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The Irish MS.

reads, "And the

power," but and

is erased in the sealed copies.

Ps. li 15.

Ps. xxii. 19.

Ps. lxx. 1.

Isa. vi. 3. Rev. iv. 8.

Kingdom come. Thy will be done in | βασιλεία σου· γενηθήτω τὸ θέλημά σου,

Earth, As it is in Heaven. Give us
this day our daily bread. And forgive
us our trespasses, As we forgive them,
that trespass against us. And lead us
not into temptation; But deliver us
from evil : For thine is the Kingdom',
the Power, and the Glory, For ever
and ever.
Amen.

Then likewise he shall say,
O Lord, open thou our lips.

Answer.

And our mouth shall shew forth thy

praise.

Priest.

O God, make speed to save us.

Answer.

O Lord, make haste to help us.

quire, shall begin with a loud voice the Lord's Prayer, called the Paternoster." It was altered to its present form by Bishop Cosin. The mattins began here in the Prayer Book of 1549; and before that time, the Lord's Prayer was said secretly by the Priest, the public part of the service beginning with the " Domine, labia mea aperies," as is shown in the Latin Rubric printed before that versicle.

with him] That is, simultaneously, clause by clause.

wheresoever it is used in Divine Service] Bishop Cosin overlooked the Rubric immediately before the Lord's Prayer in the Communion Service, which directs the priest to say it, without any direction as to the people. It is not likely that there was any intention of overriding that Rubric by this.

The Doxology was added here in 1661, but not by Bishop Cosin, who wrote among some "Directions to be given to the printer," "Never print the Lord's Prayer beyond-deliver us from evil. Amen." The Doxology is supposed not to have been in the original of St. Matthew, as it is not in St. Luke. In the ancient Liturgies of the East, after "deliver us from evil" (said, with the rest of the prayer, by the people), the priest offers a prayer against the evil and the Evil One, called the Embolismus; and the Doxology is then sung by the people. Probably this is a primitive usage; and the antiphon so sung has crept into the text of the Gospel.

The paraphrase of Bishop Andrewes, in his note on the Lord's Prayer here, is very concise and instructive.

Our Father. Etsi læsus est, Pater est.
Which art in Heaven. Eminenter, non inclusive.
Hallowed be Thy Name. In me, per me, super me.

Thy Kingdom come. Ut destruatur regnum peccati, per quod regnavit mors et diabolus.

In earth. In me, qui sum terra.

In heaven. A sanctis angelis.

Give us this day our daily. Pro necessitate.

Bread. Proprium, licite acquisitum, supercolestem et corpo

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ὡς ἐν οὐρανῷ καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. Τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δὸς ἡμῖν σήμερον. Καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰ ὀφειλήματα ἡμῶν, ὡς καὶ ἡμεῖς ἀφίεμεν τοῖς ὀφειλέταις ἡμῶν. Καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν· ảλλà ¡îσaι ýμâs̟ ảπò TOû πOVNρOÛ. “OTI σοῦ ἐστιν ἡ βασιλεία, καὶ ἡ δύναμις, καὶ ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας. ̓Αμήν.]

Postea sacerdos incipiat servitium hoc modo: Salisbury Use. Domine, labia mea aperies.

Chorus respondeat. Et os meum an

nuntiabit laudem tuam.

Sacerdos statim. Deus in adjutorium meum intende.

R. Domine, ad adjuvandum me fes

tina.

some special relation to some peculiar member. For the first petition may not unfitly be thought the prayer of angels; the second, the prayer of the saints departed; the third, the prayer of the faithful living; the fourth, the prayer of all creatures; the fifth, the prayer of penitent sinners; the sixth, the prayer of infants."

The various modes in which saints have used this Divine prayer with a special intention, are almost infinite; and it would be well for every one to follow their example, by having such a special intention in view whenever it is said in the Services of the Sanctuary. In this place, at any rate, it should be offered up as the complement and crown of the Absolution and Confession, on the one hand; and laid hold of, on the other hand, as a mediatorial key, by which the door of heaven is to be opened for the ascent of the Church's praises to the Throne of God. It is

a prayer, says the old " Mirroure," that said in the Unity of the Church, is never unsped.

Some ancient English versions of the Lord's Prayer will be found in the notes to Evening Prayer; where also will be found an exposition and a paraphrase; the one, an ancient one, illustrating the general meaning of the Lord's Prayer; the other, modern, drawing out its fulness as a prayer for the Unity of the Church, according to the method of special intention above suggested.

