applicable and instructive to the Gentiles for here Christ Jesus was evidently set forth, as crucified among the former; and for the salvation of both.

Now, in the next place, precisely of this sort,—as far at least as we can now discover-were the most ancient services of the Christians. They came together, they prayed, they had a psalm, an interpretation, i. e. of some passage of holy scripture, and their prophets prophesied, i. e. preached, and then they all approached the Lord's table. This, I say, is apparent, both from the testimony of St. Paul, and from all that can be learned respecting the ancient liturgies preserved to our times.

From what has already been said of the power exercised by kings and rulers, it could not be expected that, in the earliest times either of the synagogue, or the church, precisely the same prayers would every where be offered up, or the same scriptures always be read. All that could be expected would be, that a similar outline (VTOTÚTWσLS) would be preserved, and that public worship would be always essentially the same. The Jews, too, at the times of this great reformation, were divided into different schools, and in some cases into different sects. Those of Alexandria manifestly formed one school: those of Judea another: those of Babylonia another: all of which is evident enough, from the documents which have come down to our times.59 Yet they all agreed

cap. iii. p. 17), "Apostoli etiam...ut reformatio illa...molliter et sine strepitu procederet, multa Judæorum instituta, longi temporis usu confirmata, in ecclesiam Christianam acceperunt. In horum numero censeri solent, impositio manuum, episcopi, presbyteri, diaconi, excommunicatio, ordinatio, aliaque doctis frequenter observata. Plura qui requirit adeat Grotium, Seldenum, Thorndikium, Hammondum," &c.

59 This is, I think, quite evident from the interpretations of scripture, given in the Greek version of the LXX (see my Prolegomena to Mr. Bagster's Polyglott Bible, prol. i. § 7), as compared with the doctrines of the Masora, the Targums, and Talmud; as also from a

in this, at least as far as my information goes-that their public worship should be prescribed, pre-composed, and carried on under the superintendence of their several national heads or rulers.

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If this was the case, then, nothing can be more likely than that the forms adopted in the Christian church would also vary, in some degree, in the several countries in which converts from Judaïsm formed the first congregations; and that these would, from time to time, receive such alterations and additions as persons having authority in the church should deem expedient and right. And this seems to have been the fact. Mr. Palmer says, in his very elaborate and valuable work, entitled "Origines Liturgica.... Oxford, 1832,"—a work which you, my dear Sir, would do well carefully to peAfter a careful examination of the primitive liturgies....it appears to me, that they may all be reduced to four, which have been used in different churches. from a period of profound antiquity. The first may be entitled the great Oriental Liturgy, as it seems to have prevailed in all the Christian churches, from the Euphrates to the Hellespont, and from the Hellespont to the southern extremity of Greece. The second the Alexandrian, which from time immemorial has been the liturgy of Egypt, Abyssinia, and the country extending along the Mediterranean Sea toward the west. The third was the Roman, which prevailed throughout the whole of Italy, Sicily, and the civil diocese of Africa. The fourth was the Gallican, which was used throughout Gaul and Spain, and probably in the exarchate of Ephesus until the fourth century. These four great liturgies," adds he, "appear to have been the parents of

comparison of the Jerusalem, with the Babylonian Talmud: the interpretations of Jerome, with those of both the Egyptian and Babylonian schools.

all the forms now extant:.... and their antiquity was so very remote, their use so extensive in those ages when bishops were most independent, that it seems difficult to place their origin at a lower period than the apostolic age. The liberty," he adds, "which every Christian church plainly had and exercised, in the way of improving its formularies, confirms the antiquity of the four great liturgies; for where this liberty existed, it could have been scarcely any thing else but reverence for the apostolical source from which the original liturgies were derived, that prevented an infinite variety of formularies, and preserved the substantial uniformity which we find to have prevailed in vast districts of the primitive church." (Vol. i. pp. 8, 9).

To the antiquity assigned to these liturgies by Mr. Palmer, you, my dear Sir, will not object, having already allowed that it was that of the apostolic times, as noticed above, and as I also affirmed in my last. I now say, that the variety here supposed to have existed in these primitive formulæ may be sufficiently accounted for, on the supposition that, as different schools existed among the Jews in the apostolic times, a slight variety may also have existed in their several synagogue-services, and out of this have grown the discrepancies observable in these primitive liturgies: and so Alexandria have given birth to one, Antioch to another, Ephesus to another, and Rome to another; differing slightly in some particulars, but all preserving one great principle and outline.

