of God the Father, with some attribute, and the
ascription, in the relative form, of some property or
action (as, e.g., "Almighty and everlasting God, Who
alone workest," &c). Next follows the object — (as,
" Defend us," &c.) — desired by the prayer ; often with
the addition of ulterior effects desired from it (" that
we surely trusting," &c). Lastly, is either an ascrip-
tion of glory, or a pleading of the merits of Christ.
This form is so familiar to us, that it may seem su-
perfluous to dwell upon it. But yet it is, (1,) in its
entirety, unknown to the East, and (2,) these charac-
ters of it are but imperfectly appreciated among our-
• Transl. Sax. Psalt., p. 71. * lb., pp. 124, 125. b See p. 2S7.
SECT. V ]
MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
373
selves. 1. It is in the entire absence of any pleading
of Christ's merits, that all Eastern prayers, as far as
I have observed, differ from those of the West. The
ascription of glory, &c, is the usual termination : or
if any intercession of merits be pleaded, it is uni-
formly those of the Virgin Mary or the Saints. It is
not unnatural to conjecture that in all these instances
the intercession of the Saints has been substituted
for that of our Lord ; — it seems otherwise very unac-
countable that the East should retain no trace of a
form and feeling so universal and so much valued in
the "West. It should be said, however, that pleading
under other forms, as e. g. by invoking the power of
the Cross, is common enough; and moreover, that
the ascription, in prayers addressed to Christ, of
power and will to save, is in reality to the same
effect. But we may well be deeply thankful for the
great frequency of direct pleading in our Western
Collects and prayers. 2. The form in which these
prayers are thus uniformly cast is full of deepest
instruction, and must be duly appreciated ere we can
use them aright. The invocation with which we com-
mence them is, first of all, unquestionably an act of
praise, and must be used as such. Even human
titles are a vocative form of exaltation : much more
Divine. The very mention of God cannot rightly be
devoid of praise, much less the addressing of Him
by Name. And how much of truest praise, and of
delight in rendering it, there may be in such mere
address, apart from the express offering up of any,
need not be said. For it is, as Hooker says, " a joy
even to make mention of His Name." And when, as
is the case in most of our prayers, there is mention
also of His attributes and doings, it were a prayer
374 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [CHAP. IV.
ill begun which did not give special praise for these
also. On this view, then, our prayers do most
truly contain in their measure this chief element of
worship, besides that which it is their peculiar pro-
vince to discharge. These invocations, thus used as
ascriptions of praise and glory, are to a great degree
a compensation for the comparative absence, in the
West, of those lofty and joyous exclamations, or
acclamations rather, which rekindle continually the
flame of Eastern devotion. Of course, where our
prayers have ascriptive terminations, these will, like
our doxology at the end of the Lord's Prayer, renew
the praise offered at the beginning. And it may
safely be affirmed, that habitual realization of this
sense of the addresses in our prayers casts alto-
gether a new brightness over them, and goes far to re-
deem the entire Offices from that charge of defective-
ness in the spirit of praise, to which comparatively
they lie open. In this view is also to be found a valid
a fortiori argument on behalf of the musical mode
of saying our ordinary Offices. It can hardly have
failed to occur to the reader, that in proportion as we
recognise the singing of praise as the dominant idea
of the whole, musical utterance, of however plain a
kind, becomes natural. And if our very prayers are
thus fitted to be sung, much more such parts of the
Office as the Psalms, Canticles, &c.
It has been well observed °, again, that these prayers,
in virtue of their most usual structure, pay a several
honour to the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. For
since all gifts are specially from the Father, by and in
the Holy Spirit, through the Son, the Holy Spirit is
no less honoured in that which we pray for, than the
c Durandus.
SECT, v.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 375
Father by our addresses, and the Son by our plead-
ing. And this, as the same writer observes, would
seem to be the true reason why the Church addresses
comparatively few of her prayers, though some, to the
Holy Spirit ; since He is emphatically the Gift, and
the object of desire rather than of address.
It is the more to the purpose thus to remark on
the structure of Western prayers, because the present
English Offices, by universal admission, prescribe them
in a far greater degree, both as to number and volume,
than the old Western rituals. The spirit of praise, as
expressed in the accessories of prayer, has far more
vent with us than elsewhere. The addresses, too, in
those prayers which are peculiar to us, are far more
glowing and full than in the old Collects. The
Western ordinary ritual may be searched through
and through without bringing to light anything com-
parable, for sublimity of address, to the opening of
our prayer for the Queen's Majesty, or for fervour of
tone to our General Thanksgiving.
This greater length, indeed, and fulness of expres-
sion in the prayers peculiar to us, is very commonly
dwelt on as altogether condemnatory of them ; as
a modern and Puritan characteristic. Now of the
merits of the brief and terse Collects of the West,
enough has been already said to mark the value to be
entertained for them. But while, with Hooker, we duly
estimate these, we surely carry our admiration for them
too far, when we are led by it to seek the exclusion
of ampler forms, which the Church, in some of her
brightest ages of faith, and happiest moods of devo-
tion, has not disdained but delighted in. The truth
is, that the somewhat cold shade of the ritual mind
of St. Leo, deep and exact, rather than lofty or genial,
376 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE. [chap. iv.
has rested, ever since his day, on the devotions
of the West. There is a mean between unvarying
brevity and unsparing prolixity ; between the manner
of St. Leo, and that of the worthy author of the
Saints' Rest. Such a mean we find in the long and
full, yet not lengthy prayers in the ancient Commu-
nion Offices of the East, and in those which, in the
ordinary Office, bear the superscription of St. Basil.
Let me briefly illustrate what has been said by
examining a single one of our prayers, that " for the
Queen's Majesty." It has been lately pointed out
that this prayer, though not placed in our Office until
1559, was contained in one of the earliest publica-
tions of the period of our Revision, only in a some-
what longer form d. No apology ought to be needed
for that noble apostrophe or invocation, "High and
Mighty, King of kings," &c, which, by the heaping up
of all that is noblest and most exalted of temporal dig-
nities, piles a footstool for the Throne of the Eternal.
This is the true answer to objections to the titles of
sovereignty, given (as of old) in this and other prayers,
to the earthly ruler. Divine loyalty is but the subli-
mation of human, or at any rate is never more justly
exhibited than when it is represented as transcending
all duty that we owe to earthly government. The
mystery of earthly government, in truth, is one of the
most indefeasible, and also one of the most expressly
sanctified conditions of our earthly estate ; and the
recognition of it in prayer, in all its fulness, far from
interfering with right views of Divine government,
throws us at once, and most effectually, into the true
attitude of spiritual loyalty. And in the majestic
incessus of this and some others of our prayers, we
' See Procter, p. 2 IS.
SECT. v.J MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER.
377
seem to hear sounding in the Western climes of the
Church the more rich and lavish orisons of the great
Basil, or the unknown composers of Eastern Liturgies.
Nor do I hesitate to say that it even excels in ma-
jesty both of thought and expression, anything of
the same kind that Eastern antiquity can boast. The
following prayer from the beginning of St. Mark's
Liturgy, i. e. the Alexandrian Communion Office, will
serve at once to justify the length and the topics of
our prayer, and also — itself no ignoble form — to set
off the exceeding beauty of ours.
" O Lord, God and Master, the Father of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ, we beseech Thee preserve
our King in peace, valour, and justice. Subdue under
him every enemy and every foe. Lay hold of the
shield and buckler, and stand up to help bim. Grant
him, 0 Lord, victory, counsels of peace towards us
and towards Thy holy Name; that we, in the peace
of his times, may lead a quiet peaceable life, and in
all godliness and honesty, by the grace, and mercy,
and loving-kindness," &c.
And there is one feature deserving of our notice
common to the principal among these prayers ; those
viz. for the Queen, the Royal Family, the Clergy and
people, and for all Conditions of men. It is that in
every one, no less than the gift of the Holy Spirit itself
is desired on behalf of those prayed for. They thus
fully illustrate a principle above mentioned. And
while we may well feel some surprise that, together
with the memorial Collect for Peace, that for the
Holy Spirit was not retained also ; we may also see
in these detailed prayers to the same effect abundant
compensation for the loss of it.
But all these Prayers and Collects, lastly, stand
378 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [chap. nr.
in a distinct relation to the supremely solemn act
whereby in the Eucharist we plead the Sacrifice of
the Death of Christ. As usual, the Eucharistic Offices
themselves set the example of naming before God the
things which we desire for ourselves and others, as
the fruit of that great interceding medium. Our daily
prayers do but prolong that pleading by the usual
form of their conclusion, and by bringing to the altar,
in a manner, our daily and continual needs, with a
never-ceasing importunity.
The immediate design of placing a General
Thanksgiving at the end of the Office, would ap-
pear to be not so much to supply a supposed de-
ficiency of praise or thanksgiving in general, (which
was the ground taken by those whom Hooker an-
swered6,) though this is included, as in order that
praise may be given for the means of grace, with
reference to the Office just concluded, and so for
the whole economy of Salvation ; just as the Confes-
sion is general, yet with the like special reference.
It thus holds an entirely parallel position, as was
before observed, to that of the Gloria in Excelsis in
our Communion Office.
The old English Litany, on which our present form
is based, is remarkable for resembling, more closely
than the ordinary Western Litany, that which was at-
tached to the Eastern Nocturns, (p. S6.) The design
with which it was appointed to supersede the interces-
sory prayers on three days in the week, seems to have
been originally in part only penitential. By Edward's
Injunctions of 1549, and Elizabeth's of 1559, it was
ordered to be said immediately before the Communion
Office. And in the first Revision, 1549, it was to be
e V. xliii.
sect, v.] MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER. 379
followed, on "Wednesdays and Fridays, and other days
of greater observance than common, by the early part
of that Office. It was therefore viewed as a great pre-
lude of intercession in connection with the Commu-
nion. And as such on Sundays or Festivals it may
still be taken ; while on ordinary Wednesdays and
Fridays, on which no part of the Communion Office
is now used, it may retain its penitential aspect.