THE VERSICLES.

O Lord, open Thou] These versicles and responses have been used time immemorial as the opening of the daily service of praise which the Church continually offers to God. They are mentioned in the rule of St. Benedict (the great founder of the Benedictine order, which guarded and expressed the devotional system of the Church for so many ages, and who died in A.D. 543), as the prefatory part of the service; and he probably adopted them from the previous custom of the Church; the two Psalms from which they are taken having been used at the beginning of the daily Offices in the East from the earliest ages. Taken from such a source, with only the change from the singular to the plural number in the pronouns1, they form a most fitting prefix

1 This change of pronouns was made in 1552. A reason for retaining the singular is given in an old exposition of the services. "And take heed that all this verse, both that part that is said of one alone, and that that is answered of all together, are said in the singular number; as when ye say 'mine,' or 'me,' and not 'our,' or 'us,' in token that ye begin your praising and prayer in the person of holy Church, which is one, and not many. For though there be many members of holy Church, as there are many Christian men and women, yet they make one body, that is holy Church, whereof Christ is the Head." Mirror xli. The same commentary explains, that "O Lord, open thou my lips," and its response, were used only at Mattins, because all the day after the lips should remain ready for God's praises. ["The Mirroure of our Ladye" is a commentary on the daily Services, written for the Nuns of Sion, and printed in 1530.]

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to the Psalmody which is so integral a portion of Divine Service. Except the Lord open our lips, we cannot show forth His praise with the heart. They are the "Sursum Corda" of the Daily Service, and yet have a tone of humility and even penitence, given to them by their derivation from the fifty-first and seventieth Psalms. It is probably to express this penitential tone that the musical note to which the first of them is said by the Priest is always a low one, being depressed as much as a fifth from the pitch in which the Lord's Prayer has been recited: and also that we continue kneeling till the Gloria Patri. The second versicle is a paraphrase of the Hosanna,"-Save, Lord, we beseech Thee,with which our Lord was led in triumph to the Temple.

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GLORIA PATRI.

The beautiful dogmatic anthem which is here used for the first time in the service is of primitive origin, and, if not an independently inspired form, is naturally traceable to the angelic hymns in Isaiah vi. 3, and Luke ii. 13, the Trinitarian form of it being equally traceable to that of the baptismal formula ordained by our Lord in Matt. xxviii. 19. Clement of Alexandria, who wrote before the end of the second century, refers to the use of this hymn under the form, Αἰνοῦντες τῷ μόνῳ πατρὶ καὶ υἱῷ καὶ τῷ ἁγίῳ πνεύματι, "giving glory to the one Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost," and a hymn of about the same date is printed by Dr. Routh, in which there is an evident trace of the same custom : ὑμνοῦμεν πατέρα καὶ υἱὸν, καὶ ἅγιον πνεῦμα Θεοῦ, “ Praise we the Father and Son, and Holy Spirit of God." It is also referred to even earlier by Justin Martyr. The Arian heretics made a great point of using Church phraseology in their own novel and heretical sense; and they introduced the custom of singing their hymn in the form, "Glory be to the Father, by the Son, and in the Holy Ghost," which evaded the recognition of each Person as God. It thus became necessary for the Church to adopt a form less capable of perversion; and in ancient liturgies it is found as it is still used in the Eastern Church, "Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, now and ever, world without end." In the Western Church, the second part, "As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end," has been used for nearly as long a period, being found ordered in the fifth Canon of the Council of Vaison, presided over by Cæsarius of Arles, in A.D. 529. The use of the hymn in this place, after the Domine ad adjuvandum, is also recognized by the rule of St. Benedict a few years further on in the sixth century; and it is

found so placed in the earliest English services, those which are usually called "Anglo-Saxon." It also occurs in the same position in the daily offices of the Eastern and the Roman Churches at the present day: so that the Church throughout the world opens its lips day by day with the same words of faith in the Blessed Trinity, and of devout praise to each Person; worshipping one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity. The addition of the succeeding versicle and response gives to this unity of praise on earth a further likeness to the unity of praise which was revealed to St. John: "And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye His servants, and ye that fear Him, both small and great. And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth" (Rev. xix. 6).

In the Prayer Book of 1549 the old usage of saying the "Hallelujah" from Easter to Trinity Sunday in this place was continued. It was expunged altogether in 1552; restored in the English form, "Praise ye the Lord," and for constant use, in the Elizabethan revision. The response to it, "The Lord's Name be praised," is first found in the Scottish Prayer Book of 1637, and was inserted here in 1661. The latter represents in an unvarying form the variable invitatories which used to precede the Venite in the old Latin services.