It ought to be borne in mind, however, when we enter on the consideration of the ancient liturgies, that certain customs prevailed in the church, which must have had considerable influence on the ancient writers whose testimonies alone can be of weight in this inquiry. In the first place, it is notorious that the ancient believers com

mitted much to memory.60 For, as John and our Lord taught their disciples to pray, so apparently did the apostles theirs. Hence, it would come to pass, that much less would be committed to writing than now is. It is also true that this practice prevails, to a considerable extent, in the East to this very day. But it was not prayers alone that were committed to memory. Large portions of the scriptures were also learned by rote, and recited as circumstances required; just as the classical authors now are at some of our larger schools. And this practice prevails in the East to this day likewise.

In the next place, no prayers 61 seem to have been

60 And hence it has been matter of doubt, as to when the primitive liturgies were first committed to writing. Le Brun holding one thing, Muratori another, and so on. See Mr. Palmer's work, vol. i. p. 11, &c. Still, I can see no good grounds for supposing that liturgies were not committed to writing, in some cases, as early as the apostolic times. See also Renaudot. Liturg. Orient. tom. i. Dissert. cap. ii.

61 So Theodoret and Chrysostom, as cited by Mr. Palmer, vol. ii. p. 24, Cyril of Jerusalem, Athanasius, the apostolical constitutions, &c. as cited by Mr. Bingham. Christ. Antiquit. book x. chap. v. § 1—10. Again, "If we may believe Bede (ib. book x. ch. i. § 7), they (the catechumens) were obliged to get some of the holy scriptures by heart, as a part of their exercise and discipline, before they were baptized. For he commends it as a laudable custom in the ancient church," &c. Again, ib. ch. ii. § 10. "When they had learned the creed, they were also taught the Lord's prayer, which was not allowed ordinarily to the catechumens till immediately before...baptism," &c. "This they did not always commit to writing, but kept it, as Jerome words it, 'in tables of the heart,' ,""&c. Ib. ch. v. § 9.-I have myself been told by persons who have travelled in the East, that in Abyssinia to this day, and also in Palestine, it is customary to commit the whole psalter to memory; because, I suppose, it contains the most appropriate forms of prayer, confession, and thanksgiving. So Bingham, book xiv. ch. i. § 1, "I take no notice here of their psalmody at other times, at their meals, at their labours, and in their private devotions, &c....frequently mentioned by the ancients," &c.-" The service usually began with reading or singing of psalms." Bingham, book xiv. ch. i. § 1. But, as a sort of chanting, still practised by both

publicly recited in the church, until the reading of the scriptures and the sermon had been completed; that is, until the catechumens or uninitiated, unbelievers, &c. had been dismissed. This dismissal, however, does not appear to have obtained in the apostolic times. I think, with you, therefore, that it was both unnecessary and wrong; while I also do, that no change in the order of the service ever took place on this account.

And

In the third place, the liturgy or communion service, was probably much shorter at first, than in after times. At first it would, perhaps, contain little more than the simple institution of our Lord, at his last celebration of the paschal lamb or passover, accompanied by such prayers, psalms, or hymns, as were then in use. here, I think it more than probable, that the Lord's prayer would, as it does with us, take the precedence, especially as the "daily bread" there prayed for, was very generally supposed to have particular respect to his body.

Once more, as it is customary with the fathers of the church to speak with a studied obscurity of the mysteries of religion, that is, of the particulars of the communion service, lest, as they expressly declare, their simplicity should be misunderstood and derided by the heathen, and so be brought into general contempt; the intimations which they have given us of these things, ought to be understood and interpreted accordingly.6 62 This cannot be better illustrated, perhaps,

the Jews and Mohammedans,-counterpoint, or harmony, being then unknown-is perhaps all that is meant, and, as these portions of scripture often contained prayer, we must not be surprised in hearing this service sometimes styled prayer.

62 And so Mr. Palmer very judiciously observes, "This primitive discipline is sufficient to account for the facts, that very few allusions to the liturgy, or eucharist service are found in the writings of the fathers and that on the more solemn part of the consecration, &c.

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