into many little portions and lessons, just as our lesson from the law is.

Originally this custom of dividing the lessons by responses, was introduced to cause an agreeable variety; that the alternate repetition of lessons and psalms, and prayers, might relieve the mind, and enable it to proceed through the offices of devotion with greater ease and pleasure. It is no less true, that this custom was afterwards abused so as to cause an interruption in the reading of scripture. In the church of England, however, the abuse was put an end to at the Reformation; for though the ancient system of varying the lessons by singing psalms and hymns, was retained in the morning and evening prayer, it would be impossible to maintain with any semblance of reason that it interrupts the reading of scripture: and although in the present instance the lesson from the law is divided into several parts by responses, yet the weight and importance of each part affords ample room for a separate meditation and prayer.

In the primitive church the lessons were read from the pulpit, or ambon, and in many places the custom has remained to the present day, especially in the patriarchate of Constantinople. According to Martene, the lessons are read from the pulpit in many of the churches of France. In the church of Rome the gospel was always read from the pulpit "; though there is no direction about it in the modern missal. Pope Cyprian, bishop of Carthage in the third century, speaks familiarly of the lessons being read from the pulpit. The lessons were at first

V

34.) Speaking of Celerinus,
whom he had appointed a
reader, he
Hunc ad nos,

says,

66

Cyprian, Epist. 39. (al. fratres dilectissimi, cum tanta

read by any one appointed by the bishop, but it was soon found expedient to set apart particular persons for this office, and thus began the ecclesiastical order of readers. From the writings of Cyprian, we find this order completely established at Carthage so early as the third century, and it may have existed in many other places about the same time. Certainly it appears that in the following ages there were regular readers in all parts of the world". These persons were of course well instructed and fitted for their office. In the church of Constantinople the reader, or ȧvayvάorns, according to the ancient usage, still reads the lessons which precede the gospel. In the Roman church this has long fallen into disuse, the duty of reading the epistle having devolved on the sub-deacon since the eighth or ninth century. The lessons were always read from the pulpit in cathedral and collegiate churches in England, and in the injunctions of king Edward the Sixth, A.D. 1547, we find a direction that the epistle and gospel shall be read "in the pulpit, or in such convenient place as the people may hear the same." The Decalogue being a lesson also, would probably have been included

in this direction, had it been at that time read in the English liturgy; but the reading of the law was not re-established for some years afterwards.

I have observed in the monuments of the English liturgy, an example of the celebration of the communion, which may remind us of this first part of our liturgy at present. On the eve of Pentecost, the office began with the Lord's Prayer, after which different persons read lessons from the law of Moses without titles, that is, without naming the books from which they were taken. Each lesson was followed by a response and collect; then, after some intermediate rites, the collect, epistle, and gospel were read. In the same manner our office begins with the Lord's Prayer and collect for purity, proceeds to lessons or capitula from the law, read without titles, each followed by a response, and then comes to the collect, epistle, and gospel. A portion of the Decalogue was read in the church of England in Lent, beginning thus:

LECTIO LIBRI EXODI.

God spake these wordsHonour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt do no murder. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife,

Hæc dicit Dominus Deus. Honora patrem tuum et matrem tuam, ut sis longævus super terram, quam Dominus Deus tuus dabit tibi. Non occides, non mochaberis, non furtum facies, non loqueris contra proximum tuum falsum testimonium, non concupisces domum proximi tui, nec desiderabis uxorem ejus, non servum, non ancillam, non bovem, non asinum, nec omnia

b Miss. Sarisb. fol. 94, 95.

nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his.

quæ illius sunt,-in omni loco in quo memoria fuerit nominis mei c.

The lesson was followed by a response which

is not unlike our own.

Lord have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.

Miserere mei Domine, quoniam infirmus sum, sana me Domine d.

SECTION III.

THE COLLECTS.

The collects of the communion may be divided into three classes: first, the collects for the king; secondly, the collects for the day; and, thirdly, other occasional collects. Before I consider these classes in detail, it may be expedient to consider the antiquity of the custom of using any collects in this place, namely, before or between the lessons, and therefore in that part of the liturgy which all persons, whether believers or not, are permitted to attend. I have, however, already considered this subject at large in the beginning of the last chapter, and nothing more will now be requisite than to recapitulate what has been there said.

It seems that collects have been repeated before and between the lessons of the liturgy in the patriarchate of Alexandria, at least from the time of Athanasius, who appears evidently to allude to them; they are mentioned by Cassian, who lived in the following (fifth) century, and have been continually used since, both in the liturgy, and the offices of morning and evening prayer. The use of collects is traced back to the latter part of the fourth cend Ibid.

c Miss. Sarisb. fol. 42.

tury in Africa, and it is likely that they may be as ancient in the patriarchate of Rome, that is, in the southern half of Italy and Sicily, because they are found in Roman sacramentaries of the fifth century. In Britain they have been used as at present for more than twelve hundred years, having been introduced by Augustine, first archbishop of Canterbury; and in Ireland we may probably trace back their origin to the time of Patrick. No collects like ours are found in the oriental liturgies of Antioch, Jerusalem, Cæsarea, and Constantinople.

COLLECTS FOR THE KING.

In the liturgy of the orthodox of Alexandria there were petitions for the king and church before the reading of the lessons. The liturgy of the Irish church also, in the sixth or seventh century, contained a collect for the king amongst several others which occurred before the epistle. In the church of England, however, before the reformation, no collect for the king was appointed to be said at this place, although several others, amounting sometimes to seven, were repeated: and it certainly appeared right that there should be a special prayer for the king, on whom, under God, the church depends for protection and for peace; and accordingly, in the reign of Edward the Sixth, collects for the church and king, or the king and people, were introduced into this part of the liturgy. In a general synod of the church of Scotland, A. D. 1225, it was commanded that five collects should be always said, the first of which was to be for the church,

e

Liturgia Marci, Renaudot, Liturg. Oriental. tom. i. p. 132.

See Dissertation on primi

tive Liturgies, vol. i. p. 182. Missale Sarisb. fol. 10. 72.