The Prayer of St. Chrysostom, so called, seems
by its contents to sum up, in a reverse or retrospective
order, the features of the foregone Office, desiring, 1,
the fulfilment of our petitions ; 2, knowledge of God's
truth ; 3, life everlasting, the occupation of which will
be endless praise. And, though this was perhaps not
contemplated in appointing it, it is at least significant,
that in its ancient Eastern position it was part of
a prelude f to the Holy Communion.
The Benediction which concludes our Office stands
related in several ways to the ancient ritual, and will
be best interpreted and used by keeping those rela-
tions in view. It represents, first, the closing Prime
and Compline benedictions, of which the former was
in the Name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Again,
it was the "short chapter" used at the Terce, or
9 a.m. Office, on Sundays throughout the West; and
as such, and not merely as a suitable apostolic bene-
diction, found its way to its present position. But the
selection of it for that hour on the First Day of the
week, (said to be due to St. Ambrose,) doubtless arose
from hence, that it formed, throughout the greater
part of the East, the introductory benediction to the
more solemn part of the Communion Office ; for the
' It was the prayer of the second antiphon to the hymn, "Ouly-
begotten."
380 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE, [c. IV. s. v.
celebration of which, 9 a.m., the hour of the Descent
of the Holy Spirit, was more especially set apart.
And the chief excellence, accordingly, of this con-
clusion is, that while it breathes the present peace
of old apostolic blessing, it is nevertheless not an ab-
solute conclusion at all, but points onward still to
some better thing hoped for ; and so leaves the spirit,
which has most faithfully yielded itself up to the joys
of this lower service, in the attitude of one unsatisfied
still, and expecting a higher consolation.
CONCLUSION.
"Hold fast the form of sound words."
Grave questions, bearing upon the interests of the
English Church at the present hour, are suggested
by the contents of the preceding chapters.
In the first place, it has pleased God to put it into
the hearts of many, within the last half-century, ear-
nestly to desire and diligently to labour for the greater
efficiency of the Church of Christ in this country. Of
the apostolic zeal and love which animated the earlier
stage of that endeavour; or of the improved know-
ledge, directing and chastening a zeal and love no-
way inferior, which has on the whole marked its sub-
sequent progress, it is unnecessary to speak here. Nor
has this awakened vitality been without signal results.
The practical energies of the Church, in every branch
of her operations, are sensibly quickened; her real
position and powers are, by the clergy especially,
more truly estimated ; — her own estimate of them
being, in fact, through increased study of her Formu-
laries and her Divines, more generally understood,
and more frankly and ex animo accepted. And this
return to a sounder condition in point of Christian
doctrine, is ground for the deepest thankfulness. It
is a great matter for a Church thus to have recovered,
to have grasped, to be acting upon, the great doctrinal
382 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
principles of apostolic days ; and for harmony to have
been thus restored between her written mind and her
actual and living operation.
But next to the principles of doctrine come those of
ritual administration ; and these, in their turn, have
naturally come to engage the Church's solicitude.
Assuming her to have returned, in the main, to sound
doctrinal principles of action, does her ritual adminis-
tration, and specially do her Offices of Public Worship,
need alteration, either in point of general theory, or of
practical capability for dealing with the work she has
to do?
These questions are more or less formally raised,
both by practices which are here and there recom-
mended and adopted among us, and by various plans
proposed for a re-adjustment or retouchment of our
Offices, or for additions to them.
By the general theory of a Church's services I mean
the broad plan which they set out as that on which
the Christian life, so far as it is regulated by public
prescript, should be formed, and the Christian estate
persevered in. This is a profound, and may well be
an anxious question, for any Church, at any time.
One main aspect which it necessarily assumes has re-
ference to the measure to be observed in the frequency
of Eucharistic celebration and reception, and to the
relation to be maintained between that great Rite and
ordinary worship. What the apostolic practice was in
this matter has been pointed out in these pages ; and
in representing that it was to have Sunday, with occa-
sional festival celebration, I am borne out by the con-
current opinion of the best-informed writers, of what-
ever communion. That the complement to this, again,
was daily service, for as many as could attend it, I
CONCLUSION.
have also endeavoured to prove. And indeed, inde-
pendently of all proof, it is the conclusion to which
our estimate — undoubtedly correct — of the piety and
holiness of those ages necessarily conducts us. For,
as has been already observed, it is incredible that the
apostolic Church, as a Church, was content to acknow-
ledge and worship God publicly but once a-week.
Now while we have no warrant for representing apo-
stolic practice, in matters of ritual, as binding on all
ages of the Church, it nevertheless is surely the part
of Christian wisdom to defer in a great degree, in this
as in all else, to the clearly and practically expressed
mind of Apostles and apostolic men. The grounds
upon which we depart from it should be weighty in-
deed. And we may throw into the scale the further
consideration that, as a matter of historical fact, it has
never gone so well with the Church, in the matter of
ritual efficiency, since the day that she departed, with
however good intention, on the right hand or on the
left, from the Apostolic standard in these matters.
For, that in the Apostolic and immediately succeed-
ing ages they realized weekly and probably festival
Communion for all, is what none, I believe, in the
present day will care to dispute ; since the prevailing,
though utterly unfounded impression is, that they
communicated daily. That, for as many as possible,
(though there must at all times have been excep-
tions,) daily attendance on ordinary worship was the
rule also, will, for the same reason, hardly be disputed
either. And these positions are entirely borne out by
such glimpses, historical or ritual, as antiquity gives
us of early practice. Now will any one for a moment
compare, in point of desirableness, with this state of
things — this actual realization, for all the members
3S4
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
of the Church, of the degree of ritual privilege here
described, — anything that has existed since ? The
Church in the third and fourth century began in
places to devise or recognise a different standard.
We now first behold the astonishing inequality of
daily reception in some cases, yearly reception in
others ; vast polar and equatorial extremes of ritual
condition, both alike unknown to Apostolic days.
But the Church, as it would seem, disheartened
at the neglect of privileges manifested by the many,
grasped at a higher condition, as they deemed it,
for the few. And thence dated the recognition of
privileged classes in Christianity ; of a redeeming few
who could, and a vast multitude who could not, enter
upon the high and supreme, but at the same time the
designed normal condition for Christian men. The
Apostolic system bore no trace of any such inequality.
Its condition of sacramental privilege and practice
was equal for all, as far as anything in this world can
be equalized. With " one Lord, one faith, one Bap-
tism," was conjoined one Lord's-day Eucharistic Fes-
tivals the last, like all the rest, made equal for all.
This provision was indeed founded, as I have shewn
elsewhere, on the solemn and festival nature of the
rite itself; but this incidental result of it, viz. the
glorious equality on which it placed, as a general
rule, all the subjects of the heavenly kingdom, may
well be dwelt on as an argument of its wisdom, and
even of its Divine appointment.
To this Apostolic standard, then, neither less nor
more, broadly accepted, and acted on in its general
spirit, I would fain urge the English Church to re-
turn. For doing so she stands, in one respect, at
a singular and immeasurable advantage. It is this :
CONCLUSION.
385
that she has no need, in order to its full accomplish-
ment, to alter an iota of her existing theory in the
matter of ritual, but only to give practical effect to it :
she has, though much to do, yet nothing to undo ; no
mutilated Sacrament" to restore, no abandoned or
abolished ordinary worship to recal. She need not
change her course by a single point, but only
" Still bear up, and steer
Bight onward."
The theory of weekly Eucharist, — with tempered
festival or other added celebration, — is significantly
written for her, as indeed for Western Christendom
generally, in her weekly-varying Collect, Epistle,
and Gospel. The theory of twofold daily service,
for the greatest possible number, is no less plainly
written in her rubrics on that subject. And her
practice, however defective, has all along tended,
and tends increasingly at the present hour, towards
the realization of these usages by means of her an-
ciently derived Offices. Whatever of improvement
or of growth has taken place, has been uniformly, or
with exceptions that hardly call for notice, in this
track and in this direction. All that is needed
is that she should set before her more definitely
than ever, and as her fixed and unswerving aim, the
recovery of the entire ritual condition of apostolic
days, by bringing back at least the bulk of her chil-
dren to the great primeval practices of Weekly Com-
munion and Daily Common Prayer.
This aim will, I am well aware, be deemed by
» On the subject of the permission to use the earlier part of the Com-
munion Office when there are no communicants, which some have ima-
gined to come under this description, see Part II. See also p. 49, for
an ancient precedent ; and Bingham, as there referred to.
C C
38G THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
some low and unworthy ; by others no less visionary
and extravagant. I venture to affirm that it is nei-
ther. Those who would contend for a vastly greater
frequency of Communion, as indispensable to the life
of faith, I would remind, that the measure of it here
advocated, — with only such occasional increase as our
scheme of service also contemplates and provides for,
— was that of Apostolic times; and that there are
weighty reasons, already set forth, for believing that
such is the safer, if not the ordained condition for the
Church in all ages. And in reply to that far greater
number, who look upon the restoration of these prac-
tices, with any sort of universality, as impossible, I
would say, that I by no means underrate the diffi-
culty. Difficult it unquestionably is, and ever must
be, to win the world to Christian obedience and prac-
tice, in ritual matters no less than in practical, — diffi-
cult to gird on Apostolic weapons, and wage an Apo-
stolic warfare. But the question for a Church, as for
an individual, is not what is difficult or easy, but, as
far as it can be ascertained, what is right or wrong :
not what we think will succeed or not succeed, but
what, on a wise and well-weighed investigation, it
seems that the Church's Lord designed for her to do
or to aim at. And surely success may better be
expected in the attempt to recover a regimen known
to be Apostolic, as compared with others which, how-
ever plausible in show, are the invention of later
times, and have on trial been found wanting. I am
persuaded too that we exaggerate the difficulty of
bringing things back to the position here contem-
plated.