There are two old customs still kept up with respect to the Gloria Patri. The one is that of turning to the East, as in the recitation of a Creed, whenever it is said or sung in Divine Service; an usage enjoined in the ancient Psalter of the Church of England, and still observed, e. g. at Manchester Cathedral. The other custom is a more general one, that of reverently inclining the head during the first half of the hymn, as a humble gesture recognizing the Divine glory of each of the Three Persons; and in imitation of the gesture of the angels, who veil their faces with their wings when singing to the glory of the Trinity in the vision of Isaiah. An old Canon of the Church of England enjoins: "Quotiesque dicitur Gloria Patri et Filio et Spiritui Sancto, ad eadem verba Deo humiliter se inclinent." Wilkins' Conc. iii. 20. And in the " Mirroure," there is the direction, Ye incline at Gloria Patri."

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Bishop Cosin wished to revive the use of Invitatories on Sundays, having inserted this Rubric in the Prayer Book which was laid before the Revisers of 1661, immediately after "Praise ye the Lord:" "And upon any Sunday, or Lord's Day, this com

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The sea is his, and he made it and his hands prepared the dry land.

O come, let us worship, and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker.

For he is the Lord our God and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the Wilderness;

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[Invitatory entire.]

Vulg. as Eng.

Hodie, si vocem ejus audieritis, nolite obdurare corda vestra, sicut in exacer- irritatione. Vulg. batione, secundum diem tentationis in deserto: ubi tentaverunt me patres

When your Fathers tempted me vestri, probaverunt, et viderunt opera proved me, and saw my works.

mea.

memoration of His rising from the dead shall be said or sung. Priest, Christ is risen againe, &c. And upon the feast of Easter, Christ, our Passover, is offered up for us. Therefore, let us keep the feast, &c., ut in die Pasch. Then shall be said or sung," the Venite as we now have it.

Then shall be said or sung] This Rubric, as altered by Bishop Cosin, has great historical value, for the illustration that it gives of the mode in which the Psalms were intended to be said or sung. It is as follows: "Then shall be said or sung this Psalme following (except on Easter Day, when another Anthem is appointed), one verse by the priest, and another by the people; and the same order shall be observed in all psalmes and hymns throughout this Book. But in colledges, and where there is a Quire, the same shall be sung by sides, as hath bin accustomed." In the third series of his notes on the Prayer Book, there are also these remarks on the response, "And our mouth shall shew forth Thy praise:" "This is the answer of all the people. In the second book of Edward VI. the word 'Choir' is every where put for our word Answer;' and by making this answer, they promise for themselves that they will not sit still to hear the psalms and hymns read only to them, as matter of their instruction; but that they will bear a part in them with the priest, and keep up the old custom still of singing, and answering verse by verse, as being specially appointed for the setting forth of God's praise; whereunto they are presently invited again by the minister, in these words,Praise ye the Lord.' So that our manner of singing by sides, or all together, or in several parts, or in the people's answering the priest in repeating the psalms and hymns, is here grounded; but if the minister say all alone, in vain was it for God's people to promise God, and to say, that their mouth also should shew forth His praise." [Works, v. 445.]

·

VENITE EXULTEMUS.

This Psalm has been used from time immemorial as an introduction to the praises of Divine Service; and was probably adopted by the Church from the services of the Temple1. It was perhaps such a familiar use of it in both the Jewish and the Christian system of Divine Service, which led to the exposition of it given in the third chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews,

1 In the Eastern Church an epitome of the first three verses is used, but in the Latin and English Churches it has always been used entire.

where the Apostle is showing the connexion between the two dispensations, and the way in which all belief and worship centres in our Divine High Priest and perpetual Sacrifice.

In one of St. Augustine's sermons he plainly refers thus to the ritual use of the Venite: "This we have gathered from the Apostolic lesson. Then we chanted the Psalm, exhorting one another, with one voice, with one heart, saying, 'O come, let us adore, and fall down before Him, and weep before the Lord who made us.' In the same Psalm too, Let us prevent His face with confession, and make a joyful noise unto Him with psalms.' After these the lesson of the Gospel showed us the ten lepers cleansed, and one of them, a stranger, giving thanks to his cleanser" (St. Aug. Serm. Ben. ed. 176, Oxf. trans. 126). Durandus, in his Rationale of Divine Offices, says that this psalm was sung at the beginning of the service to call the congregation out of the church-yard into the church; and that it was hence called the Invitatory Psalm; but probably this was a local or temporary use of it, and does not represent the true spirit of its introduction into the Morning Service. It is far more likely that its comprehensive character, as an adoration of Christ, was that which moved the Divine Instinct wherewith the Church is endowed to place this psalm in the forefront of her Service of Praise.

