NOTES.

IT

ON LECTURE I.

NOTE A. Page 13.

may be well to give the reader some proof of the assertion that liturgies have been used in every age of the church. I shall therefore offer no apology for the following long extract from Dr. Nicholls's commentary on the book of Common Prayer.

That liturgies were usually read in the church is evident from the usage of them among the Jews themselves. For several liturgical forms were composed by Esdras and the great Synagogue. Vide Seld: Not: in Eutych: And they, in their ancient liturgies, were wont to make a solemn confession of

their sins; to read several chapters of the Mosaical law, and the prophets; to pray for God's blessings on the people; and in the close of their devotion, the ruler of the synagogue used to dismiss them with a solemn benediction. And that our Saviour composed the Lord's prayer, to be a form to be constantly used by the Christians, and that it was in fact made use of so, in the public assemblies of the first Christians, the most ancient writers of the church do testify. Tertul. adv. Prax. cap. 23. Ib. cap. 4, de Or. cap. 9. They call it legitima oratio, the prayer established by law. Tertul. de Fug. Pers.- Firm. apud Cyp.-Opt. de Schism. p. 45. And S. Chrysostom vevouμévn, which signifies the same. Chrys. Hom. 2. in 2 Cor. Those prophecyings, or singing of psalms, mentioned in the New Testament, (Acts iv. 23. 24;) and that solenne carmen, the solemn hymn which Pliny speaks of, which the Christians used in his time, (Plin. lib. x. ep. 97,) are certain proofs that the Christians, in the most early times, made use of set forms of devotion. Clemens Romanus1 exhorts the Christians of his time

1 He was contemporary with the apostles.

not to transgress the ὡρισμένον λειτουργείας κάνονα, the prescribed rule of their liturgy. Clem. Rom. Ep. ad Cor. 1. Ignatius speaks of a μía πрoσeʊxǹ, a joint prayer. Ign. Ep. ad Mag. Justin Martyr speaks of the Christians of his age, as κοινὰς εὐχὰς ποιησάμενοι, using common prayer. Just. Martyr, App. 2. S. Cyprian calls the forms they then used, publica et communis oratio, a public or common prayer; unanimis oratio, unanimous prayer; instantiam simul et concordium declarans, declaring not only earnestness but concord. Cyp. de Or. Dom. And, in the same book, he speaks of the sursum corda, lift up your hearts, &c, as part of the public devotion of his time. Besides, when the same father exhorts the people against a tumultuosa loquacitas et clamores, a tumultuous loudness and clamourousness of their voices, it can hardly be thought, but that they had a set form of prayer, which they had learned to repeat their parts in. But though formal liturgies, just in the method they have been since used, should not have been framed for the use of the faithful, in the most early ages; yet it was by reason that there was not that necessity of them as there

was afterwards.

For the charismata, or

miraculous operations of the Holy Ghost, were not then ceased in the church, and the prayers which the then pastors uttered, in the public congregations, were not liable to such imperfections as those of the clergy of the latter ages, who are destitute of that miraculous assistance, are.

.... The extraordinary miracles, which were done by Gregory of Neocæsarea (from whence he got the name of Thaumaturgus, or miracleworker) filled many centuries with discourse. and admiration. Now this very person was the composer of a liturgy, for the use of all the churches that he had planted in Cappalocia. For S. Basil (de Spiritu Sancto, cap. 29) says of him, that 150 years after his death, the people of those places would not recede a tittle from what he had established: où páčiv τίνα, οὐ λόγον, οὐ τύπον τίνα μυστικὸν παρ ̓ ὃν ἐκετίνοις κατέλειπε, τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ προσέθηκαν. They would not depart from what he left them in the church, either from his practice, or his words, or from any religious ceremony he used. Where the λόγον and the μυστικὸν τύπον, must needs signify some liturgical forms, which

he had composed for their use. Nay. Origen, who was master to this Gregory, in his eleventh homily, seems to allude to the collects then used in the church. The Trisagium, and sursum corda, as standing forms in the church, are mentioned by Cyril of Jerusalem. Cat. Mystagog. 5. "Spare thy people, good Lord, spare them," is cited as part of an ancient liturgical form, by Athanasius. Ath. ad Imp. Const. Apol. And so is that versicle, "O Lord, save (Constantine) the king." And the council of Laodicea, which was held about A. D. 360, upon account of some new prayers being introduced into the evening service, decrees τὴν αὑτην λειτουργείαν τῶν εὐχῶν πάντα, και ἐν ταῖς ἐννάσαις, καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἑσπέραις, ὀφείλειν γίνεσθαι : that the same liturgical prayers ought to be used both in the morning and evening service. Conc. Laod. Can. 18, and Bals. in loc. That S. Basil composed a liturgy, is the unanimous opinion of the Greek church. And that liturgies were generally everywhere used in his age, the testimonies of S. Basil, Chrysostom, Austin and others, are sufficient evidence. And they have continued ever since in use, among all bodies of Christians,