First, as regards Holy Communion. We have
too much, it must be said, invested it with circum-
CONCLUSION.
387
stances of discouragement. It lias too much been
represented as a provision for an occasional ecstatic
state of sanctity; too little in its real character, as
the ordained instrument of appropriating afresh, at
brief intervals, — and those of scarcely less than Di-
vine appointment, — the Christian estate of salva-
tion, and of discharging its duties in their highest
and only complete form. A solemn and a festival
thing doubtless it is designed to be ; but it is a
solemnity and a festival of ordained weekly recur-
rence, at the least. It is this that we have need to
realize; viz. that in apostolic days the return of the
weekly Festival of Christ's Resurrection, and of the
Descent of the Holy Spirit, without Eucharistic cele-
bration and participation, would have been looked upon
as scarcely less than an abandonment of the whole
Christian position. Surely we should then be less
disposed to acquiesce in such ideas as that of monthly
Communion, as being a tolerably satisfactory measure
of Christian privilege ; and contend with more earnest-
ness, from a more strongly fortified position, and with
greater success, for the weekly practice. Is there any
reason to doubt that the same kind of persons whom
we now unhesitatingly and effectually invite to monthly
reception, might with equal safety to their souls, and
with equal success, be prevailed upon to become weekly
Communicants ? It is the habit, which in various ways
(as e. g. by books containing a " week's preparation"
for communicating) has been spread abroad, of view-
ing Communion as in its nature a rare event ; — it is
this, and not any unmeetness or disinclination for
more frequent reception, at any rate in the case of
the more devout members of our congregations, which
makes the general restoration of weekly Communion
c c 2
388 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
appear so formidable and difficult. Let the practice,
and the irresistibly strong grounds on which it rests,
be fairly set before them, and there is no reason to
doubt that the call would be responded to; more
especially since monthly Communion has no definite
standing-ground of recommendation, any more than
quarterly, or the like. Both are, though in different
degrees, a corrupt and unhealthy state of Christian
privilege ; whereas weekly reception has the claim and
the strength of Apostolic sanction and example.
The fuller consideration of this subject must be re-
served for the second part of this work. It was neces-
sary, however, to treat of it in a measure both here
and elsewhere in the present volume, because of the
intimate relation subsisting between the Holy Com-
munion and lower acts of service. Similar reservation
must be made of another deeply important question,
which is beginning to assume some prominence in the
present day; viz. that of non-communicating attend-
ance on the Eucharist. Not until the true nature and
design of that Ordinance, as they are plainly written
for us in the liturgical records of early and Apostolic
days, are fully laid open, can it be shewn how utterly
at variance such a practice is with the mind of those
times, and of the Ordinance itself. It may suffice to
observe here, that the main ground b upon which the
upholders of it have hitherto relied, viz. the difficulty
of imagining what the early Christians did at the
daily celebrations if indisposed to communicate, is
completely cut away from under them by the well-
k See Dr. Mill's well-known letter in " Tracts on Catholic Unity."
The very partial countenance which that learned and lamented writer
accords to the practice, was visibly extorted from him by the considera-
tion referred to in the text.
CONCLUSION.
3S9
established fact to which I have drawn attention, that
such daily celebration did not exist. As a recent
writer0 has brought it as a weighty charge against
the English Church, that she gives no countenance
to this practice, it may be well to have pointed out
thus briefly in this place, that such discountenance
is in reality a note of apostolicity in her Eucharistic
provisions.
It is, however, on the restoration of the Ordinary
Offices of the English Church to greater efficiency,
that the contents of this volume properly lead me
to dwell. And in turning to speak of this, I find
myself so far in a more advantageous position than
when urging universal return to Weekly Communion,
that in this desire and hope, at any rate, I do not
stand alone. Little as such an event might have
been expected, there has lately arisen, throughout the
length and breadth of this Church and nation, from
men of all minds, one accordant desire for improved
efficiency in the Ordinary Worship of the Church.
The zeal thus manifested is of long standing with
some, of more sudden growth in others ; welcome,
surely, to the heart of the English Church from all.
No question is made on any side of the desirableness
of such Service, alike on Sundays and week-days ; but
only of how it may be made most efficient.
It will not be expected that I should discuss the
countless schemes for this purpose which have been
devised, whether in the way of revision and retrench-
ment of the existing offices, or providing supple-
mentary ones : — for to these objects the aims of most,
if not all, have been limited ; the actual superseding
or abolishing of the present forms none have ventured
c Wilbcrforce on the Eucharist.
390 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
to suggest. It is well known, however, that the
alteration, however slight, of the existing status of
the English Church's Ritual, is surrounded with diffi-
culties ; and that, in the endeavour to improve it, its
very existence, or at any rate its integrity, might be
seriously imperilled. And the question, I conceive,
really before the English Church at the present mo-
ment, is not whether any improvement is theoretically
possible, but whether the advantages sought are such as
can be set against the risk involved in seeking them.
Now I confess to sharing, for my own part, in the
desire, could it be safely and skilfully accomplished,
for certain improvements, and those on no mean scale,
in our existing Offices. These alterations are not, it
may be, exactly those which are most popular in the
present clay. The prevailing inclination is to reduce
our services in various ways. I confess to wishing
them, under certain conditions, considerably longer
than they are. In the greatest part of our Offices,
indeed, I discern nothing but subject for truest con-
tent. The penitential prelude, as of old ; the ample
scheme on which Holy Scripture is sounded forth in
our worship day by day to a degree which has never
been witnessed in any Church in East or West for
more than a thousand years3, and which was not sur-
passed even in Apostolic times6; the no less ample
and Apostolic stream of prayer and intercession fol-
lowing; combined with the exquisite and profound
structure of the whole Office, epitomizing all the
great ritual conceptions of the past, yet answering,
with the simplicity and ease of the most perfectly
d The Spanish and French Churches had numerous and apparently
full Lessons of Scripture in their daily services. See pp. 128, 215.
■ P. MS.
CONCLUSION.
391
adjusted machinery, to the needs of the present hour :
— in all this I see nothing that, in the interests of the
Cliurch of this land, I should greatly care to see
otherwise. It is only when looking back to the mul-
titudinous and unstinted Praise of Apostolic times
— the vast volume of Psalms, hymns, and canticles,
that went up from the hearts and lips of the first
ages day by day ; — it is only then that, notwithstand-
ing compensations involved in our Lesson and Prayer
system, I confess to feeling our measure of psalmody
and similar features somewhat scanty and unsatisfy-
ing. This, however, I only therefore mention, that
it may be seen that the counsel, towards which these
remarks are tending, is the result of no feeble optim-
ism or blind admiration ; but that I too, in sounding
the note of quieta non movere, have some sacrifice to
make of personal wishes.
It will perhaps be admitted that in the preceding
pages some fresh reasons have been added to those
which have long deservedly swayed the English mind
in favour of dealing in the spirit of tender and re-
verent conservatism with our present Offices. With
some, their purely English and Oriental descent, their
independence of the Eoman ritual, will plead in their
behalf. With some, their affinity to the world-wide
family of similar Offices, and their consequent fitness
to stand as a symbol, a witness, and an instrument of
our oneness with the Church Universal : with others,
their mighty grasp of the breadth of Scripture, their
profound intuition into its depths, will be their recom-
mendation. Some will value them for their Apostolic
origin, others for their re-moulding's sake in a later
age, a third sort for their sympathy with the period
of Europe's revival. I will add to these one further
392 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
ground. It has appeared in the preceding inquiry
that these Offices are the last of their race. It is also
generally conceded among us, that in their present
form they have not existed in vain. Whatever of
rugged or straightforward virtues, of simple loyalty
towards God and man, is generally associated with
the modern English character under favourable cir-
cumstances, may doubtless be traced in no small de-
gree to the influence of these Ordinary Services. The
Communion Office can claim far less share in it.
And it is a task of the utmost responsibility, to take
any part in destroying or impairing, by whatever
means, a ritual representing such great influences of
the past, and so probably rife with expansive and
fructifying powers for the future.
Still it is frankly to be conceded, that if the pre-
sent needs of the Church so require, — if any serious
loss is being suffered for want of alteration, or some
great gain is even probably to be achieved by it, — no
reasons of antiquity or association, no theoretical ex-
cellence of structure, ought to avail against it. With
such objects in view, even some degree of risk may
reasonably be run. But it may confidently be asked,
Has any such case been made out for the changes or
additions advocated?
The main lines in which projected alterations run
are these: 1, internal rectification; 2, retrenchment of
the old, or substitution of shorter Offices ; 3, addition
of new Offices for special purposes.
1. It is represented that the services are in certain
points not perfectly appropriate. The Lessons for
certain days, and for one particular period of the
year, (viz. when the Apocrypha is read,) might be
better selected. Supposing this conceded to the ut-
CONCLUSION.
393
most, it were a slender foundation indeed on which
to base the re-organization, or jeopardy the existence,
of our entire ritual. But the truth is, that the Lessons
chiefly referred to are selected on a sound principle
enough, as has been already pointed outf. And in
one particular instance, that of Ash-Wednesday, it
appears to have been by design, not accident, that
no Proper Lessons were appointed. In the English
Church it was always deemed that sufficient solemnity
was given to that day by a special homily on repent-
ance, and other methods ; exactly as now by the
Commination Service. Not, of course, that this binds
us to have no Proper Lessons now ; but it is an in-
stance, among many, where arrangements have been
found fault with, of which a fair account, to say the
least, can be given. It has also been pointed outg
in a general way, in a previous page, that while there
are obvious advantages in a fixed and appropriate
selection, so also are there in those freer cycles which
were adopted at the Revision of our Offices. In this
particular case of Ash-Wednesday, the First Lesson
being in most years from the solemn pages of the
later Mosaic books, can seldom fail to be appropriate ;
while it varies from year to year the Scripture com-
binations of the day.