Until the translation of our Offices into English it was the custom to sing the Venite in a different manner from that now used; with the addition, that is, of Invitatories. These were short sentences (varied according to the ecclesiastical season) which were sung before the first verse, after each of the five verses into which it was then divided, and also after the Gloria Patri at the end. Thus in Trinity Season, "Laudemus Jesum Christum; quia Ipse est Redemptor omnium sæculorum," would be sung before and after the first, and also after the third and fifth of the divisions indicated in the Latin version above. After the second, fourth, and Gloria Patri, would be sung “Quia Ipse est Redemptor omnium sæculorum" only; and at the conclusion the whole of the Response, as at the beginning. These Invitatories were altogether set aside, as regards the Venite, in 1549; and, as has been already shown, the "Sentences" were substituted for them at the commencement of Divine Service in 1552. Thus reduced to its psalter simplicity, the Venite Exultemus is used before the Psalms every morning, except upon Easter Day, when a special Invitatory Anthem is substituted, which is printed

Heb. iv. 3.

Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said: It is a people that do err in their hearts, for they have not known my ways.

Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end. Amen.

Then shall follow the Psalms in order as they be appointed. And at the end of every Psalm throughout the Year, and likewise in the end of Benedicite, Benedictus, Magnificat, and Nunc dimittis, shall be repeated,

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost;

Answer.

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be world without end. Amen.

Then shall be read distinctly with an audible voice the First Lesson, taken out of the Old Testament, as is appointed in the Kalendar, (except there be proper Lessons assigned for that day) He that readeth so standing and turning himself, as he may best be heard of all such as are present. And after that, shall be said or sung, in English, the Hymn called Te Deum Laudamus, daily throughout the Year. Note, That before every Lesson the Minister shall say, Here beginneth such a Chapter, or Verse of such a Chapter, of such a Book: And after every Lesson, Here endeth the First, or the Second Lesson.

before the Collect for the day. On the nineteenth day of every month, it is sung in its place as one of the Mattins psalms, so as not to be twice used at the same service, which is a continuation of the old English usage.

An old custom lingers (especially in the North of England) of making a gesture of reverence at the words, "O come, let us worship and fall down;" which is a relic of the custom of actual prostration as it was once made in many churches at these words.

The Rubrics between the Venite and the Te Deum were all rearranged in 1661; and the new arrangement, as we now have it, appears in MS., in Bishop Cosin's Prayer Book. The only changes of importance were these. (1) "He that readeth," and "He shall say," were substituted for "the minister that readeth," and "the minister shall say," in the direction about the Lessons. (2) This Rubric of the preceding books was erased, "And to the end the people may the better hear in such places where they do sing, there shall the lessons be sung in a plain tune, after the manner of distinct reading, and likewise the epistle and gospel."

THE PSALMS.

For notes relating to the ritual use of the Psalms, the reader is referred to the Introduction to the Psalter.

After the Psalms have been sung it is customary in many churches to play a short voluntary on the organ: this is mentioned by Archbishop Secker as having "long been customary"

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The ritual use of Holy Scripture in Divine Service has always been connected with praise and thanksgiving. The short responds which were intermingled with the Lessons in the pre-Reformation Services were very ancient in their origin, although, no doubt, they had increased in number during the development of the Services for monastic use. Of a like antiquity is the "Glory be to Thee, O Lord" before, and the "Thanks be to Thee, O Lord” after the reading of the Gospel in the Communion Service. As will be seen in the account given of the Te Deum, the use of responsory hymns after the Lessons is also very ancient; and it probably arose out of the pious instinct which thus connected the idea of thanksgiving with the hearing of God's revelations to The Council of Laodicea (A.D. 367) ordered, in its seven

man.

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teenth Canon, that Psalms and Lessons should be used alternately; and this Canon doubtless refers to a custom similar to ours.

