remarkable part of the primitive discipline to conceal from all others the mode of administering the sacraments. The learned Bingham has given a particular account of this in book x. chap. 5, of his Antiquities of the Christian Church; to which I refer the reader for abundant information on the subject. The method of celebrating baptism, confirmation, and the eucharist; the nature and effect of these ordinances; the sublime doctrine of the Trinity; and the Creed and Lord's Prayer; were only communicated to converts about the time of their baptism. Christians were absolutely prohibited from revealing this information to catechumens or infidels; and whenever the early Christian writers speak on such topics, (except when controversy compels them to a different course,) there is usually some reserve in their manner, some reference to the peculiar knowledge of the faithful, and, very frequently, allusions so figurative and remote, as none but a baptized Christian could have understood.

This primitive discipline is sufficient to account for the facts, that very few allusions to the liturgy or eucharistic service are found in the writings of the Fathers; and that on the more solemn part of consecration, &c. they are almost entirely silent. I would entreat the reader to bear this in mind, if, in perusing the following pages, he should think the passages which I have collected from the Fathers too few, or too indistinct, to warrant the inferences which I have deduced from them.

SECTION I.

LITURGY OF THE PATRIARCHATE OF ANTIOCH.

THE patriarchate of Antioch originally included that of Jerusalem, and comprised the countries of Judæa, Mesopotamia, Syria, and some provinces of the southern part of Asia Minor. The liturgy which prevailed in these countries merits our particular attention for several reasons. First, because the church of Jerusalem was the mother-church of Christendom, and the faithful first received the title of Christians at Antioch; secondly, because the liturgy used there appears likewise to have prevailed to a great extent in the adjoining regions; and thirdly, because we have more ancient and numerous notices of this liturgy in the writings of the Fathers, than of any other in existence.

In proceeding to ascertain its nature, our first step is to inquire what liturgies are now used there, and

a

Bingham's Antiq. book ix. c. 1, § 6; c. 2, § 8, 9. The bishop of Jerusalem, though given honorary precedence by the council of Nice, only obtained the jurisdiction of a patriarch in the fifth century, when the council of Chalcedon

confirmed this dignity to him, placing under his jurisdiction the three provinces of Palestine, containing about fifty bishoprics, which were abstracted from the patriarchate of Antroch.

whether any of them profess, or appear to be, the original or apostolical liturgy of that country.

The patriarchate of Antioch is chiefly inhabited by the Jacobites or Monophysites, and the Melchites or orthodox. The Monophysites derive their origin from Eutyches, whose errors were condemned by the council of Chalcedon, A. D. 451; they derive their appellation from their doctrine, for they appear to deny the existence of the human nature of Christ, which they affirm to be absorbed in the divinity, and made one with it. They are also called Jacobites from Jacob Baradæus, an eminent leader of this sect in the sixth century. The orthodox (termed Melchites or Royalists by their opponents, from their attachment to the emperors of the east) have always adhered to the profession of the catholic faith, and the communion of the patriarch of Constantinople.

The Monophysites and the orthodox in the patriarchate of Antioch, have long agreed in using liturgies bearing the venerable name of the apostle James; who, according to universal tradition, was the first bishop of Jerusalem. The Monophysites still retain their ancient liturgy. The orthodox have in the course of ages received the liturgies of the Greek or Constantinopolitan church into common use, so that now their ancient liturgy of St. James is only read on one day in the year, namely, the feast day of that Apostle. The Monophysite liturgy of St. James is written in the Syriac language, the orthodox in Greek.

A liturgy of St. James has been used from a very remote period in the churches of the Syrian Monophysites. Barsalibi, archbishop of Amida, a Syrian Monophysite, who lived in the eleventh century,

testified its use in the Syrian church by a commentary which he wrote upon it. According to Abraham Echellensis, the Syrians or Monophysites all assert that St. James wrote a liturgy; and this he confirms by the testimony of Joannes Maron, (who lived in the sixth or seventh century",) Dionysius bishop of Amida, and Jacobus Edessenus; who affirm that their liturgy had descended to them from the age of the apostles, and that St. James was its author.

A liturgy of St. James has also been used from a remote period by the orthodox of Jerusalem and Syria. In the twelfth century Theodore Balsamon, orthodox patriarch of Antioch, said that the liturgy of St. James was used in Jerusalem and Palestine on the great feast days; though it appears from the context, that the liturgies of Constantinople had by that time come into general use at Antioch. The use of this liturgy in the church of Jerusalem was mentioned about the same time by Marcus, orthodox patriarch of Alexandria, in his questions to Theodore Balsamon. He inquired, whether the

b Renaudot, Liturg. Orient. Monophysites, which are very Collectio, tom. ii. p. 454.

numerous.

• Σημείωσαι ἀπὸ τοῦ παρόν τος κανόνος, ὅτι πρῶτος ὁ ἅγιος Ἰάκωβος ὁ ἀδελφόθεος, ὡς πρῶτ τος ἀρχιερατεύσας τῆς ̔Ιεροσολυμιτῶν ἐκκλησίας, παρέδωκε τὴν θείαν ἱεροτελεστίαν, ἥτις παρ' ἡμῖν ἀγνοεῖται, παρὰ δὲ τοῖς Ἱεροσολυμίταις καὶ τοῖς Παλαιστιναίοις ἐνεργεῖται ἐν rais μɛyáλais έoprais. Theod. Balsamon, not. in Can. 32. Concil. in Trullo. Bevereg. Pandect. tom. i. p. 193.

C

liturgies read in the parts about Alexandria and Jerusalem, and said to have been written by the holy apostles James and Mark, were to be received or not. In the ninth century, the emperor Charles the Bald, in an epistle to the clergy of Ravenna, said, "The liturgy was celebrated before us accord"ing to the rite of Jerusalem, whose author was "James the Apostles." The most important testimony to the antiquity of an orthodox liturgy of St. James, is contained in the thirty-second canon of the council in Trullo held at Constantinople, a.D. 691. The two hundred and twenty-seven bishops there assembled, commanded that water should be mixed with the wine of the eucharist; according to the ancient custom of the church, which was transgressed by the Armenians. And they fortify this decree by the authority of a written liturgy of St. James. "For James, brother (according to the flesh) "of Christ our God, to whom the throne of the "church of Jerusalem was first committed, and Basil, archbishop of the church of Cæsarea, whose "fame has extended throughout the whole world, "delivering to us the mysterious liturgy in writing, "have appointed "," &c.

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