2. The grounds alleged for retrenchment of the old
Offices, or for the substitution, on week-days, and as
an alternative, of new and shorter ones, are equally
slight and unconvincing. There is no one object pro-
posed by either plan, which may not in the simplest
way be accomplished without any alteration or sub-
stitution whatever. We have seen in these pages how
' P. 318.
* P. 347.
394 THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
truly and bond fide our existing Offices are a combi-
nation of the more numerous preceding ones. This
alone might suggest the plan of once more, on occa-
sion, and where need is, resolving them into their
constituent elements. Owing to the structure thus
belonging to them, they lend themselves with great
facility to such a design. They all but suggest pauses,
serving to reduce them in practice to more services
than one, each short enough for all conceivable pur-
poses. The Morning Office easily resolves itself into
two, the one corresponding to Matins and Lauds, the
other extending from the Creed inclusive to Prime;
the Evening Office falls in like manner into two
services, resembling Vespers and Compline : though
indeed there is more than one way of dividing each
Office intelligibly enough, without reference to the old
arrangements. Thus in either Office the pause might
well be after the Canticle to the First Lesson. All
that is needed is, that such pauses be pre-arranged
and understood, as occasions for free egress and in-
gress of worshippers ; a bell, if necessary, being rung
to give notice of the time. Such an arrangement
seems to be contemplated by the frequent breaks in
the old Offices; especially in the two Eastern Noc-
turns, each commencing in the same way. By this
method then, which has been found to answer its
purpose most completely, and is no less applicable to
week-days than to Sundays, all necessity for any re-
trenchment, or substitution of shorter services, may
be precluded ; the English Church saved the appa-
rent discredit of proclaiming that her services, already
the shortest in Christendom, are yet longer than she
knows how to use ; and the setting up of rival Offices,
which might here as elsewhere become the watch-
CONCLUSION.
395
words of parties, avoided. If it be said, that there is
somewhat novel, and un-English, in such a plan, and
that few will be at the pains to carry it out, or avail
themselves of it : it is obvious to reply, that novelty
of administration is less serious than that of sub-
stance j and that if those who plead for relief in point
of length will not accept it in this form, it only shews
that their alleged need is not very urgent.
3. The authorization of new and additional of-
fices to meet special needs of the Church, stands on
somewhat different ground from the two former pro-
posals. That such offices are in themselves desir-
able, and have been provided in all ages, as they are
still in a measure by the English Church, is unques-
tionable. The Euchologies of the East, the Missse
Votiva?, or special Communion Offices of the West,
made somewhat ample provision of this kind. But it
may still be questioned whether our existing ritual
machinery, if worked with that moderate degree of
licence which it is inconceivable that it was intended
to exclude, cannot supply all that is absolutely re-
quired. One particular need alleged is that of an
additional Evening Office of a simpler and less litur-
gical kind than our present Evensong. But such an
Office is, in the first place, supplied by the method
above described, of breaking the Evensong by a
pause. A second method, which has been deemed
by high authorities perfectly compatible with the
Church's rubric, is to combine the Litany with a
sermon. And further, a great and most desirable de-
gree of freedom has ever been recognised in connec-
tion with sermons, as regards the use both of prayers
and hymns. It would seem, then, that round the
396 THE PRINCIPLES OP DIVINE SERVICE.
combination here mentioned might be gathered, under
dne regulation and authorization in the several dio-
ceses, the materials not only of such a popular Even-
ing Service as is desired, but also of a minor kind of
Office adapted to special occasions and emergencies.
It may be added here, that in the free use of hymns,
which has never been disallowed, but rather encou-
raged in various ways, in the English Church, lies
one great resource for amplifying and enriching our
ordinary Office.
On the whole, then, I conceive that no cause has
been shewn, nor can be, for embarking at the present
hour on so great and hazardous an enterprise as that
of revising once more our Ordinary Offices, whether
in the way of retouchment, retrenchment, or addition.
No such second emergency and crisis has arisen now,
as that which prompted and demanded the Revision
of the sixteenth century. The English Church had
sinned deeply then, had she failed to recognise the
new duty which had come upon her by the breaking
up of the great crust of the old mediaeval condition,
and to cast forth the bread of a vernacular and popular
ritual on the rising waters of knowledge. It remains
now to "find it after many days." What is really wanted
is a better understanding and appreciation of what
was done then, together with faith and love to give —
what has never yet been given — full effect to it. Our
need, in a word, is not of new services, but of a new
mind and heart, in clergy and people alike, towards
those which we have. The affection felt for them
by this Church and nation, though deep, has surely
been blind. Their powers as instruments of spiri-
tual perfection, and as the exponents of religious feel-
CONCLUSION.
397
ing and worship, have been — if there be any truth
in what has been here unfolded — underrated and
unknown.
But above all, these Offices have not been duly
used. As services reaching through the whole of life,
and so, in due subordination to Eucharistic service,
guiding, moulding, and elevating it, they are to the
far greater part of our clergy, much more to the
mass of the laity, utterly strange. Solemnly bound
though the former are, by their ordination vow, to
the daily and continual use of them, and to bring
others to them to the best of their power, it is but
lately that any sense of these obligations has begun
to be manifested among us.
The causes which have led to this state of things
cannot here be inquired into. One fertile source of
it, and which must continue to have the same result
until the evil shall in God's good time be remedied,
is to be found in the strange and well-nigh incre-
dible custom which has prevailed among us, and
is only beginning in the rarest instances to be broken
through, of our clergy being admitted to their holy
Office without a shadow of training in the duties,
but specially in the mind and habits proper to it,
and essential to the well-being of the Church. All,
however, that it falls within the scope of this work to
point out is, that the responsibility and shame of such
neglect, in clergy and laity alike, is tenfold greater
in the case of the English Church than of any other.
First, because in no other have the public Offices of
Ordinary Worship been so sedulously and completely
popularised, and fitted for the use of all in whom
a spark of love or faith survives ; and next, because,
though a faithful use of these services, beyond the
398
THE PRINCIPLES OF DIVINE SERVICE.
example of other ages and lands, will abundantly
justify that reduction of them from their old grandeur
to their present simplicity, and from an ideal to a
practicable standard, nothing short of this can pos-
sibly do so.
END OF VOL. I.
NOTES.
Note A. — p. 21.
The charge which, in no heated spirit of controversy, but in
all sadness as well as soberness, is in the text advanced against
the existing Eoman Church of " treading, to say the least, on
the very verge of polytheism ;" and again, of sanctioning more
or less formally a direct idolatry paid to various objects of
sense, — is too serious a one not to demand some degree of sub-
stantiation. I shall confine myself to one strong instance of
each kind. The following is from the Prayer-book of the
Oratory of St. Philip Neri, p. 41. We may surely well ask
what distinctive attributes or powers are reserved for Almighty
God, when such prayers as this are addressed to one of His
creatures. " 0 most holy keeper of the treasures of
grace, and refuge of us miserable sinners, we have recourse to
thy love with lively faith ; and beg of thee the grace
ever to do God's will and thine ; we give up our hearts into thy
most holy hands, and implore of thee the salvation of our souls
and bodies, and in the sure hope that thou who art our most
loving wilt hear us, we say with lively faith "
The blanks in the original are filled up with the titles of the
Blessed Virgin Mary ; the last with three " hail Maries." The
following is a prayer to St. Aloysius Gonzaga, ibid., p. 50 : — " 0
holy Aloysius, beautiful for thy angelic virtues, &c, I recom-
mend to thee in a particular manner the purity of my soul and
body. I beseech thee .... to preserve me from all sin : never
permit me to be defiled ; and when thou seest me exposed to
temptation, remove far from my heart all impure thoughts, and
renew in me the remembrance of God ; — imprint deeply in my
soul the fear of God, and enkindle within me the fire of divine
love "
These are the devotions, it is true, of an extreme section of
Romanists; but they of necessity possess the sanction of the
400
NOTES.
see of Rome. Throughout a great part of Spain, again, as we
are informed by a candid and credible witness, (vide Meyrick's
Church in Spain,) a very principal object of the popular worship
is Saint Philumena ; a person who, there is good reason to be-
lieve, never existed. It is difficult to see the difference between
this and the worship of Ceres or Diana.
On the subject of idolatry, it may suffice to allege the follow-
ing passage from the Roman Pontifical; bearing in mind the
Roman definition, following the second Nicene Council, "Latria
solum Divince Natures competit." — " Ille qui gladium Imperatori
proefert, et alius crucem Legati portans, simul ire debent. Crux
Legati, quod deletur ei Latria, erit a dexteris, et gladius Impe-
ratoris a sinistris." Ordo ad recip. process. Imperat. Ponti-
ficate Rom., p. 672, ed. Rom. 1595. Pont. Rom. Urban VIII.
pars iii. p. 109, Paris, 1664. Pont. Rom. p. 571, typ. Vat.
1745. I have selected these peculiarly flagrant instances, not
as in the least admitting that the lower degrees of worship
addressed to creatures in the Roman communion are in any
way justifiable, but as conceiving the present instances, at least,
to admit of no answer or palliation.
