CREED was directed; and DOCTRINES which it was designed to establish. This CREED was directed against the different branches of the ARIAN HERESY, against which it establishes the Consubstantiality (rò ouoovaior) of the FATHER and the Son, the Divinity of the HOLY GHOST, and the procession of the HOLY GHOST equally from the FATHER and the SON.

7. THE ATHANASIAN CREED. This Creed, which has been omitted in our PRAYER-BOOK, occupies a very prominent position in that of the CHURCH of ENGLAND and in most of the ancient LITURGIES, being found in the PSALTERS of the 7th and 8th centuries. It is directed to be used on thirteen FESTIVALS and SAINTS' DAYS in the English Church, instead of the Apostles' Creed. As it does not form a part of our Service, we need only refer both as to this, and for all further information on the CREEDS, to the works of Pearson, Waterland, and Bull.

8. POSTURE and CUSTOMS connected with the recital of the Creeds. Both Minister and People are directed to repeat the APOSTLES' and NICENE CREEDS because it is the

profession of all present. It is to be repeated standing to express our resolution to hold fast the true Faith. The custom, still maintained in many churches, of turning to the EAST, while repeating the CREED, is very ancient, and originated in the practice of the JEWS, who always turned their faces in the direction of JERUSALEM, towards the MERCYSEAT of the HOLY TEMPLE, when they prayed. The custom was early introduced among the ceremonies of BAPTISM, in which it was usual to renounce the devil with their faces to the W EST, and then to turn to the EAST to make their covenant with CHRIST; the EAST, or region of the Rising Sun, being the source of light. Hence the turning towards the EAST became associated with the recitation of the Creed. As used by Christians it is certainly an expressive symbol of the oneness of their Faith. Bowing at the name of JESUS in repeating the CREED is a remnant of an old, and unquestionably Scriptural, custom of bowing whenever that Holy name was pronounced, according to ST. PAUL'S words in Philippians ii. 10. The 18th Canon (1604) gives the meaning of this

custom : "When in time of DIVINE SERVICE the LORD JESUS shall be mentioned, due and lowly reverence shall be done by all persons présent, as it hath been accustomed, testifying by these outward ceremonies and gestures their inward humility, Christian resolution, and due acknowledgment that the LORD JESUS CHRIST, the TRUE and ETERNAL SON of GOD, is the only SAVIOUR of the World, in whom alone all the Mercies, Graces, and Promises of GOD to mankind, for this life and the life to come, are fully and wholly comprized."

LESSON THE EIGHTH.

The Litany.

DISTINCT derivations and meanings of the

words LITURGY and LITANY - Different senses in which both are and have been used. -There is no similarity of meaning in the words LITURGY and LITANY; and both have been severally used in different significations. The former, from the Greek tovoría (leiturgia) which itself is derived from an obsolete adjective nitos (leitos) and ëoyov (ergon), properly denotes any public service, whether civil or religious. Thus at Athens this word Letrovgría was used to signify a burdensome public office or duty, which the richer citizens discharged at their own expense, usually in rotation, but also voluntarily or by appointment. It was also applied both by JEWS and GENTILES very generally to sacred offi

ces, whence arose its Ecclesiastical use. Thus it is employed to signify the solemnization of the RITES of the CHRISTIAN CHURCH (Acts xiii. 2; Rom. xv. 16); and was thence transferred by the early CHRISTIANS to the forms employed in the celebration of the EUCHARIST so as to be synonymous with the Latin Missa. Subsequently it was used, as at the present day, to designate the entire devotional SERVICES of the CHURCH, including the Office for the HOLY COMMUNION. On the other hand, the word LITANY, Greek huravɛía (litaneia), from hírŋ (lite) a prayer, includes primarily all supplications and prayers, whether public or private. The cognate verb is used in this sense of supplication in the Homeric Poems. Iliad XXIII. 196.

Πολλὰ δὲ καὶ σπένδων χρυσέῳ δέπαϊ λιτάνευεν.

In this general sense it seems first to have been employed in the Early CHURCH, as we learn from Eusebius V. Const. IV. cc. 14. 61. Afterwards however it came to denote a special supplication δι ̓ ὀργὴν ἐπιφερομένην (di orgen epipheromenen offered with intense earnestness, and was more particularly applied to those SOLEMN OFFICES, which, during the

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