A leading principle of all the Canticles appears to be that of connecting the written with the personal Word of God; and that as much in respect to the Old Testament Lessons as to those taken out of the Gospel or other parts of the New Testament. This is more especially true of those Canticles which are placed first of the two in each case, the Te Deum, the Benedictus, the Magnificat, and the Nunc Dimittis. The three latter of these were inspired hymns spoken at the time when the Eternal Word was in the act of taking our nature to redeem and glorify it; and the first is, if not inspired, the most wonderful expression of praise for the abiding Incarnation of our Lord that uninspired lips have ever uttered. It may also be observed that the Canticles are set where they are, not that they may apply to any particular chapters of the Holy Bible, though they often do so in a striking manner, but with reference to Divine revelation as a whole, given to mankind by God in His mercy and love, and therefore a matter for deepest thankfulness, and most exalted praise.

The three New Testament Canticles are all taken from the Gospel of St. Luke; the sacrificial and sacerdotal gospel, the symbol of which is the "living creature like unto a calf" or "an ox;" and in which is chiefly set forth our Blessed Lord's relation to the Church as her High Priest offering Himself for sin, and originating from His own Person all subordinate ministrations of grace.

TE DEUM LAUDAMUS.

This most venerable hymn has been sung by the whole Western Church" day by day" on all her feasts from time immemorial. It is found in our own Morning Service as far back as the Conquest; and its insertion in the Salisbury Portiforium by St. Osmund was doubtless a continuation of the old custom of the Church of England.

Very ancient ecclesiastical traditions represent the Te Deum as a hymn antiphonally extemporized by St. Ambrose and St. Augustine at the baptism of the latter, A.D. 386. The written authority for this tradition is traceable to an alleged work of St. Datius, a successor of St. Ambrose in the See of Milan, A.D. 552. But this work has been proved by Menard, Muratori, and Mabillon, to be of much later date. There is also a Psalter in the Vienna Library, which was given by the Emperor Charlemagne to Pope Adrian I., A.D. 772, in the Appendix of which the Te Deum is found with the title 66 Hymnus quem Sanctus Ambrosius et Sanctus Augustinus invicem condiderunt : similar title is found in other ancient copies. The title anciently given to it in the Psalter of our own Church was, "Canticum

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Ambrosii et Augustini," and in 1661 Bishop Cosin wished so far to restore this title as to call it "The Hymn of St. Ambrose;’ but the ancient rubrical title was as it is at present. In the earliest mention that we have of it (i.e., in the rule of St. Benedict, framed in the beginning of the sixth century), it has the same title as in our present Prayer Book, the words of St. Benedict being "Post quartum Responsorium incipit Abbas Te Deum Laudamus, quo prædicto legat Abbas lectionem de Evangelio. . . .” It is also named in the rule of St. Cæsarius of Arles about the same date; being ordered to be sung at Mattins every Sunday in both systems. There is no reason to think that it was then new to the Church; but we may rather conclude that it was a well-known hymn which the great founder of the Benedictines adopted for the use of his order from the ordinary use of the Church at large.

But the authorship of this divine hymn has been assigned to several saints both by ancient and modern authors, the earliest being St. Hilary of Poictiers, A.D. 355, and the latest, Nicetius, Bishop of Treves, A.D. 535. Some ancient copies, in the Vatican and elsewhere, give it the titles of Hymnus S. Abundii, and Hymnus Sisebuti monachi. It has also been attributed to St. Hilary of Arles, and to a monk of Lerins, whose name is not known, the number of persons named showing how much uncertainty has always surrounded the matter. It is scarcely possible that so remarkable a hymn should have originated in so remarkable a manner as that first referred to, without some trace of it being found in the works of St. Ambrose or St. Augustine, especially the Confessions of the latter'. It may be that their names were connected with it because the one introduced it into the Church of Milan, and the other (taught by St. Ambrose) into the Churches of Africa.

For there is reason to think that the Te Deum Laudamus is much older than the time of St. Ambrose. So early as A.D. 252 we find the following words in St. Cyprian's Treatise " On the Mortality" that was then afflicting Carthage: "Ah, perfect and perpetual bliss! There is the glorious company of the Apostles; there is the fellowship of the prophets exulting; there is the innumerable multitude of martyrs, crowned after their victory of strife and passion ;" and the striking parallel between them and the seventh, eighth, and ninth verses of the Te Deum seems

In the latter we do indeed read... "we were baptized, and anxiety for our past life vanished from us. Nor was I sated in those days with the wondrous sweetness of considering the depth of Thy counsels concerning the salvation of mankind. How did I weep, in Thy Hymns and Canticles, touched to the quick by the voices of Thy sweet-attuned Church!" (St. Aug., Conf. IX. vi., p. 166, Oxf. Trans.) But this passage seems rather to indicate the use of Canticles already well known than the invention of any

new one.

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