It is only just, however painful, to add that the existing
Eastern Offices go to quite the same lengths as the Roman in
ascribing to the Blessed Virgin the attributes of Almighty God ;
such as the government of the world and the Church, the dis-
posing of the hearts of kings, the giving of victory, &c. " It
must be confessed," says Mr. Neale, " that these troparia are at
least as strong as any corresponding expressions in the Latin
Church," (p. 833). Take the following instance, (lb., Lauds,
p. 915): "O Mother of God, confirm the state of the orthodox,
preserve those whom thou hast chosen to rule, (!) and give them
from heaven the victory ; because thou, who only art blessed,
didst bring forth God." More awful blasphemy it is difficult to
conceive. Indeed there is strong historical ground (vid. Nice-
pliorus) for believing that this and many like hymns were ori-
ginally, or in their earlier forms, addressed to Christ, but have
been perverted to their present purpose, simply by substituting
the name of the Theotokos. In like manner, the intercession
of Christ, which I do not remember to have seen pleaded
anywhere in the existing Greek services, seems to have been
obliterated to make room for the constantly recurring request
for the intercession of the saints, and of the Blessed Virgin
Mary especially.
NOTES.
401
If any one should think it absolutely improbable, either that
so vital a corruption should for so long a period have infected
the greater portion of the Church of God, without its forfeiting
the very name and the being of a Church ; or again, that a com-
paratively small remainder of the Church should retain the pure
deposit of the truth, the far larger part holding it in a deeply
vitiated form ; let such ponder well the strikingly parallel case
of the Church of the Elder Covenant.
From about the 6th to the 16th century of the Christian era,
certain corruptions in doctrine and discipline had been gathering
to a head. That they grew up as encroachments upon the old
truth and the old prerogatives, has been again and again demon-
strated. And there existed all the while, even to the last, a leaven
and an element of protest. The two leading aspects of the in-
novations which had thus grown up had reference, 1, to the
Headship of the Church ; and 2, to the Object of worship. A
claim had been gradually set up to an earthly headship, alike in
things temporal and spiritual ; and worship of the most exalted
kind, trenching very closely, to say the least, upon that which
is due to Almighty God, had been introduced, and was declared
to be due to various created things. And when, in the 16th
century, various events raised the momentous issue between the
old ways and faith and the new, and compelled men to choose
their side, the result was that a great preponderance adhered to
the novel doctrines and discipline which had thus arisen in the
course of several preceding centuries; while a comparatively
small number refused to acknowledge any other supreme Head-
ship than the Church had known from the beginning, or any
other Object of worship than God Himself.
Such, stated in general terms, and drawn in its true colours,
■was the spectacle which was exhibited to the world in the 16th
century. And it is singularly parallel, in all its main features, to
the breaking off of the ten tribes from the theocratic common-
wealth of Israel. It has been well pointed out by a writer of
our own, (see Blunt' s Hulsean Lectures,) that that disruption was
only the result of tendencies which had long been in operation,
— tendencies on the part of the great mass of Israel, 1, to form
themselves into a separate confederation under the headship of
the tribe of Ephraim ; and 2, to worship God through forbidden
media, as well as to worship other gods.
And the points that we are concerned to notice are these two :
1 . That the body which broke away from its allegiance to the
d d
402
NOTES.
Mosaic theocracy, and to the one Object of worship, was of the
two by far the larger and more imposing in grandeur and popu-
lousness; while the far smaller body exclusively retained the
pure form both of ecclesiastical polity and Divine worship ; and
yet, 2. that notwithstanding the deep degradation, and appa-
rently hopeless apostacy, of the kingdom of Israel, it did not
cease to be accounted a portion of the Church of God ; that God
still pleaded with it by His prophets ; and that there were still,
even in its darkest days, " seven thousand who had not bowed
the knee to Baal."
We might, indeed, pursue the parallel further. While it is
not for us to lift the curtain of the Church's yet future destiny,
we cannot but be struck with the fact, that though Judah was
scourged for her sins by the captivity, yet it was not upon her,
but upon " backsliding Israel," that the curse of final excision
and dispersion fell ; that the true ark of refuge in those days was
not Ephraim, hit Judah, (see 2 Chron. xi. 13 — 16). Thought-
ful men have deemed that even such a destiny as this, to be the
one refuge of the faithful in the last days, may be reserved to
the Church of the English succession.
Note '.
It may be conjectured, though we have no positive evidence
for the fact, that the Temple Service commenced daily with the
95th Psalm itself, or with some part of it. For it were surely
most remarkable that a Psalm so peculiarly to the purpose, and
bearing so expressly upon early Israelitish story, should find no
appointed place in that Service. Now it is not among the seven
Psalms allotted to the seven days of the week ; which are said
to have been as follows : —
On the 1st day of the week, our Sunday, Ps. xxiv.
2nd „ „ Monday, Ps. xlviii.
3rd „ „ Tuesday, Ps. lxxxii.
4th „ „ Wednesday, Ps. xciv.
5 tli „ „ Thursday, Ps. lxxxi.
6th „ „ Friday, Ps. xciii.
7th (Sabbath) „ Saturday, Ps. xcii.
Is it improbable that the 95th Psalm, though the Jewish
writers have preserved no record of it, was used also ; viz. as
NOTES.
403
a fixed every-day Psalm, preparatory to the whole psalmody of
the day, — a purpose for which it is so entirely suitable ? We
may take notice, as lending some countenance to this conjecture,
that the Psalms in the above scheme are numbered backwards in
two instances, viz. in the case of the 81st and 82nd occurring on
the fifth and third days ; and again, in that of the 92nd, 93rd,
and 94th, which are allotted to the 7th, 6th, and 4th. Now
this is a thoroughly Jewish way of reckoning ; an instance
of which in the Synagogue Service has already been referred
to (p. 71, note z) ; — the Sabbath, though last in order, being
reckoned the chief and leading day of the week to which it
belongs, and regulating its character in ritual things. Though,
indeed, — and it is another indication of the Jewish origin of the
Eastern ritual, — some weeks in the calendar of Constantinople
derive their name and character from the following Sunday.
Thus the six days preceding Palm-Sunday make up with it
what is called Palm- week ; and so of others (vide Neale, pp.
743, 753). This feature in the Jewish scheme furnishes some
presumption in favour of its antiquity, which, though highly
probable, cannot be absolutely demonstrated. But our present
concern with it is to observe, that it seems to point to the 95th
Psalm as having had in some way, and in some shape or other,
a place in the Temple Service. For there is manifestly a prin-
ciple, and the same principle, in the selection of these two
groups of Psalms. The 81st Psalm is an exhortation to sted-
fast adherence to the service and praise of God, grounded on a
review of the events in the wilderness ; the 82nd, though differ-
ing in subject, is connected with the 81st as being a Psalm of
Asaph, the only two in succession that bear his name. In like
manner the 95th Psalm is the culminating point of the series
which commences on the Sabbath, or rather sets out from it.
The peculiar character of the ninetieth Psalm, as being probably
a genuine composition of Moses, widely separates it from the
next group of Psalms extending from the 91st to the 100th.
And of these the first five — among which are the Psalms now
under our consideration — possess a character of their own. The
whole group is thought by competent judges to belong to
the period just preceding the captivity"; probably to the last
national revival under Josiah\ But the first five are clearly
■ Hengstenberg on the Psalms, Appendix II. p. 17, and pp. 156, 157.
b Ibid., p. 17.
D d 2
404
NOTES.
discernible from the last five. The former set are emphatically
national Israelitish Psalms ; the latter contemplate prophetically
the Divine rule as extended over all lands, though having its
seat still in Sionc. The former, then, would be very likely to be
adopted, at the time when they originated, as fixed Psalms for
the Temple Service ; and they would be reinstated as such by
Ezra, with the rest of the national worship. Such, accordingly,
is the place which tradition represents most of them as holding
at the Christian era. One exception is the last, and in many
respects the most remarkable, as well as the most deeply imbued
with the pervading spirit of the entire series, viz. the 95th.
A mighty and triumphant deliverance from the coming cap-
tivity, the anticipation of which seems to run through the four
preceding Psalms, is here contemplated as actually come. In
language based (just as in the 81st Psalm) on what befel the
nation on their way to the promised land, and no less applicable
to the captivity, with its seventy years of exile, they are ex-
horted to faithful adherence to the worship of God their King.
It is hardly credible but that this Psalm, if our premises be at
all correct, must have had its place somewhere in the restored
Temple Service"1, the rather because its contents being such as
we have seen, would have a tenfold applicability after the re-
<urn from the captivity; since the exhortation, " to-day, harden
not your hearts," &c, would rest upon a new and personal ex-
perience perfectly parallel to that of ancient Israel.
Note C, on Chap. I. Sect. VI.
This Hexapsalmus, taken with the 51st, which follows, may
possibly be the foundation of the "seven penitential Psalms" of
the West ; these do not seem to be known in the East. Origen
appears to be the first to allude to them (Horn. Lev. xi.), and
after him St. Augustine, both writing in Africa, — the stepping-
stone between the East and the West. Of the seven Eastern
Psalms, three (viz. xxxviii., li., cxliii.) belong to the Western
Septett; a fourth (88th) is profoundly penitential, and a Psalm
of the Passion in the West.
c Sec Hengsteiiberg, ubi sup., and Ps. xevi. p. 172.
11 Compare Hengsteiiberg in loe., p. 165.
NOTES.
405
Note D.— p. 142.
In this note shall be given a few specimens of the Eastern
hymns, &c, chiefly such as throw light on the origin of Western
forms.
First, as to the original of the Western Te Deum. The legend
of its having been composed, as by inspiration, at the baptism of
St. Augustine by St. Ambrose, rests upon no higher authority,
that we know of, than that of a spurious chronicle ascribed to
Dacius, a successor of St. Ambrose, but in reality written 500
years later, (Vide Mabillon, Analect. ap. Bingham, xiv.ii. 9). It is
however so singular a story for any one to have entirely invented,
that it is just possible it may be founded on authentic traditions
of some part taken by those two great Doctors of the Church,
either in putting together the Te Deum, or in introducing it
into the Church Services. It is worthy of note, in reference to
this story, that the Te Deum has somewhat the appearance of
a choral paraphrase on (1) the Creed and (2) the Lord's Prayer;
which may be owing to its having anciently had some connec-
tion with baptism, or may have given rise to this legend.
Since Abp. Ussher's time it has commonly been ascribed to
Nicetius of Triers, (circ. 555,) on the authority of a French MS.
Psalter of about the year 1100. But another MS. Breviary of
about the same date (1086, ap. Gavanti) entitles it " Hymnus
Sisebuti Monachi;" a third, "Hymnus S. Abundii." Now these
traditions, being found in ritual-books, are probably all alike
of some antiquity, and go far to neutralize each other, and to
prove that the real author of the Te Deum is unknown. Mean-
while, its universal appearance in all known Western Offices, in
the same position, viz. at the close of the Nocturns (i.e. Matins),
just after the Lessons, affords a strong presumption that it was
a recognised feature of Church Service even before the fifth or
sixth century. Mr. Palmer, (ii. 227,) supposes St. Benedict's
rule, and that of Csesarius of Aries, to assign it different posi-
tions : but they doubtless both meant the same ; only the one
calls the Night Office Nocturns, the other Matins. The earliest
author ever named for it is Hilary of Poitiers, (circ. 354 ; vide
Palmer, 1. c.) ; and it may be as old, and cannot be much pos-
terior to his time.
But however this be, one thing is plain, viz. that the rudi-
ments, at least, of the Te Deum, are to be found in the Eastern
406
NOTES.
Offices, and that it is, as to its essence, an Eastern production,
though probably cast into its present noble and inimitable form
by some Western composer. In those Offices, though it is no-
where found entire, all the main topics and leading expressions
of it are scattered here and there. Thus, first, in tne Midnight
Office, we have the " Holy, Holy, Holy," and again, (viz. in the
Saturday form,) " Imitating the Powers above, we offer a hymn
to Thee, Holy," &c. ; and afterwards follows the expectation of
Christ's coming to judgment. The same topics are found in the
Sunday " Triadic" hymns at Nocturns, and the expression,
" The Father everlasting." Again at Lauds, in the similar
" Triadic" hymns for Lent, we have " The Father everlasting,
the co-inoriginate (vwavapxos) Son, the co-eternal Holy Ghost,
let us like the Cherubim magnify ; Holy," &c. ; and again, " The
Judge will come anon." And after the ninth ode, " For Thee
all the Powers of heaven praise." Hymns of this kind are in-
deed of frequent occurrence. In the Typica, again, — a service
subjoined to that of the sixth or ninth hour, — we have : —
" The heavenly company praise Thee, and say, Holy, Holy,
Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth ; heaven and earth are full of Thy
glory :
" The company of the holy angels and archangels, with all the
powers of heaven, praise Thee, and say," &c.
Again, in Compline : —
" The bodiless nature of the Cherubim with restless hymns
glorify Thee.
" The six-winged Seraphim with endless voices magnify Thee.
" The whole army of the angels with Trisagion hymns wor-
ship Thee.
" For Thou art before all things — the self-existent Father.
"And hast Thy Son co-inoriginate with Thee.
"Also Thou hast the equally-honoured Spirit of life.
" All the choir of prophets and martyrs," &c.
Thus varied, and on the whole gradual, is the appearance of
this hymn in the Greek Offices — nowhere put together, but dif-
fused everywhere. It is probable that further inquiry would
bring to light other portions of the Te Deum.
It may be added, that its very exordium is so peculiar as to
indicate some metrical necessity as the cause of it, — "Te Deum
laudamus ;" and on turning to the Greek hymns we see exactly
how this would originate. It is by no means uncommon for
them to begin thus ; as e. g. 2e to air6p8t)Tov Tii^os . . ixcrcvo/iev.
NOTES.
407
And do I not doubt but that the Te Deum is the translation, as
to its exordium, of a Greek hymn beginning, Se tov Geov ahovpev,
6p6koyovp.lv ere Kvpiov, or the like. It is very remarkable that
in the English Church a rudimentary or inchoate form of Te
Deum was appointed as the ordinary Antiphon to the Atha-
nasian Creed, (see Brev. Sac ad Prim. ; and Tr. Sar. Psalt.. p.
112,) " Te Deum Patrem ingenitum, te Filium unigenitum, te
Spiritum Sanctum Paracletum, sanctam et individuam Trinita-
tem toto corde et ore confitemur." Compare the Compline
form as given above.
It is interesting to trace in like manner the manifest origin of
a more mediaeval composition, the " Stabat Mater," to Eastern
originals. Short hymns on the same theme are very common
in the East : and their language, metre, and rhyme have
manifestly suggested those of the western hymns. Thus on
ordinary "Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year the
following is among the exaposteilaria (see p. 143) : —
'Ev ra Sravpm jrapearua-a Stabat Mater dolorosa
'H o-e da-nopas reKovcra Juxta crucem lacrymosa
Kal 6pr)vaboi>cra e/36a. Dum pendebat Filius
Other hymns supply minor resemblances. See Compline,
Monday in Holy-Week, Third Ode ; and Tuesday in Holy-
Week, First Ode ; and Holy Thursday and Good Friday : where
we have the "pendebat Filius" in S^epdv <re 8eu>pov era . . (V arav-
p<5. . . Z> Adye i^aprapivov : and the " pertransivit gladius," in
(Ttrpavo Ttjv Kaphlav.
The following may serve as specimens of the collect-like
hymns of the East :
" 0 Lord, who hast restored those who were cast out of
Paradise at the first by eating of the tree, by Thy Cross and
Passion, O God our Saviour, help us," &c. Sunday of the ex-
pulsion of Adam.
" O Lord, who at the third hour didst send down Thy all-
holy Spirit on the Apostles ; that Holy Spirit take not from us,
but renew it in us who pray to Thee." Monday in the same week
at Lauds. See Andrewes' Devotions, First Bay.
" O Thou, who by Thy Cross hast strengthened us to fulfil
the course of abstinence, of Thy good pleasure accomplish the
same in us by sincere repentance, 0 Lord of mercy."
408
NOTES.
Note E, on Chap. I. Sect. V.— VII.
The following passages from Palmer's "Dissertations on the
Orthodox or Eastern Catholic Communion," which have come
under my notice since writing this chapter, will furnish an in-
teresting comment on the Services which are the subject of it.
" When .... in the catacombs, under some great city, or in
the retired house of some brethren in the outskirts, the Hexa-
psalmus, or ' Six Psalms,' at the beginning of Matins, were
read with a devout and meditative voice by the superior, con-
taining the complaints and meditations of the Messiah, the per-
fect Man, under the sorrows and afflictions of His humanity, and
the assaults of His enemies, all who were present knew that this
voice was not only from the Messiah, the Head, but also from
the Church, His Body ; and each of them in particular found
his or her own spiritual application of the verses of those Psalms,
according to the personal troubles and necessities of each ; and
his own comfort and strength in that mixture of more cheerful
prayer and meditation with which one of these Psalms (ciii.)
tempers the others." — p. 285.
" And at Vespers, after the reading of a Psalm (civ.) fit for the
commencement of a day or a week, concerning creation and the
renewal of creation ; and after the singing of other Psalms (cxli.,
cxlii., exxx., cxvii.), not unlike the Hexapsalmus of the Matins,
in which ' prayer was set forth as the incense, and the lifting up
of pure hands was an evening sacrifice ;' having come to the
setting sun, and seen the star of evening, and lighted the lights
of the church, the clergy coming out, and standing in a broad
curve eastwards, sang that glorious and most ancient hymn
(' O cheerful Light,' &c.) to the eternal and consubstantial
Effulgence of the Father, of whom the visible light is a symbol,
glorifying Him, together with the Father and the Holy Ghost,
one God; — a hymn full-orbed, mellow, calm, deep-toned, (as
expressing the depth of the mystery,) slow, (as being contempla-
tive,) rich with the splendour of vestments, accompanied by the
gospel, and by incense representing prayer and praise ; sung by
the elders, the first half standing without, the latter half, after
going up into the sanctuary ; as the doxology of the Holy Trinity,
begun in the Church on earth below, and to be finished and con-
tinued for ever in heaven." — p. 287.
NOTES.
409
"After the earliest and golden ages of the Church, during
which she was subject to persecution, and during which her
ritual worship, and the writings of her saints, like their lives,
were almost wholly spiritual and practical, there followed in the
fourth and fifth centuries another phase of character, in which
the divine depth and earnestness of the ancients, without ceasing
altogether to exist, is clothed in a garb of intellectual, rhetorical,
and poetical cultivation."
" In the greater Compline there is a manifest relic of those
primitive times when the Church was in the catacombs, under
Jewish and heathen persecutors." — lb., p. 289.
Note F, on Chap. II. Sect. I., p. 168.
On the earlier manifestations of our Lord's Priesthood.
By one especial act of anticipative Priesthood, as it would
seem, was the whole of the sinless life of our Lord solemnly
presented and offered to the Father ; viz. by His presentation
in the temple. Yet that very act, while it implied and involved
a priestly and sacrificial character as appertaining to the Life
of Christ from its very beginning, implied also an abeyance
of the actual priestly operation whereby it would be sanctified
and rendered acceptable. For the presentation of first-born
sons in the temple did not constitute or consecrate them
priests, but was only an acknowledgment of their services
in that capacity being due to God, ever since the sanctifica-
tion of the first-born at the coming out of Egypt. Our Lord,
accordingly, by His presentation, did in a mystery prefer His
claim to the Priesthood of the world as the " First-born among
many brethren." Yet not by this action did He enter upon
His priestly office, but only on a certain lower kind or degree
of dedication to God, and one possessing a passive rather than
an active character. Passively, in a manner, if we may say so
with reverence, He partook of the virtue of His own priestly
operation yet to come. As the offering of the morning lamb
was held to be secondary to that of the evening lamb, — incense
being offered with the latter alone, — so was it here ; it was the
410
NOTES.
Morning but not the Evening Sacrifice. The Priest was in
Person the same, but not as yet in virtue, and in the nature of
His action.
There is some appearance, again, of vur Lord's receiving
a yet more especial designation to His Priesthood on the occa-
sion of His Baptism; for this event took place when "Jesus
began to be about thirty years old," — the priestly age : and
St. John the Baptist, after His baptism, points to Him as
" the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world."
And, doubtless, in entering on His prophetic office and ministry,
He did enter also upon a course of actions more immediately
pertaining to His Priesthood, and destined to be in due time
gathered up into it as actions of especial power for man*s
salvation.
Note G, on Chap. II. Sect. I., II.
Subjoined are a few illustrations of the views contained
in these sections as to the Priesthood of Christ, and that of
Christians derived from it.
In the Old Testament we discern four great and recognised
historic types or foreshadowings of the destined work of Christ
towards man ; and in each case two stages seem to be distinctly
marked ; the one of recovery or renewal, the other of priestly
and ritual oblation and dedication of that which is restored or
renewed. The four events — covering, with their antecedents,
the whole period of pre-evangelic history — are, the flood, the
call of Abraham, the bringing of Israel out of Egypt, the return
from the captivity. By these four events the world, so many
times lost and fallen away from God, was marvellously reco-
vered, by the agency in each case of some single person, — Noah,
Abraham, Moses, Zerubbabel, — who thus become, and are in-
deed recognised, as signal types of Christ in the work of restora-
tion and recovery. But in each case presentation by means oi
sacrifice follows closely upon the work of recovery. Noah, on
coming out of the Ark, makes his oblation and is accepted on
behalf of mankind. Abraham on reaching the promised land
does the same ; and is yet more signally accepted through the
ministry of Melchisedec, (see below, Part II., chap, on Theory
of Eucharistic Worship). Moses completes the typical regene-
NOTES.
411
ration of the Eed Sea by installing the subjects of it in the
condition of "a kingdom of priests," and of full ritual presenta-
tion and acceptance through Aaronic ministration. The work
of Zerubbabel, lastly, in restoring the people to their own land,
is completed by Ezra and by Joshua the High-priest, through
the rebuilding of the temple and re-instalment of the nation
into its old ritual relations to God ; a state of things which con-
tinued until the coming of Christ.
By these types it was not obscurely intimated, that the work
of Christ would be twofold ; first regenerative, and then obla-
tionary. In the Apostolic Epistles the same view is fully main-
tained, and has influenced the structure of some of the most
remarkable of them. The Epistle to the Eomans is well known
for the fulness of its declarations as to regeneration in baptism,
(ch. vi.) It is less frequently observed, though it is equally
clear, that the dedication and oblation by a subsequent and
separate, though life-long act, of the creature thus restored to the
Divine image, is most earnestly dwelt on as that in which the
whole economy terminates and is completed in. After St. Paul
has ended his great argument, chap. i. — xi., proving the admission
of all alike to saving membership in Christ, his exhortation is,
" I beseech you, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable, unto God, which is your reasonable service."
There is no more ground for dissociating this passage from the
Eucharist than there is for disconnecting the other with baptism
The Church has accordingly in all ages embodied these words
or the substance of them, in her Communion Offices. St. Paul
also, — after detailing the duties which go to make up this perfect
and full act of dedication, (ch. xii. — xv. 15,) — speaks of it as his
own crowning privilege to act as the ministering priest of this
offering : " That I should be the minister (Xeirovpyov) of Jesus
Christ to the Gentiles, ministering (Upovpyovvra) the Gospel of
God, that the offering up (irpovtpopa, i. e. either the offering up of
themselves, or of them by him,) of the Gentiles might be ac-
ceptable, being sanctified by the Holy Ghost." In Ephesians,
renewal is first spoken of as an argument for Christian living,
(iv. 22) : " That ye put off the old man, which after God is
created in righteousness ;" then follows (v. 9, 20,) the ritual
aspect of the Christian position : " Giving thanks (cvxapio-
Tovvres, offering Eucharistic praise,) to God and the Father."
And again, the same order is observed in the next four
verses : " As Christ loved the Church, &c. . . that He might
412
NOTES.
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the
Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church,
not having 6pot," &c. ; where, though the marriage idea is
perhaps the prevailing one, the sacrificial certainly enters in,
in virtue of Iva npoacpepr). In the twin Epistle to the Colossians
(iii. 10, 17,) the order is the same. Finally, in the Epistle to
the Hebrews, while the doctrine of baptism is laid down (vi.
1.) as among "the first principles of the doctrine of Christ"
(or " the word of the beginning of Christ," marg.), and the
danger of falling away from that estate duly insisted upon;
something further and more mysterious is intimated, the full
apprehension and thorough embracing of which is, as compared
with the baptismal doctrine and position, a " going on unto per-
fection," (ibid.) What this higher and inner doctrine and po-
sition are, the rest of the Epistle declares : it is the Priesthood
of Christ, supervening upon and added to His Sonship ; and the
Eucharistic position and function of Christians, superadded in
a parallel manner to their regeneration and sonship. " Having
therefore boldness," is the sum of his exhortation, the point of
the whole Epistle, "to enter into the holiest by the blood
of Jesus . . through the veil, that is to say, His flesh," (into
which we are engrafted, and made mystical members,) " and hav-
ing an High-Priest over the house of God ; let us draw near, hav-
ing [had] our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our
bodies washed with pure water, {ippavricrpfvoi, \c\ovptvoi,) let us
hold fast the confession of our faith," (opoKoylav : Johnson under-
stands it of the Eucharist, as Clemens Romanus seems to have
done,) " not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together," &c.
(Heb. x. 19 — 25). Without insisting upon Johnson's inter-
pretation of 6po\oyla, it is still difficult to conceive what else all
this can possibly refer to than Eucharistic approach to God.
The First Epistle of St. Peter furnishes a striking para. lei to
those of St. Paul before quoted. In eh. ii. 1, the saints are first
addressed as " new-lorn babes," who ought naturally " to desire
the sincere milk of the Word, that they may grow thereby ;"
and then reminded of their still higher position as " a spiritual
house, a holy priesthood," ordained "to offer up spiritual sacri-
fices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ."
It is further to be remarked, that almost every one of these
cases, Christian duties, and the same duties, are based on loth
the stages or aspects of the Christian position ; only the Eucha-
ristic position is viewed as entailing a more intense respon-
NOTES.
413
sibility. Thus we have the Christian life set forth to us bap-
tismally in Rom. vi.; eucharistically in Rom. xii., &c. ; and so
of the rest.
The following citations from the Fathers will illustrate these
positions.
Christ, and felloicship in Chrisfs Actions, given in Baptism.
" Let no one then suppose that Baptism is merely the grace of
remission of sins, or further, that of adoption. Nay, we know
full well, that as it purges our sins, and conveys to us the gift of
the Holy Ghost, so also it is the counterpart of Christ's suffer-
ings. For for this cause, Paul, just now read, (Rom. vi. 3,) cries
aloud and says, ' Know ye not that as many of us as were bap-
tized unto Christ Jesus, were baptized, kc. Therefore we are
buried," &c.
" These words he spake unto them who had settled with them-
selves that Baptism ministers to us the remission of sins, and
adoption, but not that, further, it has communion also, in repre-
sentation, with Christ's true sufferings." — St. Cyril, CatecV.,
Lect. sx., Lib. of Fathers, vol. ii. part i. p. 265.
"Having been baptized unto Christ, and put on Christ, ye
have been made conformable to the Son of God ; for God hav-
ing predestinated us to the adoption of sons, made us share the
fashion of Christ's glorious Body. Being therefore made partakers
of Christ, ye are properly called christs, (anointed ones,) and
of you God said, ' Touch not My christs, or Anointed.' Xow
ye were made christs by receiving the emblem of the Holy
Ghost, and all things were in a figure wrought in you, because
ye are figures of Christ." — lb., Lect. xxi. p. 267.
Baptism gives participation in Christ's Priesthood.
" Ye shall receive proofs from the Old and New Testaments,
how ye have been cleansed from your sins by the Lord, with the
■washing of water by the AVord ; and how by being priests ye have
become partakers of Christ's Name." — lb., Lect. xviii. p. 255.
" This is Jesus Christ, who is come an High Priest of good
things to come, who out of the munificence of His Godhead has
imparted to us His own title. For kings among men have a
royal style which they keep to themselves; but Jesus Christ,
414
NOTES.
being the Son of God, has counted us worthy to be called Chris-
tians," (alluding to the meaning of Xpio-ros, " anointed" as a
priest). — Lect. x. p. 106.
" And ' they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall
reign with Him 1,000 years,' is certainly not said of Bishops and
Presbyters only, who are now properly called priests in the
Church ; but as we call all ' Christians' on account of their
mystical anointing, so do we call all priests, since they are mem~
hers of the One Priest." — St. Aug., Civ. Dei, xx. 10.
Participation of Christ by means of His Word, or Holy Scripture.
" When we ask for bread, we thereby understand all things.
There is a spiritual food which the faithful know, when ye shall
receive it at the altar of God.
" Again, what I am handling before you now (i.e. the Scrip-
tures) is daily bread ; and the daily lessons which ye hear in
church are daily bread, and the hymns ye hear and repeat are
daily bread." — St. Aug., Serm. vii., Lib. of Fathers, vol. xvi.
p. 85.
" Our daily food then in this earth is the Word of God, which
is dealt out always in tbe Churches. Again, if by this daily
bread thou understand what the faithful receive, what ye then
receive after ye have been baptized, it is with good reason we
ask and say, ' Give us this day our daily bread,' that we may
live in such sort that we be not separated from the holy altar." —
Serm. vi., p. 74, same vol.
The Church's offering of herself an imitation of Chris fs.
" Christ is the Offerer and the Oblation, of which thing He
designed the sacrifice of the Church to be a Sacrament, (or
resemblance,) who, as being the Body of Him that is the Head,
learns to offer herself by Him ; of which one sacrifice the many
and various sacrifices of the ancient saints were but signs." —
St. Aug., ap. Johnson, U. S., ch. ii. p. 98.
" This is the sacrifice of Christians : in that oblation which
the Church offers, she herself is offered." — St. Aug., ibid.
Johnson adds : — " The bread represents the Body of Christian
people, as well as the natural Body of Christ."
NOTES.
415
The Eucharislic Offering made by all, not by the ministering
Priesthood only.
St. Augustine, &c, constantly dwell on this view : see Bing-
ham, XV. iii. 12, 34. It is perhaps most interesting to observe,
that the ancient Western Communion Office, including our own,
distinctly recognised it not only by the plural form of the con-
secrating prayers, (e.g. "supplices rogamus, ut accej>ta habeas
haec dona, haec sacrificia, quse tibi oflerimus,") but also by this
address of priest to people : " Orate fratres et sorores (sic Sarisb.)
pro me, ut meum pariterque vestrum (Id.), acceptum sit Domino
Deo sacrificium." Nor were the middle ages, even, altogether
forgetful of this great truth ; e. g. Guerricus, a monk of Clair-
vaux, under St. Bernard : " Neque enim credere debetis, quod
soli sacerdoti supradicta? virtutes sunt necessariae, quasi solus
consecret et sacrificet Corpus Christi. Non solus sacrificat, non
solus consecrat, sed totus conventus fidelium qui astat cum illo con-
secrat, cum illo sacrificat." — Serm. de Purif., inter Op. S. Ber-
nardi, torn. iv. p. 1896.
Of modern writers who have contended strongly for a uni-
versal Christian priesthood, while denying the existence of any
priesthood ministerial, Dr. Arnold and M. Bunsen may be named
as the chief: — the former in his Fragment on the Church; the
latter in his " Church of the Future." See " Christian Remem-
brancer," No. 59, Jan. 1848. Mr. Maurice, while denying the
atoning power of Christ's pi-iesthood, and so leaving it without
a foundation, has some eloquent passages on the oblationary
personal priesthood of Christians. ("Doctrine of Sacrifice,"
sub fin.) See Moberly's " Sayings of the Forty Days," Disc,
iii. p. 118.
Note H.— p. 159.
" After the composition of the first ' Canons,' (which are sets
of nine ' Odes,' to be sung with the nine prophetical and evan-
gelical hymns,) that is, after the time of St. Andrew of Crete
and St. Cosmas, we come to an imitative period ; ... in which,
for the sake of a certain uniformity or symmetry in the ritual,
vast numbers of canons and other singings were composed for
all the saints of the daily calendar throughout the year, on the
model of the earlier compositions of the same sort ; and the mo-
416
NOTES.
nastic ritual, calculated for communities which should employ
one-third part of the twenty-four hours of the day and night in
the Services of the Church, was introduced more or less into
general use even in common churches. During this period,
which we may fix from the end of the eighth to the end of the
twelfth century, we find a great deterioration in the quality of
the additions made to the ritual, and a vast growth of formalism
and unreality in their actual use.
" In place of deep, warm, and just poetry, we have often cold,
empty, and hyperbolical rhapsodies. And the readings and
singings being felt to be too long for a full and proper perform-
ance of them, men commonly fell into a perfunctory and merely
external performance of the ritual, or of many parts of it ; an
abuse which was in still later times brought to its climax by the
gradual corruption and change of the Hellenic language into the
modern Romaic ; so that not only were the Psalter and Lesson
Offices, instead of being read devoutly, gabbled over with hea-
thenish rapidity ; and the canons, or streams of hymns, instead
of being sung, read or gabbled in the same manner ; but all this
was done, and the rest of the service was performed, in a lan-
guage no longer familiar to the people, and only partly intelli-
gible to them, nor to them only, but even to the majority of the
clerks and singers." — Palmer's Dissertations on the Eastern
Communion, p. 290.
" A stranger would notice, at least here at Athens, a too gene-
ral neglect of attendance at Divine "Worship, and the practice
of coming in only about the beginning of the Liturgy, or a little
before, so as to assist neither at Vespers nor at Matins . . . and
numbers leaving the church almost as soon as the Consecration
is over, without even waiting for the Dismissal." — p. 292.
The same writer adds, that certain parts of the daily offices
are reverently performed : others in the most slovenly and pro-
fane manner.
" The above-mentioned defects and scandals, which would
strike a stranger, are often freely admitted by members of the
Eastern Church themselves, most commonly lightly, and as an
excuse for irreligiousness and general scepticism; but some-
times with an appearance of serious desire that religion should
again become a living reality instead of an external superstition.
Such persons will commonly regret, and with reason, that the
Services of the Church are too lengthy to be performed be-
comingly ; and that though they are in fact shortened in actual
NOTES.
417
use in the Church to suit the convenience of the people, this is
still done in such a way as to leave the priests burdened with
the duty of reading over all that is omitted ; so that they who
ought to lead the people out of formalism, are thus habituated
to a profane formalism themselves." — Palmer on the Eastern
Church, p. 293.
" On the other hand, from traditionary prejudice and habit,
from a desire to approve themselves to the people, from regard
to personal and pecuniary interests, and from a sincere dread of
that Sadduceeism to which any admission of the ideas of criti-
cism and reformation seems to lead, the greater number take
the side of the Pharisees of old: and, without conceding an
iota, defend honestly or hypocritically the whole existing system,
dead, rotten, and crystallized though it be ; and are deaf to all
arguments or warnings pointing out the defects of their Com-
munion, and blind to all consequences of their obstinacy." —
p. 295.
Note K.— p. 328.
The contents of the Lord's Prayer have been referred by
some (see Wetstein on St. Matt, vi.) to forms of private prayer
anciently in use, or supposed to have been so, among the Jews.
But from a careful comparison of it with the " eighteen prayers"
(see p. 65) of the Jewish Synagogue, I am strongly inclined to
believe that it is no other than a summary or compendium of
that public form, and not a mere collection of scattered and
private fragments. The topics are the same, with the single
and most characteristic addition of the clause, " as we forgive
them that trespass against us," to which the Jewish prayer
contains nothing parallel ; and on which alone, accordingly,
our Lord dwells and comments in giving the prayer, °s if it
were some new feature which needed to be explained or ac-
counted for : " For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your
heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not,"
&c. It would be impossible, without drawing out at length the
greater part of the Jewish prayers, to do justice to the parallel
in question ; and I must therefore refer the reader to them as
given by Piideaux, I. vi. 2.
e e
413
NOTES.
Note L.— pp. 337—347.
" But simply in this light, considered merely as a method of
reading the Scriptures wholly, thoroughly, and frequently, the
value of the Daily Service can never be sufficiently estimated.
By what other plan are we likely to accomplish what it does,
i.e. the reading of nearly every hook and chapter in the Old Tes-
tament, including a good deal of the Apocrypha, once a-year;
and every letter of the New Testament, except the Apocalypse,
three times ? What other plan has been proposed, what other
practice has been adopted, that does not involve very serious
omissions, or imply too long and protracted a period of time for
its performance ? Again, consider the manner in which the
Scriptures are thus brought before us. Various portions, things
new and old, are brought together for each day's meditation.
Thus, besides that the attention is relieved by this very diver-
sity,— by the remarkable difference of matter and style,— the
Old Testament, the Gospels and Epistles, are daily made to
throw light on one another. The infinitely vast and diverging
parts of one vast plan are daily contemplated. Involuntary com-
parison suggests numberless mutual illustrations. The mind
also expands, and adapts itself to the manifold character of
God's dealings.
" And it is no little aid to the spiritual powers and aspirations,
to hear the Scriptures thus read in the Church, rather than in
the parlour or closet. It is in the Church that they are fulfilled.
The place is holy and solemn, sacred in its heavenly realities
and in its awful associations. Its tone is unearthly. We are
there assembled, with the door of our hearts closed for fear of
our spiritual enemies, and awe-struck and attentive, for the
ground whereon we stand is holy. The Church is a refuge from
the cares, the frivolities, and the sensualities of the world. Its
felt and almost visible holiness and glory are a stay to the un-
stable, a repose to the wearied, a home to the wandering, a calm
to the shaken and distracted. Very few people indeed have, as
individuals, any place to call their own ; very few have a place
to sit down in, and read for half an hour without interruption.
The Church supplies the want. Private prayer is possible to
all ; for the inward and spiritual operations of the mind and its
immediate communications with the Father of Spirits, need never
be interrupted by outward things ; and the mind does in a sense
NOTES.
419
enjoy perpetual solitude. But it is not so with religious infor-
mation. Knowledge comes by hearing and reading, which are
outward acts involving certain external circumstances ; and
generally, nay, almost universally, no circumstances can be so
auspicious and kindly as the act of public worship in the house
of God.
" The very fact of the Scriptures being read in the Church
without break or comment, while of course it has its unavoidable
disadvantages, has more than one recommendation. There is
nothing to jar the tone, nothing to break the tenor. The letter
is treated as a thing of sacramental power. Day by day, things
are heard and heard again, till year after year their meaning
dawns, and grows to a vastness of development and a fulness of
maturity, which forced attempts at explanation might only have
warped and stunted." — From the " British Critic," No. 65, Jan.
1843 : a periodical not at that time disposed to look too favour-
ably on English ritual practices.
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